Warrior, Courtier, Singer

Giulio Cesare Brancaccio and the Performance of Identity in the Late Renaissance

Richard Wistreich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780754654148
• eBook ISBN: 9781317000273
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Giulio Cesare Brancaccio was a Neapolitan nobleman with long practical experience of military life, first in the service of Charles V and later as both soldier and courtier in France and then at the court of Alfonso II d'Este at Ferrara. He was also a virtuoso bass singer whose performances were praised by both Tasso and Guarini - he was even for a while the only male member of the famous Ferrarese court Concerto delle dame, who established a legendary reputation during the 1580s. Richard Wistreich examines Brancaccio's life in detail and from this it becomes possible to consider the mental and social world of a warrior and courtier with musical skills in a broader context. A wide-ranging study of bass singing in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Italy provides a contextual basis from which to consider Brancaccio's reputation as a performer. Wistreich illustrates the use of music in the process of 'self-fashioning' and the role of performance of all kinds in the construction of male noble identity within court culture, including the nature and currency of honour, chivalric virtù and sixteenth-century notions of gender and virility in relation to musical performance. This fascinating examination of Brancaccio's social world significantly expands our understanding of noble culture in both France and Italy during the sixteenth century, and the place of music-making within it.

PART ONE
Identity of a Performer

Chapter One

Napolitano y de buena casta

The soldier, courtier and singer Giulio Cesare Brancaccio was born into a family of the Neapolitan nobility, probably in the second decade of the sixteenth century.1 The family was large and its complex genealogy is as yet unreconstructed, but various Brancaccios (the name is often spelled Brancazzo or Brancazo in Neapolitan sources) had played significant roles in the history of the Kingdom of Naples for a good three hundred years before Giulio Cesare’s birth, would do so throughout the sixteenth century and continue to be important well into the nineteenth.2 The family’s status and the structure of the social world into which Giulio Cesare was born and which shaped his career and his very identity were determined by historical and political forces that are fundamental to the ensuing narrative.

Naples was the capital of a substantial and autonomous kingdom with its own special aristocratic structure. Its highest baronial rank consisted of a number of princes, who, besides their regional feudal seats where they ruled virtually autonomously, also had palaces and political power bases in the capital.3 The city itself was divided into five districts or seggi, which were not only geographical but also political divisions. Each seggio was presided over by a leading baronial family and each provided home and focus of identity for a number of other noble families which traditionally retained special ties of fealty to seggio and to each other; thus, family name and seggio were defining marks of Neapolitan nobility.4 The Brancaccios belonged to the seggio of Nido,5 which was presided over by Ferrante Sanseverino d’Aragona, Prince of Salerno, one of the feudal barons of the Kingdom of Naples; his wealth, political ambition and eventual downfall provide an important background to the first part of this story. Members of Nido families who were close associates of his household, including Giulio Cesare and another nobleman-musician, Luigi Dentice, were inextricably bound up with the Prince of Salerno’s own political fate; in order to make sense of Brancaccio’s life, a basic record of Neapolitan history in the first half of the sixteenth century is thus unavoidable.

In February 1495, Charles VIII conquered Naples for the French, ending 64 years of Aragonese rule. He settled all its feudal estates on Frenchmen with a few exceptions, notably Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno (Ferrante’s father), confirming the amicable connection between the Salerno dynasty and France that dated back to the time of René d’Anjou.6 It was a link which would continue to be invoked and nurtured by succeeding generations and eventually cause the downfall of the family. The French were expelled six months later, but Charles’s successor, Louis XII, inheriting the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, reconquered the city in July 1501. Three years later, Naples was taken by Gonzalo de Córdoba, ‘El Gran Capitán’, and was absorbed into the huge and spreading Spanish, later Habsburg, empire.7 Ruled from then on by a series of Spanish-appointed viceroys, the kingdom entered a period of quasi-colonial rule that was only ended by Napoleon. The Neapolitan aristocracy retained their status and riches, paying allegiance (and enormous taxes) to the Habsburgs, whilst the political control of the state was firmly in the hands of the viceroy. In 1528 a French army under Lautrec invaded the kingdom and many Neapolitan nobles rose up in rebellion in his support (including Fabrizio Brancazzo, Baron of Trentola and Loriano), but his siege of the city was repulsed and the Spanish retained control. In September 1532, Pedro Alvarez de Toledo became viceroy and remained in office until his death in Florence in February 1553.8

