Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in the
refinements of dilettantism.

But the Fornarina left a more potent impression on Raphael's art than
the Apollo Belvedere, and her memory and that of Imperia still haunt the
villa of the Farnesina indissolubly united with that of the master of
art and the master of revels.

In the noble Colonna palace the personality most vividly present to-day
is that of Vittoria Colonna, making good the boast of Michael Angelo's
sonnet,--

"So I can give long life to both of us
In either way by colour or by stone,
Making the semblance of thy face and mine,
Centuries hence when both are buried thus
Thy beauty and my sadness shall be shown
And men shall say, 'For her 't was right to pine.'"

But if Michael Angelo carved or painted Vittoria the portrait is lost;
and it is to his love, not to his art that she owes her immortality. So
from the history of these beautiful dwellings I have chosen as the focal
point of each of the following chapters, the half-forgotten face of some
woman, and were it not that the story of Vittoria Colonna is so well
known that noble woman might well have led the procession. For the same
reason, and because her castle of Spoleto could not be classed under my
topic, I have laid aside a study of Lucrezia Borgia and of another
Lucrezia who may have resided within its walls.

But from the succession of beauties who kissed their lovers beneath the
rose-trellises of Rome, I have stolen secrets enough to overfill these
pages, secrets which few of the gentle shades would forbid my telling,
since for the most part they are sweet and innocent and true. For the
others, daughters of disorder, may their sufferings bespeak your pity.

The difficulty in arriving at just estimates has only made the attempt
the more engrossing, as those will attest who have tracked through the
mass of conflicting histories the story of the elusive lady who gave the
name of Madama to the exquisite villa which Raphael designed for Clement
VII.

The Villa Aldobrandini recalls an ancient legend preserved in more than
one of the Italian novelli; and reading between the lines of the
Amyntas we may trace Tasso's love for Leonora which blossomed in the
terraced garden of the Villa d'Este.

The villas Borghese and Mondragone are still instinct with the
personality of a romantic little lady of a later period, the bewildering
Pauline Bonaparte. It is impossible while enthralled by her portr