Grand Duke Cosimo with his children as the Holy Family

24.5.12

Grand Duke Cosimo with his family – appearing as the Holy Family – featuring left to right Grand Duke Cosimo 1 and his children ,Ferdinando, perhaps Maria de Medici as Holy Mother Mary, Francesco and Isabella’s plump husband, Paolo Giordano I Orsini, below we have his surviving daughter Isabella, and a copy of an earlier picture by Bronzino of Cardinal Giovanni as John the Baptist.

Today’s visit to The Museum of Andrea del Sarto‘s Last Supper at San Salvi was fascinating for the lively portrayal of dismayed disciples denying that they could ever deny Christ, and tomorrow I will add it to the list of Last Suppers available to visit in Florence that I have been Blogging about since last October when the Cenacolo di Ognissanti reopened to display the Last Supper of Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Tonight however, I want to talk about the unexpected discovery of this painting done in 1575 by Florentine Mannerest painter Giovanni Maria Butteri 

This painting was completed after the death of la feccundissima Eleanor di Toledo and many of her children, including  her best beloved son Giovanni, who is here pictured as Florence’s Patron Saint St John the Baptist , had already died.

Eleanor di Toledo and Grand Duke Cosimo di Medici had eleven children – most of whom came to a sad – and most actually bad – end and it is often said that Eleanor died of a broken heart having lost two sons to malaria in one week and two daughters as described below.

Their children were

Maria – engaged to the Alfonso Duke of Ferrara but died, aged 17, before the wedding took place – either of malaria or having been stabbed through the heart by her enraged father when he caught her with her lover  Malatesta de’ Malatesti. Her father, Cosimo was heart-broken at her loss.

 

Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany – can be recognised lurking miserably in the painting above – a melancholic child, it was said that only his mistress Bianca Cappello, could make him smile. Later, as a married couple they died together having partaken of the same pie – one refused by his brother Cardinal Ferdinand, who inherited the Dukedom – suspicious , but there was a lot of malaria around at the time?

Isabella, Duchess of Bracciano – this lively lady was betrothed to Paolo Giordano I Orsini when she was eleven years old for political reasons, but neither was much to the other’s taste. So, Orsini continued to live it up with courtesans in Rome and, left behind in Florence, after her mother’s death Isabella became the unofficial First Lady of the City.

When her father and protector Cosimo 1 died, her brother Francesco complied with Orsini’s request to be allowed to mete out ‘due’ punishment for her relationship with his cousin, the dashing and charming Troilo Orsini.

Orsini strangled Isabella with ropes passed down through the ceiling into their bedroom. Poignantly, Isabella seemed to know what was in store for her and having been ‘summoned’ passed through her servants with a wry smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

Cardinal Giovanni After having already been Archbishop of Pisa, he was made up to the position of  Cardinal when aged only 17, in January 1560 by Pope Pius IV in Santa Maria in Domnica 

Much loved by the family and the people he died of malaria – the same time as his brother Garcia.

Lucrezia, Duchess of Modena, was the first wife of the fierce Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Modena and Ferrara, whom she married aged 15 in July 1558. She did not move to Ferrara until February 1560, because her husband Alfonso d’Este was fighting in France.

Lucrezia died in 1561, possibly from tuberculosis but for about a month before her symptoms had been fever, severe weight loss, constant coughing and a permanently bleeding nose – there were suggestions of poisoning at the time.

Garzia de’ Medici died of malaria the same week as his brother Giovanni – their mother died soon afterwards

Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany – He was made a Cardinal in 1562 at the age of 14 and succeeded his brother Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1587 at the age of 38.  He retained his Cardinal robes until his marriage to Christina of Lorraine in 1589. He was an able administrator, produced 6 children, four of whom were boys, and during his reign, Tuscany revived and regained much of the independence lost by his brother.

Next came Anna and another couple of children who died very young before any scandal could be attached.

Pietro. with an European reputation as a spendthrift and a rake, Piero grew up to be the most disturbed of all melancholic Eleonara’s melancholy children. With the connivance of his brother Francesco he strangled his  young wife with a dog leash as due punishment for her infidelity – although he had more or less ignored her throughout their arranged marriage.

So who else was in the Holy Family group family portrait above? Well the “saint” on the far right is the murderer of Isabella – Paolo Giordano I Orsini – well he can dream of glory I guess?!?

This far from saintly husband – having dispatched his pretty wife , claimed she had fallen and hit her head on the basin – whilst washing her hair  (an activity which I doubt she had ever undertaken by herself in her entire life!) – went back to Rome, where he had a relationship with Vittoria Accoramboni, wife of Francesco Peretti, the nephew of the future pope Sixtus V, whom in 1581 he had assassinated to get him out of the way.

Orsini was then wanted by both the Papal AND the Florentine police so he hid himself in northern Italy, with his mistress. He married her in April 1585  but died a few months later.

A month after his death Vittoria was herself assassinated by Ludovico Orsini of the Monterotondo line, in revenge of his brother Roberto’s death in the course of a feud connected to Paolo Giordano’s deeds.

No I cant keep up with all this convoluted intrigue either!!

Paolo Giordano’s lands were inherited by his son by Isabella, Virginio Orsini.

Quite a family! Yes?