Pedro de Toledo was the emperor’s delegate but had the power to behave essentially like a sovereign. Based in a magnificent palace at the Castel Nuovo, he established a court of royal proportions and set about founding a family dynasty, rebuilding the city and taking firm political control of the state. The ‘native’ Neapolitan aristocracy was essentially integrated into the system, and so long as they were prepared to accept the pre-eminence of the viceroy, stability was secure. However, the viceroy increasingly behaved tyrannically, and many Neapolitans looked to Emperor Charles V as the one whom they hoped would relieve them of their burdens by deposing Toledo and replacing him with someone more acceptable, preferably one of their own. It may have been Toledo’s pretensions to regal status that began the rivalry with the Prince of Salerno, who had his own traditional dynastic claim on the throne of Naples, lived in a quasi-royal fashion himself, and was the wealthiest of the Neapolitan barons. He had married the beautiful Isabella Villamarino di Cardona, and assembled a court around him to rival the viceroy’s, although the two men publicly professed cordial relations.9 The Prince of Salerno’s courtiers were ‘nearly all from the most noble families’ and from at least the 1520s he had maintained a sizeable musical establishment of ‘the most excellent musicians from various parts of Italy and many also from foreign countries, on whom he spent three thousand scudi a year’.10 The prince was also a successful soldier, whose military reputation and standing in the eyes of the emperor were about to be confirmed at the highest level. What began as a test of who could hold Charles V’s attention during his state visit in 1535–6 was to lead, seventeen years later, to an assassination attempt and open rebellion.11

First blooding

In his Curriculum vitae, written around 1573 (Appendix 2, Doc. 1), Brancaccio opens the account of his career in summer 1535, in the highly successful campaign of Charles V against Barbarossa and subsequent restoration of the imperial client Muliasse as King of Tunis, and this is the first documented date in his life we so far have. The idea of the campaign had been urged on Charles by the Neapolitan nobles in alliance with the viceroy, because of the menace of Turkish pirates operating out of the harbour of La Goletta, close to Tunis, and the war was partly financed by special taxes raised in Naples. The goal was successfully accomplished by a force consisting of a fleet under the Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria and a large Spanish and Neapolitan army led by Don Federico and Don García Toledo, the two sons of the viceroy. With them were local troops under the principal Neapolitan nobility, among whom was the young Giulio Cesare Brancaccio (quite possibly still a teenager), taking his first steps in the military world for which his birth and education would have destined him and which was to shape the rest of his life.12

On 4 July, La Goletta was taken with great loss of life, including many Neapolitan nobles. But the victory was a resounding one for Charles V, who lost no time in having the news broadcast in Italy, and especially in Naples. This success and the emperor’s subsequent triumphal return gave the impetus to a manifestation of pride and self-confidence by Neapolitans which continued for more than a decade, during which the cultural and intellectual identity of the city and kingdom took on a kind of nationalistic fervour. It is within and against this background of chivalric, military and artistic display that Brancaccio’s own ‘identity world’ can be located. The celebrations of the victory were carefully orchestrated and used for specific political ends. The physical presence of the emperor in the kingdom allowed the Neapolitans to impress him with a massive demonstration of affection and opulence that promised to open a new era in the often-strained relationship between subjects and colonial power. Descriptions of the festivities constitute some of the only information about cultural activity in Naples in this period against which to assess Brancaccio’s own development as a warrior and courtier in the orbit of the Prince of Salerno.

The Tunis expedition gave a major boost to the prince: he was singled out for praise for his leadership of the Italian infantry at the siege of Goletta, and was seen as representing the generally good impression made by the Neapolitans, which in turn gave him a privileged role in the celebrations of Charles’s entry into the city.13 The emperor left Tunis on 17 August, reached Sicily after twelve days and was received into the city of Palermo a month later, passing through Calabria during October. He stayed with the two senior nobles in the Kingdom of Naples: first, Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, Prince of Bisignano and then in Salerno with Pietro Antonio’s distant kinsman, Ferrante Sanseverino himself.14

This was a propaganda campaign to impress on the emperor that Naples was a European kingdom with its own fully functioning aristocracy that could rival any other in the empire, including Castile. Another chronicler of Naples, Antonino Castaldo, listed the leading Neapolitan women who also entertained the emperor, beginning with Maria d’Aragona, who was the wife of Alfonso d’Avalos, praising her for her ‘beauty, royal presence, wit and incomparable judgement’, as well as Donna Giovanna d’Aragona Colonna and her sister-in-law, the famous poet and patroness Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Villamarino, Princess of Salerno (all three ‘almost on a par with Maria’) and finally, Donna Maria di Cardona, Marquise of Padula, future wife of Don Francesco d’Este.15 Meanwhile, Pedro de Toledo, preparing his own cultural offensive, was kept waiting in Naples.

