How the illegitimate daughter of a priest got on the portrait of Bronzino and what secrets she keeps

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

One of the paintings by Agnolo Bronzino, who was famous for his skill in creating "living" portraits, depicts a woman who is not like those who usually posed for the Italian Renaissance artists. Not the wife of a duke, who would like to perpetuate the appearance of his beloved wife, not a muse that inspired her with her beauty, no, this person is more likely to have a pronounced individuality. Laura Battiferry appeared in the portrait by the famous Florentine not by chance and not due to family ties. No, her popularity among contemporaries and fame among subsequent generations are the result of her own work and perseverance. The illegitimate daughter, who managed to win both the love of her father, and the respect of her husband, and the recognition of her compatriots - all this was not the most favorable time for a woman - five centuries ago.

Renaissance woman

Laura Battiferri was the illegitimate daughter of the Urbino priest Giovanni Antonio Battiferri, his mother was his concubine, or concubine, by the name of Maddalena Kokkapani. Children born of such unions were considered illegitimate. But the father still recognized Laura and his two other children, having achieved a special decree of Pope Paul III, which was issued in 1543. The girl was then 19 years old.

She received an excellent education, studied history and philosophy, mastered Latin and was seriously engaged in theology. In addition, the girl was destined to become the mistress of a large fortune.

At the age of 21, Laura married Vittorio Sereni, who served as the court organist of the Urbino duke; but after only four years she was widowed. The death of her husband was a great shock for Laura; later she will devote her first nine sonnets to this sad event. Battiferry's father took the inconsolable Laura to Rome and, apparently, set out to find her a new spouse as soon as possible. A year later, she married again, this time to a sculptor and architect from Florence. Bartolomeo Ammannati, that was the name of the second husband, carried out the orders of Pope Julius III. When he died, Ammannati accepted the offer of Duke Cosimo I Medici from Florence and left Rome with his wife.

The move was a difficult event for Laura: she loved Rome, and besides, she managed to get a rather high status there - and not only thanks to her husband. Laura moved around the capital's intelligentsia, talked a lot with scientists, representatives of the aristocracy, wrote poetry and was seriously engaged in her literary career. Having moved to a villa in Maiano near Florence, Laura felt melancholy and loneliness, despite the luxurious decoration of the new home and the beautiful landscapes that surrounded it. They saved religion, which has always had a special meaning in Battiferry's life, and creativity - the study of literature and cultural heritage of the past and writing his own poetic works.

Renaissance poet

In 1560, Laura Battiferry's first book, The First Book of Tuscan Writings, was published. Despite the fact that this happened almost five centuries ago, everything was carried out at a very serious level. The publishing house was handled by the real publishing house, Giunti, which subsequently published other collections of works and translations of Battiferry. Sonnets, madrigals, odes, canzonets and much more - Laura's literary potential was varied and multifaceted. The second successful book was a collection of translations of psalms and texts of his own composition.

Laura Battiferri positioned herself as a follower of Petrarch, besides, an interesting play on words arose here - after all, the poetess was the namesake of the one to whom the famous Italian addressed his sonnets. Friends called Battiferri "the new Sappho", and even though they somewhat exaggerated the merits of Laura in literature, yet the wife of the sculptor Ammannati was really not deprived of talent and took her studies seriously. She was considered truly erudite, including in matters of the theory of literature and versification. The main mood that pervades most of Laura's works is the love and respect she felt for her husband.

In Florence, with which Battiferri eventually reconciled, she became very popular, and thanks to the work of the master Bronzino, she managed to build a special, vivid image. By nature, not endowed with a classically correct appearance, she learned to play with her image, referring to the image of the ancient Greek Daphne - a nymph who turned into a laurel tree (laurus in Latin).

Five hundred years later

Laura Battiferri became the first woman to be admitted to an Italian academy, the Intronati Academy. In accordance with the rules, when joining the academy, everyone was supposed to take a comic pseudonym, Laura chose for La Sgraziata, that is, "clumsy".

By the end of his life, the main thing that filled Battiferry's thoughts, like, indeed, her husband's, was the worldview and philosophy of the Jesuits. After the death of Laura Ammannati commissioned the artist Alessandro Allori to paint the painting "Christ and the Canaanite", which also depicted the face of the deceased poetess - kneeling with a book in her hands. Another painting where one could see Laura's face - a portrait by Hans fot Aachen - was lost.

Battiferry did not have children, but left a huge inheritance that passed to her husband, and a literary heritage that for several centuries made a great impression on connoisseurs of Renaissance art. In the 19th century, when educated, talented and witty women were no longer a wonder, Battiferry was no longer mentioned. Perhaps it was only thanks to the brilliant portrait of Bronzino that this "little poet of the Renaissance" escaped oblivion, becoming a part of the image of the Florentine intelligentsia and culture of that era.

About "live" portraits of Agnolo Bronzino: how the artist managed to tell the stories of his characters in the paintings.