Alinari
PIETRO ARETINO
After the picture by Titian in the Pitti Gallery, Florence
Still more pungent was the epigrammatic epitaph proposed for him by Francesconi:
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"Arezzo's hoary libeller here is laid, Whose bitter slanders all save Christ essayed: He for such slip this reason good can show,— 'How could I mock one whom I do not know?'" |
Aretino, returning a Roland for his Oliver, rejoined:
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"Francescon, wretched rhymer, here is laid, Who of all things save asses evil said: His plea in favour of the long-eared race, A cousinship that none could fail to trace."[168] |
But enough of such ribaldry. The writings of Aretino and his biography are in one respect useful to the historian of his time. The degrading views of human nature afforded by both form a contrast to the bright luminaries which yet lingered above the horizon, whilst by their shadows they complete the verity of the picture. Favoured by fortune far beyond his deserts during life, his memory is equally indebted to art. The encomium of Ariosto has already been quoted, and the pencil of his friend Titian has preserved his person in several portraits; one of them, which, though unfinished, is perhaps the noblest commemorated on Vecellio's canvass, adorns the Pitti Gallery, and almost persuades us that Aretino was a gentleman.