The principal sources of this information have been, First, a list of "good pictures," brought to Florence, in 1631, from the wardrobe of Urbino. It is in the archives of the Gallery degli Uffizi, at Florence, in the autograph of Pelli, and is obviously the document frequently referred to by him in his Galleria di Firenze. Second, a note of the objects of art in the Urbino inheritance, as inventoried by Bastiano Venturi in 1654. This is in a folio volume of inventories, preserved in the wardrobe archives of the Pitti Palace, and includes the succession of Duchess Livia, as well as that of her husband, the last Duke of Urbino. Third, selections from a full inventory of the wardrobe of Urbino, dated in 1623, and now No. 386 of the MSS. in the Oliveriana Library at Pesaro. Of these documents, the first is, unquestionably, of most importance as to the identity and value of the objects enumerated; and the last, having been compiled by a person unacquainted with art, cannot be much depended upon.
We may, however, estimate the extent of the collections in the different palaces of Francesco Maria II. from the Venturi inventory, and from another dated in 1623, which is No. 460 of the Oliveriana MSS. In the latter there are enumerated as at Pesaro (besides a series of sixty-two portraits in the gallery, sixty-nine maps, and a hundred and thirty-five plans of cities) eight hundred and forty-three pictures. This large amount includes apparently all the framed engravings, embroideries, and miniatures; and a great proportion were portraits of the ducal family and their connections. The small number which have the painters' names assigned to them renders this, the fullest list, of little interest. In the same palace are mentioned sixty-four pieces in marble, chiefly busts; and in various other palaces and chapels were some other pictures, seemingly of minor importance. The Venturi catalogue enumerates only ninety pictures, seventy miniatures in oil, eleven embroideries, twenty-nine tapestries, eighty bronzes, enamels, and carvings, and fifty-one works in marble and stone. These seem to have been the principal objects reserved out of the inheritance, the remainder having probably been given away or sold at Pesaro and Florence. This selection bears evidence of care and connoisseurship; but that of Pelli having the best pretensions to these qualities, the pictures it names are fully given in the first of the lists here subjoined, ending with No. 50. In the two subsequent ones, from Nos. 51 to 95, are included all other Urbino pictures of any moment which I have been able to glean from the inventories now described, and from other sources. To each picture is added such information regarding its identity as extended inquiry and observation have enabled me to hazard. Imperfect as it is, it will interest those who visit Florence, and may save them from very troublesome and often fruitless inquiries, which occupied me for many weeks.
I. PELLI’S LIST OF THE URBINO PICTURES.
Raffaele.
1. Madonna, Christ, and St. John Baptist, on panel. Pelli in a marginal note states this to be the Madonna della Seggiola, although he admits that a different extraction is by some assigned to that masterpiece. No picture thus described appears in the Pesaro inventories; that of Venturi mentions one such, but calls it a copy after Raffaele. The Madonna della Seggiola, now No. 151 of the Pitti Gallery, is said by Passavant to have been in an inventory of the Tribune, dated 1585, of course long antecedent to the Devolution of Urbino.
2. Madonna, Christ, St. John Baptist, and another Figure, on panel, large. In the Pesaro inventory, the Christ is said to be in arms; in the Venturi, two pictures are noted of the Madonna, Christ, St. John Baptist, and St. Elizabeth, but both are called copies of Raffaele. No work now in the Florence galleries answers this description.
3. His own Portrait on panel. It is described but not named by Venturi, and unquestionably is the small picture now among the portraits of painters in the Uffizi, No. 288. (See above, [vol. II., p. 223].)
4, 5. Julius II., on panel, and THE SAME on paper. Of this famous portrait several repetitions contest the palm of originality. The two best probably are those in the Pitti, No. 79, and in the Tribune, both on panel; the former, perhaps, has the advantage in breadth and mellow colouring, and I have heard the latter ascribed by Italian connoisseurs to a Venetian pencil.[*268] Considering the relationship and intimacy of the Pope with the Dukes of both dynasties, there can be little doubt that they possessed an original likeness, as well as the original cartoon mentioned above. The latter has passed into the Corsini Gallery, at Florence, and is admirable in bold character as well as in preservation. The pricked outlines attest its having been used more than once; and the first painting from it is understood to have been presented by his Holiness to the Church of the Madonna del Popolo, at Rome, a fane greatly favoured by the della Rovere. The Pesaro list includes the cartoon, and Venturi the panel portrait, which, according to the annotator of the last edition of Vasari (Florence, 1838), was that in the Tribune, the head alone of the Pitti one being, in his opinion, by Raffaele, the rest by Giulio Romano. Passavant, however, adjudges the palm of merit and originality to its rival in the Pitti collection, and considers it the Urbino picture.
Titian.
6, 7. Duke Francesco Maria I., and his Duchess Leonora, on canvas. These are justly considered among the choicest portraits of this master, but are painted in very different styles, the Duke being treated with extraordinary freedom, the Duchess in a severe and somewhat hard manner, suited to her stiff matronly air. They ornament the Venetian room at the Uffizi, Nos. 605 and 599, and the former supplies a [frontispiece] to this volume. Another portrait of him from the same hand is mentioned in Pelli's note. (See above, pp. [48], [58], [371-3].)