The “Scourge of Princes”
Painting was not really Pietro Aretino’s thing, and he eventually gave up on that. As it turned out, his real talent lay in words – especially, dirty words. In 1516, he penned a satiric will of Pope Leo X’s recently deceased pet elephant. In it, Aretino mocked Rome’s most prominent figures, including the pope himself. The pope was a good sport about it. The satire was well received, and it launched Aretino’s career as a satirist. He eventually ended up with the nickname the “Scourge of Princes”.
After the death of Leo X, Aretino penned vicious satirical pamphlets in support of the candidature of cardinal Giulio de Medici for the papacy. They helped get him elected as Pope Clement VII in 1523. However, despite the patronage of the new pope, Aretino was forced to leave Rome in 1524 because he had grown too notorious. That notoriety peaked after he penned a dirty poetry collection known as the Lewd Sonnets. They were composed to accompany explicit drawings sketched by Giulio Romano, and engraved by Marcantonio Raimundo.