On 25 November, Charles made his triumphant entrance into a capital city decorated with arches, statues, colossi and inscriptions praising the new Caesar. The Prince of Salerno seems to have succeeded in being very close to the centre of attention, despite the heavy presence of major Spanish and other powerful European leaders, including the supreme commander, Alfonso d’Avalos, Marquis of Vasto; the Duke of Alba; Don Ferrante Gonzaga, Prince of Molfetta (a particular rival of Salerno); Andrea Doria (Genoese admiral of the imperial fleet), Pierluigi Farnese (son of the pope), and the Dukes of Ferrara, Urbino and Florence.16

Charles remained in the city for four months, until the end of carnival. By day, the Sindaco and the Deputies (parliament) met at the church of S. Lorenzo to discuss the subventions to be levied in the kingdom to finance Charles’s campaigns, and every night the emperor was extravagantly entertained with banquets, theatre and music. The Prince of Salerno and his wife, and also the Prince of Bisignano, competed with Pedro de Toledo to give Charles the most attention.17 On 19 December, the viceroy gave the emperor a solemn banquet in the gardens of the Poggio Reale, which included a pastoral comedy (‘un’ Egloga o Fraza pastorale che ci fu molto ridicola’), probably acted by a professional troupe. Theatre was again on offer at Candlemas (2 February 1536), which marked the start of Carnival. After going to the Monte Olivio with all the Neapolitan and foreign nobles (possibly for a church service), the emperor was entertained by the Prince of Salerno with a ‘most beautiful comedy’.18 The Mantuan ambassador to Naples, Nicola Maffei, was astounded by the beauty of the women and by the quality of all the performances, especially the music, exclaiming that ‘it seemed as though Paradise had presented all her beauty and harmony [pare che il paradiso havesse aperto ogni sua bellezza et armonia]’.19 He was likewise impressed with the luxurious exhibitionism of the Neapolitan nobility, and particularly with the Sanseverino palace, which vied with the viceroy’s for richness and regal splendour.20 Charles was clearly delighted by his reception and rode about the city in disguise throughout Carnival, as did his most senior nobles, Ferrante Gonzaga and the Duke of Alba. The Neapolitans returned the feeling, delighting in the excitement and wandering the streets making music, perhaps believing that the emperor had come to save them from the oppression of his lieutenant, Toledo.21 Charles, however, used the occasion to impress on his viceroy the need to curb the rebellious tendencies of the Neapolitans by any necessary means. This Don Pedro did throughout his ‘reign’: he reportedly once told the Florentine ambassador that in his 21 years as viceroy he had had 18,000 people executed.22

Forty years later, Brancaccio chose to open the account of his life’s achievements with his participation in the Tunis campaign, which must have seemed like a quasi-crusade, so apt for the first blooding of a young member of the military-noble caste. He had sailed in a huge armada to a foreign continent with the great nobles of the land, following the Holy Roman Emperor himself to engage a leader of the infidels on his own territory, thence to return home together with the victorious Caesar and to participate in a triumph of classical proportions. He almost certainly took his place in the subsequent political and cultural display as a rising member of a significant family within his seggio and in the close orbit of its leading light. Since he was a member of a noble family, we can be fairly sure that his education would have prepared him for his role in this world through the development of specific skills – military, political and cultural. Quite apart from soldiering, to which he would devote his life, Brancaccio must at some point have been introduced to a humanist curriculum (he was able to publish a Latin epithalamium some years later) and had his musical talents nurtured, both of which would have contributed to the basic skills of courtiership necessary for furthering his career through the networks of the European noble class, as we will see. We do not know whether the young Brancaccio consciously ‘chose’ to follow a quasi-professional military career abroad, or whether this represented the only realistic option for a young Neapolitan of his social position. Certainly, he benefited from the opportunities presented by his participation in his first campaign, and, together with a major force of fellow Neapolitan nobles and soldiers, Giulio Cesare followed Charles V northwards when he left Naples to engage further in military campaigns against the empire’s major competitor in Europe: France and its leader, Francis I, who had just invaded and successfully occupied Savoy.

Service abroad

Charles left Naples in March 1536, and after spending...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Table
• List of Music Examples
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• PART ONE Identity of a Performer
• PART TWO Bass Song
• PART THREE Performance of Identity
• Appendix 1 Giulio Cesare Brancaccio: Works
• Appendix 2 Selected Documents
• Bibliography
• Index