Giulia De' Medici - Later Life

Later Life

Giulia's paternity was not seen as a disadvantage at court. Her descent from the main Medici line was honored; her father's assassination was compared with the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus. Through her mother, Giulia was related to Pope Innocent VIII. She displayed great pride in her family lineage and self-assurance. After the death of her first husband, Francesco Cantelmo in 1555, the artist Alessandro Allori painted a second well-known portrait of Giulia, who was now in her mid-twenties. She was portrayed as a widow. To her left in the portrait is an intricately carved chair. Its sloping arm may represent steep terrain; art historian Gabrielle Langdon said she detected a faint climbing figure there which may represent Hercules. The Choice of Hercules was a popular allegory during the Renaissance about the victory of virtuous action over vice. Mario de Valdes y Cocom, a historian of the African diaspora, argues that the sloping arm of the chair also represents Monte le Verna, which Saint Bonaventure, a Christian Neo-Platonic philosopher, visited and was inspired to write his Itenerarium. Bonaventure visited Monte le Verna because this was the location where Francis of Assisi had a vision of a six-winged seraph and received the stigmata. Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes that Giulia's grandmother Simonetta, who was possibly of North African descent, married a mule driver from Collavechio, a site associated with Monte le Verna. Her father Alessandro was insulted by people who called him Alessandro Collavechio. Historians believe that the artist is alluding to Bonaventure's Neo-Platonic view of God as "the Divine Darkness". Some modern scholars see the painting as Giulia's response to criticism of her grandmother's north African descent and marriage to the mule driver from Collavechio.

During her widowhood she often stayed at the Augustinian convent of San Clemente on San Gallo, where her sister Porzia was abbess. Giulia is recorded as a patron of this convent as well as other Augustinian convents. A second advantageous marriage was arranged for her soon after with Bernadetto de' Medici, a first cousin of Cosimo I. She married him on August 14, 1559. Their son Alessandro, who was named for her father, was born the following year on December 17, 1560. During the early years of her marriage to Bernadetto, they entertained lavishly and she may have accompanied her husband on diplomatic missions.

Sometime in the 1560s, her relationship with her former guardian may have cooled when Giulia insisted that she be treated as an equal to Cosimo I's mistress, who was regarded with general disdain at court. Other sources indicate that she and her husband were still in good standing with the court when they moved to Naples in 1567. There they battled successfully to win the title and lands to the principality of Ottaiano, which their descendants hold today.