Italian

Renaissance
Courts:
Art, Pleasure
and Power

Alison Cole
Italian
Renaissance
Courts:
Art, Pleasure
and Power

Alison Cole

Laurence King Publishing

Genealogies
To download genealogies for each chapter,
go to: www.laurenceking.com/en/italiancourts
and click on the Associated Materials tab.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for their help
and encouragement: my sons Jay and Louis, and my
shipmate Horacio, who have patiently supported my
endeavours; Sharon Fermor and Mary Stewart for their
consistent belief in my ideas; and my brother, Sam, and
Barbara Ricci for their valuable Italian perspective. I am
also indebted to my copy editor Caroline Bugler, to the
expert team at Laurence King, and to my academic
readers past and present. I would like to dedicate this
book to the memory of my late husband Keith Shadwick,
who gave me the space to write.

Published in 2016 by
Laurence King Publishing Ltd
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London EC1V 1LR
e-mail: enquiries@laurenceking.com
www.laurenceking.com

© text 2016 Alison Cole

Alison Cole has asserted her right under the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording or any information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78067-740-8

Series and cover design by Pentagram

Design: Geoff Fennell

Cover: Andrea Mantegna, Parnassus

Frontispiece: Francesco Laurana,

Bust of Isabella of Aragon (?)

This page: Justus of Ghent / Pedro Berruguete (?),

Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and his
Son Guidobaldo

Printed in China
Contents

Preface 6

Introduction
Te Fifeenth-Century Renaissance Court 10

1
Art and Princely ‘Magnifcence’ 30

2
Te Court Artist 58

3
Piety and Propaganda:
Naples under Alfonso of Aragon 80

4
Arms and Letters:
Urbino under Federico da Montefeltro 106

5
Varieties of Pleasure: Este Ferrara 134

6
Te Art of Diplomacy:
Mantua and the Gonzaga 164

7
Local Expertise and Foreign Talent:
Milan and Pavia under Ludovico ‘Il Moro’ 200

Epilogue
A Grander Stage 232

BIBLIOGRAPHY 250

INDEX 252

PICTURE CREDITS 256

Preface

O
Fig.1
ver the centuries, art historical studies of the ff- Benedetto and Bonifacio
Bembo (?)
teenth-century Italian Renaissance – taking their Vault of the Golden Room
cue from Giorgio Vasari’s famously Tuscan-cen-
tric Lives of the Artists (1550/68) – have tended ca. 1460. Fresco. Castle of
Torrechiara, Emilia-Romagna.
to focus on the precocious talent, individualism
The lord’s castles, dotted
and innovation of Medici Florence, followed by throughout his territories,
the mature fowering of the arts in Rome and Venice around 1500. provide a ready image of
formidable princely power.
Te ancient Roman republican ideal of a political state, built on the Here, on the vault of Lord
civilizing principles of human dignity, rights, representation and Pier Maria Rossi’s castle
of Torrechiara, the castles
liberty, appealed particularly to nineteenth-century Italian and Ger- straddling the mountain
man historians, who viewed the republics of Florence and Venice as peaks are depicted, each
appearing at the correct
the cradles of the liberal, Western-style modern state. On the other
compass point in relation
hand, the Italian city-states controlled by signorie (despotic lords) to Torrechiara itself.
Those occupying the lower
were ofen regarded as centres of oppression, quixotic brilliance and
ground are depicted in the
delicious depravity, moulded in the image of the tyrants who ruled wainscoting of the room –
the distinction represents
them. Tese were places where a lord like Sigismondo Malatesta of
their different strategic
Rimini (fig. 2) – famed for his brutality and obsessive love for Isotta locations and purposes.
degli Atti – could be summarily consigned by the pope to Hell.
In the last 50 years, however, the art of the other city-states
has emerged strongly from the shadows, and there have been a num-
ber of scholarly publications focusing on Italy’s princely centres –

Preface

6|7
particularly the northern courts and their varied, splendid and dis-
tinctive cultures (such as Werner Gundersheimer’s 1973 landmark
study of the court of Ferrara, and Evelyn Welch’s 1996 authoritative
portrait of Milan). Tese studies have helped place the remarkable
achievements of the so-called Renaissance period (which now usu-
ally embraces the years between 1300 and 1600) in a much richer,
more nuanced and rather less orderly context. Key texts are noted in
the bibliography.
Tanks to the ever widening perspective of Italian Renais-
sance court scholarship – which now encompasses Europe and
beyond – and the incisive focus of some defnitive monographs on
individual artists associated with the courts (Stephen Campbell’s
examination of the Ferrarese Cosmè Tura is a stimulating exam-
ple), the ffeenth century is no longer characterized as a moment of
miraculous transition to a new ‘modern’ style – a notion that usu-
ally takes its cue from the astonishing advances made in painting,
sculpture and architecture in Florence around the 1410s and 1420s
(focusing on the achievements of Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Bru-
nelleschi, Masaccio and Alberti). Nor is the Florentine style, with
its mastery of central perspective and rilievo (the ability to model
things in the round in light and shade), antique-inspired natural-
ism and sculptural monumentality, now regarded as the dominant
aesthetic of the time. While Florence developed a school of superbly
accomplished native artists (many initially trained as goldsmiths)
and exported their cultural expertise to other centres as part of a
sophisticated package of infuence, the other city-states enthusiasti-
cally cultivated and developed vibrant alternative aesthetics of their
own, looking particularly to the great courts of Paris, Burgundy and
Bruges for their inspiration.
In late medieval writings, the idea of rinascità (rebirth) defned
a movement rather than a period, focusing on the revival of classi-
cal learning and an exhilarating sense of renewed human potential
in the moral, political and creative spheres. Tis revival, which is
generally embodied by the great Tuscan poet Petrarch (1304–1374)
and his passion and hunt for lost ancient texts, gathered pace in the
ffeenth century, nurtured by princes and popes as well as doges,
merchants, bankers and clerics. Yet it sits side by side with an equally
compelling range of cultural infuences, ranging from early impe-
rial Byzantine iconographic traditions to medieval chivalric culture,
and embraces the full range of artistic production: the period prized
the arts of tapestry, illuminated manuscripts, ivories, engraved plate
and jewellery, as much as – if not more than – sculpture and paint-
ing. Scholars now characterize the ffeenth century as a period of
 Fig.2
Agostino di Duccio
Portrait of Sigismondo
Pandolfo Malatesta
(supported by elephants)

ca. 1449–55. Marble. Tempio

Malatestiano, Rimini.

This triumphal portrait of

Sigismondo is part of the
lavish decoration of the
temple he built (see Fig.26
and Fig.27) that was to
serve as a mausoleum for
himself and his beloved
Isotta (who was to become
his third wife). Crowned
with laurel, and encircled
by the laurel wreath of
fame, Sigismondo is shown
in striking imperial
profile (echoing the tondo
portraits decorating
Rimini’s Roman Arch of
Augustus). Sigismondo’s
image, forming the base of
pilasters, is supported by
a pair of elephants: the
elephant was a favourite
Malatesta device and appears
on both Sigismondo’s and
Isotta’s medals as a symbol
of Fortitude and Fame, and
Piety and Chastity.

imaginative continuity as well as rediscovery and innovation, and

one that is as keenly preoccupied with sacred ritual, dynastic tra-
ditions, international exchange, corporate elitism and aristocratic
ideals, as with the potent legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. It is
the mix of these infuences, fuelled by an atmosphere of political tur-
bulence, a remarkable rate of social change (afecting almost every
social value), and a thirst for accelerated progress, that makes this
period in Italy’s cultural development so ‘supercharged’.

Preface

8|9
Introduction

‘In our change-loving Italy, where nothing stands frm, and where no ancient dynasty
exists, a servant can easily become a king.’
Pope Pius II (1405–1464), Commentaries

Te Fifeenth-Century
Renaissance Court

I
taly did not exist as a unifed country until 1861; only 14 years Fig. 3

earlier the Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich had dismissed Michelino da Besozzo
Coronation of Giangaleazzo
it as ‘a geographical expression’. Most of what we now recognize Visconti by the Virgin Mary,

as modern Italy dates back to the reign of Augustus in the second frontispiece to Pietro
da Castelleto’s Sermo in
century – a period of remarkable peace, which was regarded as Exequis Johannis Galeatii

prefguring the Christian era. Since the fragmentation of Italy, ducis Mediolani

however, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the Milan, 1403. Illumination

ffh century, the peninsula had struggled to regain a stable national on parchment, 34.6 × 24.2cm
(13 × 10in). Bibliothèque
or cultural identity. Afer about 1200, it evolved into a ragged patch- Nationale, Paris.

work of city-states (resembling the various tribal regions of ancient This commemorative
‘Italia’) with no community of purpose. Tere were republican oli- manuscript, written by an

garchies like Florence, Siena, Lucca, Venice and Genoa; the papal Augustinian monk (shown
delivering his eulogy
court of Rome; and numerous princely courts ruled by local signorie from the pulpit in the

(map fig. 4). Te latter were either imperial fefdoms (territories decorated initial), blends
the refined style and
that owed allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor, who ruled over imagery of the secular and

the present-day territories of Belgium, Austria, Germany and Swit- sacred court. Angels appear
alongside banners decorated
zerland) or papal dominions (those owing allegiance to the pope, with imperial eagles

who had spent long periods away from Rome). (Giangaleazzo was made Duke
of Milan by the Holy Roman
Successive emperors tended to claim historical feudal rights Emperor), but here he is

in Lombardy, while the papacy claimed rights in Emilia-Romagna shown being crowned by the
Virgin and Child.
and the Marches of Ancona. Tese territories were nominally

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

10 | 11
 Geneva

Bergamo
Trieste
Milan Verona
Brescia Padua Venice
Pavia
Mantua R.Po
Turin Cremona
Parma Ferrara
Modena
Genoa Ravenna
Bologna
Faenza
Lucca no Rimini Pesaro
Monaco R.Ar
Pisa Florence Urbino Ancona
Ligurian Volterra Gubbio
Siena
Sea A
ELBA Perugia dr
ia
ti
c
R .T

Pescara
Se
ib

a
er

CORSICA

Rome

Gaeta Bari
Naples Brindisi
Castellamare
SARDINIA Salerno
Taranto
Ty r r h e ni an
Sea

Messina Reggio
Palermo
100 km
SICILY
100 miles

HOLY
ROMAN
EMPIRE DUCHY OF SAVOY-PIEDMONT ESTE DOMINIONS
BURGUNDY
PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO REPUBLIC OF LUCCA
MARQUISATE OF SALUZZO REPUBLIC OF FLORENCE
FRANCE BYZANTINE
EMPIRE MARQUISATE OF MONFERRATO REPUBLIC OF SIENA
COUNTY OF ASTI DUCHY OF PIOMBINO
ARAGON
DUCHY OF MILAN PAPAL STATES
REPUBLIC OF GENOA KINGDOM OF NAPLES
TERRITORY OF MALASPINA KINGDOM OF SICILY
MARQUISATE OF MANTUA KINGDOM OF SARDINIA
REPUBLIC OF VENICE
required to pay dues or give military service to their imperial or Fig.4

papal overlord, but in fact enjoyed virtual independence. As John Map of Italy

Addington Symonds wryly observed in his famous volume, Te This political map

Age of the Despots, the sporadic visits of the Holy Roman Emperor illustrates the fractured
geography of Italy in the
‘were either begging expeditions or holiday excursions, in the course early fifteenth century, with

of which ambitious adventurers bought titles to the government of the large Kingdom of Naples
cutting a large swathe to
towns, and meaningless honours were showered upon vain courti- the south, the Papal States

ers.’ With such absentee ‘landlords’, whose partisans (Guelphs, who occupying central ground,
and the north dominated by
supported the pope, and Ghibellines, who supported the Empire) the great Venetian Republic

were engaged in constant territorial struggle, the scene was ripe for and the sizeable Duchy of
Milan. With 7,200 kilometres
the rulers of city-states to take advantage of the rivalry and establish (4,500 miles) of coastline,

de facto states of their own. A decisive point in the rise of the signo- Italy and its islands were
vulnerable to invasion from
rie came in 1395, with the purchase of the title of ‘Duke’ by Gian- all directions, but also

galeazzo Visconti of Milan from the Holy Roman Emperor Wencelas open to trade and influences.
The smaller inset map sets
for 100,000 ducats, following two decades of territorial conquest and Italy within its broader

urban rule as an ‘imperial vicar’. Te magnifcence of Giangaleazzo’s context, showing France,

Burgundy and Aragon; the
investiture ceremony and the illuminated chronicles of his reign Holy Roman Empire to the

raised the bar for the century to come (fig. 3). Giangaleazzo made north; and the Byzantine
Empire to the east.
the titles of papal or imperial vicar appear distinctly outmoded, and
provided a model for the Italian prince’s newly elevated status.
By the ffeenth century, two great courts governed large
swathes of territory and nursed imperial ambitions. To the south was
the large, cosmopolitan kingdom of Naples and Sicily, dominated
by the Aragonese rulers from Spain (which had by this time assimi-
lated elements from the Arabic, Jewish, Catalan, Aragonese, Greek
and French communities). To the north was the wealthy and power-
ful Lombard principality of Milan (which, under Visconti and later
Sforza rule, dominated the north and northeast, along with its rival,
the Venetian Republic). Te other major secular courts, Ferrara and
Urbino (established duchies from the 1470s), and the marquisate of
Mantua, were small in comparison, their prestige due in large meas-
ure to their diplomatic and military skills and patronage of the arts.
Teir infuence far outshone the tiny marquisates of Saluzzo and
Monferrato, and endured longer than lesser courts such as Rimini,
Bologna and Pesaro.

Links and Common Imperatives

While the various city-states cultivated their own distinctive forms
of governance and customs, they were also inextricably linked by
marital, political, commercial and diplomatic alliances, as well as
the ease of travel and cultural exchange across land and sea (Italy

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

12 | 13
Fig.5
Circle of Andrea Mantegna
Temporary reconstruction
of a marriage chest of
Paola Gonzaga, with a
representation of the
Justice of Trajan
ca. 1476–8. Pine and poplar
wood, painted and gilded
pastiglia, 98 × 235 × 85.5cm
(38 1∕2 × 92 1∕2 × 33 5∕8in).
Landesmuseum für Kärnten
in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
(relief) and Stiftsmuseum
Millstatt (chest body).
This panel is from an
elaborate gilded cassone
(wedding chest) –
reconstructed here – one of
a pair taken to Germany by
Ludovico Gonzaga’s daughter,
Paola, on the occasion of
her marriage in 1477 to
Leonhard, Count of Gorizia.
The two chests illustrate
(in a continuous frieze) a
moral tale from antiquity,
which furnishes the
newlyweds with a stirring
example of ‘Christian’
virtue. The story, however,
takes second place to
the splendid military
procession. The buildings
include a church inspired
perhaps by Alberti’s Mantuan
projects, while the Gonzaga
emblem of the sun blazes
from the allÕantica cornice
of the main palace facade.
is a peninsula with a plethora of ports, and easy transalpine cross-
ings to Northern Europe). Italians had a talent for fnance and com-
merce, and their sophisticated banking and mercantile networks
spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Practical mer-
chant handbooks of the time feature not only navigational methods
and guides to the celestial infuences on weather and fortunes on
the high seas, but also the currencies, measures and commodities of
more than 50 foreign markets – together with digests of geographical
features, peoples, culture and customs. Te well-travelled included
not only fgures of state, businessmen, ambassadors and diplomats,
preachers and clerics – but also artisans and scholars who moved
from one centre to another in search of patronage and prestige, ab-
sorbing learning and infuences on the way. One of the chief audi-
ences for their cultural production – pilgrims – travelled extensively
too. Heading for Rome or the Holy Land, they focused on the multi-
tude of great churches and religious buildings throughout the pen-
insula, with their chapels, monastic orders and priceless holy relics.
Most of the courts were also linked by a common and overrid-
ing imperative – the need to visibly establish the legitimacy and au-
thority of their rule. Nearly every ruler in ffeenth-century Italy had
a tenuous or disputed claim to power. Many were born illegitimate,
with no legal basis for their succession; others had seized power by
military means. Still others, including the early ffeenth-century
popes, were facing multiple challenges to the nature of their author-
ity. All shared an urgent need to establish the justice of their domin-
ion, to stamp their authority on their territories, and to produce a
stable social hierarchy and order. Tey also shared longer-term and
personal aspirations, such as securing the future of their line while
ensuring their own ‘remembrance’ and private salvation. As a con-
sequence, these rulers developed a sophisticated understanding of
the role that art, sacred ritual, scholarship, pageantry and aristocratic
traditions could play. On the one hand, they sought to forge inde-
pendent and powerful cultural identities, seizing on chivalric and
humanist ideas relating to the saints and ideal rulers of Christen-
dom and antiquity, while adapting them to suit local agendas. On
the other hand, with their power resting on a fragile web of strategic
alliances, they sought to stress their interconnectedness with other
powers and create a union of mutual dependency (which was mir-
rored in their cultural exchanges).
Tanks to their participation in a thriving international di-
plomacy, Italian courts enjoyed close contact with foreign courts,
particularly those of France, Germany, Spain and Burgundy. Tough
the smaller courts remained essentially provincial, they were able to
enhance their international standing by bestowing lavish hospital-
ity on visiting dignitaries and by marrying into high-ranking foreign
families (fig. 5). Te small Este court of Ferrara became so inter-
twined with the great Aragonese court of Spain and Naples through
marital alliances, that – politically and dynastically – the two could
almost be regarded as one. Tis political union expressed itself viv-
idly in cultural terms, with the conscious adoption of a shared artistic
language. As Leon Battista Alberti wrote in his treatise On the Family
(Della Famiglia, 1435–44), a well-managed marriage had the poten-
tial to lif the fortunes of ‘counties, regions, and the whole world’.
None of the Italian courts, however, could command the
international cachet enjoyed by Rome at the end of the ffeenth cen-
tury. Yet, in some sense, art was a great leveller among them as they
competed for prestige and tried to keep pace with prevailing stand-
ards. Socially, the courts borrowed many of their common values
from French and English royalty, and throughout the century medi-
eval French (the language of chivalric romance) was still regarded as
the aristocratic language. As a legacy of the papacy’s years in Avignon
(1309–77), cardinals and princes continued to amass collections
of exquisite French ivories, manuscripts and statuettes. In art, the
so-called International Gothic Style – an elegant mix of Lombard,
Sienese and Franco-Flemish stylistic infuences (fig. 7) – persisted
well into the ffeenth century as the established visual language of

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

14 | 15
Fig.6
Ambrogio de Predis
Bianca Maria Sforza

ca. 1493. Oil on panel,

51 × 32.5cm (20 × 12 3∕4in.)
National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC, Widener
Collection 1942.9.53.

This portrait by the

Milanese court artist
Ambrogio de Predis – who
also worked for the Milanese
mint – was probably painted
to mark negotiations for
Bianca Maria’s betrothal
to Emperor Maximilian.
A carnation, symbol of
betrothal, appears at her
waist. It shows Bianca as a
rather hapless embodiment
of her uncle’s dynastic
ambitions (Ludovico
Sforza’s hopes of a dukedom
depended on this match).
She is bedecked with jewels
(befitting one of the most
prosperous courts; Ludovico
was to provide 300,000
ducats for her dowry),
and sports Sforza emblems
and mottoes and a Spanish-
style coazzone (long broad
plait). The head-brooch
– inspired by Franco-
Burgundian jewellery – is a
pearl and diamond variant of
Ludovico’s ‘brush’ device.
It bears the motto ‘With
merit and time’.

the princely elite, existing side by side with the new Florentine allÕan-
tica (classically inspired) ideas. Flemish and French court artists, like
Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden and Jean Fouquet (who, while
in Rome, painted an acclaimed portrait of Pope Eugenius IV), were
universally sought afer in Italian elite circles – and Flemish musi-
cians and tapestry weavers were regarded as the fnest in the world.
Tus Italian princes imitated the interior splendour of Burgundian
castles, coveted French and English chivalric orders and jewellery, Fig.7

studied the poignant remains of antiquity, and adopted the elegant Franceschino, Gregorio and
Giovanni Zavattari
dress and civilities of the Spanish (fig. 6). Wedding banquet scene from

More complex political needs expressed themselves in com- The Legend of Theolinda

mon cultural terms as well. Physical and symbolic manifestations of ca. 1430–47. Fresco,

martial power took the form of great fortifed castles (fig. 8), defen- tempera, oil pigments,
gilt pastiglia, applied
sive structures, looming equestrian monuments, and ancient-style metals. Tomb Chapel of the

triumphs (extensively studied by humanist scholars such as Flavio Langobard, Monza Cathedral.

Biondo at the papal court, and Roberto Valturio, adviser to Sigis- The decoration of this

mondo Malatesta, at the court of Rimini). Elaborately decorated chapel was closely bound up
with Visconti/Sforza regal
palaces and extravagant public spectacles were designed to impress aspirations – the chapel

distinguished visitors and to dazzle the local populace (ensuring contained the sarcophagi
of the only royal Lombard
popular consent). At the same time, rulers undertook extensive family (Queen Theolinda of

religious commissions, promoted the cult of saints, founded and Bavaria married the Lombard
king in 590). The cycle of
supported religious orders, and flled their chapels with the fnest 45 scenes is painted in the

musicians – in a public display of divinely sanctioned rule as well elegant International Gothic
Style and would have been of
as a mark of piety. Tey decorated the rooms of their suburban res- unimaginable splendour (with

idences and country villas with tapestries and frescoes on chivalric its lavish use of applied
gold and silver).
themes: their subjects, such as hunting and courtship, embodied
aristocratic rituals associated with love, recreation,
privilege and knightly prowess; and they collected
antique artefacts and original Greek and Latin
texts, which were housed in private spaces and li-
braries designed specifcally for their display, as a
manifestation of their moral virtue and wisdom,
and to connect their authority with a deep well of
classical memory and precedent.
It is perhaps easy to forget, in this brief sur-
vey of some of the social and political uses of art
– which could embrace anything from whole-scale
urban redesign to antique-style portrait medals
that a favoured recipient could cradle in the palm
of his hand – that courtly patronage was not just
about outward display, material consumption or
the cynical manipulation of power. Against a back-
drop of constant warfare, factional rivalry, popular
unrest, arbitrary violence, devastating plague epidemics and a litany
of everyday concerns, there were real pleasures, spiritual nourish-
ment and consolation to be found in the arts and scholarship that
the courts commissioned and consumed. One room in the palace in
particular, the study or studiolo, could provide for both the court’s
outward and interior needs. Writing nostalgically from exile, the
courtier Niccolò Machiavelli – whose celebrated treatise Te Prince

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

16 | 17
Fig.8
The fortified castle of
Torrechiara

1448–60. Emilia-Romagna.

This perfect example of a

fifteenth-century feudal
residence was built by Pier
Maria Rossi, one of the most
powerful signorie of the
region of Parma. Its chief
glory, the Golden Room,
which celebrates the love of
Pier Maria for Bianca Maria
Pellegrini, is decorated
with the 16 castles of his
domain (see Fig.1).

(Il Principe, 1513), set out to defne how such princedoms were ac-
quired, retained and lost – gives us a personal insight into what these
comparatively intimate spaces could mean.

‘When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the

threshold I take of my workday clothes, covered with mud and
dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace. Now clothed
appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients
where, graciously received by them, I nourish myself on that food
that alone is mine and for which I was born … And for four hours
at a time I feel no boredom, I forget all my troubles, I do not dread
poverty, and I am not terrifed by death.’
(Letter to Francesco Vettori, 1513)

Te Courtly Space
While for Machiavelli, like his Tuscan compatriot Petrarch before
him, the court opened up a whole world of opportunities and civiliz-
ing ideas, the Italian term, corte, defnes an enclosed space, as in a
courtyard (fig. 9). In its political and social context, the court de-
fned the space inhabited by the prince (the lord of a territory) and
his entourage, including his consort, household, courtiers and of-
fcials. Tis space had invisible boundaries, which were determined
by those who exercised power and infuence on behalf of the prince.
At its heart was the palace or castle, which functioned as the ruler’s
principal residence, the city’s prime fortifcation and, increasingly, as
the fnancial and administrative centre of government. But this was
just one component of a larger complex of buildings, constructed
around ceremonial spaces and thoroughfares, sacred chapels and
monasteries, gardens and hunting parks. Defensive structures, such
as moated walls and massive ravelins, could provide a sense of secu-
rity and enclosure, but the ‘enclosed’ character of courts stemmed,
above all, from the attitudes of their ruling elites. Some rulers, like
Ercole d’Este of Ferrara, chose to distance themselves and their im-
mediate household from the populace at large, in keeping with the
Fig.9
idea of the divine authority of princes. Others were more accessi- Luciano Laurana (attributed)
ble. Among the ruling classes, subsumed as they were into the court Courtyard (Cortile dÕOnore)
of the Palazzo Ducale
structure, a sense of superiority, of being ‘an insider’, led to a careful
shepherding and bestowing of privilege. After 1470. Urbino.

In a physical sense, the court was not sealed of from the out- The design of this supremely
side world. Court personnel changed constantly, there were streams elegant arcaded courtyard
is attributed to Luciano
of visitors to and fro (as well as resident ambassadors, cardinals and Laurana, who worked on the
diplomats from other centres who were almost part of the court initial remodelling of
Federico da MontefeltroÕs
household), and all of those who were employed by the court did palace in Urbino. It takes
not necessarily reside within it. Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s court in its inspiration from the
latest Florentine examples,
Milan, which underwent great expansion during his rule, was well but demonstrates a new grace
stocked with stranieri (foreigners) as well as provincials. It was also and sophistication.

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

18 | 19
 intimately integrated, through marriage, with the smaller court of
Savoy. Ruling families were also integrated with the lesser nobility, to
whom they ofen married their illegitimate ofspring. Te distinction
between court and civic institutions was ofen similarly blurred, for
the prince or his representatives fostered or participated in large civ-
ic and ecclesiastical projects. In addition, the court travelled, though
much less extensively than in Northern Europe, where power was
dispersed through the lord’s various country estates rather than con-
centrated in the city. In Italy, when the court journeyed from centre
to centre, it took its urban identity, its pageantry and a large propor-
tion of its personnel with it.
Te court did, however, maintain a remarkably consistent
character: courtiers came and went, but their roles were still deter-
mined by the ruler and his family, as well as by set rituals and the
existing structures of local government. Power was exercised both by
the prince, who had overriding authority, and by the court’s bureau-
cratic machine, which ofen acted autonomously within the prince’s

Fig.10
Northern Italian Master
Cenotaph of Annibale
Bentivoglio

1458. Bentivoglio Chapel,

San Giacomo Maggiore,
Bologna.

The condottiere Annibale

Bentivoglio wrested
Bologna back from Milanese
condottieri, and during
his short reign as Lord of
Bologna used the power of
art to convey his princely
status. The inscription
here commemorates his
military triumph.
general dictates. What is notable in this period is the rapid expan-
sion of the court bureaucracy – a form of administrative govern-
ance that the nineteenth-century historian Jacob Burckhardt viewed
as essential to the advancement of the individual, promoting both
skill and creativity. When Niccolò III d’Este frst ruled in Ferrara
(r. 1393–1441), his court encompassed 15 nobles, with fewer than
100 servants and ofcials. At the end of the ffeenth century, his son
Duke Ercole’s court numbered about 500, while hundreds more were
employed at the satellite courts of the duchess and his three brothers.
Most of the signorie of the courtly city-states doubled as con-
dottieri – or military commanders for hire – earning huge salaries
by hiring out their troops and expertise to larger Italian powers.
(fig. 10). For some states like Urbino, which had little in the way
of local industry or resources, the ruler’s condotta (mercenary con-
tract) was his main source of income. An education in arms and
horsemanship was therefore crucial to a prince, as well as those who
wished to serve him. Indeed, the younger princes or ‘princelings’
were frequently sent to other courts or to other famous condottieri to
learn their skills, which were practised, in aristocratic mode, on the
hunting feld or in athletic and jousting contests (a favourite subject
for palace decoration).
From the 1420s onwards, it became customary for rulers to
give their children a humanist education, so that chivalric ideals of
honour, glory and Christian virtue could be combined with knowl-
edge of ancient statecraf and military strategy. It was hoped that
exposure to the ethics of ancient Greece and Rome would provide
them with a moral and practical framework from which to construct
their public and private lives, as well as an appreciation of fne things.
Humanism derives its name from the ‘humanities’, a syllabus that cov-
ered grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy. It was
grounded in an ability to read classical texts in Latin, the language of
the educated elite, and learn from the moral and historical example
set by the heroes of antiquity. Many of these texts had been rediscov-
ered in the later Middle Ages and were enjoying an unprecedented
revival in the period covered by this book. Outstanding teachers and
humanist scholars, like Gasparino da Barzizza, Vittorino da Feltre and
Guarino da Verona, allied themselves with the privileged elite, acting
as a bridge between the moral and civilizing virtues of ancient Greece
and Rome and the sophisticated politics of urban life.
Rulers’ wives frequently received a humanist education as
well, but the opportunity to commission architectural or urban pro-
jects on classical lines was ofen circumscribed by a strict notion
of what was appropriate to the male and female spheres. Villas in

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

20 | 21
Fig.11
Colantonio
Scenes from the predella of
the polyptych of the Legend
of St. Vincent Ferrer
Before 1465. Tempera on wood
panel, approx. 42 × 210cm
(161∕2 × 82 5∕8in). Museo di
Capodimonte, Naples.
Colantonio’s magnificent
altarpiece for the church
of San Pietro Martire in
Naples, celebrating the
legend of the recently
canonized Valencian
preacher Vincent Ferrer, was
commissioned by Ferrante’s
first wife, Isabella of
Clermont (d. 1465). She is
represented in the central
predella scene, together
with her children Alfonso
and Eleonora of Aragon. The
setting has been identified
as the interior of the
Cappella Palatina in the
Castel Nuovo.
the antique style and prestigious centralized chapels, for instance,
remained a distinctly male preserve. Te consort’s own income, too,
was relatively restricted, and most of a wife’s personal expenses were
paid for by her husband (sumptuous clothes and fnery refected
honourably on the provider). Double portraits of the ruler and his
wife reveal the traditional sphere that the consort was expected to
occupy (fig. 12). Te courts of Naples and Ferrara, however – where
Eleonora of Aragon, Isabella d’Este and Beatrice d’Este were raised
– seem to have allowed women a greater role in political and artistic
decision-making and to move beyond the realm of decorative and
pious commissions. A grand royal court with feudal traditions – like
Naples – saw its queens build fortifcations, palaces and churches,
together with tombs on a magnifcent scale in honour of their male
predecessors. Sculptural efgy was central to these monuments (see
fig. 51), a form of personal commemoration that republican states
like Florence did their best to discourage.
Recent scholarship has uncovered a wide range of commis-
sions made by consorts and other prominent noble women, who had
the means to endow religious institutions, decorate chapels, commis-
sion altarpieces and small-scale luxury pictures for private devotion,
as well as painted decoration, illuminated manuscripts and tapestries
for their own apartments. One of the fnest Neapolitan altarpieces,
attributed to the local artist Colantonio, includes a depiction of
Queen Isabella of Clermont, wife of King Ferrante of Naples, togeth-
er with her children Alfonso and Eleonora, and was almost certainly
commissioned by her (fig. 11). Bianca of Savoy, wife of Galeazzo II
of Milan, founded and supported the decoration of the distinguished
Franciscan monastery of Santa Chiara, where her husband was later
to be buried. Te audience, in both of these cases, could be assumed
to be appropriately devout.
Expanding Nobility Fig. 12 (overleaf)
Piero della Francesca
Allegorical Triumphs from
While hundreds of great masters, labourers and artisans were sucked the Diptych with Portraits
of Federico da Montefeltro
into the cultural projects of the courts, it was the nobility who dic- and Battista Sforza
tated the form of most of their endeavours. ‘Nobility’ in this period, (reverse)

however, was a remarkably fuid concept. An imaginative system of ca. 1472. Oil on panel,
‘virtue nobility’, focussing on the assiduous cultivation of ‘dignity’, each panel 47 × 33cm (18 5∕8 ×
131∕8in). Uffizi, Florence.
could sometimes confer just as much status as noble birth or ofcial
rank. Profession was another key to social mobility, with the law, sol- Despite their relatively
elevated status, rulers’
diering, fnance, medicine and letters conferring a degree of nobility wives were portrayed
on certain practitioners. Te newly elevated focused on strategies of according to strict rules
of decorum. On the reverse
self-defnition and self-presentation in a highly visible form – ofen sides of Piero’s portraits
coupled with a resourceful reinvention of their ancestry – and pro- of Federico da Montefeltro
and his late wife Battista
moted their supporters. Humanist scholars and artists were happy to Sforza – in which the duke’s
serve their complex needs, and increasingly embarked on imagina- accomplished spouse is
given pictorial equality
tive ‘ennobling’ strategies of their own. (see Fig. 77) – the duke
Te ofce of ‘Cardinal’ at the papal court proved an especially is accompanied by the four
cardinal virtues (Justice,
efective path to power, thanks to its unique intersection of priestly Prudence, Fortitude and
and princely authority. Financed by family wealth and provided with Temperance), while the
duchess rides alongside the
generous ecclesiastical privileges, the cardinals – regarded as the very three theological virtues
cardines (hinges) of the Roman Church – wielded enormous infuence (Faith, Hope and Charity) in
a chariot borne by unicorns.
over all political spheres of activity, from the election of popes (pre- Battista’s inscription
sided over by a College of Cardinals) and the granting of papal indul- reads: ‘She that kept her
modesty in favourable
gences, to the selection of notaries, artists, humanists and the like who circumstances, flies on the
jockeyed for curial employment. Te increasingly courtly standards mouths of men, adorned with
the praise of her great
of magnifcence and refnement that cardinals observed in the dec- husband’s exploits.’
oration of their own chapels and residences, and in the formation of
celebrated antiquarian collections and libraries, is refected in Paolo
Cortese’s treatise On Cardinals (De Cardinalatu, published post-
humously in 1510). From the 1430s, several members of Florence’s

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

22 | 23
The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

24 | 25
powerful Medici family were made cardinals at the papal court, while
the Ligurian Della Rovere family made the most of the elevation of
one of its members, Cardinal Francesco della Rovere, to the papacy
(as Pope Sixtus IV), to establish a formidable ecclesiastical and ducal
dynasty (through nepotism and aspirational marriages).

