In person, Francesco Maria was handsome, and, from being puny and stunted in childhood, grew up active and graceful, but with a complexion of almost effeminate beauty. He was, therefore, fortunate in having for his court painter one whose men and women, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has happily remarked, seem nourished by roses. Although it is improbable that Baroccio executed the swaddled effigy of him in the Pitti Gallery, there can be little question that the four portraits we shall now mention are by that artist. One of these, in the Tribune of the Uffizi at Florence, with a repetition of equal merit in Baron Camuccini's choice collection at Rome, represents to perfection a strikingly elegant youth in the gorgeous uniform worn on his naval expedition in 1571.[*121] There is in my possession a half-length, with one of Ambrogio Baroccio's curious timepieces upon the table, which came from the Durazzo Gallery at Genoa; and the head introduced above, at [p. 151], done in full manhood, when the cares of sovereignty had begun to furrow his features with "lines of anxious thought," was purchased by me at Pesaro, in 1843. In the Antaldi Palace there, I saw a head of this Duke ascribed to Baroccio, but evidently done some years after his death. It is a slight sketch, thrown off at a sitting, and painfully preserving features whereon age and sickness, sorrow and anxiety, have set their seal. Portraiture can show no contrast more startling than that time-worn figure, with glassy eye and ghastly visage, offers to the glowing cheek and gallant bearing of the richly accoutred hero of Lepanto. But still more melancholy the change that had come over the man, then gladsome in youthful beauty, rising fame, and chivalrous hope, burning to enjoy the advantages of high station, to maintain and transmit the respect and popularity of a long-honoured name.
We have referred to letters of the Duke written during his last years, as interesting expressions of his state of mind. Besides the collection of Babucci already quoted, a considerable number of these are preserved in two other MSS. in the same library; also many others, addressed by her relations to the Princess Vittoria, with her answers, dated between 1627 and 1632.[122] The whole exceed two hundred in number, and form a series of royal correspondence equally remarkable for Christian sentiment and domestic affections. In the following pages we give literal translations of a few of them, which pleasingly illustrate these virtues in the Duke and Duchess, in their daughter-in-law, now remarried to the Archduke Leopold, and in the young Princess herself. By the [first letter], the Archduchess announces to her daughter the birth of a brother; by the [second], Francesco Maria intimates his confidence in the husband he had chosen for his grandchild. In Nos. [3] and [6] the warmth of his attachment to her is gracefully tinged with the pious resignation of a dying Christian. Nos. [4] and [5] relate to his making over to her his family jewels, a precaution, perhaps, against any difficulties that might arise after his decease. [No. 7] was his last letter, dictated about a month before his release from sufferings. The remaining four refer to that event, and to the affliction of his nearest relatives.
1. The Archduchess Claudia to the Princess Vittoria.
"My most serene and beloved daughter,
"Now that you have obtained from God your little brother, after, as you tell me, having prayed for him (who, when he is grown tall, will love you well), it remains for you to thank the same God, who is the giver of all good. You say that you wish to have this little brother for yourself; and I agree to humour you under these conditions: First, that your prayers obtain for me another next year; second, that you come hither yourself to take him, so that you may have the pleasure of seeing me, and I you; third, that, in the meantime, you in everything obey Madam [the Dowager Grand Duchess] and your other superiors, and that you often pray for the health of the Lord Duke, to whom you owe so much. And now I and my Lord your [step] father [the Archduke Leopold] give you our blessing, beseeching for you a divine one much more ample and perpetual. 3rd June, 1628.
"Your most affectionate mother,
"Claudia."
2. The Duke Francesco Maria to the Princess Vittoria.
"Your Highness having now attained the age of seven, his serene Highness the Grand Duke, your betrothed husband, has intimated to me that, the better to secure his intentions in your behalf from the speculations and gossip of the public, he will forthwith voluntarily contract with you the sacred rite of marriage. But, as I have adopted my measures, after taking every conjuncture into account, I cannot allow myself to suppose any purpose of drawing back in the mind of a prince of his station, endued with virtues which must ever render him estimable to posterity, and a worthy grandson of the great Ferdinand. I have, therefore, declined his request, and have offered my consent that the contracts already executed and concluded between us should be carried into effect when most agreeable to himself. And, though I should not be then a party to these arrangements, as, surely, I am little likely to be, considering the years and ails which, lame as I am, hurry me with long and great strides towards the tomb, yet is it my hope to behold from heaven the comfort of your Highness, which I pray God may be perpetual, and uninterrupted by any misfortune. I have informed you of this that you may be aware of what is going on, and I salute you," &c.