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Early life

Isabella was born on Tuesday, 19 May 1474 at nine o'clock in the evening [1] Isabella's mother wrote a letter to her friend Barbara Gonzaga describing the details of Isabella's birth[2] in Ferrara, to Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Eleanor of Naples.[3]

Appearance

Confrontation of the Este brothers' medals: Isabella, Alfonso, Ferrante, Ippolito and Sigismondo had inherited the typical Este nose of their father; Beatrice the slightly upturned one of her mother. Furthermore, all were dark-haired, except Ferrante and Sigismondo, who had recovered, as it seems, the traditional blond of the Este.

Isabella’s appearance was frequently written about in her lifetime. Mario Equicola said that “her eyes were black and sparkling, her hair yellow, and her complexion one of dazzling brilliancy.”[4] Similarly Gian Giorgio Trissino’s I Ritratti has a fictionalized Pietro Bembo describe Isabella’s “rippling golden hair that flowed in thick masses over her shoulders,”[4] in a passage that, according to art historian Sally Hickson, identifies Isabella as the “living paragon of female beauty.”[5] The real Bembo praised Isabella’s “beautiful and charming hand and pure, sweet voice” in a letter addressed to her.[6] The alleged beauty of Isabella attracted the attention of the king of France, Charles VIII, who asked the chaplain Bernardino of Urbino about her features and attempted to arrange a meeting with her. However, this meeting never took place as shortly after he returned to France.__59, 60__

Isabella herself frequently diminished her own appearance; commenting on his portrait she told Francia that he had “made us far more beautiful by your art than nature ever made us.”[7] Likewise she told Trissino that “your praises of us far exceed the truth”,__Cartwright, 1903, vol. 2, pg 105__ and said of Titian’s portrait that “we doubt that at the age he represents us we were ever of the beauty it contains.”[8] In 1534, in the same year that Titian’s portrait was painted, Titian’s friend and Isabella’s [???], Pietro Aretino, mocked her appearance, calling her “the monstrous Marchioness of Mantua, with ebony teeth and ivory eyelashes, dishonestly ugly and ultra-dishonestly tarted up.”__62__ [8] Despite her desplays of modesty, Isabella was also known to lose herself infront of a mirror. __Fletcher, 1981, 56__

Isabella was worried about her weight from an early age,__Syson__ and George R. Marek remarks that she was “a bit on the pudgy side” as a child.__58__ As an adult she discussed her weight with those close to her frequently. In 1499 she sent a portrait by Giovanni Santi to her brother Ludovico Sforza, complaining that it did not resemble her very much “for being a little fatter than me.” Ludovico replied that he liked the portrait very much of her and that it was very similar to her, although "somewhat more fat", unless Isabella had "grown fatter after we saw her." __61__, __Fletcher, 1981, 56__ In 1509 she complained to her husband that “if she had more to do with running the state she would not have grown fat”,__Fletcher, 1981, 63__ while in 1511 her sister Lucrezia complained about an early draft of the Francia portrait that made her look too thin.[9]

Her face became damaged and prematurely aged by Venetian ceruse.__63__

References

  1. ^ Marek 1976, p. 12.
  2. ^ Note: In fifteenth century Italy the day began at sunset rather than at midnight; therefore as Isabella's birth occurred on 19 May at the second hour, this indicated that correctly, she was born on 18 May, at 9.00 P.M.
  3. ^ Cartwright 1903a.
  4. ^ a b Cartwright 1903a, p. 9.
  5. ^ Hickson 2009, p. 17.
  6. ^ Cartwright 1903a, p. 273.
  7. ^ Hickson 2009, p. 10.
  8. ^ a b Hickson 2009, p. 19.
  9. ^ Hickson 2009, p. 9.

