These suspicions were unjust. Caterina loved her home; her castle, her gardens, her court, and her subjects were all dear to her, and she left them but three times during her life there. Once, when the severity of the winter made it possible for men to walk on the ice from Mestre to Venice, she fled to her palace on the Grand Canal. A second time she visited her brother Giorgio at Brescia, where he was podestà. Here she was received as a queen, and entered the city in a chariot drawn by four white horses, escorted by a splendid procession. Pageants of one sort and another were kept up for twelve days. It was her last royal reception. Venice was jealous; and for this honor to his sister, Giorgio was recalled and deprived of his position.
The wars of the League of Cambray drove Caterina to Venice to return no more. She died on July 10, 1510, when fifty-six years old. Venice was very poor, but her funeral was as splendid as could be afforded. The Patriarch, the Senate, the Doge, the Archbishop of Spalato, and an immense procession of citizens followed her coffin to the Cornaro chapel in the Church of the Sant' Apostoli on a stormy night when the wind howled and the rain fell in torrents. The queen was dressed in the habit of Saint Francis, with cord and cowl, but on her coffin lay the crown of Cyprus.
The next day a full funeral service was celebrated, and an oration pronounced by Andrea Navagero, a poet and scholar, who had known all her life, and whose writings make one of our authorities concerning this unhappy and gentle queen. Doubtless now that she was dead, and no longer to be feared by those suspicious Senators, he was allowed to speak of all the beauty of person and character of Caterina Cornaro, and to give full expression to the love which she had inspired in Venetians, Cypriotes, and Asolini. In 1660 her coffin was removed to San Salvadore, and placed in a tomb in the right transept of this church.
Few episodes in the history of Venice more clearly show her astuteness, her prescience, and her patient determination than does the story of Caterina Cornaro, by which we see that from the beginning the object of the Senate was to obtain possession of Cyprus. For this cause the little maid of fourteen was made the child of the Republic. Venice had not the faintest claim to Cyprus. If James justly bore the title and authority which Venice recognized as his, his will should have been regarded. The simple truth is that Venice coveted Cyprus, and Caterina was the cat's paw with which she could work her will. Ninety-two years later the Turks robbed her of it, and during this short rule there were endless costs and constant difficulties to be overcome. Historians believe Cyprus to have been an incalculable injury to the Republic. The unbridled luxury and license in the life of the island had its evil effect on Venice, and the early part of the sixteenth century developed there such expensive living as threatened financial ruin,—such license, even in the religious houses, as brought her world-wide disgrace, and such growth in vice, decay of health, and increase of infectious diseases as threatened the extermination of the noble and wealthy classes.
ROSALBA CARRIERA.
Born in 1675, this artist belongs to modern Venice. Her father, Andrea Carriera de Costantino, was chancellor of the little village of Gambarare, on the Brenta; and as his salary was insufficient for the support of his wife and three daughters, Rosalba, the eldest, worked with her mother at making Point de Venise lace. Fortunately for Rosalba's fame, this lace went out of fashion, and she then attempted the painting of miniatures on tobacco boxes, in which art she was instructed by a French painter, Jean Stève, having before had lessons in drawing from a Hungarian, Bencowich. The boxes she painted are now much prized.
Later she studied under Antonio Lazzari, Diamantini, Balestra, and others. She practised painting in oils, but preferred miniature and crayons. Her taste for crayons was cultivated by an English artist, Cole, who excelled in that art. When twenty-four years old, Rosalba had become famous for her miniatures and portraits in crayon. Carlo Maratti and Crespi compared her to Guido Reni, and she was made an Academician at St. Luke in Rome and at the Clementina at Bologna.
We know how, in her time, the royal personages of the whole world loved to visit Venice; and it came to be a part of their pleasure there to have miniatures from Rosalba's hand. In 1709 the King of Denmark sat for his own portrait, and gave her an order for twelve miniatures, to be portraits of some of the loveliest young girls in the city. The Elector Palatine soon after sat for a portrait, and sent her afterwards a golden medallion on a chain, weighing two hundred ounces; and the enamel box containing it was of great value. Augustus III., Elector of Saxony, after he became King of Poland, was one of her benefactors; and her portrait of him in a scarlet dress, with a cross on the breast and a peruke on his head, was much prized by him. The list of her friends and admirers at this period includes many well-known names. John Law, the Scotch financier, Vleughels, who became the director of the French Academy at Rome, and the distinguished author Zanetti were among them; and Pierre Crozat urged her going to Paris, offering her the use of his own hotel.
She was so celebrated at home and abroad that she could not fill her orders, and was aided in her crayon pictures by her sisters, who also painted somewhat. In all the courts of Europe the miniatures of Rosalba were preferred before those of the Florentine Giovanna Fratellini, and she was most happy in her life and in her art, when the death of her father prostrated her with grief. Her sister Angela had married Antonio Pellegrini, and by his persuasion Rosalba consented to go to Paris. Her mother and sister Giovanna were with her; and the three were received into the Hôtel Crozat, on the Rue de Richelieu, where all possible comforts and a carriage were at their disposal. Pellegrini and Angela lodged near by, and for a year Rosalba was in constant association with the best society in Paris. Crozat admired her to enthusiasm. He thought her as fine a musician as painter. He gave concerts, at which she played the violin accompanied by other instruments played by well-known musicians. The guests at these musicales were celebrated artists, authors, and prominent persons, among whom the Regent himself was glad to be numbered. Watteau painted a picture of the principal virtuosos at these concerts. Mariette wrote their names on it in Latin, and with his collection it went to the Louvre. Rosalba's journal, kept while in Paris, is very interesting, and has been published both in Italian and French.
During her stay in Paris, Rosalba painted numerous small pictures, made many drawings, and executed two pictures of Venus for M. Crozat, and an Apollo and Daphne for Claude Audran, besides nearly fifty portraits. Among her subjects were men and women of the highest character and position. Her artistic skill was recognized by the greatest compliment that could be paid her in France. She was elected a member of the Academy of Painting, "no one wishing to cast a black ball," as she wrote in her journal. She was invited there, and presented a portrait of Louis XV. in pastel, which was praised by the director, Antoine Coypel. Her "picture of reception," which was sent from Venice later, is now at the Louvre.