Artemisia, Part 11 of 12

(Pierantonio Stiattesi really existed. He was somehow on the periphery of the Gentileschi social circle. Tassi really did send him a sonnet entitled, “Change, change, Stiattesi!” Some years after the trial, Stiattesi married Artemisia … so in his eyes, at least, she was not “damaged goods”.) Pierantonio Stiattesi I am a painter and from Tuscany, a good friend of the Gentileschi, and I know the others – somewhat. I can’t say what may, or yet may not, have passed between young Artemisia and that one. All I know, and I attest to it, is Tassi was obsessed with her. He wanted to suborn – it’s proof you want? I don’t know if this serves, but here’s a sonnet Tassi wrote to me, and tossed in through my window. In his hand, he writes as follows. Shall I read it out? Change, change, Stiattesi! Be a better friend than you were wont of late, for if you loved your Agostino, would you not have proved the same, by helping him towards his end? Change, change, the dark imperative of life, that renders human joy impermanent, compels me. What once flourished, now is spent. You know I’ve been abandoned by my wife! No thing is constant. Water wears through stone. Just as great bibles, chained to abbey shelves, are gnawed to pulp by worms, so with ourselves: beneath beguiling flesh, unlovely bone. Be you like Cosimo – learn to arrange such comforts as a friend may ask. Change, change!