13

her closest relations had denied ever having known or visited her. But her fortunes
 having changed so dramatically, they strained to find possible relations
with the Cappello family, searching through even to »the eighth and tenth levels«
of kinship.

Her father Bartolomeo Cappello and brother Vittore were nominated cavalieri
 della stola d’oro (knights of the golden stole), the Serenissima’s only order
of knighthood. It is interesting to note that from this moment on Bartolomeo was
no longer allowed to attend the Senate’s meetings, which he had been entitled to
do as podestà of Treviso. His close contacts - also for family reasons - with other
centres of power suggested the risk of leaks of information, given the possibility
that he would be more concerned with protecting his own interests than those of
the Republic.

The wedding ceremony was sumptuously staged in Florence, with Bianca’s
step uncle Giovanni Grimani, the patriarch of Aquileia, celebrating the marriage.
All kinds of festivities and shows marked the event with no little discontent on
the part of the

Florentines.15

Splendid gifts were given by the Venetians, among
which, as Bartolomeo Cappello says in his will, was »a beautiful present of jewels
and pearls« from the doge, presented by the ambassadors Giovanni Michiel and
Antonio Tiepolo. And it cannot be excluded that the pearls with which Bianca
had herself portrayed by Scipione Pulzone were among the jewels given her by
the signoria.

Bianca’s health was poor: she suffered from attacks of anxiety, and her obsession
 with giving Francesco an heir, which resulted in several hysterical pregnancies,
 did not help her condition.

Ferdinando, Francesco’s brother, who had never liked her, on one side had
her spied on and on the other sought her mediation with his brother in paying
off the large debts he had incurred. Considered guilty of distracting Francesco
from governing the state, Bianca was the object of fierce satire by the Florentines,
 who blamed her for anything negative that happened in the city. She was
not much loved for her actions to protect her favourites and the consequent
distancing of those she disliked, and for her support of the Jewish community
during the establishment of the ghetto in

Florence.16

Despite her position now
being consolidated, Bianca feared that the title conferred on her by the Republic
would be

revoked.17

In this situation the portrait she had painted for her friend
Francesco Bembo, who organised a theatrical staging in Venice, may be interpreted
 as a move to revive the memory of Bianca and her reputation in her
home town.

Francesco and Bianca died within a few hours of each other on 16 October
1587 in the villa at Poggio a Caiano. The suspicion of their poisoning by Ferdinando,
 who at the time was visiting his brother, ill for some time, immediately
hung over their

deaths.18
Ferdinando left his cardinalship and succeeded his brother in the grand ducal
government. He then hastened to remove all signs of Bianca’s place in Florentine