Courts and ‘Courtly’ Centres

Te character of the courts was determined very much by their size,
wealth and origins. Te Este of Ferrara and the Gonzaga of Mantua
emerged from landed families with large country and urban estates,
gaining their income from agriculture and condotte rather than busi-
ness or commerce. Te wealthy and populous city of Milan, under
the Visconti and the Sforza, had a thriving industrial base, but was
predominantly military in character. Conversely, the economy of re-
publics was usually based on their regional importance as commer-
cial or industrial centres. In these city-states, the nobility had been
largely absorbed into the social and economic orbit of the towns, and
had entered into both fnancial and dynastic partnership with the
wealthy mercantile class. Venice, Genoa, Florence and Siena were
ruled by governmental committees – with the make up of Venice’s
Council of Ten (consisting of a few patrician families) hardly chang-
ing over two centuries. Against this remarkably stable backdrop,
Venice celebrated her Byzantine heritage, her wealth and her status
as a centre of international trade with a great Mediterranean empire.
From 1434, Florence’s government was dominated by the
Medici faction, with its impressive banking and commercial network.
As exclusive bankers to the papacy, the Medici not only handled the
incoming revenues from the Holy See (the Church’s sovereign enti-
ty), but also conducted the business of the Curia – the administrative
ofces of the Court of Rome. At one stage, Florence became almost
a de facto papal court (Pope Eugenius IV was forced to fee there in
1434, following a baronial revolt, ruling from Florence for ten years).
Tis was to prove particularly signifcant in the fermentation and
spread of the latest humanist ideas.
Florence’s complex and ambiguous status as a ‘courtly’ centre
has ofen been debated, and there is no doubting that many of the
Medici commissions in the ‘courtly’ vein are more self-consciously
aristocratic than those of their princely counterparts (fig. 13). Te
sheer scale of Cosimo de’ Medici’s investment in architecture, be-
tween 1436 and 1450, outstripped that of any other contemporary
Italian prince, providing a compelling visual manifestation of sober
‘magnifcent’ rule. However, Florence was not a court-state – at least
in the traditional sense. Te Medici family (who ruled 1434–1494)
wielded enormous wealth and infuence, but they were not soldiers
schooled in chivalric ideals, nor did they preside over a large court
bureaucracy, and there is no sense of a predominant ‘courtly’ style. If
anything, the prevailing Florentine style was grounded in the city’s
singular interpretation of ancient republican virtue, shaped by its
corporate institutions and patrician elite: a model of moral dignity,
clarity and order.
Rome’s own status as a ffeenth-century court-city, under the
recently restored papacy, is both complex and without parallel. Te
position of pope was an elected one, but the papacy traditionally
functioned as a monarchy, entrusted with a distinctive agenda: to
preside over the spiritual welfare of Western Christendom, as well
as govern a city-state. Te challenges faced by the papacy in the frst
half of the ffeenth century highlight the immense difculties in rec-
onciling these two roles. In 1309 the papal court had been forced
to abandon Rome and transfer to Avignon, where it had created a
sprawling bureaucracy (which was to antagonize Church reformers
fercely) and elected seven French popes in a row. Its return to Rome
in 1378 had precipitated the Great Schism, resulting in 40 years of
competing Roman and Avignonese claims to the papacy and almost
irreparable damage to the Church’s prestige; at one point, three rival
popes were claiming simultaneously to be the legitimate pontif.
Following the end of the Schism, marked by the election of
Oddone Colonna as Martin V in 1417, and the return of the pa-
pacy to Rome in 1420, the city had to reassert its credentials as the
seat of papal rule and the sovereign centre of Western Christendom,
and signal its cultural ascendancy. With urban restoration and the
re-establishment of papal authority his overriding priorities, Martin
(himself from a leading baronial family) looked to the feudal courts
for a powerful cultural metaphor for rule. From a small, lawless, de-
pressed town (whose population had dwindled to 17,000) and un-
prepossessing focus of pilgrimage, Rome slowly transformed itself
into a court whose architectural and literary splendours could ri-
val those of Naples, Florence and Milan. Te city’s resurgence was
watched closely by Rome’s princely allies and rivals, who briefy unit-
ed in common cause when, in 1453, Constantinople fell to the Otto-
man Turks: a cataclysmic event that made the Turkish threat to the
Roman Church alarmingly real. Te images of Rome’s triumphs over
the barbarians, so magnifcently preserved in the city’s ancient reliefs
of armies, insignia, besieged cities and paraded prisoners, now took
on an extra pan-Italian resonance.

The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

26 | 27
Fig.13 Over the course of the subsequent decades, the great build-
Benozzo Gozzoli
Journey of the Magi (detail)
ings of antiquity were plundered for their costly materials, as Rome
consciously reinvested itself with its former imperial grandeur. Such
1459. Fresco. Chapel of the
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi,
large-scale urban remodelling was also a characteristic of the great
Florence. secular courts. After the Peace of Lodi of 1454, which marked an end
Florence’s Piero de’
to a period of enmity between Venice and Milan and brought a new
Medici commissioned one political stability to the peninsula, whole cities were redesigned with
of the most luxurious and
aspirational fresco cycles
the court complex at their heart, and ‘ideal cities’ – with lifestyles
of the period for the and monuments to match – were planned and sometimes realized.
chapel of the Medici family
palace in 1459. Combining
With such wholesale urban change, and the continual redecoration
tapestry-like backgrounds and modification of fortresses, palaces and chapels, many key works
with flamboyant chivalric
detail, the Journey depicts
from the period were demolished or destroyed and are now known
three generations of the only through drawings, archival documents (reports from ambassa-
Medici family (Cosimo,
riding his customary mule,
dors and diplomats contain a wealth of material) and descriptions
in a conspicuous display in contemporary literature and treatises. Constant political flux also
of humility, Piero, and the
young Lorenzo) – a dynasty
took a toll. Works in bronze were particularly vulnerable, melted
in all but name. Part of down to make bells or military equipment such as cannon. Never-
the splendid retinue of
the Magi, the Medici are
theless, enough works survive to present an outstanding picture of
accompanied by their allies: the aesthetic richness of the princely courts.
Galeazzo Maria Sforza
of Milan and Sigismondo
Malatesta of Rimini.

This book first appeared in 1995, at a time when ‘court studies’ for a
general audience was a relatively new field. This much revised and
expanded edition reflects the wealth of new understanding and de-
tailed scholarship that has occurred over recent years. Its central
chapters examine five great secular courts – Naples, Urbino, Ferrara,
Mantua and Milan – providing a broad geographical sweep of the
Italian peninsula that spans the century. While the book touches on
other princely centres, and acknowledges the pervasive influence of
the highly anomalous papal court of Rome, it does not attempt to
be comprehensive in charting the full range of courts and artistic
enterprises, nor does it move chronologically beyond the scope of its
original inquiry – Italy of the fifteenth century. Rather, it sets out to
explore the distinctive uses of art at court, to distil and bring to life
the salient motivations behind various regional cultures and ‘courtly’
styles, to focus on the artists and individuals associated with them,
and to weave a rich and nuanced picture of the remarkable develop-
ment of the arts in Italy at this time.
The Fifteenth-Century
Renaissance Court

28 | 29
1

‘Magni cence is an attribute of expenditures of the kind which we call honourable, for
example, those connected … with any form of religious worship, and all those that are
proper objects of public spirited ambition … great expenditure is becoming to those
who have suitable means to start with, acquired by their own eforts or from ancestors
or connections, and to people of high birth and reputation and so on; for all these bring
with them greatness and prestige.’
Aristotle (384–322 BC), Ethics

Art and Princely ‘Magnifcence’

F
or the Renaissance ruler, money lavished on art and Fig.14

architecture was money spent honourably. Te moral Melozzo da Forl“

Pope Sixtus IV Nominates
and social reservations about wealth that had per- Bartolomeo Sacchi (known

sisted throughout the fourteenth century (backed in as Platina) as Vatican

Librarian
many cases by strict laws prohibiting luxurious dis-
play) were gradually dismissed in the ffeenth cen- 1476–7. Fresco transferred
to canvas, 3.7 × 3.1m
tury. Generous expenditure – particularly in the sphere of public (12ft 21∕4in × 10ft 21∕2in).

building – became explicitly associated with an Aristotelian no- Pinacoteca, Vatican, Rome.

tion of classical honour, and the hallmark of a thorough and well- This towering fresco

orchestrated cultural policy. originally adorned Sixtus

IV’s Vatican Library.
Rulers of principalities traditionally had fewer moral qualms Platina, the humanist

than republics about the virtues of spending lavishly and openly on librarian, is shown kneeling
at the pope’s feet, pointing
art and ceremony. Where a prince was unpopular – as was the case to the inscription that

with Milan’s Duke Filippo Maria Visconti (r. 1412–1447), who laid praises Sixtus’s rebuilding
of Rome – ‘once full of
out enormous sums on architecture – extravagance was routinely squalor’, but now adorned

defended by propagandists as magnifcentia. Tis applied not only with buildings ranging from
the new foundling hospital
to the projects Filippo Maria funded himself, but also to his strategy to the Trevi fountain –

of Visconti commemoration in the Lombard towns under his do- and celebrates the library
(the first to open its doors
minion – where church and chapel decorations, funded by civic and to the public) as one of

ecclesiastical authorities, prominently sported the Visconti emblem Sixtus’s most magnificent
achievements.
with its writhing vipers.

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

30 | 31
Fig.15
Bonifacio Bembo
Queen of Staves and Knight
of Cups, from the Brera-
Brambilla Visconti-Sforza
tarot set

Mid-fifteenth century. Each

card 17.8 × 9cm (7 × 31∕2in).
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

Bembo’s set of tarot cards

was commissioned by Duke
Filippo Maria Visconti of
Milan, and completed under
the duke’s successors,
Francesco Sforza and his
wife Bianca Maria Visconti.
The cards are sprinkled with
Visconti-Sforza arms and
mottoes: the golden horse
caparison of the Knight
of Cups (on the right) is
adorned with the Visconti
sun, with its distinctive
wavy rays.

Te Aristotelian theory of magnifcence had been revived

in the early fourteenth century as part of the political ideology of
Filippo Maria’s ancestor, Azzone Visconti, Lord of Milan (r. 1329–
1339). Azzone’s magnifcence – displayed in the decoration of his
‘honourable’ church and ‘dignifed’ palace, as well as his great com-
munal building projects and spectacular sacred pageants – is viv-
idly described in a contemporary chronicle by the Dominican writer
Galvano Fiamma. Te magnifcence of these projects is expressed
largely through the costliness of materials, the quality of workman-
ship, and the rarity, novelty and exoticism of objects; even the lofy
moral tone of a fresco cycle (depicting illustrious princes – among
them Charlemagne and Azzone) and the involvement of celebrated
masters (Giotto decorated the palace church) can be seen in this
context. Among the ‘indescribable’ wonders that Fiamma lists are
fgures ‘in gilt, lapis lazuli [ultramarine], and enamels’; a cross en-
crusted with precious pearls and endowed with miraculous proper-
ties; and a soaring campanile adorned with a metal angel holding
alof the Visconti banner (fig. 16).
Azzone’s magnifcence was made possible by the vast wealth
he had acquired through his conquest of other territories. It was thus
a public statement of confdence in Milan’s economic and political
power, and a way of masking behind-the-scenes political tensions. Fig.16
Tower of San Gottardo
In propagandist terms, magnifcence belonged to times of peace,
when the lord was free from his enemies and could dedicate him- After 1430. Milan.

self to making his house ‘glorious’ and secure. Fiamma makes clear Once adjoining Azzone’s
the efect that Azzone’s fortifed palace was intended to have on his palace complex (now
destroyed), this great tower
subjects: ‘thunderstruck in admiration’, they were to judge him a embodies Azzone Visconti’s
prince ‘of such power that it [was] impossible to attack him’. Public magnificence. As well as
the sumptuousness of its
buildings revealed that he had the common good at heart, while the materials and interior
sacred chapels and cathedral renovation bore witness to his unstint- furnishings (it served
as the ducal chapel), it
ing piety. Popular sacred festivals showed Azzone in the same light: boasted the first functioning
magnifcent in the service of both the state and the Church. public clock.

In the ffeenth century, the princely ruler still saw major cul-
tural projects very much in the context of magnifcent display. He
could look to the more prestigious courts of Northern Europe for
models, but he could also rely on the courtly traditions of his own
region. Te latter had the advantage of giving his rule a popular ba-
sis – founded in local and, particularly, civic pride – as well as his-
torical continuity. Dynastic continuity was further emphasized by
employing local artists who had worked for the previous regime, or
by completing projects that had already been embarked on (fig. 15).
Increasingly, with the humanist revival of interest in the ethics of
ancient Greece and Rome, rulers combined these local precedents
with a conscious emulation of the ‘magnifcence’ of antiquity.
Te humanist Giovanni Pontano, in his treatise On Magnif-
cence (De Magnifcentia, ca. 1486), cites the grandiose remains of
Roman civilization, Charlemagne’s bridge at Mainz, and Cosimo de’
Medici’s Florentine churches, villas and libraries (along with those
of Popes Nicholas V and Sixtus IV) as examples of truly ‘magnif-
cent’ works that others should emulate. Sixtus IV’s library and pub-
lic building initiatives are commemorated in a suitably splendid
fresco by Melozzo da Forlì (fi). 14), while Cosimo’s superb urban
transformation of Florence, with its immense cathedral dome by
Brunelleschi, rusticated palaces and grand piazzas, had ‘renewed an
ancient and almost forgotten style of building’. ‘It seems to me’, Pon-
tano wrote, ‘that [Cosimo] has done this so that future generations
would know how to build.’ In his treatise On Architecture (1450),
Alberti declared: ‘And is it not true perhaps to say that the whole
of Italy is fred by a kind of rivalry in renewing the old? Great cities
which in our childhood were built entirely of wood have suddenly
been transformed into marble.’ Alberti had in mind Suetonius’s ac-
count of the liberality of Augustus, which turned Rome into mar-
ble from a city of brick. Te thirst for urban transformation and
spirit of competition was particularly vigorous among the northern

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

32 | 33
Fig.17
Gentile da Fabriano
Adoration of the Magi
(Strozzi Altarpiece)
1423. Tempera on panel,
3 × 2.8m (9ft 101∕2in × 9ft
31∕2in). Uffizi, Florence.
Gentile achieved
considerable fame at the
north Italian courts for his
‘decoration of buildings’.
The new pope, Martin V,
accordingly summoned Gentile
to Rome: this altarpiece for
the Florentine banker Palla
Strozzi was painted while en
route. Gentile specialized
in the luxuriant variety
and selective naturalism
of the International Gothic
Style, which was then in
such high demand in courtly
circles. Here he combines
the precious detail of
illuminated manuscripts with
the narrative richness of
tapestry. Inventive details,
such as the man looking
up at a fluttering falcon,
are part of this animated
repertoire.
Italian courts, with rivalries made all the more intense by a complex
network of marital relationships. Tese were dominated by three
families – the Este, Gonzaga and Sforza – who were eager to emu-
late each other’s initiatives, yet anxious ‘not to displease by imitation’,
as Beatrice d’Este, wife of Ludovico Sforza, commented. Francesco
Sforza of Milan was anxious to fnd out about Guillem Sagrera’s work
on Alfonso of Aragon’s Castel Nuovo in Naples before he embarked
on the rebuilding of his own castle of Porta Giova, while Federico I
Gonzaga of Mantua wanted to model his Domus Nova (ducal palace)
on the palace at Urbino, ‘which, we hear, is wonderful’. Te honour
and enduring prestige gained through architectural ‘magnifcence’
was all the greater for the fact that rulers were widely credited with
the conceptual designs of their own buildings.
Splendour and Sophistication
With regard to the decoration of buildings, the courts ofen opted
for the refned elegance, technical mastery and ornate crafsman-
ship of artists and artisans who were favoured and recommended
by their fellow ruling elite. When Martin V and his splendid retinue
made their way down from Constance (in Switzerland) to take up
rule in Rome, they took the opportunity to stop of at Pandolfo III
Malatesta’s court in Brescia, where Gentile da Fabriano was just
completing the palace chapel. Gentile – then perhaps the most cel-
ebrated painter of the period, and one of the fnest exponents of the
so-called International Gothic Style – agreed to come to Rome to
work on a large-scale fresco cycle for the Lateran (Rome’s ancient
cathedral and papal palace), the frst such project to be commis-
sioned by a pope since the end of the 1200s. (Te cycle, completed
by Pisanello, was destroyed in 1647.)
In September 1419, Gentile applied for safe conduct and set
of for Rome with his own dazzling retinue of eight companions
and eight horses (a singular mark of his status). Gentile stopped in
Florence, where Martin’s court was now temporarily residing, and
spent some years working in Tuscany while his onward passage to
Rome was arranged. It is tempting to see some of the splendour of
the pope’s and Gentile’s own travelling retinues refected in the lux-
urious Adoration of the Magi that he painted during this time – for
Florence’s richest citizen, the banker and intellectual Palla Strozzi
(fig. 17). Tis magnifcent altarpiece, teeming with naturalistic de-
tail and lavished with gold, ultramarine and foral decoration, is a
veritable roll-call of courtly chivalric themes – from the procession
itself (in all its hierarchical glory), to the tamed animals, scenes of
falconry, and proud display of regal and equestrian fnery. Such im-
agery – inspired by Franco-Burgundian example – provided a model
of aristocratic splendour, where luxurious beauty and festivity were
the exterior manifestations of courtly grace.
While the Italian courts eagerly imitated the style, splen-
dour and expansive social entertaining of their Northern Europe-
an counterparts, they also believed in their own innate superiority.
Tis was founded on their strong urban identity, which gave them
both a sense of commercial sophistication and social refnement.

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

34 | 35
Fig.18 Giovanni Pontano, in his treatise On the Prince (De Principe, 1468)
Giovanni Bellini (and
Titian)
– cast in the form of a letter to the young Alfonso, Duke of Cal-
The Feast of the Gods abria (heir to the Kingdom of Naples) – acknowledges that Italian
(detail)
rulers import many fashions from France but reminds Alfonso that
1514/29. Oil on canvas, ‘Italians like dignity’. Elsewhere, he expresses the popular xenopho-
1.7 × 1.88m (5ft 7 1∕4in × 7ft
4 1∕4in). National Gallery of
bic view that the French eat merely to satisfy their greed, while the
Art, Washington DC, Widener Italians eat with splendore (splendour). Tis ‘splendour’ resides as
Collection, 1942.9.1.
much in the ritual of entertaining and its aesthetic accompaniments
Bellini’s painting, part as in the food itself. Toward the end of his life, Pontano wrote a
of the decoration of
Duke Alfonso d’Este I
treatise, On Splendour (De Splendore, 1498) – the private, less regal,
of Ferrara’s camerino equivalent of magnifcence – which stressed the ornamental beauty
dÕalabastro (alabaster
study), uses oil glazes to
and domestic furnishings of the wealthy man’s place of entertain-
suggest the lustre of blue- ment: even in the country, the character of the villa should be ‘ur-
and-white Chinese porcelain,
and the gleam of sunlight
bane’ rather than rustic, a place where otium (leisure), as Pliny the
on pewter and Venetian Younger proposed, could be appropriately cultivated. Tere should
cristallo.
be polished furniture, knives with carved handles, pictures, stat-
ues, tapestries, and sideboards decked with marvellous silverware.
Objects are prized for their beauty and crafsmanship, and are there
to be viewed and handled with pleasure, not locked away.
Splendour, in this respect, was not just the province of princ-
es: it was within the reach of practised courtiers as well. Te Man-
tuan court physician and poet Battista Fiera, Alfonso I’s historian
Bartolomeo Facio, and the Florentine humanist/papal secretary Po- Fig.19
Roman vase in the shape
ggio Bracciolini spent the rewards of their labours on the delight- of a beaker
ful trappings of refnement. Fiera, who treated Francesco Gonzaga
Fourth century, with
for syphilis, used his payments to set up busts of three key fgures – French sixteenth-century
Francesco himself, the Roman poet Virgil (born in Mantua), and the mounts. Single piece of
Eastern sardonyx. The
new ‘Mantuan Virgil’, Battista Spagnoli. As soon as Facio received cover is gold enamelled
the generous payment for his history of Alfonso’s reign (1,500 duc- and enchased with large
rubies. The base is part
ats; nearly 60 times more than the annual salary of one of Alfonso’s gold, part silver, chased
foot soldiers), he sent to Venice for a special glass bowl trimmed and enamelled. Height
13.6cm (5 3∕8in), height of
with gold (a mark of his discriminating tastes) in which to chill his the stone 10.5cm (41∕8in),
wine, and ordered the fnest pewter vessels from England. Te en- diameter at the mouth
6cm (23∕8in). Museo degli
joyment of such objects, including exquisite Chinese porcelain, is Argenti, (Palazzo Pitti),
captured in Giovanni Bellini’s Feast of the Gods (fig. 18). Florence.

Te prestige of owning such refned, oriental and Mediterra- Stunning hardstone vases
nean wares stemmed not only from their marvellous crafsmanship, of this type were avidly
collected by Lorenzo de’
but also from their exoticism, which evoked the opulence of the Le- Medici and the Florentine
vantine world, while also suggesting the idealized world of Bible and nobility, and became
highly sought after in
myth. In addition to porcelain and ceramics from China, Tunisia, elite circles as a mark
Aleppo and Beirut, nobles collected rugs from Constantinople, in- of discerning taste.

tricately decorated metalware from Damascus and Alexandria, and

maiolica from Valencia, as well as eagerly exploring Islamic customs
and culture. Such tastes were refected in the secular and religious
art they commissioned, expressing both the refnement of the patron
and the richness of his collections, while evoking the material or sa-
cred splendour of oltremare (overseas). Te Florentine artist Filar-
ete incorporated pseudo Persian script into his bronze doors for St.
Peter’s, while painters and designers employed interlacing patterns,
or calligraphic fourishes and swirls, to evoke fashionable Arabic cul-
ture. Te discriminating nature of collections and ‘nobility’ increas-
ingly reinforced one another.
‘Nobility’, however, continued to be a contentious issue. In his
dialogue, On the Variety of Fortune (De Varietate Fortunae, 1440),
Poggio Bracciolini describes how his distinguished guests, Lorenzo
de’ Medici and the merchant-humanist Niccolò Niccoli, light-heart-
edly mock his attempts to ennoble himself through his collection
– in this case of Greek sculpture. ‘Having no image of his own ances-
tors, he acquired these meagre and broken pieces of sculpture and
hoped that the novelty of his collection would perpetuate his glory

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

36 | 37
among his own descendants.’ For Poggio, the moral is that there can
be no real nobility without combining external splendour with inner
wisdom and virtue. But even here there is a tacit acknowledgement
that, superfcially, material manifestations of refnement can be in-
terpreted as evidence of ‘nobility’.
Splendour, therefore, like its public counterpart ‘magnif-
cence’, was a powerful self-fashioning tool: Niccoli, a collector and
semi-professional connoisseur (his book collection consisted of over
800 classical manuscripts and he created one of the earliest ‘muse-
ums of antiquities’) reputedly ate from antique vessels and drank
from cups of rock crystal or other fne hardstones (fig. 19). He was
praised as the embodiment of gentilezza (gentility) – a quality that
embraced his exquisite manners and tableware, and his educated,
discriminating tastes. In a wealthy man of less discernment, such
conspicuous display could appear vulgar – and there was also a dan-
ger of appearing mean. As examples of the two extremes, Pontano
cites the solid gold chamber pot of the Roman emperor Heliogabalus
and the fake gems of Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan.

Princely Decorum
Magnifcence and splendour had to be employed with discrimina-
tion and decorum, and the wise ruler observed this. In Aristotle’s
Ethics, magnifcence was defned as ‘making the appropriate gesture
on the great occasion’: in other words, the sums spent had to be im-
pressive not only in size but also in aptness. In some historical studies
of courts, a disproportionate emphasis has been placed on the mate-
rial lavishness of court art, and not enough on the complex scale of
values that it refected. Dynastic weddings, coronations, ‘triumphs’,
funerals, and state visits, where rulers and important dignitaries
from various territories gathered with huge entourages of courtiers,
were arenas for particularly magnifcent display (without need for
any ancient prototype), because rulers had to mark the signifcance
of the occasion and conform to the standards of luxury expected
from an international court.
Diplomatic gifs – from medals, beautifully illuminated manu-
scripts, and paintings, to thoroughbred horses, fnely wrought armour
and heavy embroidered silks and brocaded cloth – were carefully tai-
lored to the rank and taste of the recipient. When Giovanni de’ Medici
(son of Cosimo) wanted to please the pious Alfonso of Aragon and
cement the strong ties between the two states he sent him a devo-
tional triptych by Florence’s leading artist, Fra Filippo Lippi (fig. 20),
 Fig.20
Fra Filippo Lippi
St. Anthony Abbot and
Archangel Michael (left- and
right-hand wings of triptych
for Alfonso of Aragon)

1457–8. Tempera on masonite

(transferred from panel),
each wing 81.3 × 29.8cm (32
× 113∕4in). Cleveland Museum
of Art, Leonard C. Hanna,
Jr. Fund 1964.150.1 and
1964.150.2.

When Giovanni de’ Medici

commissioned this triptych
for Alfonso of Aragon from
Florence’s most esteemed
painter of the period, he
made sure that the gift
was appropriate. The two
saints on the wings – the
scholarly St. Anthony Abbot
(on the left) and the
warrior Archangel Michael
(on the right) – were patron
saints of Alfonso, while
an Adoration of the Child
depicted on the central
panel (now lost) was one
of the king’s favourite
devotional images. Alfonso
greatly esteemed the work
and placed it in his chapel
in the Castel Nuovo.

renowned for his ‘gracious’, ‘ornate’ style. Spending on such dignifed

buildings as churches, monasteries and palaces likewise had to do
them ‘honour’, and the decoration had to be suitable, both in style and
expenditure, to their location and function. Ostentation – or lack of
it – in the wrong political, civic and social context was condemned.
Te quality and durability of artistic materials also had to be
on a par with the religious or secular magnifcence of the setting.
Te fneness of the colours used in painted decorations and man-
uscript illumination was always stipulated by the patron: gold and
ultramarine (a deep violet-blue – the most expensive pigment of all)
were used unstintingly in palace and chapel decoration. In Pisanello’s
unfnished fresco cycle in the Ducal Palace (Corte), Mantua, a slight-
ly raised layer of paste (known as pastiglia), etched with decorative

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

38 | 39
Fig.21
Pisanello
Knights of the Round Table
on their Quest for the Holy
Grail (detail)

ca. 1433–7. Exposed

sinopia (red ochre pigment)
under-drawing and fresco
with punched decoration.
Sala del Pisanello, Palazzo
Ducale, Mantua.

Although Pisanello’s great

Mantuan fresco cycle was
never finished and is in a
damaged state, the artist’s
intentions are clear and
reveal why his work was
regarded as a technical
tour-de-force. Large raised
areas of pastiglia are
incised with descriptive
detail, and would have
been extensively overlaid
with gold and silver. The
knights’ chainmail, along
with their weaponry, would,
for example, have been
coated with silver leaf.

designs and coated with imitation gold and silver leaf, was used to de-
scribe the heralds’ brocades and the knights’ dazzling weaponry and
armour. Punched designs were used to imitate chainmail (fig. 21).
The materials would have seemed expensive, while the uneven sur-
face of the raised and punched areas amplified the glittering effect by
catching and reflecting the light. The correlation between material
fabric and social fabric (silk and velvet brocades were a mark of rank,
coarse cloth a sign of poverty) also applied to the grind and richness
of pigments. Courts such as Mantua relied on their agents in Venice
to supply them with the choicest colours and media – including, in
the case of Mantegna’s Pallas Expelling the Vices (see fig. 120), the
most ‘perfect’, quick-drying varnish.
Due to the ravages of time, much of this delicacy, richness and
innovative technical mastery has been lost to the modern eye. This
has sometimes resulted in a comparative neglect of artists whose
work reflects the tastes of the court. An example can be found in the
collaborative partnership of the two Florentine masters Masaccio
and Masolino at the papal court in Rome. Working together initially
on the Miracle of the Snow altarpiece, for Martin V’s favoured ba-
silica of Santa Maria Maggiore, each master reveals a very different
approach. While Masaccio had developed a monumental Floren-
tine figure style of brooding grandeur and dignity, his collaborator
Masolino was introducing specialist non-Italian techniques to com-
plement his own Tuscan-style perspective innovations, in a way that
must have been singularly eye-catching at the time (fig. 24). These
skills were probably picked up during Masolino’s three-year sojourn
at the Hungarian courts and his travels through Italy. Analysis of the
various panels reveals that Masolino used oil to render the unusually
smooth flesh tone of Saints Peter and Paul (lateral panel) and, in a
revolutionary instant, a passage of oil painting in the midst of egg
tempera, to suggest the swirling texture of thick snow (fig. 22). Of Fig.22
similar impact must have been his use of gold or silver leaf, finely Masolino

incised and then modelled with vivid transparent colour, to suggest Miracle of the Snow
(detail): see Fig.24
the expensive velvets, thread by thread, of his figures’ costly attire.
This effect has been lost due to deterioration of the ‘lake’ pigments Masolino’s highly
progressive use of the
and leaf, but would have been dazzling in its delineation of courtly oil technique to suggest

and heavenly hierarchy and the ceremonial splendour of religious the texture of thick snow
draws attention to the
feast days (fig. 23). miraculous nature of the

Inexpensive materials such as wood could also be made into August snowfall he is
depicting (Fig.24) – as
lavish furnishings worthy of a princely chapel or palace by being gild- well as the sophistication

ed, intricately carved, or used in exquisite intarsia (marquetry) panels. of his courtly style (based
partly on his non-Italian
The inlaid wood designs often depicted perspective views of towns, experience).

created by experts in architectural perspective,

so that they were ennobled by their connection
with the liberal arts of mathematics and geometry
(see fig. 74). Stucco decoration (a type of mould-
ed plaster) was also prized, as long as it was elabo-
rate, gilded and brilliantly polychromed. Imported
stone was more expensive and prestigious than
local stone: Ercole d’Este of Ferrara used finest-
quality Carrara marble (from Tuscany) extensively
in his Palazzo del Corte. Mantua and Ferrara had
no local source of stone, and the majority of build-
ings were in brick. This made buildings like Ferr-
ara’s Palazzo dei Diamanti all the more impressive
(see fig. 101), with its marble faceted in the shape
of diamonds (the duke’s impresa, or emblem) and
its corners faced in Istrian stone.
In architecture the return to ancient ideals
was stimulated by the discovery in 1414 of Vitruvius’s Latin treatise
On Architecture (De Architectura, first century BCE). For Vitruvius,
the ancient orders of columns (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) were
expressions of social as well as aesthetic order and were used with

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

40 | 41
Fig.23
Masolino
Central panel (reverse),
Santa Maria Maggiore
Triptych. Assumption of
the Virgin

ca. 1428. Tempera, oil and

gold on wood, 144 × 76cm
(56 3∕4 × 29 7∕8in). Museo di
Capodimonte, Naples.

This double-sided altarpiece

for the great basilica
of Santa Maria Maggiore
symbolically celebrates Pope
Martin V’s re-establishment
of the papal court in
Rome (r. 1417–1431) and
his active role in the
spiritual and physical
renewal of the city. The
Assumption panel, which
faced the congregation,
may have been influenced by
Ghiberti’s design for a
stained glass window for
Florence Cathedral, but
Masolino transforms the
traditional mandorla-shaped
composition into an image
of tremendous hierarchical
power, pulsating with chords
of colour, beating angels’
wings and gold. For the
first time, all nine choirs
of angels are presented in
their specific order of rank.
The inner mandorla shows the
highest order, the Seraphim,
representing divine love
(in red). The middle ring
depicts the Cherubim,
representing divine wisdom
(in blue). The outer circle
contains the Thrones,
Dominations, Principalities,
Powers, Virtues and (at
the bottom) the Angels and
Archangels (God’s messengers
to man).
Fig.24
Masolino
Central panel (obverse),
Santa Maria Maggiore
Triptych. Founding of Santa
Maria Maggiore: Miracle of
the Snow

ca. 1428. Tempera, oil and

gold on wood, 143 × 76cm
(56 1∕4 × 29 7∕8in). Museo di
Capodimonte, Naples.

Masolino’s representation
of the celestial court, in
all its militant, musical
and ceremonial splendour,
is soberly echoed on this
obverse panel (which faced
the choir and clergy) by the
courtly retinue surrounding
the figure of Martin’s
ancient predecessor,
Pope Liberius. The panel
includes a daringly modern
compositional device: dark
snow clouds (sent by the
Virgin), linking the golden
heavens and earth, recede
along the same compelling
orthogonal perspective lines
as the buildings below.
Liberius – who carves the
form of the future church of
Santa Maria Maggiore in the
snow – bears the features of
Martin V himself. Among the
cardinals who flank him is
the portly figure of Cardinal
Casini (previously Canon
of Florence Cathedral),
who probably paid for the
altarpiece using his own
personal wealth.

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

42 | 43
Fig.25
The Pantheon (interior)

118–25 CE. Rome.