Bibliography

  • Bini, Daniele, ed. (2001). Isabella d'Este: La primadonna del Rinascimento. Daniele Bini. ISBN 88-86251-45-9.
  • Cartwright, Julia Mary (1903a). Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, 1474–1539: a study of the renaissance. Vol. 1. New York, E.P. Dutton and company.
  • Cartwright, Julia Mary (1903b). Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, 1474–1539: a study of the renaissance. Vol. 2. New York, E.P. Dutton and company.
  • Cartwright, Julia Mary (1945). Beatrice d'Este, Duchessa di Milano. Milano. ISBN 1406754110. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Ferino, Sylvia (1994). Isabella d'Este – Fürstin und Mäzenatin der Renaissance. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Vienna).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Hickson, Sally (2009). "'To see ourselves as others see us': Giovanni Francesco Zaninello of Ferrara and the portrait of Isabella d'Este by Francesco Francia". Renaissance Studies (vol. 23 no. 3). The Society for Renaissance Studies, Blackwell Publishing Ltd. doi:10.1111/j.1477-4658.2009.00565.x. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  • Luzio, Alessandro; Renier, Rodolfo (1890). Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza. Milano. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Marek, George R. (1976). The Bed and the Throne: The Life of Isabella d'Este. New York: Harper and Row Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-012810-4.
  • de Mazzeri, Silvia Alberti (1986). Beatrice d'Este duchessa di Milano. Rusconi. ISBN 9788818230154. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  • Mazzi, Maria Serena (2004). Come rose d'inverno, le signore della corte estense nel '400. Nuovecarte. ISBN 9788887527162. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  • Pizzagalli, Daniela (1999). La dama con l'ermellino, vita e passioni di Cecilia Gallerani nella Milano di Ludovico il Moro. Rizzoli. ISBN 9788817860734. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  • Pizzagalli, Daniela (2001). La signora del Rinascimento. Vita e splendori di Isabella d'Este alla corte di Mantova. Rizzoli. ISBN 9788817868075. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  • Valeri, Francesco Malaguzzi (1913). La corte di Lodovico il Moro: la vita privata e l'arte a Milano nella seconda metà del Quattrocento. Vol. 1. Milano. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Appearance and personality

Confrontation of the Este brothers' medals: Isabella, Alfonso, Ferrante, Ippolito and Sigismondo had inherited the typical Este nose of their father; Beatrice the slightly upturned one of her mother. Furthermore, all were dark-haired, except Ferrante and Sigismondo, who had recovered, as it seems, the traditional blond of the Este.

She has been described as physically attractive, though plump; she possessed "lively eyes" and was "of lively grace".[1] The physical appearance of Isabella interested the king of France Charles VIII, an unrepentant womanizer, who having already met her sister Beatrice, whom he had greatly liked, wanted to know if Isabella resembled her, and asked the chaplain Bernardino of Urbino if she was more beautiful, taller, her age, her features, her character and her virtues.[2][3]

Charles VIII King of France

The chaplain replied that Isabella surpassed her sister in beauty and that she was no taller than her, which greatly pleased King Charles who, being just as short, did not want women taller than him. Jacopo d'Atri communicates to the marquise his suspicion that the king would have come to Mantua to kiss her "a thousand times" as well as he had kissed Beatrice, according to French custom, and reassures her in this regard by telling her that "it is not as deformed as ours describe it"- in fact, Carlo was described by the Italians as very ugly – however the meeting never took place, since shortly after he returned to France. The Mantuan courtiers therefore judged that Isabella was more beautiful than Beatrice, but the lack of her portraits does not allow a sure comparison between the two, which distinguishes the truth from her praise.[2][3]

After all, Isabella was very concerned with her appearance, as can be understood from many small details. In 1499, having to send her own portrait to Isabella of Aragon, she sent it before her to her brother-in-law Ludovico Sforza, specifying however that her painting did not resemble her very much "for being a little fatter than me". Ludovico replied that he liked the portrait very much of her and that it was very similar to her, although "somewhat more fat", unless Isabella had "grown fatter after we saw her."[4]

Her face became damaged and prematurely aged by Venetian ceruse. With age, her figure underwent an inexorable decline: Pietro Aretino, in his 1534 work, defines her as "monstrous Marquise of Mantua, which has ebony teeth, ivory eyelashes, dishonestly ugly and archdisonestically embellished".[5][6]

  1. ^ Marek 1976, p. 16.
  2. ^ a b La galleria dei Gonzaga, venduta all'Inghilterra nel 1627–28: documenti degli archivi di Mantova e Londra, Alessandro Luzio Cogliati, 1913, p. 223.
  3. ^ a b Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, Milano, Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1890, p. 116.
  4. ^ Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, etc, p. 151.
  5. ^ Lorenzo Bonoldi (2015). Isabella d'Este: La Signora del Rinascimento. p. 78.
  6. ^ Jill Condra (2008). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 35. ISBN 9780313336621.
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