eatrice Cenci is another very celebrated picture by
Guido; it is in the gallery of the Barberini Palace, in Rome (Fig. 52).
The interest in the portrait of this unhappy girl is world-wide. She was
the daughter of a wealthy Roman noble, who after the death of her mother
married a second time, and treated the children of his first marriage in a
brutal way. It is even said that he hired assassins to murder two of his
sons on their return from a journey to Spain. The story also relates that
his cruelty to Beatrice was such that, with the aid of her step-mother and
her brother, she killed him. At all events, these three were accused of
this crime and were executed for it in 1599. Other accounts say that he
was murdered by robbers, and his wife and children were made to appear as
if guilty. Clement VII. was the pope at that time, and in spite of his
knowledge of the cruelty of the father he would not pardon them, though
mercy was implored of him for this lovely girl. The reason given for this
action of the pope's is that he wished to confiscate the Cenci estates,
which he could do if the family suffered the death penalty. So many
reproductions of this sad face have been made that it is very familiar to
us, and almost seems to have been the face of some one whom we have known.

Guido did not paint his St. Michael for the Cappucini in Rome until after
he returned to his native city. When he sent the picture to the monks, he
wrote: "I wish I had the wings of an angel to have ascended into Paradise,
and there to have beholden the forms of those beautified spirits from
which I might have copied my archangel; but not being able to mount so
high, it was in vain for me to search for his resemblance here below, so
that I was forced to make an introspection into my own mind, and into that
idea of beauty which I have formed in my own imagination."

We are told that he always tried to paint his ideal of beauty rather than
to reproduce any human beauty that he had seen. He would pose his
color-grinder, and draw his outlines from him, and then fill in with his
own conceptions of what the head he was painting should be; this accounts
for the sameness in his heads and faces.

His passion for gaming degraded the close of his life. It led him into
great distresses, and for the sake of money he painted many pictures which
are not worthy of his name. He had always received generous prices for his
pictures, but he left many debts as a blot upon h