ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



in the Trivulzio portrait and countless reliefs and 

 medals, bear no similarity to those of the beardless 

 youth in Ambrogio's painting, while Cristoforo 

 Romano's bust of the young Duchess in the Louvre 

 and Costa's portrait of her in the Pitti have little 

 affinity with the lady's type of countenance. Beatrice's 

 charm, according to her contemporaries, was rather due 

 to her colouring and vivacity, to her sparkling black 

 eyes and animated expression, than to any regular 

 beauty of feature, while her plump throat and chin, 

 and natural inclination to corpulence, formed a marked 

 contrast to the slenderness and delicacy of the Ambro- 

 siana maiden. 



Another suggestion, first made by Dr. Bode, was 

 that the personages here represented were Lodovico's 

 nephew, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, and 

 his wife Isabella of Aragon. But here again the 

 theory is disproved by authentic portraits and medals, 

 and Duchess Isabella's proud features and majestic 

 bearing have certainly little in common with the 

 shy, gentle face of the girl in our picture. More 

 plausible at first sight is the supposition that we 

 have here a portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza, the 

 sister of Gian Galeazzo and the wife of the Emperor 

 Maximilian. This idea owes its origin to the mention 

 made in his diary by the so-called " Anonimo," Marco 

 Antonio Michieli, of a portrait which he saw in the 

 home of Taddeo Contarini, at Venice, in 1525, and 

 1 68 



