16

The reassessment of Scipione Pulzone’s work last century was due mainly to
Federico Zeri, who gave particular prominence to the portraits, recognising their
place in the line of international portraiture of Flemish culture. In labelling
Pulzone’s work »timeless art«, Zeri wanted to define that particular effect of his
portraits in which the subjects are meticulously described not only in their features,
 but also in their clothing and attributes, and which come down to us »invariable
 and beyond the actions of

time«.30

Francesco Bembo and the portrait of Bianca Cappello:
a media

operation31

Francesco Bembo was born in Venice on 2 March 1544 to Gaspare and Chiara
Sanudo. In 1564 he married Polissena Michiel and in December of the same
year he drew the balla d’oro, thus gaining permission to enter the Great Council
early – at the age of 20. His first position was as castellano of Brescia in

1569.32
His cursus honorum unfolded relatively unhindered, with engagements of middling
 importance mainly in the legal field. The last position assigned to him in
1591 was that of Provveditore sopra i

Dazi.33

He also dabbled in poetry and
wrote sonnets in the style of Petrarch, a choice perhaps motivated by his distant
relationship to Pietro Bembo. His correspondence with Bianca Cappello began
at the time of her official marriage to Francesco I in

1579,34

and intensified in
the years between 1585 and 1587. In 1585 Francesco travelled with the Venetian
 delegation of four special ambassadors going to Rome to congratulate the
new pope - Sixtus V - elected in April 1585. The travellers made a stop in Florence
 and were received by the grand dukes. During this stay Bembo saw the
portrait of Bianca that Scipione Pulzone was painting and was fascinated by it.
The painting and Bembo’s desire to own a similar one, but smaller than the original,
 became the main subject of their correspondence over the subsequent
months.35

Bembo’s letters explain that on arriving in Rome he had tried to contact
 Pulzone, without success, so Bianca intervened and commissioned the work
herself from Pulzone. The painting was finished between January and February
of the following year and arrived in Venice on 8 March. It was carried in procession
 - in what was an effective theatrical production based on the typically Venetian
 tradition of such events - to Palazzo Cappello where it was admired by Bianca’s
 family. The doge Pasquale Cicogna even wanted to keep it in his apartment
for several

days.36

Once it had gone back to its owner it attracted numerous
visitors to Bembo’s home. The portrait aroused the enthusiasm of the public,
who in particular admired the naturalness or rather the likeness of the work,
such that the grand duchess seemed to be present in person. Bembo wrote to