The occasion of a self portrait
Castiglione’s poetic writing was always based on real events, that gave him the inspiration or stimulus for the composition, dynamically and innovatively using Latin and vulgar sources. An example of this is the sonnet that the young Baldassarre, twenty five years old, composed between the summer and autumn of 1503. The poem, Cesare mio, qui sono ove il mar bagna, was addressed to his cousin Cesare Gonzaga and made implicit references to the participation of Castiglione, alongside the Marquis Francesco Gonzaga, in the military campaign the latter fought in Naples. The tumultuous scene of war, with its political implications and ensuing dramas, was a tragic background. But his humanistic education lead the author to seek intimate refuge in art, thus, poetically, those ravaged places became loaded with Virgillian memories (with specific reference to the character of Caieta, Aeneas’s wet nurse and travelling companion, who, as is written in the 5th and 6th book of the Aeneid, was buried in the locality which took her name): “Cesare mio, qui (=a Gaeta) sono ove il mar bagna / la riva a cui diè l’ossa e ’l nome mise / morta colei (=Caieta) ch’ebbe il figliuol d’Anchise (=Enea) / nutrice a Troia e nei suoi error compagna” (My dear Caesar, here I am where the sea wets the shore to which the name was given of she that nursed the boy Aeneas in Troy and shared his errors) (Poeti del Cinquecento, I, Poeti lirici, burleschi, satirici e didascalici, edited by G. Gorni and others, Milan-Naples 2001, 422).
Nonetheless, in the following verses, the contrast between the candour of mythology and the tenebrous present gave Castiglione means to express his resentment and his disdain, facing the arrogance of the invading barbarians, and the acquiescent cowardice of the Italians. He denounced the horror of war with bitterness, his dismay and his repugnance, as well as his feeling of genuine pity for the victims of the conflict. Lastly, he declared his own malaise, deep and radical, of a man who, forced to take up arms, felt he was born for other things and declared to love life for more noble reasons: “Tra foco, fiamme, stridi orrendi e feri, / fame, roine e martial (=bellico) furore, / meno (=conduco) mia vita in duri aspri sentieri; / e pur vivon scolpiti in mezzo il core / tutti l’antichi miei dolci pensieri” (Amid fire and flames, blades, hunger, ruins and the sounds of war I carry on my life; while sculptured in my heart are all my sweet ancient thoughts) (p. 423). In this contrast between historical and political matters and the aspirations of an individual, between his affections and his duties, we can see a complete self-portrait of Castiglione.