The Pantheon – dating

from Augustus’s rule and
completed in the reign of
Emperor Hadrian – provided
an unparalleled example of
building ingenuity aligned
with imperial power. Its
mighty coffered dome,
made up of successive
concrete layers mixed with
stone, is the same height
(43.2m/142ft) as its width.
At the very top is an oculus
– an opening to the sky –
8.8m (29ft) in diameter.
The interior was encrusted
with polychrome inlay panels
(of marble and other stones)
creating a marvellously
integrated effect.

strict decorum to identify buildings of status. Alfonso of Aragon’s

humanist secretary, Antonio Panormita, reports that the king used
Vitruvius as his bible when rebuilding the Castel Nuovo. His grand-
son, Alfonso II, had the architect Francesco di Giorgio translate the
treatise expressly for him. In the context of the suburban or coun-
try villa, the writings of Pliny the Younger (ca. 61–112 CE) proved
inspirational. Here interior and exterior were blurred through their
decorative schemes, and gorgeous prospects brooked no separa-
tion between gardens and cultivated countryside. Increasingly, the
classical style was preferred by the courts to the more ‘modern’
Franco-German Gothic favoured by the Northern European courts
(although Milan retained a marked preference for Gothic, mixed
with Lombard Romanesque).
 Alberti’s own architectural treatise was aimed at a fresh gen-
eration of humanist-educated princes and encouraged them to adopt
the new architectural forms, drawing on the Ciceronian distinc-
tion between utility and ornament, the idea of beauty as a harmo-
ny of parts based on mathematical proportions, and the Vitruvian
socio-political hierarchy of building types. Alberti, together with
the humanist Flavio Biondo, author of the mid-1440s treatise Rome
Restored (Roma Instaurata), had probably advised Pope Eugenius IV
on the restoration of one of ancient Rome’s most prominent, beau-
tiful and awe-inspiring buildings – the Pantheon (fig. 25), whose
‘stupendous vault’ (Biondo) had been damaged in ancient times by
earthquakes, and whose piazza was obscured with ‘nasty little shops’.
Te venerable temple demonstrated the ultimate combination of un-
rivalled skill with costly materials – such as the bronze beams, over
12 metres (40 feet) long, which formed the trusses. Alberti’s own
buildings for the Malatesta rulers of Rimini and the Gonzaga fam-
ily of Mantua attest to the power of his neoclassical vision, incorpo-
rating such elements as classical temple fronts and triumphal arches Fig.26
into the facades (fig. 26). Drawing on a range of esoteric and new- Leon Battista Alberti
Facade of the Tempio
ly discovered classical texts (only found at that time in the Vatican Malatestiano
Library), Alberti’s treatise displays his curial erudition and practical
Begun late 1453, left
antiquarian expertise, as well as his experiences in Florence and Fer- incomplete in 1468. San
rara, and seeks to outdo Vitruvius in its observations. Francesco, Rimini.

Alberti’s so-called
tempio, or temple, encases
the medieval brick-built
church of San Francesco
in a ‘classical’ shell of
marble, porphyry and Istrian
stone. The facade borrows
the form of the Arch of
Augustus in Rimini and would
have been crowned with a
great dome (never begun),
inspired partly by the
Roman Pantheon. Sigismondo
Malatesta created the temple
in fulfilment of a vow he had
made in 1450 while embroiled
in ‘the Italian war’ (this
fact is emblazoned across
the frieze of the facade).
Greek inscriptions on the
side walls relate that
‘victorious on account
of the deeds that he
had courageously and
successfully accomplished,
[he] set up this temple
with due magnificence and
expense to God immortal
and to the city…’

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

44 | 45
Fig.27
Agostino di Duccio
Chariot of the Moon

ca. 1451–3, relief. ‘Chapel

of the Planets’, Zodiac
Chapel or St. Jerome Chapel,
Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini.

The Florentine Agostino

di Duccio (1418–1481) and
the Veronese Matteo de’
Pasti (ca. 1420–1490) were
responsible for the lavish
interior decoration of
the Tempio Malatestiano:
the former is described
as the ‘stone-cutter’, the
latter as the ‘architect’.
This graceful figure is
from a chapel towards the
east end of the church,
which features the planets
and signs of the zodiac.
Other chapels are adorned
with figures of the Holy
Fathers, Virtues, Liberal
Arts, Sibyls and the Muses
(female inspirers of the
arts). Roberto Valturio,
in his On Military Matters
(De Re Militari, 1472,
dedicated to Sigismondo
Malatesta), praised the
sophisticated appeal
of the figural reliefs:
‘These representations
– not only because of
the knowledge of the
appearance of the figures,
whose characteristics you,
the most intelligent and
unquestionably the most
distinguished ruler of our
time, have taken from the
secret depths of philosophy
– are especially able to
attract learned viewers,
who are almost entirely
different from the common
run of people.’
 ‘Te greatest glory in the art of building is to have a good
sense of what is appropriate,’ observed Alberti. Tus, sculptural
ornament – which included the orders of columns and pilasters –
was just as important as classical canons of proportion in giving a
signifcant building its elevated social identity. Buildings of status,
said Alberti, ‘should be as magnifcent in sculpture and skill as money
allowed’, and even more so if their function was public rather than
private. He advised his princely and high-ranking patrons to ob-
serve decorum, but to ‘overspend slightly on ornament’ rather than
err on the side of plainness. Alberti’s classically inspired exterior for
the church of San Francesco (known as the Tempio Malatestiano –
a princely mausoleum for Sigismondo Malatesta and his love, Isot-
ta) would have been embellished with fgural sculpture, reliefs and
allÕantica garlands in addition to the porphyry panels that surround
the main door. It was also lavishly decorated inside.
Pope Pius II despised Sigismondo and all that he stood for
– including the Tempio Malatestiano. But as Anthony Grafon has
shown, it was not Alberti’s ‘noble’ church and its radical facade –
which borrowed the forms of a triumphal arch from the nearby Arch
of Augustus – that o/ended him. What riled the pope was the fact
that Sigismondo had crammed the church, remodelled from its sim-
ple Franciscan form, with ‘pagan works of art [so] that it seemed less
a Christian sanctuary than a temple of heathen devil worshippers’.
Tese included Agostino di Duccio’s exquisite sculptural reliefs, rich
in esoteric cultural references, depicting classical Muses, the Liberal
Arts, and personifcations of the planets with signs of the zodiac
(fig. 27). For Sigismondo, the intellectual authenticity of the decora-
tion, partly inspired by Guarino da Verona’s learned programme for
Leonello d’Este’s studiolo in Ferrara, added to the church’s splendour,
while its profusion of imagery refected the whole world of his spir-
itual and philosophical passions. But in a religious and devotional
context – more than any other – the prince did best to observe hal-
lowed traditions and display appropriate devotion.

Te Princely Residence
In a secular context, the prince was still expected to obey the rules
of decorum, but the rules were somewhat looser and a/orded the
artist and patron greater scope for pleasurable or arcane ideas. Nev-
ertheless, for the public ‘state’ rooms of a city palace, fresco cycles
of historical subjects of a didactic nature were usually preferred.
‘Lives of famous men’ were eminently suitable – Masolino’s cycle for

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

46 | 47
Fig.28
Arras Workshop (?)
Tapestry formerly owned by
the Dukes of Devonshire,
Falconry (detail)

ca. 1430s–40s. Victoria and

Albert Museum, London.

Hunting murals in Italian

palaces and castles
were often based, both
stylistically and
thematically, on similar
scenes in northern
tapestries and miniatures.
Here a courtship episode
– very much like that
in a 1444 fresco in the
Castello della Manta
(Saluzzo, Piedmont) – is
inserted into the colourful
falconry pageant.

Fig.29 Cardinal Giovannni Orsini’s palace in Rome was particularly ad-

Limbourg Brothers
January from Les Très Riches
mired at the time, as were magnifcent scenes of battle and triumph,
Heures du Duc de Berry and panoramic city views. For public spaces and banqueting suites,
1413–16. Ink and body colour
Flemish tapestries (invariably on chivalric themes), the most costly
(gouache) on fine vellum, items of furnishing, were the decoration of choice (fig. 28). Te ex-
page 29 × 21cm (11 1∕2 × 8 1∕2in).
Musée Condé, Chantilly.
pensive gold, silk and silver threads used in their designs contributed
greatly to their immense appeal and investment value. Tey helped
This calendar illustration
from the Burgundian Duc
to keep out draughts as well, and were portable, so that they could
de Berry’s famous Book of be brought out on special occasions and transferred between apart-
Hours shows the ceremonial
use of tapestries and
ments or residences. Embroidered silk hangings and lengths of valu-
wall hangings: a red silk able cloth were also hung around the walls (fig. 29).
canopy embroidered with
golden fleurs de lys hangs
Many fresco decorations faithfully imitated the subject mat-
above the banqueting table, ter and decorative stylizations of northern tapestries to create an
while a splendid chivalric
tapestry of the Trojan War
impression of warmth and splendour, and to indicate status. Hunt-
(a theme which Federico da ing frescoes uncovered in the castle of the condottiere Bartolo-
Montefeltro preferred for
his own tapestry decoration)
meo Colleoni at Bergamo even include painted metal hooks and a
serves as a landscape painted fringe of threads. Others imitate the texture and pattern-
backdrop to the feasting
and ritual gift-giving.
ing of sumptuous brocades, using paint and pastiglia. Paint had the
advantage of being relatively cheap: Duke Borso d’Este spent 9,000
ducats on a sumptuous set of Flemish tapestries and 800 ducats on
an exceptionally large fresco cycle in the Schifanoia palace; Borso
paid the artists of his Palazzo Schifanoia cycle by the square ‘foot’
(piede), and Galeazzo Maria’s advisers in Milan calculated cost ac-
cording to materials, labour and the numbers of fgures depicted.
Alberti’s recommendation that painters try to paint on a large rather
Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

48 | 49
Fig.30
Maestro dei Giochi
Borromeo
The Game of Ball (detail)

ca. 1440sÐ50s. Fresco.

Palazzo Borromeo, Milan.

Lovers at play was a popular

theme of palace decoration,
providing the opportunity
to bring the freshness of
foliage and landscapes into
the interior. Unfortunately,
only a fraction of such
secular palace decoration
has survived Ð many artists
used mixed techniques to
make their colours fresh
and vibrant (true fresco
worked best with muted
earth colours), but these
areas deteriorated quickly
and frescoes soon began
to look shabby. They were
often regarded as ephemeral
decoration (whitewashed
over and then redecorated).

than a small scale was therefore not just to do with stylistic concerns;
it delivered the court artist better fnancial rewards and the patron
greater prestige. Tis has to be measured against the aristocratic taste
for small portable works of art, which were more expressive of the
idea of ownership and had real monetary value.
Frescoes su/ered from their relative impermanence in an
age where rooms were forever being adapted to di/erent purposes.
For example, Pisanello’s chivalric scenes adorning a great hall in the
Palazzo del Corte at Mantua were seriously damaged when the room
was turned into a temporary kitchen for the marquis’s nephew.
 For the private and recreational rooms of a princely or no-
ble villa, the themes could be more informal, personal and pleas-
urable; they could even verge on the erotic. These rooms were of-
ten designed to entertain the viewer in much the same way as the
courtly diversions they depict, and reflect their surrounding parks
and gardens. They featured hunting and hawking expeditions (the
recreational pursuits in which a prince could hone his military skills,
and a consort could display her horsemanship), card and ball games,
scenes of courtly flirtation, tales from popular novelle (novellas), and
include portraits of favourite dwarfs and buffoni (jesters) – indispen-
sable in banishing princely boredom and melancholy. The superb
secular wall scenes in the Palazzo Borromeo in Milan, made for an
aristocratic land-owning family that had strong ducal connections,
give a sense of the delightfulness of such schemes (fig. 30). Some
minor rooms were decorated with repetitive wallpaper-like motifs;
old decorations were whitewashed over. At Ferrara the depintori
della corte (court painters) included Trullo, known as ‘Il Bianchino’,
acclaimed for his whitewashing skills.
Where practicable, secular rooms and private chapels dis-
played the prince’s and his consort’s personal impresa or coat of arms,
as well as inscriptions detailing honours and titles. The emblem with
short motto was a personal or heraldic device made fashionable by
the Northern courts of Burgundy, Provence and Anjou. Alfonso I of
Naples had over 200,000 Spanish-Moorish tiles made for his Cas- Fig. 31
tel Nuovo decorated with his arms and devices. Isabella d’Este, wife Pesaro Ceramic Workshop,

of Francesco Gonzaga, decorated her studiolo with maiolica tiles Antonio dei Fedeli (?)
Floor tiles

ca. 1492–4. Tin-glazed

earthenware tiles, 23.5
× 23.5cm (9 1∕2 × 9 1∕2 in).
Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.

These tiles were from a

group commissioned by the
Gonzaga family, rulers
of Mantua, following the
marriage of Francesco
Gonzaga to Isabella d’Este.
Thirteen cases of large
floor tiles, decorated with
a variety of Gonzaga family
mottoes and emblems, were
delivered to the Castello
San Giorgio on 1 June
1494. These were laid in
Isabella’s studio, where
they found favour both by
virtue of their bold and
colourful designs, and their
ability to deter mice.

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

50 | 51
Fig.32 bearing Gonzaga emblems (fig. 31), and the ceiling of her grotta
Francesco Rosselli
(attributed)
(a small cavern-like room that housed her collection of antiquities)
Tavola Strozzi: Ferrante I was adorned with her favourite musical device and motto. Imprese
in the Bay of Naples after
the Battle of Ischia, July
could be used as sub-heraldic personal devices, such as Borso d’Este’s
1465 wattle fence and unicorn, or as recondite emblems on the reverse of
1472–3. Tempera on panel,
medals. Favourites, guilds, and civic and ecclesiastical patrons were
82cm × 2.4m (32 3∕8in × 8ft). granted the use of their patron’s arms or personal emblem as a mark
Museo di Capodimonte,
Naples.
of privilege, and employed them in the decorations they commis-
sioned. Gifs were ofen embellished with the recipient’s arms or he-
This sweeping view of Naples
focuses on the return
raldic devices as a mark of respect and political allegiance (fig. 32).
of Ferrante’s victorious Decoration of the less accessible and more distinguished
fleet to Naples, following
his defeat of the Angevin
semi-private rooms in the main princely residence was usually
army. It may have been a more sophisticated. Tese chambers were not just designed with the
gift to Ferrante from the
Florentine banker Filippo
prince’s own enjoyment in mind, nor were their splendid interiors
Strozzi, who had helped ever seen by the vast majority of his subjects. Te decoration’s chief
finance the flotilla and
was keen to extend his
aim, as has been described in much recent literature, was to impress
business relationship visiting princes, ambassadors, agents and diplomats, from Italian as
with the Neapolitan king.
The Aragonese ensign is
well as overseas courts. As a mark of esteem, these foreign dignitar-
scattered liberally across ies were allowed into the private bedrooms – camere (fig. 33) – and
innermost audience rooms (usually situated on the piano nobile – the picture, gracing each
the first floor above ground level). The studiolo – an intimate room, galley as it sails by. Such
city views were popular
which the prince used as his haven of quiet, his study, and as a place with the courts as they were
for artistic recreation, was also an important showpiece. It was usu- a novelty in the Flemish
style. The formidable Castel
ally decorated with favourite paintings, fine marquetry panelling, Nuovo and the Torre di San
display cabinets, and adorned with choice objets dÕart. Vincenzo (to the left of
the jetty) are prominently
Leonello d’Este’s elegant decoration for his studiolo in Ferrara depicted. The artist has
– a series of the classical Muses – began an elite trend for human- been so precise that one
can distinguish between
ist themes whose splendour resided in their elaborate and erudite the tufa stone of the Torre
complexity (fig. 21). At Ferrara a formidable community of schol- dell’Oro (one of the five
rounded towers of the Castel
ars, poets, orators and pedagogues created an environment in which Nuovo), which gives it its
the humanist prince could expertly and consciously emulate the golden appearance, and the
grey trachyte of the other
rulers of antiquity in his choice of moral themes and the manner four towers.
of his rule. This early foray into the world of the Muses was not
only taken up by Sigismondo Malatesta, but also by Federico da
Montefeltro at Urbino, and later in the Ferrarese mythologies com-
missioned by Isabella and Alfonso d’Este. In the refined atmosphere
of the studiolo, women as visible objects of desire became associat-
ed with the seductive power of poetry and music – thus allowing

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

52 | 53

Fig.33
Boucicaut Master Workshop
King Charles VI of France in
his Bedchamber (illustration
from Dialogues de Pierre
Salmon)
1411Ð12. Biblioth•que
Publique et Universitaire,
Geneva, Ms. Fr.165, fol. 4r.
The rulerÕs bedroom was
used as an audience room
for dignitaries and those
seeking favour. Here the
author of the Dialogues
kneels before the king,
with three high-ranking
personages (including the
Duc de Berry in the centre)
looking on.
for a degree of moral ambiguity and eroticism. Women, if admitted,
could also enjoy the sumptuous beauty and intellectual guise of these
mythological fgures.
Female consorts had to be particularly conscious of deco-
rum when commissioning works of art for their apartments. Bona
of Savoy had her dining room suitably decorated with light-hearted
recreational pursuits such as mushroom hunting, while Eleonora of
Aragon’s studiolo featured images of women of exemplary virtue and
courage (see fig. 96), who were prepared to die
rather than face dishonour (a theme that mirrors
her father Ferrante’s personal motto: ‘Malo mori,
quam foedari’– ‘I prefer to die rather than be de-
fled’). Te customary female exemplars of chastity,
fdelity and patriotism – drawn from Boccaccio’s
Famous Women (De Mulieribus Claris, published
1374) and classical authors like Valerius Maximus
and Appian – usually included women like the
Roman matron Lucretia, who heroically sacrifce
themselves (suicide rather than debasement), rath-
er than living on to shape historical events.
Isabella d’Este, who wrote of her own ‘virile’
soul, may have commissioned esoteric mytholo-
gies – which allowed for the decorous portrayal of
sensual nudes – and participated in the public and
competitive male world of buying and displaying
antiques, but her choice of subject matter in both
spheres was careful and deliberate (focusing on
virtue and, later, on maternal themes). Caterina Sforza was praised
for her virago-like warrior’s qualities. From pious wife, through dig-
nifed widow-ruler, to fearless regent of Forlì, Caterina would appro-
priate some of the imagery associated with male power and magnif-
icence. But even when inhabiting the classical sphere – her medal,
struck while her husband was still alive, shows her unusually wearing
Roman attire – she observed decorum. Here the model is the Roman
empress Faustina the Elder, famed for her marital fdelity.
Majesty and Dignity
Side by side with a general sense of what was appropriate to cir-
cumstance and status went an increasing emphasis on specifcally
princely notions of decorum and dignity. During the ffeenth centu-
ry, numerous treatises on ‘Te Prince’ were written, underlining the
Fig.34 (previous page)
Angelo Maccagnino da Siena
(?), later reworked by Tura
or collaborator
Erato
ca. 1450/63 (?) Tempera on
wood panel, 123.5 × 72.1cm
(48 5∕8 × 28 3∕8in). Pinacoteca
Nazionale, Ferrara.
In Guarino’s programme for
Leonello d’Este’s studiolo,
the Muse Erato was described
as presiding over ‘matrimony
and honest loves’. In the
finished painting, however,
she unlaces her dress and
kicks off one of her shoes.
This, perhaps, connects
her more closely with
her classical role as the
inspirer of erotic poetry
(Ovid), holding the red
rose (the symbol of love
and desire).
traditional virtues of piety, justice, fortitude, prudence, temperance,
magnanimity and liberality (associated with magnifcence). Two oc-
cur with a new frequency: the imperial virtues of clemency and –
most signifcant of all – maiestate (majesty). Te ultimate expression
of a prince’s dignity and authority, maiestate endowed his speech
with eloquence, his dress and bearing with becoming modesty and
gravity. Pontano advises the prince neither to drink intemperately,
eat gluttonously, walk jerkily, gu/aw with laughter, nor to toss his
head nervously ‘like a whinnying horse’. Speech should be neither
rash nor impulsive, but carefully adapted to the situation at hand.
An understanding of the ffeenth-century notion of maiestate – in
essence, the outward display of inner dignity – is central to a study
of courtly art in which the presence of the prince, his consort and
entourage (comprising courtiers in the earthly sphere, angels and
patron saints in the sacred sphere) is so pervasive a feature. Dignity
is refected not only in the dress, gestures and poses of the painted
fgures, but also in the temperate manner in which the painter com-
poses his pictures and deploys his colours. Pontano is keenly aware
of the artifce involved in such outward display, which might simply
provide a convincing gloss of virtue, while concealing less desirable
qualities beneath.
Te revival of notions of dignity and decorum was closely
tied to the reading of classical texts. In artistic theory the inspiration
came from Quintilian’s and Cicero’s treatises on rhetoric. For Cic-
ero, dignitas, which embraced reputation, ethics and morality, was
intimately associated with notions of auctoritas (authority). It is the
quality that makes men most worthy of respect, and governs the ft-
ness of their actions as well as their speech, equipping them, above
all, for dispensing justice and enforcing law. Alberti, in his treatise
On Painting (De Pictura, 1435), advised the artist who sought dig-
nity above all in his narrative to represent very few fgures ‘ … for as
paucity of words imparts majesty to a prince, provided his thoughts
and orders are understood, so the presence of only the strictly neces-
sary number of bodies confers dignity on a picture.’
Majesty is not to be found in material splendour alone (which
is why Alberti cautions the painter who makes excessive use of gold),
but in ancient rhetorical virtues of clarity, order and decorum. Tis
shif in emphasis explains why the rigorously controlled art of An-
drea Mantegna, Piero della Francesca and Alberti himself is just as
expressive of contemporary courtly ideals as the profusely detailed
and richly ornamented art that is more ofen associated with them
(fig. 30). Classical texts such as Pliny the Elder’s Natural History
and Lucian’s witty and elegant fables provided vivid descriptions of
 Fig.35
Andrea Mantegna
The Flagellation

1465-70. Engraving in
ink on paper, 39.8 × 31cm
(15 2∕3 × 121∕4in) Musée du
Louvre, Paris, collection
Rothschild, 3838 LR/Recto.

Mantegna’s unfinished
composition, which may
relate to his earlier
narrative pictures for the
Gonzaga chapel, incorporates
an Albertian pavement,
receding in perfect
perspective. A small cast
of characters helps focus
the action, and a consistent
light source highlights
Christ’s column and produces
puddles of shadow. The
foreground and background
figures provide a rhetorical
counterpoint to one another,
enhancing the grandeur of
Mantegna’s conception.

ancient masterpieces and artists, providing a new framework for art

appreciation and emulation Ð and a standard to strive for, or indeed
surpass. An authoritative and rational display of intellectual and
technical prowess, coupled with a rich vein of classical allusion and
illusionism, would become just as powerfully suggestive of princely
status as the most grandiose or luxurious works of art.

Art and Princely ‘Magnificence’

56 | 57
2

Te Court Artist

E
arly artists’ biographers have given a romantic gloss to Fig.36

the idea of the artist at court: King Robert of Naples al- Andrea Mantegna
Bust of Andrea Mantegna
lowing Giotto di Bondone to include himself in a palace
fresco cycle of famous men; Charles V of Spain picking ca. 1504 (?). Bronze and
marble, 42 × 44cm (17 ×
up Titian’s brush afer the artist had dropped it on the 17in). Mantegna Chapel,

foor; Leonardo da Vinci breathing his last in the arms Sant’Andrea, Mantua.

of King Francis I of France. Te truth for the overwhelming majority Mantegna’s magnificent

of artists working at the great courts in the period we are discuss- imperial-style bust adorns
his funerary chapel in
ing, however, was rather more mundane. Many were part of teams of Sant’Andrea, which he

depintori delle corte, who – like painters and decorators – carried out purchased the rights to with
Gonzaga support. It is a
the more routine and repetitive work, coats of arms, decorative friez- mark of his singular status.

es and the like. Others, such as the nobilissimus Cosmè Tura (son of The bust, executed possibly
by his goldsmith friend
a shoe-maker), who was granted ‘fame and nobility’ in various legal Cavalli, is designed in the

documents, enjoyed consistent employment for decades. Tura’s sty- classical imago clipeata
(framed portrait) form and
listic mannerisms almost amounted to a court ‘house style’, and yet he set before a porphyry disk.

was not part of the prince’s court; the Este never formally established The laurel wreath would have
originally been gilded, and
the position of ‘court artist’, preferring a more fuid arrangement. diamonds were reputedly set

Ofcial ‘court artists’, on the other hand, were part of the prince’s into the pupils of the eyes.
The inscription declares
household, but this did not necessarily mean that they enjoyed the him to be ‘equal, if not

same perks as Tura. Many of the court artists at Milan, for instance, superior, to Apelles’.

went unremunerated as they scrabbled for prestigious commissions.

The Court Artist

58 | 59
 At table, where the court hierarchy was at its most rigid and
defned, the court artist was seated with the tailors, shoe-makers,
musicians, upholsterers, barbers and other members of the stipendi-
ari (salaried household). Tis may appear lowly, but musicians were
then fundamental to court entertainment and ritual (both sacred and
secular), while in Ferrara, for instance, the shoe-maker’s guild was
one of the city’s highest ranking corporations – its splendid head-
quarters were decorated with ‘courtly’ scenes of Christian paladins.
Nevertheless, as Martin Warnke demonstrated in his semi-
nal study Te Court Artist (1985), the artist did have the power to
rise within the court structure. Te title of familiaris was usually be-
stowed on those who were regarded as members of the prince’s or his
consort’s inner household. Painters, because they worked within the
court complex, were sometimes awarded this favour of privileged
familiarity; sculptors and architects were usually given diferent re-
wards and incentives. Among the painters who were given this title
were Master Jacomart (Jaime Baço) and Leonardo da Besozzo at the
court of Naples, Pisanello, and Andrea Mantegna and Antico at the
court of Mantua. Te distinguished Brescian artist Vincenzo Foppa
was one of the few artists to be made a familiaris at the Milanese
court, although he did not work primarily for the duke. In his case,
the title went with certain privileges that allowed him to live, work
and move freely around the territory and to gain citizenship of the
duchy’s capital city, Pavia, where he had already lived for 12 years.
Tere were real advantages to working at court, though en-
thusiasm for permanent positions had to be balanced against severe
restrictions of freedom. A guaranteed salary – in theory, if not al-
ways in practice – was ofered in return for the painter’s services.
Tis covered the living quarters and expenses of the painter and
his family, and travel expenses. Artists were usually accommodated
in the palace, although the most celebrated or long serving were
given the gif of a house or the funds to build one. Both Manteg-
na and Giulio Romano built their own palazzi in Mantua (fig. 37).
Besides material comforts and security, some artists were provided
with ‘delightful commodities’, such as a garden and vineyard. Tere
were also clothing allowances and gifs of livery, so that the artist
could dress in the manner beftting a courtier. Rulers might provide
dowries for the painter’s daughters and pay for physicians when he
or his family fell ill. As a familiaris, the artist was also granted ex-
emption from taxes.
In return, the artist was expected to serve the prince in what-
ever capacity was required of him. His salary was a reward for his
virtù – his special talent – and a way of encouraging it to fower.
Tere was no fxed standard for salaries; they were entirely depend-
ent on the prince’s discretion and, in many cases, the ofcials who
controlled court expenditure. Pisanello was paid an enormous 400
ducats a year at the court of Naples; Cosmè Tura, in his less struc-
tured arrangement, 60 ducats a year at Ferrara.
Documents record some of the fnancial hardship
endured by artists who were on the receiving end
of regular court cost-cutting exercises. Because
of their lavish lifestyles, or delays in payment of
condottiere fees, many princes had cash-fow prob-
lems. Teir higher-ranking ofcials were also apt
to renege on payments: Cosmè Tura wrote to
Borso d’Este imploring him to intercede with two
defaulting clients, the duke’s own secretary and
his nephew, the Bishop of Adria. One contempo-
rary observer punningly defned a court as a place
where everything was corto – ‘in limited supply’.
In aristocratic circles, however, there was
a convention that talent could not be bought for
cash, because it was a God-given gif. Te artist’s
salary was to enable him to live and work; it was
not a payment for the art he produced. In 1449
Sigismondo Malatesta promised a Florentine
master who agreed to enter his services ‘a guar-
anteed annual salary, as high as he wishes. I also
promise to treat him well so that he will want
to spend his life here. Know too that his agreed
allowance will be paid punctually, even if he works solely for his Fig.37

own pleasure.’ Artists were free, with their patron’s permission, to Courtyard of Andrea
MantegnaÕs house
take outside commissions – and some were forced to by straitened
circumstances. Completed works were therefore subject to a difer- 1483. Mantua.

ent system of reward. Mantegna, for example, was granted a parcel Mantegna probably based

of land in return for the gif of ‘a little picture’. the design of his palazzo
on a Roman dwelling, with
the rooms opening on to a
courtyard. A dome with an
oculus, which would have
Te Pursuit of Nobility covered this interior space,
no longer survives. The
cobbled pavement design is
Te artist’s virtù could admit him to the ranks of the nobility – based on the Gonzaga emblem

and a small proportion of painters, sculptors and architects were of the sun, which Mantegna
was allowed to use.
knighted. Knighthoods had to be bought for cash, and the Holy Ro-
man Emperor Frederick III traded on the ambition of princes and
courtiers alike. Such honours were given to artists partly as a re-
ward and encouragement, although they were virtually meaningless

The Court Artist

60 | 61

Fig.38
Leon Battista Alberti
Self-portrait (obverse)
ca. 1435. Bronze, overall
(irregular oval) 20.1 ×
13.6cm (7 15∕16 × 5 5∕16in).
National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC, Samuel
H. Kress Collection,
1957.14.125.
Alberti’s novel plaquette,
in the prestigious material
of bronze (weighing in
at over 1.5 kilograms/3 1∕3
pounds), promotes his skills
as an erudite adviser, while
at the same time mirroring
his prospective patrons’
aspirations. His personal
emblem – the ‘winged eye’
– appears beneath his
chin. This hieroglyph-type
image appealed immensely
to Alberti: the meaning is
deliberately veiled. Alberti
equated ‘the eye’ with God
– in an early dialogue he
asserts that it is ‘more
powerful than anything,
swifter, more worthy: what
more can I say?’
in terms of improving their standard of living. Te stable master in
the Venetian Pietro Aretino’s play of the same name (Il Marescalco,
1533) satirizes the process: ‘Tis title is very suitable for someone
who is rich enough and only wants a bit of reputation! … a knight
without private income is a bare wall that everyone pees against.’ Te
main reason for knighting artists seems to have been to make them
worthy court diplomats. Vasari relates that Mantegna’s knighthood,
bought by Francesco Gonzaga, was to make him a more ftting envoy
of the court when he was sent to Rome in 1488. Tis applied espe-
cially to artists who travelled overseas, and foreign courts were not
only eager to receive these artists but to honour them themselves.
Artists took the opportunities for ennoblement very seriously
and, increasingly, tried to act like gentlemen. Te humanists at the
courts were beginning to associate painting, sculpture and architec-
ture with the liberal arts – ‘liberal’ because they were ‘freely’ prac-
tised. Instead of their manual skills, artists increasingly emphasized
their talent as ‘designers’ and devisers, which demanded intellectual
resourcefulness (ingegno) and a bravura display of imaginative and
rational faculties (fantasia and invenzione). Painting was associated
with rhetoric, poetry, history and philosophy, with scientifc foun-
dations in arithmetic and geometry. Te plain fact that the artist
worked with his hands was justifed on the grounds that he worked
for honour rather than for personal gain, and he took pleasure in
putting his virtù at the patron’s disposal.
A key fgure in these developments was the Genoa-born Flor-
entine Alberti (1404–1472), a fgure of exceptionally diverse intellec-
tual interests, creative breadth, eloquence and political acumen, re-
nowned as a geometrician, arithmetician, antiquarian, astronomer,
musician and architect (f03. 48). A!er being educated in Padua and
Bologna (while his aristocratic family was in exile), he joined the
Papal Curia in the early 1430s – the frst of many courts where he
was to be employed. In Rome, he became one of the leading author-
ities on architecture and ancient art, and was to become a valued
cultural advisor, architect and technical consultant to many of the
smaller secular courts such as Ferrara, Mantua and Urbino. In the
course of his employment, he could frequent some of Italy’s great-
est libraries, writing highly infuential treatises that drew on newly
discovered classical texts and helped inform the work of artists and
courtly patrons alike; they ranged from On Painting (1435, dedicat-
ed to Mantua’s Gianfrancesco Gonzaga) and On Architecture (1450,
dedicated to Pope Nicholas V), to lesser known works like Te Living
Horse (De Equo Animante, ca. 1445–5, for Ferrara’s Leonello d’Este).
His progressive ideas were to have an enormous impact on aspiring
court artists, who sought to exploit the iconographic potency of the
new classically inspired style.

The Case of Filarete

The Florentine Antonio di Pietro Averulino, later known as Filarete
(1400–1469), was one of the most articulate consumers of Alberti’s
writings on architecture. A man of considerable ambition, who
positively thrived in a courtly environment, he decided to display
his own ingegno in a unique way, as both a designer of sculpture in
bronze and later, at the Milanese court, as an architect. His big ca-
reer break came with Pope Eugenius IV’s commission of a new set of
monumental gilt-bronze doors for the great basilica of St. Peter’s in
Rome, which would take Filarete and his small team a dozen years
to complete. Responding to the challenge, Filarete and his sponsors
at the papal court invented a new type of ‘Roman’ courtly aesthetic
– perhaps the first conscientious attempt to embody the ceremonial
and humanist values of Pope Eugenius IV’s court (where Alberti also
served). While Filarete’s work has suffered severely over the centu-

Fig.39
Filarete
The Martyrdom of St. Peter,
lower panel of doors to the
Basilica of St. Peter’s,
Rome: See Fig.40

This is one of two martyrdom

episodes adorning Filarete’s
great doors for St. Peter’s,
commissioned by Pope
Eugenius IV. They take their
cue from notable thirteenth-
century examples, such as
the martyrdom frescoes of
Saints Peter and Paul in
the private papal chapel of
the Lateran Palace (known
as the Sancta Sanctorum
– ‘Holy of Holies’), but
they also imitate Byzantine
ivories and Roman imperial
reliefs. Filarete chose
to foreground Nero in his
splendid palace, rather than
the martyred saints, perhaps
as a reminder to visiting
world leaders of the evils
of misrule.

