Honour and Disgrace
Michele is elected Bishop of Ceneda in 1547 and is dispatched as papal envoy to the King of France. Girolamo, serving as Michele’s procurator, writes Titian a letter of introduction to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo, Bishop of Trent. A surviving portrait of Girolamo, possibly by Paris Bordone, may date to this period. Girolamo’s fortunes change in the winter of 1549: he is exiled to Crete for ten years for engaging in a sword fight with a Savorgnan contingent in Padua, killing two and wounding others. On the eve of Girolamo’s departure, his brother Alvise II and brother-in-law Giambattista Colloredo are assassinated on the Grand Canal by Tristan Savorgnan, seeking to avenge the insult to his family. Girolamo’s departure is postponed and Alvise II is interred in a tomb in the Frari. Girolamo determines to seek a marital alliance that would benefit him politically and allow him to perpetuate the family bloodline.