. Baldassare Castiglione the perfect courtier, his life and letters, 1478-1529;. honourabletasks by the head of Christendom. And he foundhim still tlie same simple and charming companion,courteous and friendly to all, and eager as ever tolearn from others. Castiglione, as we have seen,moved in the same circles as Raphael, and was inti-mate with the same friends. And this summer, wlienboth Bibbiena and Bembo were absent, he seems tohave spent much of his leisure time in the painterscompany. He was a constant visitor at the fineRenaissance palace in the Borgo Nuovo, designedby Bramante, which th
. Baldassare Castiglione the perfect courtier, his life and letters, 1478-1529;. honourabletasks by the head of Christendom. And he foundhim still tlie same simple and charming companion,courteous and friendly to all, and eager as ever tolearn from others. Castiglione, as we have seen,moved in the same circles as Raphael, and was inti-mate with the same friends. And this summer, wlienboth Bibbiena and Bembo were absent, he seems tohave spent much of his leisure time in the painterscompany. He was a constant visitor at the fineRenaissance palace in the Borgo Nuovo, designedby Bramante, which the great painter had made hishome, and decorated with his own hand. Paolucci,the Ferrarese envoy, who during the last two years hadbeen vainly trying to induce tlie artist to execute acommission for Duke ^Vlfonso, tells us how he rodeby Raphaels house one warm September evening,and, seeing the door open, walked in. But presentlyhe was stopped by a servant, who told him thatAlesser RafFaello was upstairs in his studio, paint-ing the portrait of JNIesser Baldassare Castiglione,. Jholo, ]\ SEBASTIAKO DEL nOMBO (bUDA-PESTH). To face p- 5S, Vol. II CASTIGLIONE AND RArHAEL 50 and could not be disturbed. Whether this wasactually the fact, or, as the ambassador suspected,was merely an excuse to keep out importunatevisitors, the Count was certainly closely associatedwith Raphael in one of his most important tasks atthis time. The survey of the classical monuments ofancient Rome upon which the master was engagednaturally appealed to Castiglione, as it did to all theleading humanists of the day. The Ferrarese scholar,Celio Calcagnini, who returned to Rome from Hun-gary that year, wrote in glowing terms of the greatand almost incredible work which this wonderfulyouth, the first of living painters and most excellentof architects, had undertaken by the Popes desire. This, he says, is nothing short of a plan of thecity of Rome, which he is reproducing in its ancientaspe
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