The Court Artist

62 | 63
ries from withering critical comparison with the grace and vivacity Fig.40

of his Florentine peers (led by Vasari’s disdain), it is now being reas- Filarete
Doors to the Basilica of
sessed in terms of its very diferent courtly agenda. St. Peter’s, Rome.

Instead of the lyric naturalism or physical expressiveness of 1433–45. Bronze and enamel.
the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello (displayed to such efect
on their bronze doors for Florence’s Baptistery and San Lorenzo, Filarete’s doors consist
of a few large panels.
respectively), Filarete’s doors (f03. 40) feature an emblematic, hi- This gives his figures

erarchical style that is deliberately reminiscent of Byzantine icons, hierarchical impact, but
it is also dictated by
mosaics, and sacred manuscripts for the main fgures (even the stern economies of scale: the

facial types illustrating papal bulls). Te monumental splendour of larger panels are made from
shallow casts, attached
these fgures, rendered frontally against fctive tapestry hangings, is to wooden backs, giving

further emphasized by fnely wrought ornament punched into the the impression of thicker
bronze while reducing costs.
surface and the inclusion of coloured enamels, revealing Filarete’s The main panels depict

goldsmith’s training and the prevailing courtly taste for elaborate Christ and Mary enthroned
(top) and Saints Paul and
surfaces and fnery. Te efect would have instantly impressed pil- Peter (centre, with their

grims, the Roman populace, and the visiting dignitaries who con- martyrdom scenes below).
Peter hands his keys – and
verged on St. Peter’s from all over the world. Filarete’s majestic holy therefore supreme authority

fgures would preside over some of the most important ceremonies for Christianity – to
the small kneeling figure
in Christendom (while Filarete’s humanist friends could enjoyed the of Eugenius IV. The wide

risqué mythological scenes and imperial portraits set into the deco- borders are decorated with
scrolling acanthus vines,
rative borders that framed them). miniature scenes from

Such an illustrious court commission needed to pack an ancient literature (there

are some mythological scenes
iconographic punch that would perhaps trump artistic preferences from Ovid) and portraits of

(Filarete compared Donatello’s highly animated apostles to ‘fencers’). Roman emperors. Set beneath
the larger panels, are four
In the martyrdom scenes, at the base of the doors, he conscious- tiny scenes commemorating

ly ditches the spacious three-dimensional approach of his Floren- Eugenius’s achievements.

tine contemporaries, opting for layered scenes of surging historical

drama, anchored by topical landmarks and bristling with pageantry
(f03. 49). Te doors were developed in two phases: following Eu-
genius’s groundbreaking (but short-lived) achievement in uniting
the Latin and Greek Churches at the Council of Florence–Ferrara in
1439, four diminutive commemorative scenes were added (includ-
ing Eugenius presiding over Sigismund of Luxembourg’s imperial
coronation). Conscious of their documentary importance, and de-
signing them with posthumous ‘fame’ in mind, Filarete adopted an
imperial style based on epic commemorative reliefs, carefully label-
ling personages and places with the ‘inscriptions’ that were so highly
prized by humanists as historical evidence.
With the addition of these scenes, Filarete’s doors acquired the
character of a manifesto – not just for the reunifcation of the Western
and Eastern Church, but also for an art that in its sacred and classical
language, wit and erudition would speak to ‘modern’ rulers. Tis is
probably why there is an unprecedented focus on proclaiming Filar-

The Court Artist

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Fig.41
Filarete
Signature relief, lower rear
of doors to the Basilica of
St. Peter’s, Rome.
1433–45. Bronze and enamel.
This remarkable scene, which
appears to show Filarete and
his assistants celebrating
the completion of the
doors (dancing between an
‘equestrian’ wine seller
on the left and an exotic
piper on a camel on the
right), includes the Latin
inscription: ‘For others,
the reward of a work [is]
pride or money, for me it’s
cheerfulness (hilaritas).’
Hilaritas was a Roman
private virtue. Filarete is
therefore demonstrating the
nobility of his endeavours,
while playfully comparing
his team’s achievements
with those of the pope and
his court (commemorated in
little scenes on the front
of the doors).
ete’s own authorship of the doors – both in terms of signatures and
self-portraits. Tese extend to a remarkable scene on the inside of
the (otherwise unworked) doors, playfully parodying the idiom of the
small scenes of Eugenius’s achievements, showing Filarete at the head
of his disciples – presiding over his own court as it were (f03. 41).
Following his career at the papal court (curtailed when he was
wrongfully charged with plotting to steal the relic of the head of St.
John the Baptist), Filarete developed a new repertoire of courtly ob-
jects, o!en drawing on the imperial imagery from the doors (itself
taken from ancient coins), which he clearly intended to have a broad
appeal for princes. Tis included small bronze statuettes (such as a
miniature version of the Roman equestrian monument of Marcus
Aurelius – the earliest example of its type), narrative plaquettes, and
his own range of medals (featuring, for example, Emperor Nero, as
an exemplar of vice, and the Empress Faustina the Elder, as an exem-
plar of virtue). In keeping with the humanist fascination with themes
of vice and virtue, he adopted the courtly name ‘Filarete’ (Greek for
‘lover of virtue’).
In 1451, Filarete entered the service of the newly established
Sforza in Milan. Tere, prior to writing his own treatise on architec-
ture (between 1461 and 1464) – in which he created the ideal prince-
ly city ‘Sforzinda’– he produced a self-portrait medal advertising his
courtly credentials (f03. 42). Te rather elaborate allegorical image
on the reverse, involving industrious bees and a torrent of honey,
may have been intended to promote his architectural talents – the
next rung on the court artist’s career ladder – and the mutual ben-
efts that would fow from them. Te inscription reads: ‘As the sun
helps the bee, so to us is the favour of the prince.’
 Fig.42
Filarete
Medal of Filarete (‘Antonus
Averlinus’) (obverse and
reverse)

ca. 1460–5. Bronze. Height

7.93cm (3 1∕8in), width
6.66cm (2 5∕8in). Victoria
and Albert Museum, London.

Filarete was his own

best publicist, using
this oval-shaped medal
(inspired by Alberti) to
promote his services to
the Milanese court and
perhaps to advertise his
credentials to the new
Milanese duke (Galeazzo
Maria Sforza). The obverse
e Pecking Order shows Filarete in profile
with his personal emblem
of the bee (symbolizing
Te architect had been the frst to free himself from the stigma of selfless diligence and

‘manual’ labour. In 1428, the administrator of Siena cathedral had industry), while the reverse
illustrates an overflowing
asked the sculptor Jacopo della Quercia to track down the architect honeycomb (the achievement

Giovanni da Siena. Jacopo explained that Giovanni was ‘at Ferrara, of the great cathedral
builders was commonly
with the marquis, and is planning a very large and strong castle with- compared to that of a swarm

in the city, and is given 300 ducats a year and expenses for eight, as I of bees). Filarete, wearing
the same garb as in his
know for certain … and he is not a master with a trowel in his hand, Rome relief (Fig.41), has

but a planner and deviser (ingegnere).’ At court, the architect was of- revealed this wealth of
honey by prising open a
ten artistic director and military and civic engineer rolled into one: he laurel tree, using hammer

supervised the building of fortresses, churches, palaces, streets, sew- and chisel.

ers and canals. He was in charge of hundreds of cra!smen, including

those responsible for furnishings and fttings, who followed his plans

The Court Artist

66 | 67
or worked to the court painter’s designs. Surprisingly, the position of
court architect-engineer was not one that an artisan was specifcally
trained for. He learned his skills as a painter and draughtsman, like
the Umbrian Donato Bramante, or as a stonemason and sculptor, like
the Lombardian Giovanni Antonio Amadeo (who developed a lucra-
tive business that encompassed court and civic commissions).
Large sculptures in bronze and marble were expensive and
prestigious (bronze was ten times more costly than marble), but
the sculptor did not usually enjoy the status of the architect, or the
privileges of the court painter. Giancristoforo Romano, a highly ac-
complished courtier, and Guido Mazzoni, described by the French
king as a painter-illuminator, are notable exceptions. In his self-
portrait relief, Filarete had taken care to distinguish himself from
his disciples, who hold the manual tools of the sculptor’s trade: he
presents himself in fne clothes carrying his compass (a tool of intel-
lectual rather than manual labour, which identifes him as the ‘de-
signer’). Sculpture’s uneasy status was partly due to the dirty, noisy,
manual nature of the sculptor’s work, which meant that he could
not reside in the palace. Much of the sculptor or goldsmith’s most
valued cra!smanship (in gold, silver and bronze) was melted down
when required by the treasury. Te sculptor also had to be especially
sensitive to the patron’s demands, because many of his works were
destined for public places. Funerary and equestrian monuments, or
seated fgures of rulers (associated with just dominion), were rigor-
ously supervised as they included sculpted portraits and details of
costume. A mistake could mean that, rather than guaranteeing fame
and immortality, a monument could become an object of popular
ridicule. Lorenzo Ghiberti relates that while he was working at the
court of Pesaro, his ‘mind was largely directed to painting … because
the company I was with was always showing me the honour and ad-
vantage to be had from it’.
Court painters were used very much as interior designers,
dra!ing and visualizing designs for a patron or an appointed inter-
mediary. A team of cra!smen and suppliers was put at their disposal.
Vasari has le! us with a vivid picture of the sixteenth-century painter
Perino del Vaga at the papal court ‘being obliged to draw day and
night in order to keep up with whatever had to be done in the palace
… and he was constantly surrounded by a host of sculptors, stucco
artists, woodcarvers, tailors, embroiderers, painters, goldsmiths and
the like, so he never had an hour’s peace.’ Te most accomplished
artists o!en took on extensive managerial roles (equivalent to the-
atrical impresarios), thereby securing themselves a frmer place in
the court hierarchy: overseeing teams of artists and civil engineers,
helping to devise major court pageants and entertainments that
combined crowd-pleasing spectacle with witty allegory and symbol-
ism, and supervising the mass production of ‘minor’ arts, such as
illuminated manuscripts, costume and jewellery. Renowned masters
o!en teamed up to provide complementary skills, together with the Fig.43

practical ability, in terms of associates and assistants, to meet project Rubinetto di Francia
Workshop
deadlines and ambitions. Lamentation over the Body

Cosmè Tura painted frescoes and executed panels and deco- of the Dead Christ (after a
cartoon by Cosmè Tura)
rative sculpture for the Este villas of Belfore and Belriguardo, but –
as a master of the ‘well-turned line’ – he also designed Flemish-style 1475–6. Wool, silk, gold
and silver, 97cm × 2.06m
altar frontals (f03. 44) and woven seat-back covers, and made mod- (3ft 2 1∕8in × 6ft 111∕8in).

els for goldsmiths and silversmiths. An inventory from 1473 details Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza
Collection, Museo Thyssen-
an entire gilded silver service for Ercole d’Este, enamelled with his Bornemisza, Madrid, Inv.N:

ducal arms, largely designed by Tura. Te artist journeyed to Venice CTB.DEC0586.

to set the stamp of the desired style, and supervised the goldsmith Tura’s dramatic Lamentation

Giorgio de Allegretto. Among the service’s exuberantly decorated (inspired by Rogier van der
Weyden), which survives
pieces were three substantial lidded fasks, each supported by ‘two in two versions, includes

wild men’ and topped with grifns. portraits of the young

Ercole d’Este of Ferrara
For public entertainments and state occasions painters worked (St. John) and his wife

feverishly, designing pennants, standards, festival costumes, horse Eleonora of Aragon. Tura’s
design was woven into a
caparisons, masks, festive arches, jousting equipment, marzipan tapestry by Rubinetto di

confections, and all manner of ephemeral decoration. Pope Sixtus Francia, and given an
illusionistic jewelled
IV’s lavish banquet to celebrate a marital alliance with the great Ne- frame. The couple possibly

apolitan court included an artifcial mountain (out of which stepped commissioned it as a votive
offering – it was used as an
a liveryman to deliver specially composed verses); gargantuan meat altar frontal at the time.

The Court Artist

68 | 69
Fig.44
Pisanello
(or Pisanello Workshop)
Design for a dragon salt
cellar

1448–50. Pen (drawing), wash

with brown ink on paper,
19.4 × 28.3cm (7 5∕8 × 111∕8in).
Musée du Louvre, Paris.

covers in the form of mythological fgures (to embrace beasts, roast-

ed whole); silver dishes depicting ‘life-size’ histories of Atlas, Perseus
and Andromeda, and the Labours of Hercules; and sailing vessels
discharging cargoes of sugared almonds. A fabulous design for a salt
cellar, associated with Pisanello at the Neapolitan court, shows the
splendour Sixtus was appropriately reciprocating (fig. 44).

Specialist Skills
Artists valued for their portrait skills had a special role to play at
court, with the dynastic profle image (see fig. 6) the preferred for-
mat for the ‘ofcial’ portrait (inspired by Northern and later classi-
cal noble precedents). Painted portraits were regularly presented as
diplomatic gifs, enabling a ruling family to literally maintain a high
profle, and were also used to reassure friends, relations and allies as
to the health and wellbeing of individual members. In an age where
marriage was one of the most efective ways of cementing political
and military alliances or of forging new ones, the court artist took
on an onerous responsibility. He was ofen sent to the court of the
potential bride to make a portrait ‘from life’, so that her suitability
might not be ruled out on aesthetic grounds, or called upon to im-
mortalize her virtues during her marital years (many princesses were
to die in childbirth). Francesco Laurana’s idealized life-sized portrait
busts of the Aragon princesses were made either to commemorate
their betrothals or their deaths, or as dynastic memorials (fig. 45).
 Portrait painters were expected to tread the tightrope between Fig.45

creating a faithful representation al naturale and observing the pro- Francesco Laurana
Bust of Isabella of Aragon
priety of the sitter’s status and dignity. Emperor Maximilian, who (?)

was painted by the Milanese court artist Ambrogio de Predis, was ca. 1490. Polychromed marble
unhappy with most of his portraits: ‘Anyone who can paint a big nose and painted wax, height

comes to ofer us his services.’ Te portraitist himself was expected 44 × 42.5cm (17 3∕8 × 16 3∕4in).
Kunsthistorisches Museum,
to exhibit some of the social graces, since he spent a good deal of Vienna.

time in the company of his noble sitters. In one curious example, the Only two of the princesses
painter Baldassare d’Este’s claim to be one of Borso d’Este’s numer- that Laurana commemorated in

ous brothers won him a privileged position at the Ferrarese court. his highly stylized busts –
something of a speciality of
Borso recommended him, in turn, to Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Mi- his – have been definitively

lan as ‘a suitable and respectable kind of person and also because he identified, but this
exquisite example retains
is good at his craf.’ some of the rich pigment

Te prince and his consort also loved to be surrounded by and gilding with which
they were all originally
images of their favourite pursuits and possessions, including horses, decorated. This is possibly

falcons and hunting dogs (together with their prey). In this context, a portrait of Isabella of
Aragon (wedded to the young
Giangaleazzo of Milan in
1490). Her head was once
crowned with a headdress
of wax flowers.

The Court Artist

70 | 71

Fig.46
Pisanello
Head of a Hound
ca. 1438–42. Leadpoint,
brown wash and watercolour,
18.4 × 22cm (7 1∕8 × 8 5∕8in).
Musée du Louvre, Paris,
INV2429recto.
verisimilitude – inspired by Northern European example and also
by tales of the legendary ‘lifelikeness’ of ancient masterpieces – was
highly admired. Many court artists relied exclusively on stock pattern
books for their leaping greyhounds and coursing hares, so the ability
to work from preparatory drawings made directly from life (integral
to Pisanello’s creative process) was a mark of particular skill (fig. 46).
Vasari records in his Lives of the Artists that the Mantuan court art-
ist Franscesco Bonsignori, renowned for his draughtsmanship and
portrait skills, painted such a lifelike image of a dog presented to
Francesco Gonzaga by the Ottoman emperor that Francesco’s dog
attacked the painting, having a natural antipathy to Turks! (Tis, of
course, was a variation on Pliny the Elder’s account of the legend-
ary skills of the classical artist Zeuxis, whose painted grapes were
attacked by hungry birds.)
Jesters and dwarfs also held a privileged place in the afec-
tions of the prince, his consort and their family circle, puncturing
the solemnity of court life. Tey provided an occasion for the artist
 Fig.47
Jean Fouquet
Portrait of Gonella,
court jester at the court
of Ferrara

Early 1440s. Painting on oak

wood, 36.1 × 23.8cm (14 1∕4 ×
9 3∕8in). Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna.

Flemish and French court

masters, like Jean Fouquet,
provided a new template for
more naturalistic court
portraiture, combining the
precision of miniature
painting with astonishing
observational detail.
Fouquet painted this
portrait of the Marquis
of Ferrara’s much-loved
buffoon, Gonella, during
his sojourn in Italy, in the
knowledge that here he had
the same licence to ‘play’
as the court fool himself.
Gonella’s ‘devotional’
frontal pose – echoing
the sufferings of Christ
– perhaps illustrates the
lengths he was prepared to
go to, to please his master.
The unfortunate Gonella died
of fright when the marquis
ordered his mock execution
as a practical joke (as a
tit for tat for a Gonella
prank which had seen the
marquis tipped into the
River Po!).

to skilfully ad lib and humorously invert the normal rules of court

decorum (in the same way as manuscript illuminators were allowed
to knowingly ‘play’ around the margins of sacred or didactic texts).
Te French master Jean Fouquet captured the genial likeness of Mar-
quis Niccolò III of Ferrara’s bufoon, Gonella, in a portrait of the
1440s (f03. 46). Carlo Ginzburg has suggested that Fouquet’s picture,
showing Gonella with his arms crossed and head gently inclined,
enters into the spirit of the bufoon’s world by parodying the reli-
gious solemnity of the Imago Pietatis, in which Christ is shown in
a similar ‘crossed-arm’ pose as a means of displaying his wounds.

The Court Artist

72 | 73
In Mantegna’s Mantuan frescoes of the Gonzaga dynasty and their
inner court, the female dwarf ’s punning gesture of fornication (see
f03. 110) perhaps constitutes her own frank contribution to the
theme of the successful continuation of the Gonzaga line. Cossa’s
fresco of the month of April in the Este Schifanoia palace turns the
joke on the joker in his portrait of the diminutive jester Scocola,
shown in the easy company of Borso d’Este and his fellow courtiers.
Te long snout of a white hound protrudes (suggestively, and seem-
ingly unintentionally) from Scocola’s robes (see f03. 94)!
Early on, artists were sponsored to journey abroad and train
with celebrated masters, so that they could bring back something of
their special trade and, in the words of Federico II Gonzaga, ‘attain
the perfection we hope for’. Rulers were particularly keen to keep
abreast of artistic developments in the Northern courts. Zanetto
Bugatto, for example, was sponsored by the Duchess of Milan to
study oil technique under Rogier van der Weyden in Brussels in the
early 1460s. Te exchange worked both ways: Fouquet took many
of the Italian skills he had assimilated back with him to the French
courts, and Italian artists were also in demand abroad. Leonardo
da Vinci, Titian and Guido Mazzoni were three such artists whose
successful work for Italian princes brought them to the attention
of foreign kings and emperors (Mazzoni was to be knighted by the
French king Charles VIII).
Novel methods and techniques were highly prized and helped
secure an artist’s privileged status. Tura, who worked mostly in oil,
seems to have withheld the secrets of his special technique (shar-
ing them only, perhaps, with his chosen pupils). His rivals, such as
Cossa, painted their panels in egg tempera although they tried to
imitate some of his efects – particularly as regards depth and rich-
ness of colour. In this sense, while courtly patronage o!en meant that
new methods were acquired and refned, the need to protect a pole
position may have also slowed their wider dissemination. Mantegna
seems to have jealously guarded his refnement of the Northern Eu-
ropean copperplate engraving technique, which he clearly regarded
as one of his technological innovations. He even hired a gang of ruf-
fans to beat up a pair of rival engravers (having frst made accusa-
tions of sodomy) and hound them out of town.
Te courts used diplomatic channels to secure informa-
tion about artists’ works and activities in other centres, negotiate
terms, and sometimes lure them to permanent positions at court.
Ambassadors and envoys also supervised illustrious commissions
from ‘outside’ and organized their transportation to their fnal des-
tination (linen canvas was o!en used for such works, so that they
could be wrapped around rods en route). Commercial agents soon
began to act as go-betweens as well: merchants, with their networks
of business connections, realized that there were good profts to be
made. Vasari relates that a Leonardo was purchased by a merchant
for 100 ducats and sold to the Duke of Milan for three times that
amount. Less mistrusted by both parties were the court agents and
humanist advisers, who sometimes selected artists and architects,
vetted designs for more complex projects and oversaw various stag-
es of execution, and who began to develop an increasingly useful
language of connoisseurship.
When Ludovico Sforza sought to hire the best painters work-
ing in the Florentine milieu, he asked his ambassador to send him
details of the highest-rated artists, together with an assessment of
their various styles. Te virtues of the four artists recommended to
him – Sandro Botticelli (virile), Pietro Perugino (angelic), Domenico
Ghirlandaio (good) and Filippino Lippi (sweet) – were reinforced
by the information that they had all decorated Lorenzo de’ Medici’s
country villa, and all but one had been part of the exclusive team
working for Sixtus IV in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Ludovico’s ini-
tiative was in marked contrast to the practice of his elder brother
Galeazzo Maria, who invited artists to submit competitive tenders,
balancing questions of experience and competence against his desire
to get the work done, in a uniform style, at the cheapest price and at
the greatest possible speed.
Te court painter Giovanni Santi, in his chronicle of 1495
(23,000 rhyming couplets devoted to the life and campaigns of Duke
Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino, and dedicated to his successor,
Guidobaldo), singles out Mantegna for special praise according to
precise categories that refect the skills most valued in court circles
at the time. First on the list is ‘drawing’, ‘which is the true foundation
of painting’; then comes ‘a glowing adornment of invention’, which
engenders truth, grace and beauty. Both these are vital to the court
artist’s duties as planner and designer. Next on Santi’s list comes ‘dili-
gence’, which is needed to master technical challenges like the ma-
nipulation of colour (here Santi mentions the Flemish oil technique
of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden), foreshortening and
perspective. Te artist must be well versed in the noble arts of arith-
metic and geometry (the foundations of architecture), and skilled
in imparting movement to fgures as well as showing them in relief
(the province of sculpture and metalwork). Tese skills are all valued
for their astonishing ability to ‘deceive the eye’ (in the manner of
the ancient painter Apelles, immortalized in Plinian anecdote), into
thinking things are made by nature rather than art.

The Court Artist

74 | 75
 Santi’s list of the 27 foremost artists of the time includes 13
Florentine artists, as well as many painters associated with the major
courts in Italy, among them Cosmè Tura and ‘his rival’ Ercole de’
Roberti. Tese latter artists are also considered masters of ‘draughts-
manship’ and ‘invention’, but the idiosyncratic and ostentatious form
that their ‘invention’ takes has o!en been characterized in later art-
historical studies as a ‘personally eccentric’ choice, rather than a
sophisticated avant-garde maniera (style), deliberately fashioned to
refect the erudite tastes of their predominantly courtly milieu.

e Artist as a Courtier
With such a breadth of skills, and such a command of his brief, the
artist could become valuable cultural property. Yet, because his work
did not necessitate constant attendance at the court, he rarely had
the opportunities to establish himself as a permanent and infuential
member of the prince’s retinue (as jesters and musicians could). In
the case of later courtier-artists, such as Leonardo and Giancristo-
foro Romano, the ability to provide stimulating company or enter-
tainment led to them taking on an increasingly prominent role and
becoming an integral part of the court entourage. Both Leonardo and
Giancristoforo were greatly admired for the universality of their skills
and their social accomplishments – which embraced supreme musi-
cianship, literary works, the devising of complex theatrical spectacles
and witty invention. Leonardo, in particular, was well placed to col-
laborate in the creation of a new courtly ‘brand’ or style at Ludovico
Sforza’s court – embodied by the adoption of his ‘signature’ style by
the local artists he collaborated with (the so-called ‘Leonardeschi’),
who worked from his cartoons and designs (see f03. 144).
An exceptionally erudite – if irascible – fgure like Mantegna
was not only a servant who earned his privileges, but also a courtier
and companion, who, like Giancristoforo, was valued for his classical
connoisseurship. Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga begged his father to
allow Mantegna and the musician Malgise to come and stay with him
in Bologna for a couple of days, to relieve the boredom: ‘With Andrea
I will have amusement showing him some of my cameos and bronze
fgures and other beautiful antiquities, which we may study and con-
fer on in company.’ When Mantegna refused to execute a small pic-
ture for the Duchess of Milan on the grounds that it would be more a
job for a miniaturist, Marquis Francesco Gonzaga excused him on the
grounds that ‘these recognized masters have something of the fanci-
ful about them, and it is best to take from them what one can get.’
 Mantegna’s sense of his own status can be seen in his mag-
nificent funerary bust (fig. 36) and the painted putti with butterfly
wings that he deployed almost as a signature (fig. 48). The latter call
to mind a humorous pseudo-ancient dialogue by Alberti (attributed
to Lucian) in which Mercury bars Virtue from making an appeal to
Jupiter, because the gods are busy painting butterfly
wings and cannot be disturbed. The putti perhaps
embody Mantegna’s claim to be a master of fanta-
sia – a skill that, from the time of Cennino Cen-
nini’s authoritative craftsman’s handbook Il Libro
dellÕ Arte (late 1390s), was associated with the ar-
tistic ability to conjure up imaginary beings and
hybrid creatures. From Aristotle onwards, this skill
had been associated with the rational image-form-
ing capacity of the mind, rather than the untram-
melled imagination. Mantegna advertised the full
scope of his fantasia in engravings that set out to
rival those of his Florentine counterpart Antonio
del Pollaiuolo for sheer invention and allÕantica
design vocabulary (fig. 49). By this time, such
material ‘in the ancient manner’ – featuring the
fabulous (and often licentious) creatures of myth,
such as centaurs, sirens, nereids and satyrs – had
come to occupy the ground where medieval gro-
tesques and witty naturalistic motifs had tradition-
ally held sway. For Mantegna, this antique imagery
could move well beyond the marginalia of books
and buildings, providing not only extravagant ev-
idence of imaginative virtuosity but also of courtly erudition, and Fig.48

serving as an inspiration to like-minded artists (the German artist Andrea Mantegna

Detail from the Camera
Albrecht Dürer is a notable example). Mantegna’s ‘fancifulness’ can Picta: See Fig.109

be seen as part and parcel of his courtly persona. Mantegna’s painted putti
While the artist could achieve wealth, social status, even fame hover over the entrance door

through the courts (many eminent Florentines only achieved rec- to his famous Camera Picta
in the Gonzaga’s Castello
ognition in their own city through spells of court employment), di San Giorgio, supporting

there were several disadvantages to accepting a permanent position. a plaque with a Latin
inscription in which he
Chief among these was the loss of the ability to determine one’s own dedicates ‘this slight work’

fortune. The court artist’s career was often dependent on one indi- to the illustrious Marquis
of Mantua and his consort.
vidual, and therefore dogged by insecurity. Mantegna complained to Putti with butterfly wings

Ludovico Gonzaga: ‘I have no other way to distinguish myself and also appear in his later
Pallas Expelling the Vices
no longer any hope other than Your Grace.’ Because an artist’s works (see Fig.120), painted for

were so closely identified with his patron, he was often assumed to Isabella d’Este.

share the same political ideology and was sometimes accused of

The Court Artist

76 | 77
Fig.49 treachery and corruption (even paying with his life). With the death
Andrea Mantegna
Battle of the Sea Gods
or humiliation of a ruler, or as a result of envious slander, the artist’s
employment could be abruptly terminated. Even a change of mind,
ca. 1470s. Pen and brown
ink on paper, 283 × 826cm
or a passing whim, could dash his hopes or see his works destroyed.
(9ft 33∕8 × 12ft 11∕8in, both Pisanello’s work for the courts of Milan and Mantua (who were tem-
parts). Collection of
the Duke of Devonshire,
porarily fghting the Venetians) led him into a political maelstrom,
Chatsworth. which ended up with him being banished from his home town of
This bravura display
Verona and declared an ‘enemy of the state’ by the Venetian Republic.
piece, probably designed Lorenzo Ghiberti in his Commentaries (Commentarii, ca.
for humanist collectors,
showcases Mantegna’s mastery
1447–55) urges the artist to place his trust only in the Lord, who
of erudite invention and alone governs heaven and earth, and to rely on his own virtù rather
fantasia, as well as his
pioneering copperplate
than become a slave to fortune. He relates the story of the German
engraving technique. Its sculptor Gusmin, who ‘saw the work he had done with such love and
monumentality is novel: it
is the first engraving to
skill destroyed for the Duke’s public requirements’. In a passage of
be made up of two parts. almost biblical intensity, Ghiberti – a proud citizen of Florence – sets
It probably depicts the
Telchines, the belligerent
forth his creed, which allows for a peripatetic career in many city-
sea people of Greek states, but advises against dependency on the fortunes of one: ‘He
myth, who were famed as
metalworkers (they made
who is well taught in all things is not alone nor a wanderer in the
Poseidon’s trident). lands of others when he has lost familiar and necessary things and
is in need of friends, being a citizen in every city and able to despise As such, it satirizes
hardships of fortune without fear, never a prisoner in fortresses, but artistic rivalry (with
ÔenvyÕ represented by the
only in bodily infrmity …’ shrieking, shrivelled
Te disadvantages of dependency had to be weighed against hag) Ð a powerful theme
in the life of the court
the freedom from crafsman’s status that the courts helped painters, artist, who was passionately
architects and sculptors to realize. In this sense, the artist was very concerned to defend himself
from the ÔenvyÕ of rivals
much like the condottiere-prince of a small aspirational court. He was and detractors.
prince of his own patch, but was also a servant to others who wield-
ed far greater power. But his ‘noble service’ enabled him to gain a
measure of enviable prestige and a degree of fnancial independence.
He could even make himself so valued, and his style so emblemat-
ic, that his services came to be relied on (though they were rarely
regarded as indispensable). Leonardo’s revolutionary ‘modern’ style
and ‘divine’ gifs, which blossomed at Ludovico Sforza’s court, were
eulogized as refecting Ludovico’s own extraordinary talents. In such
humanist rhetoric, Leonardo (like Pisanello before him) became the
new Apelles to his patron’s Alexander the Great. Once a prince rec-
ognized the mutual benefts that accrued from this, the court became
the unlikely setting for the artist’s social and creative emancipation.

The Court Artist

78 | 79
3

Piety and Propaganda: Naples

under Alfonso of Aragon

I
n the mid-1440s, King Alfonso of Aragon, the Spanish king of Fig.50

Naples and Sicily, was asked to arbitrate in a bitter wrangle between Circle of Pisanello
Design for a decorative
two of the most illustrious humanists of the age: Lorenzo Valla, his archway with equestrian

distinguished Roman-born secretary, and Antonio Panormita, his statues and Virtues

Sicilian favourite. Valla (according to his version of events) had Pen in brown ink, over

been asked by the king’s counsellor, Giovanni Carafa, to compose black chalk and brown
wash, 31.1 × 16.2cm
verses for a painted decoration on the Castel Capuano. Te verses were (12 1∕4 × 61∕2in). Museum

to adorn the scrolls of four painted Virtues surrounding a resplendent Boijmans van Beuningen,
Rotterdam.
portrait of the armoured king on horseback. Te unfortunate artist
was just about to paint Valla’s words on the scrolls – with people mill-
ing around, craning to read them – when Panormita appeared and
‘made the man nervous about painting such “crude” verses [as Antonio
put it] in his splendid painting, and on a site specially chosen for the
painter’s as well as the king’s glory. He told him only to wait a day or
two and he, Antonio, would produce verses truly worthy of the house
of Carafa and the Castel Capuano and the portrait of a king.’ Over a
week later, Panormita produced his verses, Valla fnished his, and each
gathered around him a set of supporters. In the end, Carafa sent the
two humanists to King Alfonso. Te king, whose powers of diploma-
cy have been greatly praised by historians, said: ‘both sets of verses
seemed very nice’. As a result, neither was chosen, and the fgures –

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

80 | 81
representing Prudence, Justice, Charity/Liberality and Temperance/
Fortitude – were lef to speak for themselves.
Tis episode gives us an idea of the complex role played by art
at court. First, the decoration was ‘arranged’ by an intermediary – a
leading courtier anxious to bring honour to his own ‘house’ as well as
satisfy the king’s general expectations of such a scheme. Te site cho-
sen, the Castel Capuano, was the busiest place in the city of Naples,
so the chivalric portrait of the king was designed to impress the Nea-
politan populace at large and be worthy of its prestigious location.
Prominent inscriptions – ‘fatteries’ as Valla derisively termed Panor-
mita’s eforts – were intended to make the king’s virtues abundantly
clear to his Italian subjects and to posterity. Te painter was not con-
sulted about the textual detail. Tis task was lef to the king’s human-
ist secretary, who was accustomed to having a hand in such schemes.
Valla mentions that he took care to present his verses so that they
could be put in the same order as the painter wanted to place his
fgures. Te king’s role in this particular commission is minimal – he
is even noncommittal when called upon to act as ‘referee’.
Te Capuano project reveals the public face of art at Alfonso’s
court. It fnds strong echoes in a drawing of a decorative archway for
Alfonso (fig. 50) and also in a grandiose tomb commissioned by the
king’s Angevin (Anjou) predecessor Queen Joanna II (r. 1414–1435)
in honour of her brother King Ladislas (fig. 51). Both feature impos-
ing equestrian monuments of armoured kings in an adapted Gothic
structure, as well as classical-style fgures personifying the Virtues.
Te tomb includes over 30 fgures, with the seated Joanna and Ladis-
las presented life-size (side by side) in its midst, and the crowning
equestrian statue at its summit styled ‘Divus Ladislaus’.
By continuing in this vein, Alfonso and his close advisers were
adopting the successful vocabulary of regal propaganda, with its
blend of chivalric and antique styles, portraits and allegorical fgures,
and use of inscriptions. Trough artistic continuity, the king was also
attempting to mask the tenuous nature of his claim to the Neapolitan
throne. Joanna, who was childless, had adopted Alfonso as her heir
afer he had successfully put down an uprising against her, only to
change her mind in favour of the French duke René d’Anjou. When
René succeeded to the throne, and was, in turn, succeeded by his
wife and heir, Isabelle of France, Alfonso went to war to wrest Naples
from the Angevins by force.
During her short reign, Joanna had continued the artistic pol-
icy of her Angevin predecessors, combining elements of imported
French Gothic with a more ‘Pan-Italian court language’, dating from
the granting of sovereignty (by Pope Clement IV in 1264) to Charles
 Fig.51
Tomb of King Ladislas

1420s. Marble, height 18m

(60ft). San Giovanni a
Carbonara, Naples.

