In one of his visits to Venice, about 1559, Guidobaldo, chancing to enter a church of the Crociferi, where a youth was engaged in copying the St. Laurence of Titian, he entered into conversation with him, and subsequently returned more than once to observe his progress. On one of these occasions, while the Duke was hearing mass at a neighbouring altar, the young artist seized the opportunity to sketch his likeness, which was shown him by an attendant. Pleased with its success, and with the painter's manners, he invited him to enter his service. The object of this casual patronage proved not unworthy of it. He was Jacopo Palma the younger, a name already known to art; for his grandfather, who bore it, had distinguished himself among the scholars of Giorgione and Titian; and his aunt, Violante, was mistress and favourite model of the latter. Palma Giovane, then in his sixteenth year, accompanied the Duke to Pesaro, where he employed his pencil in copying works of Raffaele and Titian. The only anecdote preserved of his residence in the court of Urbino proves that he continued to enjoy his patron's favour; for, in a dispute with the house-steward as to his luncheon, the latter was ordered to treat the youth with more consideration. In order to obtain for him every advantage, the Duke sent him to the charge of his brother, Cardinal della Rovere, at Rome. After there diligently studying antique marbles, with the works of Michael Angelo and those of Polidoro di Caravaggio, Palma, at twenty-four, returned to Venice. On his way, he paid a visit of thanks to Guidobaldo, and by his works removed certain unfavourable impressions made by unfriendly detractors in his absence. Of those which he may have executed for this court, no account has reached us, beyond a notice that Francesco Maria II. paid him, at Venice, 1591, 86 scudi for a Madonna and a St. Francis, which do not, however, appear in the wardrobe inventories. He painted for the metropolitan cathedral at Urbino the Discovery of the Holy Cross, a picture praised by Lanzi beyond its merits; and for Pesaro, a S. Ubaldo, and the Annunciation.
Another Venetian, patronised by Guidobaldo, was Gianbattista Franco, surnamed il Semolei, who was brought to Urbino on a recommendation of Girolamo Genga, in order to paint the choir of the cathedral. He there treated the favourite Umbrian theme of the Coronation of the Madonna in a manner utterly at variance with the old feeling, taking as his prototype the Judgment of Michael Angelo, of whom he was a devoted and assiduous imitator. This work having been destroyed by the fall of the roof in 1789, we shall content ourselves with the description of Vasari, who had seen it, and whose leaning must have been favourable to a work produced under such influence. "And so, in imitation of Buonarroti's Judgment, he represented in the sky the glorification of the saints, scattered on clouds over the roof, with a whole choir of angels around our Lady, in the act of ascending to heaven, where Christ waited to crown her, whilst a number of patriarchs, prophets, sibyls, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and maidens, in varied groups and attitudes, manifested their joy at the arrival of the glorious Virgin. This subject might have afforded to Battista an excellent opportunity of proving his ability, had he adopted a better plan, not only in the practical management of his fresco, but in conducting his entire theme with more judicious arrangement. But in this work he fell into his usual system, constantly repeating the same faces, figures, draperies, and extremities. The colouring was likewise utterly destitute of beauty, and everything was strained and puny. Hence the work, when finished, greatly disappointed the Duke, Genga, and every one, much having been expected from his known capacity for design." Several easel pictures of his, in the sacristy of the Duomo, are weak in composition and poor in colour; but one of St. Peter and St. Paul, before the Madonna and Child, is an exceedingly grandiose production, in the Buonarroti style. We shall have further occasion to speak of this artist in our [next chapter]. He was born about 1498, and lived to the age of sixty-three; but aware of his deficiencies as a painter, he betook himself in a great measure to engraving, for which his accuracy as a draftsman well qualified him.
In absence of native sculptors of eminence, the plastic art never was much cherished in our duchy, and few commissions were given, except for decorative or monumental purposes. The festive arches on Duchess Vittoria's marriage were probably designed by Tiziano Aspetti, a bronzist of Upper Italy. Her husband having acquired a Leda by Bartolomeo Ammanati of Florence, he was called to Urbino, to construct a memorial for Francesco Maria I. It does not, however, appear to have been successful, and being quite disproportioned to the little octangular church of Sta. Chiara, of which it occupied the centre, it was removed after the Devolution, and probably destroyed. Sebastiano Becivenni of Mercatello, was celebrated as a decorative sculptor, and his dexterity is attested by two pulpits in the duomo at Arezzo, dated 1563. In 1581, Francesco Maria II. commissioned two small statues from John of Bologna, and in the following year his minister at Rome wrote, proposing to send him a miniature painter from thence, at a monthly salary of ten golden scudi, besides board and travelling expenses. Late in life, he had his own and his father's portraits executed in mosaic by Luigi Gaetano at Venice. The statue of Duke Federigo, which we have already mentioned as modelled by Baroccio, was executed for this Duke by Girolamo Campagna of Venice, and one of his grandfather, attired as a Roman warrior, leaning on his baton of command, and resting upon a stump, was the work of Giovanni Bandini of Florence, an eminent scholar of Bandinelli. After his sovereignty had virtually passed from the bereaved Duke, he disposed of this memorial of its brighter days in a touching letter to the Doge of Venice, which finely illustrates the resignation beautifully exemplified in all the correspondence of his latter years:—
"Most serene Prince,
"My grandfather, the Lord Duke Francesco Maria, was during life honoured by your serene state with such high authority and dignities, that, even after his decease, its esteem and favour have ever been specially exhibited towards his posterity and race; in these, now about to close in my person, your Highness will lose a line of supporters whose services are well known to you. Yet, being unwilling that these good offices should pass entirely from memory, I have resolved to present to the serene Republic and your Highness, the statue which I erected in testimony of dutiful respect to my said grandfather; for nowhere can it be more fittingly placed than in your renowned city. I therefore herewith send it to you, and with the more pleasure from knowing that your state will gladly receive the portrait of one who so faithfully served it, and who, though no longer able to do so directly, will, virtually and by example, demonstrate how your Republic ought to be served. It will, at all events, afford irrefragable evidence of his attachment to that cause for which he would have desired longer life, and will prove a sure token of my unbounded devotion to your Highness, which, indeed, I cannot more fittingly demonstrate: beseeching, however, that your Highness will regard this act as a solemn testimony of the old and continued love of my house for your distinguished state, which God preserve as long as my unbounded wishes; and so I kiss your Highness's hands with devoted affection.
"Your Highness's most devoted son and servant,
"Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke.[237]
"From Castel Durante, this ..., 1625."