er Niccolo da Correggio suggested to
you when we were last together. If you have not yet ordered the
execution of this design, I am thinking of having his invention carried
out in massive gold, on a _camora_ of purple velvet, to wear on the day
of Madonna Bianca's wedding, since my husband desires the whole court to
lay aside mourning for that one day and to appear in colours. This being
the case, I cannot refrain from wearing colours on this occasion,
although the heavy loss we have had in our dear mother's death has left
me with little care for new inventions. But since this is necessary, I
have decided to make a trial of this pattern, if your Highness has not
yet made use of it, and send the present courier, begging you not to
detain him, but to let me know at once if you have yet tried this new
design or not."[46]

The courier to Mantua brought back word that the marchioness had not yet
made use of Niccolo's invention, and begged that her sister would feel
herself at liberty to adopt the idea and "satisfy her appetite."
Beatrice ordered the _camora_ to be put in hand without delay, and
Messer Niccolo had the satisfaction of seeing the duchess appear in this
robe at the imperial wedding. The subject is of special interest,
because this same pattern is repeated in the sleeves of Ambrogio de
Predis' portrait of Lodovico's fair young daughter Bianca, which must
have been painted about this time, and was probably adopted at the wish
of Beatrice, who was fondly attached to her youthful step-daughter.
Again, this same linked tracery or "_fantasia dei vinci_," as it is
called in Beatrice and her sister's letters, is to be seen both in the
decorations that adorn the ceiling of a hall in the Castello of Milan,
and on the vaulting of the sacristy in St. Maria delle Grazie. And as
Mr. Muntz[47] has lately pointed out, this same interlaced ornament, or
_vinci_, in which the Belgian professor, M. Errera, sees a play upon the
great painter's name, forms the motive of the famous circular engravings
bearing the words "_Academia Leonardi Vinci_," which have given rise to
so many conjectures as to the existence of that mysterious institution.
All these repetitions of the pattern invented by Niccolo da Correggio,
and adopted by Beatrice d'Este for her wedding robe, show how
fashionable the _fantasia dei vinci_ became at the Milanese court, and
lead us to imagine that Leonardo himself may have had some part in the
original design.

On