This multi-storeyed tomb

is probably of Neapolitan
design, but was executed
with the help of stone-
carvers from Florence. It
sets out to equal Burgundian
examples in its Gothic
pinnacled splendour, and to
surpass the famous northern
Italian tomb of Cangrande
della Scala, Lord of Verona:
the latter was topped with
an equestrian statue of
Cangrande in a full set of
tournament armour.

of Anjou of all of southern Italy. From then on, French cultural

imperialism took second place to the assertion of strong political
and cultural connections with the papacy (who subsidized Naples’s
military power) and other infuential Italian city-states. Under King
Robert of Anjou, the Roman painter Pietro Cavallini brought Rome’s
powerful narrative style into Naples’s courtly vocabulary, while
Giotto (fig. 22) became an esteemed member of the royal household
(1328–33), serving as a powerful embodiment of the city’s strong
fnancial and cultural ties with Florence, the papacy’s staunch ally.
Tese painters were to make Naples famous in the fourteenth
century. Under Joanna’s rule, the tomb of the prominent Neapolitan
nobleman, Rinaldo Brancaccio, by Donatello and Michelozzo, was
shipped to Naples, combining the traditional structure of Angevin

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

82 | 83
Fig.52
Giotto (?)
Mourning figures

ca. 1330. Fresco fragment.

Santa Chiara, Naples.

As official court artist in

the late 1320s and early
1330s, Giotto worked on the
decoration of two palace
chapels in the Castel Nuovo,
as well as frescoing other
public spaces, including
the great audience hall.
Only a few Giottesque
fragments survive from the
master’s time in Naples,
including this fragment in
the church of Santa Chiara
(built by King Robert and
Queen Sancia).

tombs with some of the stylistic innovations of two of the most fa-
voured ffeenth-century Medici artists of the time. While it surpassed
the contemporaneous Ladislas tomb in artistic quality, the famous
Florentine masters failed to deliver the same iconographic impact.

Te World City
Te ‘importing’ of such talent has led to an enduring assumption –
fostered by Vasari’s belief in the primacy of Tuscan art, and his stereo-
typical view that Neapolitans were essentially worldly and provincial
in outlook – that Renaissance Naples and Sicily were culturally infe-
rior to other centres. For Vasari, Naples – lacking inherent stability
– proved unable to cultivate or export major homegrown talent of its
own, producing no ‘paintings of importance’ since Giotto. Vasari’s
narrative conspicuously fails to take into account a markedly difer-
ent cultural agenda. Naples, under a succession of monarchs from
France and Spain, functioned as a major international power, and
as a centre of Mediterranean trade. As a ‘multi-cultural world city’,
it collected and assimilated the most noble cultures and traditions,
much in the same way that Alfonso would build a library as a mirror
of civilized rule. Not only would famous ‘foreign’ artists, sculptors
and architects enrich Naples’s status, but they also, in turn, would
be enriched by association with the great kingdom. Florence, for in-
stance, quickly made Giotto head of all civic projects on his return,
and Giotto’s cycle of famous men (uomini famosi) – in the audience
hall of the Castel Nuovo (now destroyed) – became a ‘visual ambas-
sador’ and exemplar for all such cycles in palaces throughout Italy.
Naples’s multi-cultural agenda drove other cultural policies as
well. While priding itself on its marital alliances with the great king-
doms of Europe, and its Mediterranean trading connections (encom-
passing Africa and the East as well as all of Europe), the kingdom was
also acutely aware – as a foreign power on Italian soil – of its complex
and volatile relationship with its southern Italian inhabitants. Alfon-
so was to call on ‘the most noble sculptors, painters, architects and
crafsmen from all over Italy, nay from the whole world, with great
employment and fees’ (Antonio Galateo epitaph). Tis was not only
a mark of his ‘pulling power’, but also a way of uniting the various
cultural factions at the Neapolitan court. Tere were the dissenting
local barons of southern Italian extraction; the Tuscan businessmen
and merchants who made Naples their commercial base; members
of the inner court who were Spanish; Rome’s papal representatives;
and diplomats from major European powers. Artists, humanists and
engineers from Spain, Florence, Lombardy, Sicily, Rome, Dalmatia
and beyond could cater for these diverse cultural interests, and each
community was capable of recognizing and appreciating the region-
al elements of style that pertained to them. Particularly felicitous was
the meeting of Catalan and Neapolitan cultures – the territories had
similar governance structures and strong commercial ties.
On 26 February 1443, Alfonso of Aragon (1396–1458)
made his triumphal entry into the city of Naples. Already King of
Aragon, Sicily, Sardinia, Valencia and Majorca, and Count of Bar-
celona, Alfonso had fnally realized an ambition that had involved
him in a relentless 20-year campaign. Te new King of Naples
(r. 1442–1458) was to spend the remainder of his years there, trans-
forming his southern Italian kingdom into one of the main cultural
and commercial centres of the peninsula and fashioning it into the
jewel of his Mediterranean empire. His wife, Maria, became regent of
Aragon, ruling expertly in his absence (they were to have a childless
marriage). As Alfonso’s rule progressed, he shifed his attention from
Spain to the Italian mainland, hoping to unite Naples with the coun-
try’s other great power, Milan, and become ruler of all Italy. Despite
pouring massive resources into the formation of a formidable court,
great armies, and monumental public buildings and fortifcations,
he was never to achieve these imperial ambitions; but the Aragonese
dynasty was to rule Naples until 1501.
All the nationalities living and working in the bustling com-
mercial port were represented in Alfonso’s magnifcent triumphal

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

84 | 85
Fig.53
Master of the Triumph
of Death
The Triumph of Death
1441–6. Fresco transferred
to canvas, 5.9 × 6.4m (19ft
8in × 21ft 1in). Galleria
Regionale, Palermo.
This fresco, with its
dynamic figure of Death,
shows that death is no
respecter of age, wealth
or status. The lowly have
been spared (they seem to
include elderly members
of the Jewish community
and a leper with bandaged
hands). An emperor, pope
and leading religious figures
lie prostrate, while nobles
and courtiers are about to
be struck down. The painter
has included himself and
his assistant on the extreme
left, sporting Aragonese
pudding-basin hairstyles
and holding painting tools
and a mahl stick.
procession. Priests led the way, followed by the Florentine contin-
gent, whose foats featured allegorical fgures and an actor dressed
as the emperor Julius Caesar (theirs was the only display creat-
ed in the all’antica style). Ten came the Catalans, followed by a
foat bearing the Arthurian Siege Perilous, fanked by the Virtues:
Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, Faith and Charity (who tossed coins to
the crowds). Te Siege Perilous (dangerous chair) was one of Alfon-
so’s favourite devices: only the knight who was pure of heart, chaste
and invincible (Sir Galahad, who accomplished the quest for the Holy
Grail) could sit in this chair at the Round Table without being burnt
by its searing fames. Alfonso’s gilded triumphal car was decked out
as a turreted fortress and a small Siege Perilous was ablaze at the foot
of his throne. Alfonso himself appeared resplendent in red lined with
ermine (he preferred black for his austere everyday dress), wearing
the collar of the Order of the Lily (with its golden grifn pendant)
and carrying the sceptre and orb. Following in the king’s wake were
the court luminaries, military captains, foreign ambassadors, local
barons, knights, bishops and humanists (including Valla and Pan-
ormita). Alfonso dismounted at the cathedral, where a marble tri-
umphal arch was being planned. (A decade later, the arch was to be
moved to the entrance of Alfonso’s great fort, the old Angevin castle
restyled as the Castel Nuovo.)
Alfonso brought with him court painters and architects from
his native Spain. His frst Neapolitan commission was entrusted to
the Valencian painter Jacomart, whom he had summoned to Italy
in October 1440 while he was encamped outside Naples. Jacomart,
the son of the king’s tailor, eventually arrived in June 1442, at the
time of Alfonso’s third siege of Naples. Not long afer his triumphant
conquest, Alfonso had Jacomart paint a retable for a classical-style
chapel, which he immediately erected on the Campo Vecchio, mark-
ing the spot where he and his troops had encamped outside the city.
Here, Alfonso had had a divine apparition: the Virgin Mary had ap-
peared to him as he slept and inspired him with the idea of entering
Naples secretly through one of the city’s ancient aqueducts. Accord-
ingly, in Jacomart’s altarpiece the Virgin was shown appearing to the
king in all her tender majesty. Te artist, whom the king referred to
as ‘faithful, familiar and our chamber painter’, presented the work
personally to Alfonso at the Castel Capuano. It was one of the king’s
most prized pieces of art, and was carried alof in the annual proces-
sions that commemorated his entrance into the city. Te altarpiece
was destroyed, along with the chapel, in the sixteenth century; if it
had survived it would have provided a vivid illustration of Alfonso’s
very Spanish combination of devout religiosity and militarism.
 Unfortunately, most of the paintings and murals that were
commissioned by Alfonso have been lost or demolished, which partly
accounts for the relative neglect of Naples by the majority of Renais-
sance scholars. Te state archives were laid waste at the end of World
War II, so that important documents concerning commissions and
purchases no longer exist. From the surviving archive material, we
learn that the Catalan sculptor-architect Guillem Sagrera, the archi-
tect of Palma Cathedral in Majorca, had arrived in Naples by 1447,
summoned to work on the Castel Nuovo. Te Lombard Leonardo da
Besozzo, who worked for the previous Angevin regime, was Alfon-
so’s foremost court painter in 1449 and served the king until 1458.
He frescoed the walls of the king’s palaces and churches, illuminat-
ed his charters and books, and decorated his armour. Leonardo was
one of three painters who decorated 920 standards and banners for
the banquet celebrating the birth of Alfonso’s grandson. Perinetto da

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

86 | 87
Benevento was also given a stream of commissions, including a cycle
of frescoes illustrating the ‘Seven Joys of the Virgin’. Both Leonardo
and Perinetto worked in the monumental tradition of Giotto and
Pietro Cavallini.
Fortunately, one outstanding fresco associated with Alfonso’s
patronage survives: Te Triumph of Death (fig. 23) from the Palazzo
Sclafani in Sicily. Te old palace had been restored and transformed
into a new hospital, under Alfonso’s authority, and the south wall of
its wide courtyard frescoed with this macabre scene, which probably
alludes to the bubonic plague that cut swathes through southern Italy
a generation earlier. Te anonymous artist has been identifed with
the circle of Pisanello or the brothers Zavattari, who worked on fresco
cycles for Alfonso’s close ally Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan. Schol-
ars have also suggested that it may be the work of the Sicilian artist
Gaspare da Pesaro (active ca. 1421–d. 1461), who illuminated books
for King Alfonso in 1438. Whatever its authorship, the fresco elo-
quently expresses the eclectic favour of art in the Neapolitan/Sicilian
kingdom. Its blending of French, Sienese, Lombard, Sicilian, Burgun-
dian and Spanish elements is also typical of the refned International
Style that the courts sponsored so enthusiastically. Tis diversity is
refected in the appearance of the ten courtly fgures grouped before
the fountain (possibly alluding to the party of the same number in
Boccaccio’s celebrated narrative Te Decameron), dressed in the latest
Spanish-Burgundian fashions, sporting Italian hairstyles, and with
gowns luxuriously trimmed with ermine (worn by courtiers in the
kingdom, but nowhere else in Italy, due to sumptuary laws).

Private Preferences
Jacomart’s own ‘international’ style was very much a product of the
Valencian school: formal, graceful, and of considerable illusionistic
and decorative splendour. It conforms to what we know of Alfonso’s
taste in devotional images. He delighted in spiritual works with life-
like fgures conveying deep religious feeling, coupled with a stunning
richness of detail: gorgeous brocades, painted sculptural decoration
and sparkling jewels. Tese preferences are refected in the sacred
reliquaries and religious ornaments Alfonso collected; according to
Giovanni Pontano (De Magnifcentia) he ‘outstripped all the kings
of that age, both in acquiring and exhibiting the things used in the
Mass and for the adornment of priests, and in regard to statues of
the male and female saints, of which he possessed many, including
the twelve apostles made of silver’ (fig. 24). Te only other record
 Fig.54
The Crespi
King Alfonso and his
Court Attending Mass (from
the Psalter and Hours of
Alfonso V of Aragon), Spain
(probably Aragon).

ca. 1442. Parchment, approx.

7.8 × 8.7cm (3 × 31∕2in); whole
folio 22.5 × 15.5cm (8 7∕8 ×
61∕8in). British Library,
London.

we have of Jacomart working for Alfonso in Italy is a commission of

1447 to paint shields and emblems on about 20 royal standards. Te
artist was summoned to Tivoli, where the king was about to launch
his assault on Florence, and given the commission on the battlefeld.
Tereafer, Jacomart seems to have fulflled the role of court painter
to Alfonso in Valencia.
Jacomart’s work was also infuenced by the Flemish style and
technique that were then so fashionable in Spain, and which Alfonso
had long admired. Te king’s previous court artist, Louis Dalmau,
is more representative of this aspect of Alfonso’s personal taste. In
1431, as King of Valencia, Alfonso had sent Louis Dalmau to Flan-
ders together with the tapestry-maker Guillem d’Uxelles, so that
Dalmau could learn how to design tapestry cartoons in the Flem-
ish manner. He would have arrived just in time to see the comple-
tion and public exhibition of Hubert and Jan van Eyck’s astonishing
Ghent Altarpiece. On his return nearly fve years later, he painted
works inspired by the colouristic and illusionary brilliance of the
Netherlandish masters.
In Italy, the king’s taste for works with a Hispanic-Flemish fa-
vour continued unabated. At the same time as Jacomart was working
on his Italian retable, the king acquired the frst of his three Jan van
Eyck pictures (he may have met van Eyck when the artist was part of a

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

88 | 89

Fig.55
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor
Rolin
1435. Oil on panel, 66 ×
62cm (26 × 241∕2in). Musée du
Louvre, Paris.
This supreme example of Jan
van Eyck’s devout style
and artistic and technical
mastery gives a clear idea
of why he was so admired by
Alfonso, who was to acquire
three van Eyck paintings
(now lost). This work was
commissioned by the Duke of
Burgundy’s chancellor for
a chapel in the church of
Autun. Among the picture’s
many remarkable features
are the exquisitely painted
fur-trimmed brocade robe
and the radiant landscape
that the scene ‘opens’ on
to. The influence of van
Eyck was far-reaching: from
Colantonio’s painstaking
domestic realism (Fig.56)
to Piero della Francesca’s
shimmering Urbino landscapes
(see Fig.12).
Burgundian mission to Valencia). He had ordered his bailif-general
in Valencia, Berenguer Mercader, to fnd one for him. Subject matter
was unimportant; the king, like Isabella d’Este at the close of the cen-
tury, simply wanted to own a work by this leading master (fig. 22).
Te painting (St. George and the Dragon) has since been lost, but
its qualities were enthusiastically described by the sixteenth-centu-
ry writer Pietro Summonte in a famous letter of 1524. It included a
landscape with a small fgure of the rescued princess, a distant town
and view of the sea, as well as a bravura detail, typical of van Eyck’s
mastery: the dragon, fatally wounded in the mouth with a long spear,
was refected in the armoured lef leg of St. George. Te subject was
especially appropriate to Alfonso: his Catalan burial chapel at the
Monastery of Poblet in Spain (built afer 1442) was dedicated to the
saint, whom he had adopted as protector on his Naples campaign.
Bartolomeo Facio, who came to Naples in 1444 as the Geno-
ese envoy, has lef us a valuable description of one of Alfonso’s other
van Eyck masterpieces. Facio took up residence as the king’s person-
al secretary and historian, and in 1456 dedicated his short book On
Famous Men (De Viris Illustribus) to Alfonso. It includes a chapter
on painters, which discusses those whom he considers the best of
the period. Tey are Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Pisanello
and Gentile da Fabriano. All four worked for courtly patrons, and the
three who were still living were associated with Alfonso. Rogier’s ‘fa-
mous tapestry pictures’, with their masterful delineation of a variety
of ‘feelings and passions’, decorated Alfonso’s great Sala del Trionfo
in the Castel Nuovo, providing a splendid backdrop to the comings
and goings of court and a focus for Alfonso’s celebrated piety. Tree
sculptors are also singled out for praise – although ‘out of the mul-
titude of sculptors few are famous’ – all of whom are Florentines.
Among them is Donatello, who was greatly admired by Alfonso. A
surviving letter, written to the Doge of Venice in 1452, shows that
Alfonso was interested early on in having Donatello make his own
equestrian monument, in the manner of King Ladislas.
Facio declares that ‘van Eyck has been judged the leading
painter of our time’. Tis judgement probably refects the opinion
of Alfonso and his close circle of humanists, who debated literary,
philosophical, theological and perhaps artistic questions in the ora
del libro, the king’s regular literary forum. Later, these meetings were
given the formal status of an academy, presided over by the lively
and witty Panormita, and in later years by Giovanni Pontano. On
such occasions, scholars were invited to put forward and defend an
argument, producing supporting texts and examples from antiquity,
in an atmosphere of ferce rivalry. Afer the ritual demolition of each
other’s arguments, fruit and wine were served and jesters lightened
the atmosphere further. Facio’s text accordingly supports his asser-
tion by alluding to van Eyck’s learning, both in geometry and in ‘let-
ters’: ‘He is thought for this reason to have discovered many things
about the properties of colours recorded by the ancients and learned
by him from reading Pliny and other authors.’
For his frst example of van Eyck’s Apelles-like skills, Facio
takes a remarkable picture in the private apartments of Alfonso at
Castel Nuovo, in which there is a St. Jerome ‘like a living being in a

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

90 | 91
library done with rare art: for if you move away from it a little it seems
that it recedes inwards and that it has complete books laid open in
it, while if you go near, it is evident that just their main features are
there.’ Tis triptych was originally painted for the Genoese diplomat
Battista Lomellini, who may have sold it to Alfonso some time afer
peace with Genoa was negotiated in 1444. Te Neapolitan Colan-
tonio’s St. Jerome in his Study (fig. 26) may bear some resemblance
to it. Some critics have suggested that Alfonso commissioned this
work in around 1444, and have commented on its debt to van Eyck,
the young French master Fouquet (who may have passed through
Naples at this time), and to the court painter, Jacomart.

Public Image
While Alfonso cherished such images for his own private pleasure
and devotional contemplation, his patronage of art in Italy concen-
trated on the public sphere. Tere were cogent political reasons for Fig.56

this. Alfonso was a Spaniard who had to justify his claim to Italian Colantonio
St. Jerome in his Study,
territory: afer the death in 1447 of his only Italian allies, Pope Eu- lower panel of the

genius IV and the Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, he had to altarpiece of San Lorenzo

use all his diplomatic abilities to gain recognition from the Florentine ca. 1444–5, Oil on panel,

and Venetian powers. He also had to win over the feuding Neapolitan 1.2 × 1.5m (4 × 5ft). Museo di
Capodimonte, Naples.
barons, many of whom had supported and continued to uphold the
French Angevin claim to the throne. He exacerbated their hostility by Colantonio employs dramatic
trompe lÕoeil (‘deceive the
appointing Catalan and Castilian dignitaries to most of the leading eye’) effects to show his

positions at court: one of his favourites, the Castilian master cham- mastery of Eyckian illusion.
The casual disorder of the
berlain Don Inigo d’Avalos (immortalized in a Pisanello medal), was stacked volumes and the

granted the duties on food exports for life. In an act of conciliation, minute description of the
study’s paraphernalia,
Alfonso increased the barons’ privileges and invested many with con- including the small viol-

siderable power – thereby storing up problems for his successor. Te shaped case containing
Jerome’s folding reading
machinery of government was adapted to the Spanish model, while glasses, reveal not only

court customs and ceremony were predominantly Catalan. More em- the painter’s skill but also
his ingenuity in devising
phatically, the language spoken at court was Catalan and Castilian, such opportunities for

where it had previously been French. Borso d’Este of Ferrara later displaying it.

frankly informed Alfonso: ‘in this kingdom you are not at all loved;
on the contrary, you are hated.’
But Alfonso was a shrewd, highly literate man, who knew the
value of successful political propaganda. Te development of a fne-
ly tuned language, both visual and verbal, that would communicate
his political ideology to the native aristocracy as well as his Italian
princely allies and rivals was a major factor in the shaping of his ar-
tistic policy. Spanish architects and artists worked on the interior of
Alfonso’s palace at Castel Nuovo, harmonizing the decoration with
the character of Alfonso’s interior court. Te exterior moats and de-
fensive forecourt were allotted to Italians. In addition, several of the
most famous Italian humanists were invited to Naples, not only be-
cause they fed Alfonso’s love of literature and fascination with the
world of antiquity, but also, and more importantly, because they
could translate his political ideology into the fashionable humanist
idiom and record his deeds for posterity. Tere they found one of
the most splendid libraries on the peninsula, where salaried copyists,
calligraphers, illuminators and binders produced works that refected
the learning, refnement and piety of Alfonso’s court.
Te polemical Valla provided one of the most important ser-
vices, proving in 1440 that Te Donation of Constantine – the historic
text on which rested the papal right to temporal rule of Italian terri-
tories – was a fake. (Tis was sweet recompense for the Roman-born
Valla’s failure to gain a position at the papal court – which, at the
time, was swarming with Florentines!) Facio wrote a treatise titled

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

92 | 93
On Human Happiness and a laudatory history of Alfonso’s reign.
Panormita also wrote a biography, On the Sayings and Deeds of King
Alfonso, which associated the king with the Spanish-born Roman
emperors, Trajan and Hadrian. Both emperors were then regarded
as the ‘best’ in a Christian sense, alongside Marcus Aurelius. Had-
rian, like Alfonso, had had a passion for hunting and had made it
an imperial sport in the middle of the second century CE. One of
Alfonso’s medals (by Pisanello) portrays the king – in the fgure of a
heroic youth in a surprising state of classical undress – as ‘intrepid
hunter’. Busts of the two Hispanic emperors adorned a stairway in
the Castel Nuovo, while the sculptural decoration of the triumphal
arch of the Castel Nuovo glorifes its patron’s reign in the same way
as that of the Arch of Trajan at Benevento (fig. 27).
In the visual sphere, Alfonso’s key to establishing his own
legitimacy in Italian eyes was a language based largely on that of
ancient Imperial Rome, and removed from that of the Angevin dy-
nasty. But he did not have to look directly to Rome: Naples had an
imperial tradition of its own, and a wealth of local remnants and
remains. Not only had Spaniards ruled Italy as emperors and kings,
but southern Italy and Sicily had once been ruled by the Swabian
Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194–1250).
Frederick was a shining example to Alfonso – a poet, warrior, astute
politician, and an exceptionally generous patron of the arts, who had
cultivated a reputation for liberality. Under his reign (from 1220) the
Jews had been given equal citizen rights, and aforded the Emperor’s
special protection. Frederick had appropriated the imperial imagery
of Augustus, striking medals in the antique style and even erecting
a triumphal arch in Capua. His symbol of the eagle, perched over its
prey, was later adopted by Alfonso (the ‘magnanimous’) in his own
medal all’antica, as a symbol of his own liberality. !e eagle – most
powerful and warlike of birds – was also magnanimous to those who
respected his sovereignty, sharing with them the remains of his prey.
But Alfonso’s interest in imperial imagery was a real and
personal one, as well. On every day of his Neapolitan campaign, he
had been inspired by pages from his copy of Julius Caesar’s Com-
mentaries, and humanists read out stirring passages of Livy (as well
as chivalric romances) to his troops on the battlefeld. He collected
ancient coins, particularly those bearing Caesar’s profle, and ven-
erated them almost as if they were sacred objects. His vast library
included the writings of Cicero, Livy, Caesar, Seneca and Aristotle,
which he perused while sitting in a wide window-seat overlooking
the Bay of Naples. His quasi-religious attitude to the remnants of Ro-
man civilization was easily explained by his humanist courtiers. !e
ancient emperors served as moral exemplars, spurring on Alfonso to Fig.57

virtue and glory. !us a bone from the arm of Livy, acquired from Roundel with portrait of
Caesar or Trajan
the Venetians, was cherished like a holy relic. At the end of Alfonso’s (detail from the left-hand

reign, the Mantuan sculptor and goldsmith Cristoforo di Geremia pedestal of the triumphal
arch of King Alfonso of
(ca. 1430–1476) portrayed Alfonso on a medal, clad in an authentic Aragon)

classical cuirass and being crowned by Mars and Bellona – god and Mid-1450s. Castel Nuovo,
goddess of war (fig. 28). Naples.

Pisanello was able to satisfy Alfonso’s educated delight in both This fine profile bust is
humanist and chivalric images. He was brought to Naples at the end based on Roman coins and the

of 1448, and in February 1449 was appointed a member of the king’s portraits featured on Roman
triumphal arches.
household and given a substantial salary of 400 ducats. !e decree
of February 1449 confrming Pisanello’s privileges makes it clear that
Alfonso knew of the artist’s outstanding achievements, and suggests
that Pisanello may have already produced designs for him:
‘Seeing therefore that we had heard, from the reports of many,
of the multitude of outstanding and virtually divine qualities of Pis-
ano’s matchless art both in painting and bronze sculpture, we came
to admire frst and foremost his singular talent and art. But when we
had actually seen and recognized those qualities for ourselves, we
were fred with enthusiasm and afection for him…’

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

94 | 95
Fig.58
Cristoforo di Geremia
Medal of Alfonso of Aragon
(reverse)

ca. 1455–8. Bronze, diameter

7.62cm (3in). Victoria and
Albert Museum, London.

The inscription reads

‘Mars and Bellona crown
the victor of the realm.’
Unusually, Alfonso’s entire
figure is shown. He holds
the sword of justice and
the orb of imperial power,
and his throne is decorated
with sphinxes (signifying
wisdom). The figures are so
skilfully compressed into
the circular space that
they seem to be sculpted
in the round rather than
carved. The obverse features
a powerfully naturalistic
portrait-bust of the
elderly king (in the style
of Roman statuary). He is
shown wearing a breastplate
decorated with winged putti,
a nereid riding a centaur,
and a Medusa head.
One of these ‘reports’ may have come from Filippo Maria Vis-
conti of Milan, whose castle at Pavia boasted frescoes by Pisanello
and whose medal was also fashioned by him. Alfonso’s close rela-
tionship with the Milanese duke dated from 1435, when he had been
captured by Genoese troops in the battle of Ponza and handed over
as Filippo Maria’s prisoner. Te Visconti duke entertained the king
more as a friend than a foe, and Alfonso seized the opportunity of
persuading Filippo of the benefts of Aragonese rule in Naples. As a
result, both men signed an accord of mutual co-operation and mili-
tary alliance that lasted until Filippo Maria’s death.
In commissioning a medal of himself by Pisanello (ca. 1441),
Filippo Maria was following a fashion that had been established at
the northern court of Ferrara. Te ruler of Ferrara at that time, Leo-
nello d’Este, was a passionate antiquarian, who surrounded himself
with leading humanist scholars. Pisanello shared his patron’s inter-
ests: he seems to have made detailed drawings of classical sculpture
while working in Rome (following the example of Gentile da Fabri-
ano) and, like Leonello, collected Roman coins. In 1444, when Alfon-
so’s illegitimate daughter Maria of Aragon became the second wife
of Leonello d’Este, Leonello had a Pisanello medal struck especially
for the occasion (see fig. 86). Te letters on the obverse of the medal,
above Leonello’s head Ge R Ar, have been interpreted as standing for
gener regis aragonum – declaring that the prince is now son-in-law of
the Aragonese king. When Alfonso had his own medal designed by
Pisanello in 1449, it was on a much larger scale, worthy of the king of
a great empire, not just the prince of a small state (fig. 59).
Alfonso’s interest in the medal can also be related to his fond-
ness for heraldic-style devices in the French and English chivalric Fig.59

traditions. Tese devices, which were used as a mark of the ruler’s Pisanello
Medal of Alfonso of Aragon
personal identity, or denoted membership of an order of knighthood, (obverse and reverse)

consisted of a symbolic or allegorical design, with a motto devised 1449. Cast bronze, diameter
to help explain the imagery’s esoteric signifcance. Alfonso belonged 11.1cm (43∕8in). Victoria and

to the Aragonese Order of the Lily and the Burgundian Order of the Albert Museum, London.

Golden Fleece, and his legitimized son Ferrante founded the famous The crested helmet,

Order of the Ermine. But perhaps the prime motivation for Alfonso’s embellished with an
open book, and the crown
patronage of the medal was that he believed it to be among the best (obverse), celebrate

vehicles for preserving his image for posterity. Guarino da Verona, Alfonso’s role as both
military victor and
in a letter of 1447 to Alfonso, claimed that painting and statues were peacemaker. The reverse

not the best ways of guaranteeing fame, because they were neither shows the eagle – proudly
standing over its prey –
portable nor ‘labelled’. Images accompanied by inscriptions, on the magnanimously sharing the

other hand, lef no confusion in the mind of the viewer and were spoils of victory. The
pleasure derived from such
of great help to historians. Guarino had in his possession a letter medals, aside from their

written from Rome by his master, the Greek humanist Manuel Chry- symbolism and imperial
connotations, had much
soloras, in 1411. Widely circulated in humanist circles, it included a to do with their physical

detailed description of: character as handheld

objects: the smoothness and
‘… triumphal arches erected in commemoration of [Roman] colouration of the bronze,

triumphs and solemn procession – which included representations their satisfying weight and
roundness, and the ‘feel’
of the subject races with the generals triumphing over them, and the of the relief carving.

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

96 | 97
chariot and the quadrigae and the charioteers and bodyguards, and Fig.60

the captains following afer and the booty carried before them – one Triumphal arch of King
Alfonso of Aragon
can see all this in these fgures as if really alive, and know what each
is through the inscriptions there.’ 1453–8 and 1465–86. Castel
Nuovo, Naples.
Chrysoloras regarded the reliefs on these great arches as ‘a
complete and accurate history – or rather not a history so much as Alfonso’s 40-metre (130-
foot) tall marble triumphal
an exhibition, so to speak, and manifestation of everything that ex- arch, framed by the massive

isted anywhere at that time.’ Alfonso was intensely interested in his- towers of the Castel
Nuovo, represents the
tory and there were keen debates on historiography in Neapolitan sculptural and architectural

circles. History, as the Florentine humanist Leonardo Bruni put it achievements of acclaimed
artists from Spain,
in around 1405, ‘afords to citizens and monarchs lessons of incite- Dalmatia, Rome and other

ment or warning in the ordering of public policy. From history also centres on the peninsula.
Bartolomeo Facio described
we draw our store of examples of moral precepts.’ History, in the it as ‘of magnificent

humanist sense, was almost indistinguishable from political propa- structure and workmanship,
second to nothing in
ganda, and for Alfonso public art was a selective and self-laudatory the world’.

exhibition of the history he was creating. Chryso-

loras also saw Rome’s great monuments as evi-
dence of the rulers’ ‘wealth of gold and creative
power, their artistic sense, as well as their greatness
and majesty, their sensibility for lofy things and
their love of beauty’. Pisanello’s prime duty on his
appointment in 1449 was to create monumentia
insignia – sculptural monuments that would im-
mortalize Alfonso’s qualities and deeds.
Many Pisanellesque designs have been as-
sociated with the sculptural decoration on Al-
fonso’s great triumphal arch – made from ‘whit-
est marble’ – erected at the entrance to the Castel
Nuovo (fig. 60). Work began in 1453, with the
distinguished Dalmatian architect Onofrio di Giordano (reputed to Fig.61

be an expert in classical antiquities) appointed as its chief designer. Guillem Sagrera

Vault of the Sala dei Baroni
Te respected Lombard sculptor Pietro da Milano arrived in Naples
from Dalmatia in July to supervise the work, and began carving re- 1455–7. Castel Nuovo,
Naples.
liefs on the lower arch with his fve master sculptors, who included
the Dalmatian-born Francesco Laurana, the Sicilian-based Domen- This Gothic vault, made
at the same time as the
ico Gagini and Paolo Romano. Overseeing the fgural sculpture was castle’s ‘classical’

the eminent Catalan fgure-carver Pere Joan who, with Guillem Sa- triumphal arch, is based
on Catalan models. It
grera, was also responsible for much of the interior decoration of is of an overwhelmingly

the Castel Nuovo. While Sagrera was concentrating exclusively on impressive scale – reaching
to over 27 metres (90 feet)
his famboyantly Gothic Sala dei Baroni inside (fig. )1), the Italian high. The rib junctions

sculptors, supported by at least 33 assistants, were vigorously carv- were originally decorated
with the coats of arms of
ing sumptuous all’antica vases with lilies and classical grifns (both Alfonso’s territories.

symbols of the Order of the Lily), as well as putti carrying garlands,

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

98 | 99
centaurs, and scenes from the voyages of Hercules. Sagrera created a
Gothic vault of such enormous height and grandeur that Pope Pius
II described it as surpassing that of the legendary palace of Darius,
King of Persia.
Te co-existence of these two very diferent styles demon-
strate the lessons that Alfonso had learned from other Italian rulers
and from his humanist advisers. Te early design for a triumphal
facade from Pisanello’s workshop (fig. 50) would have provided
more continuity between the exterior design and the Gothic pro-
jects of Alfonso’s Angevin predecessors. It combines a theatrical Ro-
man-style triumphal arch with chivalric fgures and heraldry, set in
an elaborate architecture where even the classical entrance arch is
given a rounded Gothic appearance. Te actual gateway (largely con-
structed between 1453 and 1458), however, removes the more fan-
ciful Gothic elements – more suitable to pageantry than monument
– and replaces them with its own local adaptation of the imagery of
Imperial Rome and intimations of Christ’s arrival into Jerusalem, in
keeping with its propagandist purpose. Structurally, the antecedents
are clear and bold, and would have been recognized by the ordinary
 Fig.62
Pietro da Milano and
others
The Triumphal Cort•ge
(detail from the triumphal
arch of King Alfonso of
Aragon: See Fig.60)

1455–8.

Work on the triumphal

frieze was probably divided
between Pietro da Milano and
Francesco Laurana (left-hand
side) and Isaia da Pisa and
Domenico Gagini (right-hand
side), although there is no
consensus on the individual
contributions. Gagini,
who came from a family of
sculptors working in the
Genoese milieu, certainly
contributed the exuberant
group of trumpeters and
musicians (far right),
while Isaia da Pisa probably
created the classical
quadriga (chariot drawn
by four horses) guided by
Victory. Pietro da Milano
is credited with sculpting
the strongly individualized
dignitaries behind the
triumphal car, perhaps
leaving Francesco Laurana to
portray the hieratic figure
Neapolitan populace as well as the humanists at court: the lower sec- of Alfonso. The monumental

tion is based on the frst-century Arch of the Sergii in Pula, Dalmatia heraldic griffins, below the
frieze (Fig.60), have been
(now modern Croatia) and there are clear allusions to the gateway associated with designs by

of Frederick II in Capua (1230s). Tere are also references to an- Pisanello.

cient Rome – the uppermost pediment sports a pair of river gods like
those on Rome’s Capitol (one of the focal points of Pope Nicholas V’s
contemporaneous restoration project).
Te triumphal frieze adorning the lower arch (fig. 62) invokes
famous triumphal reliefs like that on Rome’s Arch of Titus. As in Al-
fonso’s actual triumph of 1443, the brocade mantle of the defeated
René is draped over the back of the Siege Perilous. Here, Alfonso is
not only the heir to Caesar, but also to Sir Galahad – in a wonderful
piece of artistic mythologizing. Te fames around his feet as he sits
enthroned refer to the Siege Perilous – and by association to the Holy
Grail itself (this relic, the cup from the Last Supper, was allegedly
in Alfonso’s personal possession, safely stowed away in a Valencian
chapel). Te king’s procession includes the strongly individualized
barons and members of the court (probably recognizable portraits),
together with the ambassador of Tunisia and his entourage. A group

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

100 | 101
of royal musicians leading the procession provide a blast of life and
an insight into the importance of music at Alfonso’s court (which
retained a distinctly Spanish favour). Powerful sculptural groups in
the pavilions either side create an impression of depth that is absent
from Roman prototypes, and probably represent fgures at the rear
and front of the procession.
!rough this magnifcent fusion of elements, and his conscious
identifcation with the Roman virtue of ‘liberality’, Alfonso may have
created a singularly powerful image of monarchical rule, but he was
never ofcially crowned king. !e vast sums he spent on his literary
and artistic enterprises – 20,000 ducats a year on humanists, accord-
ing to his biographer Vespasiano da Bisticci (clearly an exaggeration)
and 250,000 ducats on the structural renovation of the Castel Nuovo,
together with the formation of a library which served as a precedent
for that in the Vatican – failed to secure him this longed-for recog-
nition. Moreover, these enterprises were fnanced by local taxes and
money from his Spanish kingdoms, whose courtiers greatly resented
their king’s heavy investment in Naples. Some of the spending was
vital: Castel Nuovo had been damaged in the siege and needed almost
total rebuilding, but Alfonso made it into one of the most ostenta-
tiously lavish of royal palaces as well as one of the most menacing. As
a defensive statement it was formidable, with immense round towers,
ravelins and ditches of up to 27 metres (90 feet) across. Alfonso also
built new fortresses – at Gaeta, up the coast (at a cost of about 30,000
ducats), and at Castellammare di Stabia on the Bay of Naples.

AlfonsoÕs Legacy
!e honour of an ofcial coronation fell instead to Alfonso’s ille-
gitimate son and heir Ferrante (1431–1491). Ferrante is shown as
heir apparent in an internal relief on the lower arch of the trium-
phal gateway (fig. 64), which was made during his turbulent reign
in 1465. His severely damaged coronation relief, which adorns the
inner arch (executed in 1465), bears the inscription: ‘I succeeded to
my father’s kingdom having been thoroughly tested, and received the
robe and holy crown of the realm.’
!e ‘tests’ to which Ferrante alludes are vividly illustrated on
the bronze doors made for the arch by Guglielmo lo Monaco (ca.
1747–1784) (fig. 63). !ese show Ferrante’s victory over the rebel-
lious barons in 1462, the dramatic attempt on his life of 1460, and his
defeat of René d’Anjou’s troops in the battles of Accadia and Troia
(Ferrante’s victory is celebrated in the Tavola Strozzi – see fig. 32).
 Fig.63
Guglielmo lo Monaco
Bronze doors of the Castel
Nuovo

ca. 1474–84. Palazzo Reale,

Naples.

Ferrante commissioned these

doors from Guglielmo, who
had been variously employed
at the Aragonese court
making metal bombards,
clocks, bronze cannon, and
a bell for the Castel Nuovo.
The artist’s portrait, along
with that of Bartolomeo
Facio, appears in one of
the doors’ small roundels.
Ironically, a cannon ball
(fired by a Genoese galleon
in the war against the
French of 1495) is embedded
in the lower left-hand
panel, which depicts the
retreating Angevin army.

Bartolomeo Facio, who had personally tutored the young Ferrante,

probably devised the programme for the doors and his Latin verses
accompany the six scenes teeming with incident and a multitude of
fgures. Like the lower scenes in Filarete’s bronze doors for St. Peter’s,
the style is reminiscent of contemporary miniatures (with heraldic
borders around each ‘feld’) and the classical reliefs that wind round
the triumphal columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Rome: but
this is the only set of ‘modern’ bronze doors with a secular subject.
Ferrante’s rather cheerless doors provide the fnal fourish to
his father’s majestic classical arch. Like the relief sculpture around
them, the bronze panels describe episodes from recent history and

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

102 | 103
Fig.64
Andrea dell’Aquila (?)
Ferrante and his Court
(detail from the lower arch,
inner left-hand bas relief
of the triumphal arch of
King Alfonso of Aragon:
See Fig.60)

1465.

The authorship of this

relief has been variously
attributed to two sculptors
who worked with Donatello:
Andrea dell’Aquila, a member
of his Florentine workshop,
and the Pisan Antonio
de Chelino, who assisted
Donatello in Padua. Ferrante
is shown in the centre,
flanked by his favourites,
with rows of soldiers
stretching out behind him.
Above, a recessed strip
sectioned by Aragonese
emblems (including the Siege
Perilous and an open book),
is surmounted by a lyrical,
flowing frieze of nereids and
sea monsters.

at the same time rewrite them in grandiose terms. !e inscription

alphonsus rex … italicus above the triumphal frieze on the
upper arch is a ftting tribute to King Alfonso’s lofy imperial ambi-
tions. Yet the empty space of the upper arch attests to the fact that
this story is incomplete. Recent research by Francesco Caglioti has
demonstrated that Alfonso intended to have an equestrian statue of
unparalleled vigour erected at the heart of his creation. !rough the
Florentine merchant Bartolomeo Serragli – a trusted intermediary
who brokered numerous commissions for the Neapolitan nobles (as
well as securing sought-afer antiquities) – Alfonso had approached
the redoubtable Donatello in Padua. !e sculptor, who was just com-
pleting his equestrian monument of the condottiere Gattemelata,
was duly contracted and given an advance payment. Further pay-
ments followed, refecting progress on the monument – with Do-
natello drawing direct inspiration from a famous ancient sculpture
of a horse’s head in the Palazzo Medici garden. But other work in-
tervened, progress stalled, and afer Alfonso’s and Serragli’s deaths
in 1458, Ferrante was too preoccupied to pursue the commission. Fig.65

When Ferrante returned to the completion of the Castel Nuovo Arch Donatello
Horse’s Head, known as the
in 1465 it was too late: Donatello died in 1466. Protome Carafa

It appears that Lorenzo de’ Medici retrieved the horse’s head ca. 1455. Bronze. Height
and presented it as a gif to the new king’s most trusted counsellor, 175cm (687∕8in), max. width

Diomede Carafa, who had entered Alfonso’s service as a youth and 181cm (711∕4in). Museo
Archeologico Nazionale,
who, as a statesman and military leader, had played a decisive role in Naples.

Alfonso’s siege and conquest of Naples, and had helped prepare Fer- Donatello’s colossal horse’s
rante and his children (including Eleonora) for power. Te beauty head, with its short-crested

and vehemence of Donatello’s horse’s head (fig. 65) – displayed in mane, protruding veins and
rolling eyes, derives from
Diomede’s private collection in its adapted form, rather than as the a late Hellenistic example.

public monument it was probably intended to be (it is designed to The cut of the neck and the
bold stylization indicate
be seen from below) – reveal the sculpture as an exceptional work of that it was designed to

art, worthy of detailed comparison with the antique, as distinct from be viewed from a distance.
Vasari was to describe it as
its role in the public realm, where it would have been subsumed into ‘so beautiful that many take

the language of power. it for the antique’.

Naples under Alfonso of Aragon

104 | 105
4

Arms and Letters: Urbino under

Federico da Montefeltro

F
ederico da Montefeltro’s patronage of the arts contrib- Fig.66

uted enormously to Urbino’s status as the ideal Renais- Piero della Francesca
Brera Altarpiece
sance court. A small, naturally fortifed hill-town, with (Pala Montefeltro) (detail)

no cultural history to speak of, Urbino was transformed ca. 1472–4 (retouched by
in a relatively short period into a fair-sized principality Pedro Berruguete in 1476).

and a centre of considerable artistic importance. In his Oil and tempera on panel,
2.48 × 1.7m (8ft 1 5∕8in × 5ft
treatise of 1510, the humanist Paolo Cortese described Federico and 7in). Pinacoteca di Brera,

Cosimo de’ Medici as the two greatest artistic patrons of the ffeenth Milan.

century, while Baldassare Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (Libro Piero’s votive altarpiece

del Cortegiano, 1528) vividly evoked the enlightened and cultivated shows Federico at the height
of his powers (symbolized
atmosphere of Urbino under Federico’s son Guidobaldo, singling out by his armour and baton of

Federico’s palace and library for special praise. Vespasiano da Bis- command). The light, shining
from behind the holy figures,
ticci, the Florentine agent who furnished the library with over half illuminating the chromatic

of its manuscripts, celebrated Federico’s supreme abilities as a pa- chords of marble and the
cool texture of stone,
tron and a military commander. For him, Federico represented the highlights an architecture

Christian ideal of the active and contemplative life. Trough arms that may have mirrored
the altarpiece’s intended
and learning Federico achieved the wealth and stability that allowed setting: possibly a round

him to devote the latter half of his reign to the pursuit of his princely tempietto (small temple)
in the Pasquino courtyard
ambitions. Te imagery of his serenely harmonious palace at Urbino of the Urbino palace

alludes to the civilizing arts of peace made possible by the prudent (never built), planned as
Federico’s mausoleum.
conduct of war.

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

106 | 107
Fig.67
Piero della Francesca
St. Sigismund Venerated by
Sigismondo Malatesta
1451. Detached fresco and
tempera, 2.57 × 3.45m (8ft
5 1∕8in × 11ft 3 7∕8in). San
Francesco, Rimini.
This large fresco, which
draws on ancient imperial
iconography, is still
displayed above the door
of the Cell of the Relics
in the Tempio Malatestiano
(see Fig.26). Sigismondo’s
patron saint, St. Sigismund
(an ancient king of Gaul,
who died young), bears the
features of the elderly
Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund
(1433-1437), who had visited
Rimini in 1433, where he
had knighted Sigismondo
and his brother for their
services. The fresco invokes
this aura of public ceremony
and service to a larger
cause – as well as Christian
devotion. Both Piero’s
portrait of Sigismondo and
the roundel depicting his
massive fortified castle
(Castel Sismondo) seem to
have served as models for
Matteo de’ Pasti’s medals
of the Riminese lord.
Federico (1420–1482) was frst and foremost one of the most
successful condottieri of his age. He was variously employed by most
of the major states of Italy, particularly the papacy (Urbino guarded
the northern border of the papal territories), and infated his fees in
line with his burgeoning prestige. By 1467, he was earning 60,000
ducats a year as a peacetime retainer, and 80,000 when he took up
arms (the paymaster was Francesco Sforza of Milan). At the time
of his death, his lands encompassed 300–400 strongholds and sev-
en large towns, including Castel Durante, Fossombrone and Gubbio,
and he was contracted for the huge sum of 165,000 ducats. His in-
come between 1451 and his death in 1482 has been calculated at over
a million and a half ducats.
Federico had gained his military expertise under the tutelage
of the famous general Niccolò Piccinino, but he was also proud of an-
other aspect of his education. As a boy hostage, he had spent two years
in Mantua, where he was taught at the famous humanist school of Vit-
torino da Feltre (1397–1446) alongside the Gonzaga children. Here he
was introduced to the broadest humanist curriculum, learning Latin,
astronomy, athletics, music, mathematics and geometry. He also well
understood the crucial role of humanists at court, later commission-
ing scholars such as Giovanni Santi (father of the painter Raphael)
and Vespasiano da Bisticci to write laudatory histories of his deeds.
Vittorino instilled in him the virtues of self-discipline and restraint,
which were to remain with him all his life. Using the immense earn-
ings from warfare that he built up over the frst 20 years of his rule,
Federico established a large court of his own and, from 1468, invested
more money in art and architecture than any other Italian ruler.
Besides his keen appreciation of sculpture and architecture (a
common theme of princely patronage), Federico had several more
complex motivations for spending on the arts on such a large scale.
First and foremost, he had an urgent need to assert the legitimacy
of his succession and to promote himself as a prince of incorrupti-
ble Christian virtue. At the same time, art was used to advertise his
military prowess and propagate his image as a just, wise and benevo-
lent ruler. Another key theme was the celebration of the Montefeltro
dynasty – Federico’s paternity was the subject of much speculation
and it was many years before his wife bore him an heir. Te ‘mag-
nifcent’ scale of his patronage was also designed to win him esteem
both at home and among the kings and princes whom he regarded
as his equals as well as his employers.
Te recurrent qualities of much of the art and architecture
commissioned by Federico are clarity, order, dignity – and intense
pragmatism. Vespasiano, in his biography of Federico (1498), high-
lights the ruler’s rigid self-control – a quality that seems to permeate
the lucid and carefully articulated artistic imagery with which Feder-
ico and his advisers surrounded themselves. Te painters, sculptors
and architects who gave visual expression to the themes of his rule
include Piero della Francesca (ca. 1410/20–1492), Luciano Laurana
(1420/25–1479) and Melozzo da Forlì (1438–1494). Teir pure and
harmonious styles are ofen thought to refect the radiant spirit of
Federico’s Urbino, although this is perhaps as much a refection of
Federico’s stylistic preferences as of his character. Piero della Franc-
esca had previously worked at the courts of Ferrara and Rimini, pro-
ducing among other works the serene heraldic fresco of Federico’s
arch rival Sigismondo Malatesta, kneeling before his patron saint
(fig. 67). Sigismondo’s character was the antithesis of Federico’s: he
was as capricious as Federico was measured. Yet Sigismondo’s no-
torious mobilitas – restlessness and changeability – fnd no place
in Piero’s calm, immutable Riminese portrait, which embodies the
qualities and air of antiquity that both leaders so admired.

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

108 | 109

Fig.68
Cappella del Perdono
ca. 1474. Palazzo Ducale,
Urbino.
This intimate chapel of
ÔforgivenessÕ, possibly
designed by Francesco di
Giorgio (and featuring a
frieze by the Milanese
sculptor Ambrogio Barocci),
was used to house FedericoÕs
precious sacred relics. Its
companion chapel, dedicated
to the arts, was decorated
with paintings of the
Muses by Giovanni Santi
and Timoteo Viti.
Creating Architectural Space
While Piero’s is in essence a local style (he came from nearby Borgo
San Sepolcro), his learned application of the new perspective tech-
nique and his delight in creating ‘real’ architectural settings seem
to have been keenly encouraged at the Montefeltro court. Federico
favoured artists who shared his own fascination with architectural
space and light, and who were able to deliver imaginative and prac-
tical solutions to specifc briefs. According to Vespasiano, Federico
was actively involved in the designs of his own buildings, particular-
ly his palace, although his role may have been more that of well-in-
formed dilettante than protagonist. He shared this enthusiasm with
his chief adviser Ottaviano Ubaldini, who probably played a key role
in supervising artistic commissions and, as sole regent, oversaw the
architect Francesco di Giorgio’s work afer Federico’s death.
Many of the painters and painter-architects employed by the
court were preoccupied with the perspective articulation of space
on a two-dimensional surface, or its translation into graciously pro-
portioned three-dimensional forms. But there was also a fascination
with the luminosity and mystical properties of colour: the refec-
tive brilliance of sun-lit surfaces and the saturated colour of forms
shrouded in shadow were described in the newly refned technique
of painting in oils, which Piero had mastered by the 1460s. Federico’s
appreciation of the ‘colourfulness’ and verisimilitude of Flemish art
led him to hire as court artist a Flemish painter who specialized in
colorire (colouring in oils). He was the only Italian ruler to do this,
although many rulers enthusiastically acquired works by Flemish
artists. Justus of Ghent was brought from Flanders (he is last doc-
umented there in 1466) and he was joined by the Spaniard Pedro
Berruguete. By employing these artists, Federico was also identify-
ing himself with the Hispano-Flemish style cultivated so assiduously
by the court of Naples (with which he had forged a lasting alliance
in 1451, in preference to serving Milan alongside his fellow merce-
nary-captain Sigismondo).
Federico’s palace interior is very unusual in its use of natural
light, while its forms fnd echoes in Piero and Melozzo’s painted ar-
chitecture (see fi:. 14). Two jewel-like chapels (fi:. 68), constructed
around 1474, are reminiscent of the cool temple interior of Piero’s
Brera Altarpiece (fi:. 66). In both painting and chapels, the sense
of balance is achieved through gently alternating chromatic chords
as well as pure geometric relationships. It has always been thought
that Piero was involved in the design of the architectural interior
of the palace, but his contribution has never been clearly identifed.
In these adjoining barrel-vaulted rooms, the architectural language
of Alberti (a regular visitor to Urbino) is imbued with an intimacy
and colouristic beauty that links it to ancient models like the Pan-
theon and artists working in the Urbino milieu. Each room has a
classical order of columns framing an ‘altar’ niche. Te complemen-
tary mingling of Christian and humanist references (the two chapels
are positioned directly beneath Federico’s studiolo) is refected in the
function of the two rooms: one is dedicated to the Holy Ghost, the
other to Apollo, Pallas and the Muses.
Te dignity and prestige conferred by humanist learning were
as important to Federico as they were to his fellow condottiere-prince,
Ludovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. In a dis-
patch of 1461, Federico complained to Ludovico
that their employers treated them like ‘peasants’
and yet expected to be well served. Te implication
that they were common soldiers driven by merce-
nary motives, rather than nobles inspired by deeds
of ancient valour, played a large part in their pro-
motion of themselves as humanist princes. Teir
reputation rested as much on their fede (faith) – it
was crucial to be taken as men of their word – as
on the wielding of arms. Federico’s humanist cre-
dentials and princely ‘magnifcence’ were proudly
exhibited in the form of an impressive and hastily
assembled library – containing, as Castiglione re-
corded, ‘a large number of the most beautiful and
rarest manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, all
of which [Federico] had illuminated with gold and
silver … ’ Teams of scribes and illuminators were
housed within the court: the less wealthy Alessan-
dro Sforza, in neighbouring Pesaro, had to use the
talents of those employed at other centres. Fed-
erico’s library included a lavishly illustrated Bible
bound in gold brocade, a deluxe Dante’s Divine
Comedy, and some beautiful presentation manu-
scripts (among them a treatise by Francesco di Giorgio, and Piero
della Francesca’s On Perspective for Painting).
Te catalogue of Federico’s library refects his own prefer-
ence for military treatises and ancient military history (Livy was
read to him in Latin nearly every day) and his interest in scientif-
ic and philosophical subjects. Te library itself, a modest but airy
room, was situated on the ground foor of the palace. A series of
paintings by Justus of Ghent and workshop depicting the Liberal

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

110 | 111
Arts may have decorated one of the libraries in his domain. Te Fig.69

four panels show Federico and other leading courtly fgures pay- Justus of Ghent and
workshop
ing homage to female personifcations of the individual disciplines, Music

and being honoured for their own intellectual accomplishments ca. 1476. Panel, 1.5m × 97cm
(fi:. 69). Te books themselves were intended to both delight and (5ft 11∕2in × 3ft 23∕8in).

enrich the reader. A laudatory inscription makes the solitary pleas- National Gallery, London.

ures of such a library clear: Only four pictures from the

series on the Liberal Arts
are known: Music, Rhetoric
‘Let there be wealth, golden vases, abundance of money, crowds (also in the National

of servants, sparkling gems. Let there be colourful clothes and Gallery), Astronomy and
Grammar (both destroyed
precious necklaces; but this illustrious furnishing excels all of in 1945). The fine quality

that by far. Let there be gilded pillars of snow-white marble, and of the paintings and
sophistication of their
let the chambers painted with varied fgures be enjoyed. Let also perspective design (they

the walls be hung with tales of Troy, and let the gardens be fra- are designed to be viewed
from below) have led some
grant in marvellous beauty, so that both inside and outside the critics to associate them

house shines with embroidered luxury. But all these things, in- with the hand of Melozzo
da Forlì (active in Urbino
deed, are dumb, while the library is at hand, when you would between 1465 and 1476).

command it to speak very eloquently, or order it to be silent ... Federico himself appeared
in the panel devoted to
For it teaches times past, and lays out many things to come; it Grammar (known through

explains the workings of the sky and earth.’ an old photograph) and a
running inscription across
the backgrounds of all four

Te learned visitor would have recognized the allusion to Petrarch’s refers to his titles. It is
uncertain whether they were
On the Solitary Life (De Vita Solitaria, ca. 1346–56), where the reader designed for the library

can summon the books to speak, or be silent, as the master of his of the palace at Urbino
or another of Federico’s
own intellectual realm. palaces (perhaps that at

Te librarian’s duties, detailed in Guidobaldo’s time, included Castel Durante).

‘preserving the books from damp and vermin, as well as from the
hands of trifing, ignorant, dirty and tasteless persons’ and displaying
them to people of learning or authority while politely pointing out
the ‘beauty, characteristics, lettering, and miniatures in the work in-
volved.’ Ignorant and inquisitive people were only to be given a glance
of these treasures – unless, that is, they were people of ‘power and
infuence’. Tis emphasis on the decorative appearance of the books,
which were generally richly bound in scarlet and silver as a mark of
veneration for their contents, contrasts with the approach of Leonello
d’Este and the Gonzaga, whose libraries had been painstakingly built
up on the advice of leading humanists.
Federico’s attitude, on the other hand, is very much that of
the educated parvenu. Te Florentine humanist Angelo Poliziano
declared that many of the transcriptions in the Urbino library were
rather poor. Yet there was no denying the library’s comprehensive-
ness – a measure of Federico’s and Vespasiano’s ambitious and me-
thodical approach. Vespasiano relates how he and the duke went

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

112 | 113
Fig.70 through the library’s catalogue just before Federico set of for the
Central Italian Painter
The Ideal City
siege of Ferrara. In comparing it with the catalogues of the papal
library in the Vatican, the Medici library in San Marco, and the great
Last quarter of fifteenth
century. Oil on panel,
university libraries of Pavia and Oxford, he records with an exuber-
67.5cm × 2.4m (265∕8in × 7ft ant fourish: ‘all had defects or doubles; all, that is, except his’.
101∕2in). Galleria Nazionale
delle Marche, Palazzo
Federico’s initial patronage of the arts was relatively conven-
Ducale, Urbino. tional. Te bare remnants of a mural decoration in his palace (dated
The palaces, circular
around 1450–55 and attributed to Giovanni Boccati) portray giant
temple, and geometric marble fgures of famous men-at-arms (uomini illustri) in imaginary classi-
pavement of this ‘ideal’
city have been created
cal armour. Te frst architect of his palace was a Florentine, Maso di
with ruler and compass. Bartolomeo, a pupil and collaborator of Cosimo de’ Medici’s archi-
This panel, along with two
similar ‘ideal’ views in
tect, Michelozzo. Maso built the section of the palace known as the
museums in Baltimore ‘Palazzetto della Jole’, which in typical dynastic mode incorporated
and Berlin (the latter
is twice the height),
the princely residence of Federico’s ancestors. Te Florentine sculptor
may have been painted Luca della Robbia was also briefy in Urbino, making a maiolica relief
as a demonstration of
Albertian principles, with
for the portal of the church of San Domenico, which Federico himself
their robust perspective fnanced. Cosimo de’ Medici had no doubt been asked by Federico
denoting civic order.
They probably served as
to recommend the best Florentine artisans (Federico was in the pay
spalliere (shoulder-height of the Florentine republic at the time). By 1465, however, when at
decorative panels) set
into furnishings. Similar
the height of his powers, Federico was looking for a new architect
‘ideal’ views can be found and complaining that there was a dearth of Florentine talent. As a
in the exquisite intarsia
doors, made between 1474
result, the Dalmatian architect Luciano Laurana (ca. 1420–1479) was
and 1482, for Federico’s brought from Alessandro Sforza’s court in Pesaro, with the permis-
Urbino apartments.
sion of Ludovico Gonzaga (who had loaned him out temporarily).
 It was Laurana’s contributions (ca. 1466–72), and perhaps
more emphatically those of Francesco di Giorgio (from ca. 1476),
that transformed the palace into the very symbol of Urbino: Castigli-
one described it as a ‘city in the form of a palace’. In this respect, it
shares the characteristics of a painted panel of an ‘ideal city’ (perhaps
originally set into furnishings in one of the interior rooms) that is
sometimes attributed to a Florentine architectural master (fi:. 70).
Tis is one of three such panels, almost certainly commissioned to
furnish Federico’s apartments, which explore the potential of the
new Vitruvian architectural vocabulary and the harmonious ideal of
the allÕantica town (the panel in Berlin – the boldest of the three – is
attributed to Francesco di Giorgio).

Federico’s Beautiful Dwelling

Te Urbino palace (fi:. 71) is the greatest of the many beautiful pal-
aces that Federico constructed throughout his territory. Built into
the hillside, yet opening on to the city’s main square, it is defensive
but also eminently accessible. Laurana’s and Francesco di Giorgio’s
contributions include a central facade, with graceful towers framing
a three-storey loggia (inspired by Brunelleschi’s Loggia degli Inno-
centi), a broad staircase leading up to the piano nobile, or main foor,
and Laurana’s spacious inner courtyard with a wide colonnade of

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

114 | 115
Fig.71
Palazzo Ducale,
general view.

After 1470, Urbino.

Federico’s palace occupies

a cliff-side site, with
Laurana’s elegant central
façade with its twin towers
visible from some distance.

Fig.72
Ambrogio Barocci
Portal with war trophies
(Porta della Guerra)
Iole suite, Palazzo Ducale,
Urbino.
This imposing doorway stands
at the head of the staircase
of ‘honour’. Its elaborate
decoration, inspired by
imperial reliefs, was
executed by Ambrogio
Barocci, who, together
with Domenico Rosselli and
their respective workshops,
sculpted decorative friezes,
windows and fireplaces
throughout the palace.
remarkably pure proportions (see fig. 9). Unlike Sigismondo Malat-
esta’s nearby Castel Sismondo, which was an aggressive statement of
power on Lombard-Emilian lines (see fig. 67), Federico’s palace is an
eloquent symbol of his peacetime ambitions. The sculptural exterior
and interior decoration of the palace and the marquetry furnishings
have been attributed to Lombard, Roman and Florentine masters.
Two of the outstanding contributors were the Tuscan, Domenico
Rosselli, and the Milanese sculptor, Ambrogio Barocci, who had ac-
cess to designs used in Milan and Pavia (fig. 72). Between Laurana’s
departure in 1472 and the Sienese Francesco di Giorgio’s appoint-
ment as palace architect (ca. 1476), Ambrogio may have temporarily
been placed in charge.
Sigismondo’s crenellated castle had been built on the site of an
earlier family stronghold, and was designed as a formidable expres-
sion of his state’s impregnability and his own personal charisma and
power (as reflected in its name, Castel Sismondo). Federico’s palace,
which began life as an extension of a modest family palace, was com-
pletely remodelled and massively extended to provide a focus for the
harmonious life and ceremony of court. It was designed to express
the ease and confidence of a successful military ruler, rather than the
constant vigilance of a leader under threat, and its purpose was per-
haps as much about fortifying the soul and mind as about discour-
aging attack. This confidence is made explicit in the Roman-style
inscriptions running along the friezes of the courtyard, which ex-
plain that work on the palace commenced only when Federico had
overthrown his enemies (following the example of King Solomon,
Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

116 | 117
Fig.73 whose portrait adorns the studiolo), notably his powerful neighbour
The studiolo
Sigismondo Malatesta.
ca. 1472–6. Palazzo Ducale, Because Federico built the palace virtually afresh, he was able
Urbino.
to organize it around his own needs, those of distinguished visitors,
Federico’s remarkable and those of his extensive household. All the audience rooms were
studiolo, possibly designed
by Francesco di Giorgio,
situated on the piano nobile, which was reached from the light and
includes exceptional gracious stairway rising up from near the entrance loggia. Also on
trompe lÕoeil intarsia
decoration. This includes
this foor was Federico’s suite of private rooms, which were connect-
illusionist cupboards ed with the studiolo, the chapel, a delightful secret garden, and an
left open to display
their scholarly contents
airy loggia with views over rolling countryside. Te ease of com-
(Fig.74), a landscape munication between private apartments and those that housed his
vista, armour, ‘sculpted’
figures of Virtues in niches,
staf, as well as the beauty of the interior furnishings, made the pal-
devices and titles. Many ace a model of elegance and comfort. Te unusually large windows
of these glorify Federico’s
accomplishments; others,
allowed light to food into the rooms, bringing out the warmth and
like the squirrel cracking colour of the diferent shades of wood in the intarsia (marquetry)
a nut and the bravura basket
of fruit, are there simply
panels and the brilliance of the gilded stucco ceilings. Tere were
to delight the viewer. also practical innovations like Francesco di Giorgio’s smokeless fre-
places (which greatly impressed Federico Gonzaga) crowned with
carved chimneypieces, and a spiral ramp by which horses could
be ridden from the stables to the state apartments. Whereas Sigis-
mondo was entranced by erudite novelties such as allÕantica med-
als, Federico seems to have been particularly drawn to artists who
could combine practical design with technical and
domestic innovation. Baccio Pontelli, the architect
and intarsia designer who worked with Francesco
di Giorgio from 1479 to 1481, sent designs of this
remarkable palace to Florence’s Lorenzo de’ Medici
at the latter’s request.
Te room that has attracted most scholarly
interest is the small and exquisitely decorated stu-
diolo (fig. 73), created largely afer Federico was
made Duke by Pope Sixtus IV in 1474 (a similar
room was made slightly later at Federico’s palace
at Gubbio). Situated between the main audience
chamber and the duke’s private apartments, it
served a dual purpose. It was here that Federico
found time for his scholarly pursuits, and here that
he showed visiting dignitaries the ‘magnifcence’
and moral themes of his rule. Te lower walls are
still clothed in illusionistic intarsia of the most
outstanding Florentine crafsmanship (fig. 74),
while the upper parts were originally hung with 28
portraits of famous learned men by Justus of Gh-
ent (possibly assisted by Pedro Berruguete). Federico’s studiolo was Fig.74

probably inspired by other princely examples, in particular Piero de’ Baccio and Piero Pontelli
(attributed)
Medici’s studietto in the new Palazzo Medici on the Via Larga (now Detail of intarsia

Via Cavour) in Florence. Te emblems, portraits and objects depict- decoration: See Fig.73

ed display the scholarly and Christian accomplishments that under- While the contents of these

line the military and dynastic achievements trumpeted throughout illusionistic cabinets, with
their ‘open’ latticework
the decoration. Federico is portrayed in one intarsia panel as the doors, are emblematic

embodiment of the cardinal virtues and as harbinger of peace (with of Federico’s learning
across the liberal arts,
a downward-pointing spear). Tree female fgures, representing the the wood panelling is also

Christian theological virtues, and shown with appropriate grace and practical. ‘If you panel
your walls with timber …
restraint, complement his portrait. it will make the place

Te subdued and pious role of women in the decoration of healthier, warm enough
in winter, and not too
Federico’s studiolo has been usefully compared with the famboyant hot in summer’ (Alberti).

depiction of the female Muses in Leonello’s studiolo in Ferrara (com- Federico’s monocular vision
(he had lost an eye) would
pleted in Borso’s time), who are portrayed as radiant and sophis- have provided ideal viewing

ticated embodiments and inspirers of the arts that they represent conditions for the optical
tricks of the decoration.
(see fig. 91). In the Ferrarese study they appeared prominently above

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

118 | 119

Fig.75
Justus of Ghent and
assistants
Plato (from the series
Uomini illustri)
ca. 1475. Panel, 101 × 69cm
(39 7∕8 × 271∕4in). Musée du
Louvre, Paris.
The studiolo’s 28 learned
men (half of which are now
in the Louvre) included
Vittorino da Feltre
(Federico’s tutor) and Pope
Pius II (his ally). Plato
is paired with Aristotle,
illustrating the studiolo’s
reconciling of different
intellectual traditions.
the wainscoting, displaying their pagan allure and the fabulous craf
and invention of the painters who conceived them (including lav-
ish ornamental use of gold and silver). In Federico’s studiolo, they
are replaced by male exemplars, soberly displaying their intellectual
accomplishments and trappings of rank (fig. 75). Tese include bib-
lical fgures and saints (such as King Solomon and St. Augustine),
ancient philosophers (such as Plato and Aristotle), great authors and
poets of the modern era (such as Petrarch and Dante) and contem-
porary fgures (notably Pius II and Sixtus IV).
Te decorative scheme of the studiolo reveals not only a dif-
ferent iconographic approach – with its virile subject matter denying
any sensual intrusion – but also a diference in emphasis. Te intarsia
decoration, probably designed by Francesco di Giorgio and executed
in Pontelli’s workshop – with its focus on the depiction of objects
of utility as well as illusionistic cupboards and vistas – looks at the
art of pictorial representation as an active visual exercise, employing
the language of monochrome restraint so as not to detract from its
optical rigour and intellectual ingenuity. All the objects represented
in the fctive latticed cupboards – from the astrolabes and inkwells
to the duke’s dented helmet – refer only to the liberal and military
arts (including the chivalric honours that derive from them). Teir
style of representation also encompasses both the active and the con-
templative life, stimulating the eye without over-exerting the mind.
Isabella d’Este’s secretary Mario Equicola was to describe this efect
when writing about the similar wooden inlay decoration of Isabella’s
own studiolo, stating that it ofered more ‘recreation to the gaze’ than
hangings and extravagant decoration, and less ‘fatigue [to] the mind’,
as it employed natural rather than applied colour.
Te Quest for Legitimacy
Te dignity and order of Federico’s ‘beautiful and worthy dwelling’
were intended to do honour ‘to the status and praiseworthy reputa-
tion of our ancestors as well as our own rank and position’ (Laurana’s
1468 patent of appointment). Te path to power, however, had not
been a straight or unsullied one. Federico was born illegitimate (‘ac-
cording to Italian custom bastards commonly rule,’ remarked Pope
Pius II dryly in his Commentaries), although he was legitimized in
1424. Pius II even mischievously reported the rumour that Federico
was not the son of Count Guidantonio of Urbino, but had been fa-
thered by the famous captain Ubaldini della Carda and substituted
for the ruler’s child at birth (though the passage was later deleted
from the published version of the Commentaries). Federico only
came to power when his half-brother, the legitimate Oddantonio,
was brutally murdered with a pruning hook.
Oddantonio, who had become papal vicar of Urbino on his
father’s death (21 February 1443), was created Duke of Urbino in
April 1443 at the age of 16. He had proceeded to impose heavy taxes
on his people and lead a life of reckless debauchery. Within a year
he had inspired near-universal hatred. At the time of Oddantonio’s
murder (July 1444) at the hands of his own subjects, the 22-year-old
Federico was in Pesaro, defending the city against
Sigismondo Malatesta, who had twice attempted
to assassinate him. Te following day Federico re-
turned to Urbino with his troops, but was not al-
lowed to re-enter the city until he had acquiesced
to conditions imposed by the people. His ready
agreement to grant an amnesty to the assassins
and those who had rampaged through the palace
led to persistent rumours, fuelled by Sigismondo,
that Federico himself had headed the conspiracy
to murder his brother – allegations he always vig-
orously denied.
Federico’s problems at his succession were
pressing ones. Te state cofers were empty, and
almost immediately he had to put down a plot by
his own people to overthrow him. Sigismondo –
at the head of Pope Eugenius IV’s armies – was
also intent on his downfall. As a result Federico
quickly formed an alliance with Francesco Sforza,
then papal vicar of Ancona. Federico was subse-
quently heavily penalized for his part in the secret
sale of Pesaro to Francesco’s brother (for which he
received the territory of Fossombrone in return,
but was excommunicated by Pope Eugenius IV
in 1446). Eugenius, however, died before he could
complete his demolition of Federico, and Pope Nicholas V shrewdly
remedied the situation in 1447, recognizing Federico as Count of
Urbino (while requiring Federico to pay 12,000 ducats for Fossom-
brone). From this time onwards, Federico settled into a period of
relatively stable rule, assiduously building up valuable relations with
courts and republics throughout the peninsula. In the interests of
peace and security, he employed Francesco di Giorgio as architect
and defence expert, committing about 200,000 ducats to the con-
struction of a network of forts throughout the Urbino territories

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

120 | 121
(fig. 76), the same amount that he reportedly spent on the building
of his main palace. His most urgent priority, however, was to win the
loyalty of his subjects. This he did through a policy of low taxation
(his mercenary wages meant that he did not need to generate funds
through taxes), the establishment of ecclesiastical foundations and,
in the last 20 years of his rule, through a display of ‘magni0cence’
designed to stimulate civic pride and spread his honour abroad.
The beginning of the great period of Federico’s art patronage
falls shortly after the 0nal humiliation of Sigismondo, who had ruled
as papal vicar in Rimini since 1432. Ever since Federico had arranged
the sale of Pesaro in 1444 to Alessandro Sforza the bitter rivalry be-
tween the two neighbouring rulers had degenerated into violent en-
mity. The continuous feud reached a climax when Sigismondo rashly
took on the might of Pius II’s papal state, in a last-ditch attempt to
free Rimini from papal interference. Federico was employed by the
papacy to 0ght the ‘impious house of Malatesta’. In the midst of the
war, however, Federico briefly sided with Sigismondo, who, with typ-
ical bravado, had a deluxe copy of Roberto Valturio’s military treatise
On Military Matters (De Re Militari, written about 1450 and pub-
lished in 1472) presented to his rival. Many of the military reliefs that
later decorated the interior of Federico’s palace were taken from its
splendid woodcut illustrations (attributed to the artist and architect
Matteo de’ Pasti).
In 1451, Federico broke his alliance with Francesco Sforza
and signed a contract with Alfonso of Aragon, in which Naples guar-
anteed Urbino against Malatesta aggression. Under the protection
of this great power, Federico was able to gain further papal support:
in 1461, Pius II – a supporter of Alfonso’s illegitimate son Ferrante’s
succession to the throne – made Federico Captain-General of the
Church. Led by Federico, the pope’s armies 0nally crushed Sigis-
mondo, and the Urbino ruler was the bene0ciary of much of the
Malatesta’s forfeited territory, including over 50 castles and towns.
Urbino was now nearly three times its former size.
In 1464, Pius II granted Federico the right that the citizens of
Urbino had previously denied him: to pass on the rule of Urbino to
his legitimate son. Federico’s 0rst wife had been barren, though he
had fathered several illegitimate children. His second wife, Battista
Sforza (daughter of his ally Alessandro Sforza), bore him several girls
in succession. Then, in 1472, she gave birth to an heir – Guidobaldo.
A few months later, Federico and his troops – in the pay of the Floren-
tine republic – put down the revolt of Volterra, a subject-town of the
Florentines. As a mark of gratitude, the city of Florence staged a tri-
umphal entry for the condottiere and presented Federico with lavish
gifs, including ‘A gilded silver helmet, with enamels, valued, as is Fig.76

said, at 500 ducats. Te crest is Hercules, club in hand, and under him Francesco di Giorgio
Fort of Rocca San Leo
the grifn, the arms of the people of Volterra, bound as a symbol of
victory’ (Mantuan ambassador’s report). Te helmet was made by one 1476Ð8. Near Urbino.

of Florence’s leading artists, the goldsmith Antonio del Pollaiuolo. The famous Sienese architect-

Te gif of a solid silver helmet had bitter-sweet connotations engineer designed over 70
fortresses in the Urbino
for Federico. He had lost his right eye and the bridge of his nose region.

had been shattered when he had been foolhardy enough to leave his
helmet visor open in a joust. Tis incident (related by Giovanni Santi
in his rhyming chronicle), besides leaving permanent physical scars,
caused Federico eternal remorse. He saw it as a direct punishment
from God for having impulsively placed an oak sprig in the open vi-
sor as a token of love for a young mistress, whom he had seduced in a
blasted oak. When his legitimized son Buonconte died of the plague
in 1458, Federico still felt that he was atoning for his youthful sins.
A Florentine miniature, showing Federico as the victor of Volterra,
portrays him from his right side but unscarred. In his ofcial, large-
scale portraits he is decorously shown facing to the lef.

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

122 | 123
Fig.77
Piero della Francesca
Diptych with Portraits of
Federico da Montefeltro and
Battista Sforza (obverse)
ca. 1472. Oil on panel,
each panel 47 × 33cm (18 5∕8 ×
131∕8in). Uffizi, Florence.
These profile portraits of
Federico and his second wife
are beautifully contrasted:
that of Battista is
presumed to be posthumous.
Battista’s fine blonde hair
and porcelain skin are set
against the dark, wiry hair
and sanguine complexion of
Federico; her finery matches
the restrained splendour
of his expensive red velvet
attire. It is possible that
Federico chose a portable
hinged diptych format (the
frame is a nineteenth-
century addition) so that he
could carry the portrait of
his late wife with him when
he journeyed from palace to
palace. For the reverse of
the panels see Fig.12.
Cultivating Dignity
Federico’s victory celebrations were abruptly curtailed in July by the
tragic death of Battista Sforza, who had never recovered from Guido-
baldo’s birth. The two events inspired Federico to commission several
works that were either devoted to her memory – she was not only the
model spouse, but had served as both his deputy and ambassador –
or to the recent military victory, which he also dedicated to his late
wife. In around 1472, he commissioned a double portrait of himself
and Battista from Piero della Francesca (fig. 77). The two panels may
have originally been in the form of a diptych (hinged so that they
opened and closed like a book), with the bust-length portraits on
the outside and two scenes of allegorical triumph on the inside (see
fig. 12). The coupling of aristocratic pro0le portraits with allegorical
emblems is similar to that found in contemporary medals. There are
even accompanying inscriptions written in the same perfect human-
ist hand that appears along the base of Piero’s Riminese fresco.
While Sigismondo chose to have his castle portrayed along-
side him, Federico and Battista’s facing pro0les are set against a shim-
mering landscape that implies the in0nite extent of their domain
(although there are no direct topographical references) and boasts
knowledge of the latest Flemish models. The landscape, with a walled
city and little boats gliding on radiant expanses of water, is painted in
the manner of van Eyck (see fig. 55), and is echoed in the continuous
panoramic landscapes on the reverse panels. A painting by the Bru-
ges master, which was then in Urbino, showed just such a landscape
with ‘minute 0gures of men, groves, hamlets and castles carried out
with such skill you would believe one was 50 miles from the other’
(Bartolomeo Facio). Battista’s pale pro0le – probably taken from her
death mask – reveals a luminous intelligence set off by the lustre of
her pearls, an effect that Piero would have admired in the work of
Justus of Ghent, who was by then working at the Urbino court.
The ideals of dignity, decency and modesty outlined in Alber-
ti’s On Painting are followed to the letter in the manner of Federico’s
portrayal. Alberti had given the example of Apelles, who ‘painted the
portrait of Antigonus only from the side of his face away from his
bad eye’: Piero’s portrait of Federico observes ‘decency’ in precisely
this way. Alberti also relates that the ancient painters, ‘when painting
kings who had some physical defect, did not wish this to appear to
have been overlooked, but they corrected it as far as possible while
still maintaining the likeness’. Piero does not attempt completely to
disguise Federico’s dis0gurement, appreciating that this adds to the
impression of stoicism and naturalism.
 Like Sigismondo, Federico was to realize the propaganda value
of a strong, recognizable likeness. Piero’s portrait was to be used as a
model by medallists and manuscript illuminators throughout Feder-
ico’s reign. Te enmity between Federico and Sigismondo seems to
have played some part in the restrained visual image that Federico
preferred for himself. Both men had things in common: they were
extremely able condottieri and erudite rulers: Sigismondo was one of
the most naturally gifed and eloquent men of his day, with his mo-
bilitas also expressing itself in an exceptionally quick and agile intel-
ligence. Sigismondo’s undisguised acts of immorality and hot-headed
impetuosity, however, served to underline Federico’s moral rectitude
and coolly deliberate character. Vespasiano da Bisticci’s Life describes
Federico as ‘naturally choleric’ in temperament, although ‘afer a long
time he managed to control this, on every occasion being a reconcil-
iator for his people’. His passion for clear organization and insistence
on the highest standards of hygiene are refected in a unique list (the
Ordini et Ofci) detailing the duties and structure of his household.
Later, Giovanni Pontano, in his treatise On Prudence (De Prudentia,
ca. 1499), singled out Federico as leading an exemplary ‘prudent life’.

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

124 | 125
Fig.78
Francesco di Giorgio
(attributed)
Candelabrum
ca. 1476. Gilded bronze,
height 1.6m (5ft 3 5∕8in).
Museo Diocesano Albani,
Urbino.
This enormous candelabrum
was presented to Urbino
Cathedral by Federico for
use in the Easter liturgy.
It is decorated with symbols
of the resurrected Christ as
well as the duke’s heraldic
emblems and chivalric
honours. The gift of the
piece may have coincided
with the duke’s decision to
support the rebuilding of
the cathedral.
A second portrait of Federico by Piero, using the same car-
toon as the diptych portrait, is included in the so-called Brera Al-
tarpiece, dating from 1474 (fi:. ;;). Te altarpiece was later hung
in Federico’s burial church of San Bernardino (begun by Francesco
di Giorgio shortly before the duke’s death). It is probably frst and
foremost a votive work. Te Virgin sits solemnly on a dais in the
centre, with the Christ Child laid across her lap. Her rich brocade
gown and modest veil seem to identify her with Battista. Indeed,
originally her headdress was adorned with a jewel very much like
that worn by Battista in the Ufzi diptych, and which seems to have
been a studio prop. Federico kneels in the foreground in shining
armour, his sword still strapped to his side. His dented helmet
(rippled with refections), gauntlets and baton of command are on
the foor beside him, leaving his head bare and his hands free to
pray. Suspended above the Virgin’s head, at the apex of the scal-
lop-shaped apse, is a large white ostrich egg on a slender cord. Its
smooth, matt fnish reveals Piero’s delight in contrasting refective
and non-refective surfaces. Combining a Flemish delight in the
play of light across surfaces and the details of fabric and jewels,
with Piero’s Italian stock in trade – the ideal geometry of sacred and
ancient architecture and subtle harmony of palette – it could only
perhaps have been made in Urbino at this time, where these two
styles were encouraged to converge.
Te work is full of subtle symbolism and allusions. Federico
kneels in front of his patron saint, John the Evangelist, whose book is
held in line with Federico’s head – that favourite conjunction of arms
and letters. On the opposite side stands Battista’s patron saint, John
the Baptist. Te ostrich egg has been interpreted in countless ways,
but it is probably another instance of the painting’s clever combin-
ing of theological and secular meanings. Te ostrich was a personal
emblem of Federico and its eggs (as a symbol of God’s relationship
with man) a common ornament of churches. A candelabrum for the
cathedral, probably made by Francesco di Giorgio (who was made
cathedral architect in 1476) and donated by the duke, features the
same combination of sacred and secular symbols, with Federico’s
emblems (including the ostrich and bombshell) arranged around its
base (fi:. 78).
Piero della Francesca’s main period of employment at Urbino
dates from the early 1470s, although he seems to have worked for
Federico periodically before this date. Giorgio Vasari mentions that
he made ‘many paintings with extremely beautiful fgures’ at Urbino,
most of which ‘came to grief during the many times that state has
been troubled with war’. Te famous Flagellation of Christ (fi:. 7K),
dating from the late 1450s or early to mid-1460s, may be the sole Fig.79

survivor of this type, although there is no evidence to directly con- Piero della Francesca
Flagellation of Christ
nect it. With no clues as to the painting’s original setting, or even the
defnitive identity of its patron, the attempts to unravel its meaning Late 1450s or early to mid-
1460s. Oil and tempera on
continue unabated. panel, 58.4 × 81.5cm (231∕8 ×

Te old tradition that the fgures in the foreground of the pic- 321∕4in). Galleria Nazionale
delle Marche, Palazzo
ture represent Oddantonio fanked by the evil counsellors who were Ducale, Urbino.

killed alongside him – the agents of Sigismondo Malatesta – is still This small meditative
hotly disputed. Other interpretations hinge on an inscription con- panel has attracted much

venerunt in unum, which seems to have once been written on its attention because of the
unusual precision of its
frame (now lost). Tese words were taken from the Second Psalm: architectural setting. The

‘Te kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel biblical event takes place
in Pilate’s Praetorium in
together, against the Lord and against his Anointed …’ Te psalm Jerusalem; the flagellation

goes on to exhort the kings (‘ye judges of the earth’) to be wise and column is probably the
city’s Hadrianic sun column,
be instructed. Te painting may embrace both the Old and New marking the centre of the

Testament meanings contained in this verse. David’s psalm was in- earth. When the perspective
is translated into real
terpreted as a prophecy of the conspiracy against Christ, and also architecture, the column

as an exhortation to a holy crusade: the fagellation scene has been appears on a perfectly round
porphyry disc surrounded by
interpreted as an allegory of the Church’s contemporary sufering at geometric Roman floor tiles.

the hands of the Turks.

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

126 | 127
 What is abundantly clear, however, is that the painting is a
virtuoso display of Piero’s perspective skills – and may have been
intended as such. It is a very rare example of mathematically correct
perspective applied to an architectural setting, later codifed in Pie-
ro’s distinguished treatise On Perspective for Painting (De Prospectiva
Pingendi, ca. 1480) – which demonstrates a technical understand-
ing of the subject that far outstrips that of Alberti. Tis idea of a
‘demonstration piece’ to solicit courtly patronage is reinforced by the
prominence of Piero’s signature (opus Petri de Burgo Sancti Sepulcri)
beneath the throne of Pilate, the conspicuously diverse fgure types
in the foreground, and the portable nature of the tiny tempera panel.
Piero’s frst documented visit to Urbino is in the spring of 1469.
He came, all expenses paid, at the invitation of the artist Giovanni
Santi, not at the bidding of the court. Santi had been asked to fnd a
painter to complete an altarpiece for the Corpus Domini confrater-
nity (a brotherhood that honoured the body and blood of Christ),
which had been begun by the Florentine artist Paolo Uccello, who
was paid for its predella panel in 1468. In the event, Piero was unable
to take up the commission, and Justus of Ghent painted the monu-
mental main panel (1472–4) instead (fi:. 80). Its iconography is tra-
ditional: the Last Supper is shown as an enactment of the sacrament
of the Eucharist, which Sixtus IV was then vigorously promoting as
the central focus of Christian worship.
Christ stands in the centre, administering the host (‘Take and
eat, this is my body’), while Judas is shown as separate, wearing the
Jewish prayer shawl and holding his coin purse, symbol of betrayal.
What is unusual about the altarpiece is that the veneration of the host
(the bread or wafer) is combined with a homage to Federico’s court, Fig.80

prominently represented in the right-hand background. In recog- Justus of Ghent

Institution of the Eucharist
nition of Federico’s partial funding of the project (with a relatively
modest 15 gold forins), and perhaps as a subtle endorsement of his 1472–4. Corpus Domini
Altarpiece. Panel, 2.8 ×
central role in papal afairs, the fnely attired fgures of Federico, two 3.1m (9ft 5in × 10ft 6in).

leading courtiers (Ubaldini is one of them), and the late Battista (or Galleria Nazionale delle
Marche, Palazzo Ducale,
a nurse) cradling baby Guidobaldo are also included as witnesses to Urbino.

the redemptive powers of the Eucharist. Federico gestures towards This large altar panel is
a richly dressed fgure, who has been identifed as Isaac, the ambas- painted in the prized oil

sador of the Shah of Persia. Isaac, a Spanish Jew and Catholic convert technique. Justus has set
the action in a shadowy
(he converted during his diplomatic mission to Italy), caused a great Romanesque interior, imbuing

stir when he came to Urbino in 1472 to persuade Federico to unite the architecture with sacred
symbolism of a distinctly
with Persia and embark on a crusade against the Turks. Tat same Flemish type. The painter

year, on the feast day of the Eucharist, Sixtus IV launched the crusade carefully picks out the
ritual objects on the table
with Urbino’s staunch support. and floor – the bronze plate

Uccello’s accompanying predella panel reveals a darker aspect for the host, the glass
carafe for the wine, and the
of Federico’s Urbino (fi:. 81). It dramatizes the medieval legend of metal jug and basin (for the

the desecration of the Host in six box-like episodes set in a noctur- cleansing of feet).

nal Umbrian landscape, including the penultimate scene of a Jewish

moneylender, his wife and two children being burned at the stake.
Te panel sat uncompromisingly beneath Federico’s portrait above,
while also sitting uncomfortably alongside his historical reputation
for protecting his Jewish subjects. Tis reputation is based partly on
the relative prosperity of the Jewish population in Urbino at the time,
and partly on Federico’s respect for Hebrew scriptures and learning,
and the prominent place he accorded to the teaching of Moses. Fed-
erico’s tolerance, however, was carefully delineated within the realms
of what was defned as ‘tolerable behaviour’ for non-Christians. Jews
were welcome in Urbino, as they were in Mantua and Ferrara – their

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

128 | 129
Fig.81
Paolo Uccello
Miracle of the Profaned Host
(Predella, Corpus Domini
Altarpiece)
1465-8. Tempera on panel,
each 43 × 58cm (167∕8 ×
223∕4in). Galleria Nazionale
delle Marche, Palazzo
Ducale, Urbino.
Here, in six episodes,
dominated by Uccello’s
theatrical perspective
constructions, a ‘dark’
tale of sacrilege and
violent retribution unfolds.
The ‘perfidious’ Jew is
portrayed as a contemporary
moneylender in his pawnshop,
a scene designed to be
familiar to the local
congregation, while the
outside scenes are set in
the Umbrian hills under a
menacing nocturnal sky.
moneylending activities were central to Urbino’s credit system (em-
bracing both professional classes and nobility) – so long as they did
not commit ofences against the Christian faith. Uccello’s panel, how-
ever, is a stark reminder of their marginalization, due to their failure
to believe in the powers of the Eucharist, so central to Catholicism.
Te altarpiece reminds Urbino’s citizens that Federico’s tolerance
and civility – embodied by his courtly discourse with the Persian
Ambassador – will not admit any threat to Christianity, from the
Jews or the Turks.
Te Confdent Ruler
At the time of the altarpiece’s completion, Federico’s career reached
its triumphant heights. In 1474 he was created Duke of Urbino in an
elaborate ceremony performed by Sixtus IV in Rome, and also made
gonfaloniere (captain) of the papal forces. Tis was partly in recogni-
tion of his loyalty to King Ferrante of Naples, and partly as a result
of the marriage of one of Federico’s daughters to the pope’s nephew,
Giovanni della Rovere (who was gifed three of Sigismondo’s for-
feited towns as a result). Later that year, Federico received two pres-
tigious international honours: the Order of the Garter from Edward
IV of England and the Order of the Ermine from Ferrante of Naples
(another of his daughters was married to a leading member of the
Neapolitan nobility). Reconciled with Rimini (with his daughter
Isabetta wed to Sigismondo’s son Roberto) and allied with Ferrara
(under the rule of Ercole d’Este and Ferrante’s daughter, Eleonora
of Aragon), Federico could at last bask in the universal recognition of
his status and look to his son to uphold the dignity of the Montefeltro
dynasty. Inscriptions referring to his new titles and honours appear
throughout the palace – chief among them the omnipresent four-
ish fed.dux. His princely confdence expresses itself in the supreme
ofcial portrait (fi:. 82).
 Te duke is shown solemnly reading at a lectern, yet he is also
dressed in armour, with his sword strapped to his side and the ducal
mantle around his shoulders. His dignifed and disfgured profle is
itself a symbol of fortitude: Giovanni Pontano referred to Federico’s
self-deprecating jokes about his own appearance as an example of
his courage. As defender of the Christian faith, Federico is ever vig-
ilant, even when engrossed in scholarly contemplation. His prestig-
ious chivalric honours are prominently displayed. Above the lectern
is a hat encrusted with pearls – probably the ceremonial hat worn
at his investiture. Te fragile child leaning against Federico’s reas-
suringly solid draped knee is his heir Guidobaldo, bearing the ducal
sceptre that signifes the continuation of the Montefeltro dynasty. It
is engraved with the word Po[n]tifex – an allusion to the pope’s
granting of the right of succession. In return, Federico had shown
unswerving loyalty to the pope – a coded letter of 1478, two years
afer this portrait was made, reveals Federico’s secret participation
in a coup organized by Sixtus IV to assassinate the Medici (in which
Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano was slain).
Just as the famous men in the studiolo had provided Feder-
ico with moral and intellectual guidance (over half their dedicatory
inscriptions mention Federico’s gratitude towards them), so young
Guidobaldo, radiant in his ceremonial robes, is here – in an inno-
vative iconographic combination – presented with the living exam-
ple of his father. Te book Federico is reading has been identifed
as St. Gregory the Great’s Moralia, a commentary on the Book of
Job, which was regarded as the summation of Christian morality. It
focuses on the harmonious integration of word and action, thought
and deed, prayer and dedication to the duties of state, by which man
achieves a moral ideal that makes him one with God.
Federico’s confdence in the strength of his position also fnds
fulsome expression in the full sweep of projects that he entrusted to
Francesco di Giorgio, who in addition to the palace, worked on nu-
merous religious, civic and defensive buildings throughout the state,

Urbino under
Federico da Montefeltro

130 | 131
Fig.82 and was described by Federico as ‘my architect’. Like Piero, Francesco’s
Justus of Ghent /
Pedro Berruguete (?)
experience manifested itself not only in the works he produced – he
Portrait of Federico da fast became the most advanced architect in warfare of the day – but
Montefeltro and his Son
Guidobaldo
also in his immensely practical and technically knowledgeable trea-
tises on architecture and engineering. His theories on warfare were
ca. 1476. Oil on panel,
1.3 m × 75.5cm (4ft 51∕8in
even tested on the battle0eld; he was part of Federico’s army at the
× 2ft 57∕8in). Galleria siege of Castellina, where the duke used bombards or cannon (prob-
Nazionale delle Marche,
Palazzo Ducale, Urbino.
ably engineered by Francesco, along Sienese lines) for the 0rst time.
While Francesco studied Vitruvius and the remains of an-
This painting has been
variously attributed to
tiquity, he only adopted what was useful – coming up with novel
the Flemish-influenced practical solutions to speci0c challenges, such as innovatively shaped
Spanish painter, Pedro
Berruguete, and Justus
fortresses, stables that could hold 300 horses, and even creating a
of Ghent. Recent analysis functioning allÕantica bath on Vitruvian lines. His religious buildings
of the under-drawing of
both the Uomini illustri
included the convent of Santa Chiara for the Observant Clarissans,
in the studiolo (Fig.75) attached to the church where Federico’s wife was buried. Federico
and this double portrait,
suggest an attribution to
did not live to see the project completed. It was 0nished under the
Justus – although the task patronage of his daughter Isabetta, whose husband Roberto and fa-
of painting, and delineating
the rich descriptive
ther both died on the same day, 10 September 1482. Federico had
detail, may have been 0nally succumbed – to an attack of malaria, while defending Ferrara
shared. Federico, wearing
his chivalric honours (he
against Venetian aggression.
belonged to the English Federico’s son, Guidobaldo, continued in his father’s distin-
Order of the Garter and
Ferrante’s Order of the
guished footsteps, leading the armies of the League against France
Ermine), reads from the (following Charles VIII’s invasion of the peninsula in 1494) and
Moralia of Gregory the
Great (one of the famous men
serving as captain-general for the Church and for Venice, despite
portrayed in the studiolo), his weak constitution and his debilitating gout. He too was made
while his son Guidobaldo
absorbs the lessons of his
a Knight of the Garter, this time by Henry VII, who was keen to fa-
father. Guidobaldo was cilitate a marriage between his son, Henry VIII, and Catherine of
already betrothed to the
King of Naples’s youngest
Aragon. Under Guidobaldo’s rule, and that of his wife Elisabetta
daughter, although the Gonzaga, Urbino continued to excel as a centre of cultural re0ne-
betrothal was broken
after Federico’s death.
ment, celebrated by humanists such as Pietro Bembo and Baldassare
Castiglione. Federico’s courageous and prudent example, his palace
and library, and his glorious reputation for combining arms with
moral virtue came to be enshrined in legend.
In 1512, 30 years a5er Federico’s death, Guidobaldo’s adopted
son and successor, Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere, ordered the
duke’s coffin to be prised open. His secretary, Urbano Urbani, reports
that he tried repeatedly to pull a few hairs from Federico’s chest but
found that they still held remarkably 0rm. Deprived of this ‘relic’,
Francesco Maria sighed: ‘Why was I not born a generation earlier so
that I could pro0t from the example of such a man?’
5

Varieties of Pleasure: Este Ferrara

T
he small principality of Ferrara, ruled by the noble Fig.83

Este family, developed a culture of remarkable vigour Cosm• Tura

A Muse (Calliope?)
and individuality within the span of the ffeenth cen-
tury. Its idiosyncratic character was shaped by strong Probably 1455–60. Oil with
egg on poplar, 116.2 ×
cross-currents: aristocratic conservatism mingled 71.1cm (3ft 93∕4in × 2ft 4in).

with a thirst for novelty and even the bizarre; intel- National Gallery, London.

lectual elitism fourished amid a practical realism and sense of irony Tura painted this fantastic,

bred in the contado (surrounding countryside). Te dynamic ten- bejewelled figure as part of
the decoration for the Este
sions produced by these cross-currents expressed themselves in a villa of Belfiore, Ferrara.

vivid mixture of competing styles. Tus the Ferrarese poet Boiardo

(himself of noble lineage) used the languages of chivalric romance,
the classical epic and the Italian novella, among others, to create his
irrepressible fantasy of 1484, Orlando Innamorato.
It has ofen been noted that the literature, music and art pro-
duced at the court of Ferrara in this period all share the same poetic,
visual and lyrical complexity, even though successive Este rulers had
markedly diferent characters and styles of patronage. Tis is prob-
ably because the ideal of courtly recreation in all its various forms
– intellectual, physical, theatrical, musical – lies at the very heart of
Este patronage. Tis vein of pleasure and diversion is expressed in
the names of the Este country villas and summer palaces or delizie

Este Ferrara

134 | 135
 – places of delight. It was in these frescoed residences – Belriguardo
(‘beautiful outlook’), Belfore (‘beautiful fower’), Belvedere (‘beauti-
ful view’) and Palazzo Schifanoia (‘escape from boredom’) – that the
Este lords chose to spend most of their time. Some of these com-
plexes were constructed on a grand scale, with extensive buildings
and gardens; others were designed to be more intimate. Dating from
the late fourteenth century, they ofered the aris-
tocratic pleasures of hunting, music-making, en-
tertaining and study, the rustic pleasures of a rich
fertile countryside, and the allure of a Virgilian
locus amoenus or biblical Eden. Collectively, they
embodied a world of princely privilege and time-
honoured rituals, framed by the traditional pur-
suits of the seasons.
Te aristocratic ideals of the Este, drawn
from codes of medieval chivalry and heraldry on
the one hand, and the moral example set by classi-
cal and mythological heroes on the other, are en-
capsulated in the names that the condottiere-prince
Niccolò III (1393–1441) gave his three sons, suc-
cessive rulers of Ferrara (he sired over 30 children
in all). Leonello was named afer the lion, heraldic
king of the beasts; Borso afer Sir Bors, one of the
Arthurian knights on the quest for the Holy Grail;
Ercole afer the Greek hero Hercules. Te Este de-
rived their family name from their castle at Este,
near Padua, where they had been granted land and
titles by the Holy Roman Emperor. From here they
Fig.84 expanded their territory to take in Ferrara (an old papal vicariate),
Frontispiece
to the 1540 edition
Modena, Reggio and Rovigo, as well as the fertile lands of the eastern
of Angelo Decembrio’s Po Valley. By the time of Niccolò’s death, Este rule and the nobil-
On Literary Polish
(De Politia Litteraria)
ity of the house were well established. Te court poet and dramatist
Ariosto (1474–1533) celebrated Este descent from Trojan princes,
Biblioteca Communale
Ariostea, Ferrara.
while Borso traced their ancestry to Charlemagne’s France. In fact,
the roots of the Este family tree were frmly planted in Germany.

Leonello: a Discriminating Patron

During his brief reign (1441–1450), Leonello d’Este developed a
style of patronage based on the ideals of intellectual recreation and
connoisseurship. He was scholarly, pious, ardent and compassionate,
with a consuming interest in the new humanist learning as well as
the visual arts. Ferrara was not a dukedom until Borso’s time, but its Fig.85

aristocratic status was respected. With this in mind, Leonello culti- Tournai Workshop
Story of Alexander the Great
vated an appropriate style of ‘magnifcence’ that was directed towards (detail)

a discriminating and elite audience. His art commissions were gov- Second half of fifteenth
erned by strong aesthetic preferences that had an infuence beyond century. Tapestry. Galeria

the small circle of eminent courtiers with whom he discussed them. Doria Pamphili, Genoa.

Tese ‘preferences’ are set out in Angelo Decembrio’s imaginary dia- Leonello owned rich Flemish

logue of 1462, On Literary Polish (De Politia Litteraria) (fig. 84), in tapestries, but in Decembrio’s
‘dialogue’ he criticizes
which Leonello converses with his former teacher, Guarino da Ve- their crudeness, alluding to

rona, and other prominent literary fgures, including the poets Tito a tapestry in which Alexander
the Great’s horse, Bucephalus,
Vespasiano Strozzi (a fellow pupil of Guarino) and Feltrino (Boi- is depicted as ‘some hell-

ardo’s grandfather). Te conversations are stimulated by a study of horse of Pluto’s’.

Este Ferrara

136 | 137
Fig.86 engraved gems, and range around ancient coins, sculpture and even
Pisanello
Medal of Leonello d’Este
Flemish tapestry. From these courtly arts Leonello concludes that the
(obverse and reverse) most admirable artistic qualities are lifelikeness and natural variety.
1441–4. Bronze, diameter
According to Decembrio, Leonello’s asceticism and interest
10.08cm (315∕16in). National in realistic ‘accuracy’ are expressed through his appreciation of the
Gallery of Art, Washington
DC, Samuel H. Kress
nude, for the nude is free of all sensual and concealing adornment.
Collection, 1957.14.602.a In his own dress, we are told, Leonello avoided opulence, though he
and 1957.14.602.b.
chose the colours he wore each day according to ‘the positions of
This medal, commemorating the stars and planets’. He also condemned the popular absurdities of
Leonello’s second marriage
to Maria of Aragon (Alfonso
‘tapestries from Transalpine Gaul’, which pander to ‘the extravagance
I’s illegitimate daughter) of princes and the stupidity of the crowd’ (fig. 85). Leading his life
is one of the least self-
aggrandizing images of its
in a decorous and unpretentious fashion, in keeping with a secure
type. Leonello’s slightly sense of his own status, Leonello believed the painter should not ‘go
unprepossessing features
are here idealized to
beyond the proper bounds of reality and fction’, but should try to
resemble the portrait match the elegant ‘artifce’ of nature.
coins of Alexander the
Great (from whom the Este
Decembrio presents these tastes alongside the more fantas-
claimed descent), while his tic preferences of his companions, which had equal appeal in court
short, tightly curled hair
resembles the classical
circles. Feltrino talks about the painter venturing as freely in his
style sported by Alberti in pictures as a poet does in his songs, painting ‘a gelded ram fying
his own ‘classical’ portrait
plaquette (see Fig.38).
with wings’ or a ‘she-goat draped in a woman’s veil’. Recently, De-
The reverse shows Amor, the cembrio’s dialogue has been interpreted as a correction rather than
little winged god of love,
taming the lion (Leonello
a true refection of Leonello’s tastes, with its didactic observations
= ‘little lion’) through directed towards his showy brother and successor Borso (to whom
music. The background shows
the eagle, emblem of the
it is dedicated). As such, it records some of the fascinating tensions
Este, and a pillar featuring that existed between the humanist ideal of princely virtue, founded
a mast with billowing sail
(an Este device).
on scholarship and contemplation, and the courtly idea of virtue, ex-
pressed through material splendour.
 Leonello’s taste was certainly ruled by the delight he took in
the ‘smallest works of art’, like the fgures on engraved gems, or the
work of a scribe (described in an anecdote of Pliny): Homer’s Iliad
written compactly enough to be enclosed in a pair of nutshells. Tese
are admired for their precision and intricacy of detail as well as their
associations with antiquity – Ferrara did not have any ancient mon-
uments of its own. Tis aspect of Leonello’s taste found expression in
his patronage of the illuminator’s art and, in particular, the medal – a
unique courtly art form which he largely revived (he had over 10,000
specimens made).
Leonello’s medallic message, articulated by his favourite artist Fig.87

Pisanello, was subtle, elegant and veiled in symbolism (fig. 86). It was Matteo de’ Pasti
Portrait medal of Guarino
a message designed to be appreciated by the cultivated men who were da Verona (obverse)

its recipients – to stimulate ideas in the same way as the engraved gems ca. 1446. Cast bronze,
provided the point of departure for learned conversations in Decem- diameter 9.5cm (33∕4in).

brio’s dialogue. Tis Ferrarese habit of using visual allegory or verbal British Museum, London.

conceits – even the etymology of words – to set in train a stream of The famous teacher elected

associated ideas can also be seen in the later fresco decoration of the to wear a toga on his
prestigious ‘calling card’:
Palazzo Schifanoia’s Salone dei Mesi (Hall of the Months). It suggests the reverse depicts a

that works of art in Ferrarese courtly circles, from Leonello to Isabella fountain surmounted by a
male nude (an allegory of
d’Este, ofen served as erudite and lively ‘conversation pieces’. learning), encircled by

Pisanello’s Ferrarese medals may have been inspired by Al- the laurel wreath of poets,
orators and fame. The fluent
berti, who had arrived as part of the Papal Curia to the Council of modelling of Guarino’s

Ferrara in late 1438. Te frst medal, commemorating the presence features reveals Pisanello’s
method of working from wax.
at the council of the Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus, was Once he had translated his

perhaps commissioned from Pisanello by Leonello – or his father design into a wax model
(which the patron would
Niccolò – specifcally at Alberti’s suggestion. Te Council brought approve), the medal would

together many of the leading scholars and antiquarians of the day, be cast.

such as Alberti, Cyriac of Ancona, Ambrogio Traversari, Guarino

and Vittorino da Feltre, making Ferrara a fertile ground for a fasci-
nating exchange of ideas. Traversari discussed the relative aesthetic
merits of ancient coins, while Cyriac believed passionately in their
power as exhortatory images: he had given Emperor Sigismund the
gif of a coin of Trajan, hoping that by contemplating the historical
likeness the emperor might emulate this ‘rightful prince’.
Te only Renaissance precedent for Pisanello’s medal is Alber-
ti’s own bronze plaquette (see fig. 38), showing himself in Imperial
Roman style alongside his winged eye emblem. Te contemporary
prototypes for such imagery were the wax seals and pastiches of an-
tique ‘jewels’ purchased by the Burgundian Duc de Berry (and cop-
ied in gold and silver by his own court artist). Alberti may have seen
this ‘jewellery’ on his travels to the Northern courts, and fashioned
his plaquette as a bid to win Leonello’s favour. Numerous medallists

Este Ferrara

138 | 139
inspired by Pisanello were soon active at the Ferrarese court. Te
Veronese Matteo de’ Pasti, who illustrated manuscripts for Leonello
between 1444 and 1446, made a medal of his compatriot Guarino
around 1446 (fig. 87). Draped in a toga (like Alberti), Leonello’s
mentor is portrayed with a blunt naturalism that reinforces the
sense of his vigorous intellect. Te diference in portrait style with
Pisanello’s medals recalls the distinction drawn by Leonello between
two competition portraits made of himself by Pisanello and Jacopo
Bellini (the eventual victor): the style of one was gracile (slender or
elegant), the other vehemens (powerful). Te Ferrarese humanists
delighted in such stimulating paragone (comparison).
Guarino, who had studied Greek in Constantinople under
the tutelage of Manuel Chrysoloras, had become Leonello’s tutor in
1429, and for six years dedicated himself to the condottiere-prince’s
humanist education. To this end, he chose Caesar as the model for
the young man to follow – Leonello even learned to swim because
Caesar had done so. Guarino’s marginal notes on Caesar’s Com-
mentaries draw attention to the virtues that each of Caesar’s actions
demonstrate, from liberality to clemency. Appropriately, Pisanello
was to present Leonello with a portrait of Caesar by his own hand
as a wedding gif, probably to accompany Guarino’s gif of a treatise
on Caesar on Leonello’s wedding eve (1435). Later Guarino was to
set up his own school, which had a huge impact on the literary and
intellectual thought of Ferrara in the ensuing years.
Guarino also provided the humanist programme for the dec-
oration of Leonello’s studiolo at Belfore, outlined in a letter of No-
vember 1447. Te room was to be painted with a series of the Muses
by the court painter Angelo Maccagnino da Siena, Cosmè Tura and
other leading masters. Te revival of the Muses was an innovative,
elegant and erudite solution to the requirements of a courtly studi-
olo: they represented ancient ideals but were also marvellously dec-
orative, and the manner of their presentation depended intimately
on the knowledge of a small humanist circle. Guarino describes the
role of each Muse, her symbolic attributes, and even her gestures or
garments. Clio, for instance, the inspirer of history ‘and things that
pertain to fame’ was to be shown with a trumpet (symbol of fame)
and a book, and clothed in draperies of shot silk. An inscription be-
neath each fgure was intended to clarify their lofy purpose. More
multi-layered interpretations were lef to the particular viewer who,
like Leonello, was steeped in a broader range of humanist learning
(embracing Ovid and Catullus as well as Cicero and Hesiod). Tis
might explain the complexity of the poetic invention, and the fact
that some of the Muses, as begetters of their art, are in the process of
undressing (the draw-strings they unlace are a feature of pregnancy Fig.88

garments) (see fig. 34). Pisanello

The Vision of St. Eustace
Te subject of the Muses was perhaps as much about Gua-
rino’s self-image, as it was Leonello’s. Guarino described his school ca. 1438–42. Tempera on
wood, 54.8 × 65.5cm (211∕2 ×
as ‘the Council of Phoebus and the Muses’, and he likened himself 251∕2in). National Gallery,

to Apollo, the leader of the Muses. However, the ambiguity of these London.

mythological inspirers, and their ability to infame passions, led him Pisanello’s courtly

to defend their representation as ‘neither lascivious or pointless.’ huntsman/saint and animal-

studded composition evoke
Leonello’s cycle of the Muses also celebrated marriage and agri- the painted miniatures

culture (drawing on a commentary on Hesiod’s Works and Days), and privileged world of
contemporary French hunting
expanding the Muses’ infuence to the realms of civic virtue and treatises (such as Gaston

good governance. Still incomplete at Leonello’s death, the series was Phoebus’s Livre de Chasse).
The tipped-up landscape,
continued and deliberately modifed over the next decade under full of descriptive detail,

Borso’s auspices, in a way that enhanced the ambiguity and veiled imitates tapestry.

eroticism of such female representations.

Este Ferrara

140 | 141
Fig.89 Pisanello’s paintings provoked a more straightforward hu-
Rogier van der Weyden
The Crucifixion, with the
manist response. Te artist was greatly admired by Guarino and his
Virgin and St. John the circle for his astonishing naturalistic breadth, and his pictures were
Evangelist Mourning
used as part of the Greek rhetorical literary exercises (ekphrases) the
ca. 1450–5. Oil and gold tutor set himself and his pupils. Tese evoke the variety and ‘lifelike-
on panel; left panel 180.3
× 93.8cm (71 × 3615∕16in),
ness’ of Pisanello’s paintings, using appropriately forid language: ‘…
right panel 180.3 × 92.6cm you equal Nature’s works, whether you are depicting birds or beasts,
(71 × 367∕16in). Philadelphia
Museum of Art, John G.
perilous straits and calm seas; we would swear we saw the spray
Johnson Collection, 1917. gleaming and heard the breakers roar … ’(Guarino). Pisanello’s art
Leonello’s prized Deposition
assimilated the exquisite decorative and naturalistic skills of earlier
triptych by Rogier van der masters who had worked at the Milanese and Burgundian courts,
Weyden no longer survives,
but its intense piety is
such as Michelino da Besozzo (a superb draughtsman, painter and
vividly illustrated by miniaturist, whose sketchbooks include refned and sensitive studies
these two panels (probably
the shutters of a Passion
of animals), and the French painter Jean d’Arbois (father of Stefano
altarpiece). Here we see the da Verona – Pisanello’s older townsman and master). Pisanello had
‘grief and tears’ that so
moved contemporary observers.
also collaborated with Gentile da Fabriano on major fresco cycles in
Venice and Rome, and was thus no stranger to the art of courtly va-
riety. He drew continuously from nature (notably birds and animals
– see fig. 46) and the antique, and freely utilized Lombard ‘pattern’ Fig.90
Rogier van der Weyden
books as well as creating studio pattern stock of his own. Portrait of Francesco dÕEste

Following Gentile’s example, Pisanello may well have empha- ca. 1460. Oil on panel;
sized the elements of his style that would appeal most to his sophisti- overall 31.8 × 22.2cm (121∕2

cated audience, presenting them with a visual catalogue of delightful × 8 3∕4in); painted surface,
each side 29.8 × 20.3cm
details and selecting some ‘difcult’ items for bravura display (such (113∕4 × 8in). Metropolitan

as a famboyantly foreshortened fgure). His Vision of St. Eustace, Museum of Art, New York,
Friedsam Collection, bequest
in which the saint appears as a princely huntsman, may have been of Michael Friedsam, 1931.

painted for the Este court at the time of the Council of Ferrara, and Acc.n.: 32.100.43.

incorporates various breeds of hunting dogs, stags, a feeing hare, Leonello sent his

birds in fight and repose (among them herons, pelicans, swans, a illegitimate son, Francesco,
to the court of Philip the
stork and a hoopoe), together with a brown bear skulking away in Good, Duke of Burgundy,

a far corner (fig. 88). Luke Syson has suggested that the prominent where he was educated
alongside the duke’s
empty scroll beneath the coursing hound in the foreground, which son. By the time of this

would normally contain an inscription, alludes to the Ferrarese de- portrait, probably intended
as a gift, Francesco had
bates about the power of images versus words: the scroll is lef blank become the duke’s permanent

to show that Pisanello’s talent can even commandeer the territory chamberlain. He is shown
holding a hammer and a
of poetry. Ludovico Gonzaga was to later refer to Pisanello as ‘the ring (either prizes from

Homer of painting’. a chivalric contest or

emblems), while the reverse
Pisanello’s work had a considerable infuence on the native is decorated with the Este

Ferrarese art that was to dominate the court of Leonello’s successor. arms and the inscription:
‘Entirely yours, Marquis of
But other major artists, too, were to have an impact. Te Venetian Este, Francesco’.

Jacopo Bellini worked for Leonello intermittently,

and is regarded as one of the most infuential art-
ists of the period, both in terms of his studio prac-
tice and his astonishing and imaginative archi-
tectural perspective studies (he was the father of
Gentile and Giovanni, and father-in-law of Andrea
Mantegna); Alberti ofered advice on the base of
the equestrian monument to Leonello’s father and
wrote his treatise on architecture at Leonello’s sug-
gestion; Piero della Francesca, according to Vasari,
painted molte camere (many rooms) with frescoes
(ca. 1449, now destroyed) in the Palazzo del Corte,
as well as a Muse for the studiolo (possibly depict-
ing agriculture); and the Tournai master, Rogier
van der Weyden, painted an altarpiece of Te Dep-
osition and Fall of Man for Leonello, which had ar-
rived in Ferrara by 1449. Rogier’s taut stylizations
and unsparing observation of telling detail had a
profound efect on artists in the region (fig. 19).

Este Ferrara

142 | 143
Fig.91
Michele Pannonio
The Muse Thalia (Ceres
Enthroned)
ca. 1456–7. Tempera and oil
on panel, 136.5 × 82cm (533∕4
× 321∕4in). Museum of Fine
Arts, Budapest, Hungary.
The two cartouches below
Thalia’s gem-studded throne
bear Guarino’s epigram
‘Through me the country
folks know the rules of
planting’ (in both Latin
and Greek). The image is
one of abundant fecundity,
with heavy peaches, grapes
and ears of corn encircling
Thalia’s head, and a rose
held close to her womb.
One of them, the young Andrea Mantegna, painted a double portrait
of Leonello and his leading adviser (lost) in 1449. Trough his agent
in Bruges, Leonello purchased several more works by Rogier, and the
great master possibly visited the city in 1450 during his pilgrimage
to Rome, painting a portrait of Leonello’s illegitimate son Francesco
some years later (fig. 90).
Borso’s Magnifcence
Leonello was succeeded by his half-brother Borso (r. 1450–1471),
who thoroughly enjoyed all the trappings of power. He shared his
brother’s love of the arts and, in particular, illuminated books, but
revelled in all the ostentatious opulence that Leonello, for the most
part, shunned. Te circumstances of Borso’s succession made a show
of magnifcence more imperative. He was the illegitimate son of Nic-
colò and his favourite mistress, Stella dei Tolomei, and his claim to
succession was relatively insecure. As a result, Borso set about re-
structuring Ferrara’s ruling elite, expanding his diplomatic staf (with
resident ambassadors in Florence, Venice, Rome and Milan) and en-
nobling his supporters (with gifs of land, income, titles and urban
property). Cosmè Tura, for example, had land granted to him by the
duke (on which he intended to set up a church), while the humanist
Ludovico Carbone (from a modest mercantile family) progressed to
a life of luxury and noble titles. Both artist and humanist had taken
minor religious orders, possibly to accelerate their court careers.
Borso, who never married, wore the most costly garments and
jewellery and spent considerable sums on entertainment, although
only a few major spectacles are documented from his reign. One of
these was his triumphal entry as Duke of Reggio in 1452, where, ac-
cording to one witness, he was accompanied by Julius Caesar on a
chariot ‘presiding over seven shapely nymphs who were clearly rec-
ognized as the Virtues’. In his Commentaries, Pope Pius II described
him as a man of fne physique and pleasing looks, who ‘was eloquent
and garrulous and listened to himself talking as if he pleased himself
more than his hearers’. Borso had relatively little grasp of Latin, and
was more interested in vernacular culture (although he embraced the
vogue for classical ornament as a mark of status). He decorated the
city’s principal palace, the Palazzo del Corte, with rich velvet Flemish
wall hangings embroidered with the chivalric Romance of the Rose,
and (among his many building and renovation projects) had the old
Palazzo Schifanoia rebuilt as a suburban administration-cum-pleas-
ure complex. Tis was shrewd politics, for although Pius II wrote

Fig.92
Cosmè Tura
St. George and the Princess
(detail of exterior panels
from the organ shutters of
Ferrara Cathedral).
1469. Tempera and oil on
canvas, complete shutters
349 × 305cm (11ft 53∕8in
× 10ft). Museo della
Cattedrale, Ferrara.
Tura’s elaborate calligraphic
line manages to express both
the chivalric elegance and
the ferocity of the battle
between St. George and the
dragon, and the oriental
delicacy of the filigree
branches of a tree, with a
lone hanging pear (symbol of
the fall of man). This major
commission probably reflects
contemporary concerns with
the Turkish threat and the
fate of Constantinople.
acerbically that ‘he desired to seem rather than be magnifcent and
generous’, Borso’s showy grandeur and public magnanimity raised
the profle of his state. While his artistic commissions refect this
change, particularly in their ambitious scope and scale, their image-
ry continues to have the same lively complexity – probably due to
the far-reaching infuence of Guarino’s teachings and the presence of
many of his pupils at court.
Borso continued Leonello’s renovation of the Este villas and,
during the 1450s and early 1460s, commissioned more paintings
of the Muses for the unfnished studiolo at Belfore. Tese included
Talia, by Michele Pannonio (fig. 91), Terpsichore, by Cosmè Tura
and collaborators, and Tura’s A Muse (Calliope?) (fig. 83). Tura and
his assistants made iconographic alterations to the earlier Muses as
well. Major restoration of the so-called Calliope (the Muse of elo-
quence and epic poetry) has shown that Tura modifed it extensive-
ly: his original tempera painting featured the Muse enthroned on a
structure assembled from organ pipes; the reworked picture sits her
on a throne of pink and green marble, embellished with leaping jew-
elled metallic dolphins that demonstrate the extent of Tura’s (rather
than Guarino’s) poetic powers of invention.
Tura’s subsequent over-painting was done principally in Ro-
gier’s Netherlandish oil technique. It was one of the earliest Italian
paintings to use it so extensively and with such subtlety. Tura even
seems to have distinguished between the yellowing properties of dif-
ferent oils and the depth and richness of colour achieved by the addi-
tion of resins. Te sophistication of his technique has led to the sug-
gestion that he may have been advised by Rogier, or that his master
Angelo Maccagnino da Siena (described by Cyriac as the equal of
‘Rogier of Bruges’) may have been sponsored by Leonello to make a
study trip to the Netherlands.
Te colours are of a particularly high quality: a document of
1460 records the purchase of three-and-a-half ounces of fne ultra-
marine blue for Tura’s use at Belfore. He was later to use ultramarine,
at 36 ducats a pound, for the decoration of the duke’s chapel at
Belriguardo (1469–72), as well as abundant quantities of gold in the
gilded stucco reliefs (which – at Borso’s request – took Gentile da Fab-
riano’s Brescian chapel as their inspiration). Te amount paid to Tura
for painting the religious fgures in the chapel was less than the total
cost of the colours. Tis emphasis on the best-quality pigments, and a
comparative undervaluing of the artist’s skill, is characteristic of Bor-
so’s patronage. When Francesco del Cossa (ca. 1435–ca. 1477) was
paid a derisory rate per square ‘foot’ for his work in the Palazzo Schi-
fanoia – and his work was not distinguished from that of ‘the saddest’
apprentices – he lef in disgust for Bologna, having complained to
Borso in a celebrated letter. Te amount had been set by ofcial ap-
praisers: Baldassare d’Este, a highly profcient painter, had provided a
similar appraisal of Tura’s share of the work for Belriguardo.
Te bizarre imagery and lyrical intensity
of Tura’s paintings are very much in keeping with
the literary tastes of the Este court, which enjoyed
the meraviglioso (the marvellous) in poetry and
drama. Formally, his work is typical of the native
Ferrarese school, with its stylized elaboration of
forms, stif drapery folds, compression of space,
high-key colour, and abiding delight in stony,
jewelled or metallic surfaces. But what sets Tura
apart is the virtuosity of his linear style – which
Stephen Campbell has described as a type of pic-
torial ‘calligraphy’. At a court that prized book
production, Campbell argues, Tura consciously
positioned himself as the visual equivalent of a
scriptor (scribe), with an ability to provide an elo-
quent line, complete with expressive fourishes that
almost amounted to a signature. At the same time,
Tura’s poetic conception evokes the skill of an ora-
tor. His visual language, which would become so
associated with the Este court, can be seen to spec-
tacular efect in the looping bridle of St. George’s
rearing horse, on Tura’s monumental organ shut-
ters for Ferarra’s Cathedral (fig. 92).
From Borso’s time onwards, the talents of
Ferrarese painters were employed extensively by
the court, the clergy and the civic community.
Teir decorative and expressive mannerisms, while
clearly in line with stylistic developments in north-
ern Italy in general, were allowed to fourish vigor-
ously under Este patronage. Decembrio deplored
the fact that painters were now more concerned
with ‘colours, edges and outlines’ rather than the
scientia (fundamental principles) of art. In this re-
spect, the example set by Florence – so important
to many other Italian courts – had comparatively
little impact. Te Ferrarese seemed to be more interested in the afn-
ity of painting to poetry, literature, music and theatre, than its rela-
tion to its three-dimensional sister arts, sculpture and architecture.
Modern scholars of Este Ferrara have rightly stressed the pervasive

Este Ferrara

146 | 147
infuence of manuscript miniatures and decoration on the paint- Fig.93

ers of the court. Here, as in Lombardy, the ornamental forms and Taddeo Crivelli and others
Illuminated page showing the
colours of miniature painting were to fuse with all’antica decorative Court of Solomon from the

motifs and architectural perspectives, to create an art eminently suit- Book of Ecclesiastes, Volume
I of the Bible of Borso
ed to aristocratic tastes. Te sources for many of these ideas are the d’Este

famous workshops of Jacopo Bellini in Venice, and Squarcione in 1455–61. Parchment, 26.5
Padua (Mantegna’s training ground). × 37.5cm (107∕16 × 14 3∕4in).

One of Borso’s greatest joys was his Bible, lavishly illustrated Biblioteca Estense, Modena.
Lat. 422–423, MSV.G.12,
between 1455 and 1461 by, among others, the illuminators Taddeo Vol lc.280v.

Crivelli and Franco dei Russi (fig. 93). Te artists were housed at Borso’s lavish, densely
the court’s expense for the duration of the project, during which illustrated Bible, produced

time they produced over 1,000 exquisite miniatures. Tey were also in two volumes, was made at
the same time as Gutenberg
loaned the richly illuminated Bible of Niccolò III, probably because was producing the first

Borso wanted to give them a clear idea of the luxurious splendour he printed Bible. Many of the
illustrations of sacred
was afer. Niccolò’s Bible had been illuminated by the great Gothic stories – inspired by the

miniaturist Belbello da Pavia, whose elegant schematic forms were illuminations of Burgundy
and Provence – are really
probably beginning to look dated. Belbello’s courtly style, which had idealized visions of Borso’s

been in such demand at the beginning of the century, was emphat- court. These opening pages,
from the Old Testament
ically supplanted when he was ousted from his position in Man- Book of Ecclesiastes, are

tua (on Mantegna’s recommendation) by the Ferrarese miniaturist particularly rich, detailed
and ornate (artists were
Guglielmo Giraldi. paid two rates for their

Te Bible, while an extremely costly manifestation of Bor- work on the Bible, with
opening pages valued at
so’s piety (to the tune of 2,200 ducats), was also designed to impress a premium).

through its magnifcence, and is liberally strewn with Borso’s per-

sonal devices. Far from gathering dust in the library, it was displayed
to visiting ambassadors, as well as being perused by the duke for his
own pleasure, and was clearly part of Borso’s strategy for securing the
dukedom of Ferrara for the Este. Towards the end of 1471, Borso had
it rebound in readiness for his momentous journey to Rome, where
he was to be invested with the title of Duke by Pope Paul II. Tat
he should take such a valuable and unwieldy book with him – the
two volumes, minus their original binding, have a combined weight
of 15.5 kilograms (34 pounds) and measure 67.5 × 48.6 centimetres
(27 × 19½ inches) – shows that it functioned as a symbol of his
Christian devotion and glittering prestige. Borso was accompanied
by a sumptuous retinue of over 500 courtiers, trumpeters, huntsmen
with hounds, and even leopards from his famous menagerie, com-
plete with oriental keepers.
Te infuence of the Ferrarese manuscript tradition is seen in
Borso d’Este’s most famous fresco commission, the Hall of the Months,
in his suburban hunting palace, the Palazzo Schifanoia (fig. 94).
Borso had made substantial additions to the palace, including a sec-
ond storey with a suite of beautifully decorated rooms, designed to

Este Ferrara

148 | 149
Fig.94
Francesco del Cossa
April (from the east wall
of the Hall of the Months)
Late 1460s–early 1470s.
Fresco, width 4m (11ft).
Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara.
The lower portion of Cossa’s
magnificent April decoration
includes a representation
of Ferrara’s Palio di San
Giorgio race (detail below),
which reflects the ‘frisky’
mood of the month. Here we
see Ferrara’s prostitutes
racing each other on foot
(the skirt of one blows
up to reveal her nakedness
underneath), while mules,
horses and men race as
well. This annual spectacle
was sponsored by the
Este princes as a way of
reaffirming codes of social
behaviour; the chaste women
of Ferrara watch from the
superior height of their
balconies. The scene is
combined with the Triumphal
Car of Venus (above),
complete with embracing
lovers, the astrological
rulers of the month, and
Borso benevolently handing a
coin to his jester (below).
impress distinguished guests. Te immense fresco cycle celebrates
the good government of Borso d’Este within a seasonal and astrolog-
ical framework, such as that found in contemporary Books of Hours,
but it is also rich in complex literary and verbal allusion. It was ex-
ecuted in the late 1460s and early 1470s, mainly by Francesco del
Cossa, and possibly Baldassare d’Este, together with numerous less-
er artists (including the anonymous ‘wide-eyed master’). Te young
Ercole de’ Roberti probably only had limited involvement, although
the Triumph of Vulcan is usually attributed to him.
Te humanist who devised the complex programme is un-
known, although it has convincingly been associated with the in-
tellectual habits of Guarino’s school. Much of its learned astrologi-
cal content – drawing on the texts of the Latin astrologer Manilius
(newly discovered by Poggio Bracciolini) as well as the Arab medie-
val astrologer Abu Masar – has been attributed to the court librarian,
architectural historiographer and Professor of Astronomy, Pellegri-
no Prisciani, who was responsible for overseeing the project.
Te huge room, 12 × 24.4 metres (40 × 80 feet), would have
been used as a reception hall on semi-public occasions, as well as
a delightful setting for the informal pleasures of court. One of the
most striking features of the cycle is its formal repetition: the af-
fable features of the duke, probably supplied by Baldassare d’Este,
dominate every scene in the lower zone, whether he is out hunting
(fig. 95), paying his jester, dispensing justice, or enjoying the palio
(horse race) (fig. 94). Another noteworthy element is the deliberate
manipulation of diferent spatial conventions, from the decorative
compression of the upper zone, featuring the triumphant proces-
sion of the classical gods and goddesses of each month, through the
symbolic space of the middle zone depicting the zodiac signs and
the decans, to the airy perspective space of the lower zone, showing
the occupations of the months, in which Borso reigns supreme, safe
in the knowledge that his rule is protected by celestial benefactors.
In addition to these 12 panels are seven highly damaged ones, with
remnants of scenes of architecture, tournaments and courtiers. Te
illusory nature of the space, with its detailed colourful landscapes,
is emphasized by the courtier in April who has swung his legs non-
chalantly over the edge of the balustrade, which divides the painted
space from ours.
At the heart of the scheme is a celebration of Borso’s liberality,
and his personal identifcation with the virtue of ‘Justice’ (exempli-
fed by many of his personal devices). Te adjoining antechamber,
the Hall of Stuccoes (Sala degli Stucchi), named afer its remarkable
stucco decoration, is designed around personifcations of the female
Virtues – but only six of the seven are represented: the seventh, Jus-
tice, Charles Rosenberg has suggested, was tellingly omitted because
Borso embodied this virtue himself! Indeed, the room was ofen
used for formal hearings that required the prince’s adjudication, and
a monumental bronze statue of the seated Borso (1451–2), the just
ruler, sat atop a column in the main square.

Ercole and Eleonora: Majesty and Devotion

Borso’s successor Ercole I (r. 1471–1505) – Niccolò III’s legitimate
son – was a very diferent personality. Secure in his position as duke,
he developed a more aloof and ‘regal’ air and a more grandiose style
of patronage. He was extremely conscious of his status vis-à-vis oth-
er rulers in Italy, particularly the Duke of Milan (Galeazzo Maria
Sforza) and the King of Naples. Having been raised from childhood
at the Aragonese court, he had an impressive role model in Alfonso
‘the Magnanimous’. He, too, was a deeply observant Christian, and
may have been consciously inspired by Alfonso I to use his piety as
an expression of ‘magnifcence’. Like Alfonso, Ercole styled himself
‘Divus’, though this was on mass-produced coins rather than on
medals. While he lavished enormous sums of money on art and ar-
chitecture (he was rather unlettered but a keen amateur architect), he
was more grave and ‘weighty-of-purpose’ than the afable Borso. His
princely maiestate (majesty) was expressed through his patronage of
sacred music on a magni!cent scale, and later, as a concession to the
populace at large, in his famous revival of classical comedy and con-
temporary classically inspired drama (afer 1486, plays by Terence
and Plautus were given full-blown theatrical staging).
In the !eld of sacred vocal music, Ercole d’Este immediately set
out to establish one of the greatest chapel choirs in Europe, rivalling
those of the pope, the King of Naples and even the King of France.
Ercole used his well-placed diplomatic agents to entice the best singers
from France, Flanders and other centres to his court, and then sent the
singers themselves on recruiting trips. Papal bene!ces were brought
into his control so that they could be used as a !nancial lure. Tis en-
terprise put Ercole in direct competition with Duke Galeazzo Maria
Sforza, who deliberately set out to build a chapel choir that would sur-
pass Ercole’s in size and quality of repertoire. Te stylizations of Fran-
co-Flemish polyphonic music and the courtly conventions of dance
!nd a counterpart in the vibrant colour harmonies and the rhythmic
stylization of movement and gesture in some of the best court art of
the period. Religious dramas and secular plays with colourful inter-
mezzi (elaborate diversions staged between acts) also encouraged the Fig.95

already highly developed taste for the arti!cial and the marvellous. Francesco del Cossa
Borso Hunting (detail from
Tis aspect can be seen especially in painted landscape settings, where March, east wall of the Hall

there is no hint of the prosaic fatness of Ferrara’s Po Valley. Instead, of the Months)

fantastic rocks shape themselves into ‘natural’ architecture, showing Late 1460sÐearly 1470s.

how artful and expressive nature herself can be. Fresco. Palazzo Schifanoia,
Ferrara.
Continuing the family’s close ties with Naples, Ercole married
Ferrante I’s eldest daughter, Eleonora of Aragon, in 1473. Tree of Borso and his courtiers set
off in the foreground with
their children – Beatrice, Isabella and Alfonso – were to become im- falcons, making a second

portant patrons of art in their own right. Te duchess herself played appearance on the rocky
plateau above, followed
an unusually active role in the political and cultural afairs of court, by leaping greyhounds and

and was regarded as a more able administrator than her husband. hares. To the right, Borso
dispenses justice (the
She shared Ercole’s religious fervour and keen appreciation of music, virtue with which he most

and approved his endowment and adornment of monasteries and closely associated himself).
The other months embrace the
churches on a massive scale, as well as forming her own collection full catalogue of princely

of devotional works. Within three years of their marriage, the duke virtues, ranging from
auctoritas (January)
was challenged in a dramatic coup d’état staged by Leonello’s son, to caritas (December).

Niccolò, an occasion on which Eleonora displayed great fortitude.

A few years later, Ferrara’s peace was shattered by a damaging war
with Venice (1482–4). Te city’s vulnerability was ruthlessly exposed:

Este Ferrara

152 | 153
many buildings were destroyed in the Venetian bombardment and Fig.96

the Villa Bel!ore was burnt down. It was only afer Ercole had re- Ercole de’ Roberti
The Wife of Hasdrubal and
covered from the humiliation of defeat and the resultant economies her Children

forced upon him that he began to rebuild his reputation for ‘magni!- ca. 1490–93. Tempera and oil
cence’, as well as refortify Ferrara. on panel, 47.3 × 30.6cm (185∕8

Although Tura worked for Ercole until at least 1485, there was × 121∕16in). National Gallery
of Art, Washington DC, Ailsa
now a shif in taste towards a more Northern-infuenced devotion- Mellon Bruce Fund, 1965.7.1.

al style of painting. Tura’s portrait and design skills, however, were This is one of three small
still in demand. His Lamentation over the Body of the Dead Christ, panels illustrating donni

produced in two tapestry versions (see fig. 43), includes Ercole and illustri that were made
for Eleonora. The other
Eleonora as participants – a feature of the sacred art of their reign – two panels, depicting the

with Eleonora’s laced dress indicating her pregnancy (she was soon Roman heroines Portia
and Lucretia, draw on
to give birth to the heir Alfonso). Te Cleveland version has been as- Boccaccio’s popular account

sociated by Campbell with the ‘exotic antiquarianism’ that Tura was of Famous Women (1374).
Hasdrubal’s wife, whose
perhaps known for, and its Hebrew architecture as a reference to the heroism was described by

fashion for Jewish culture in court circles. Many of Ercole’s musi- both Appian and Valerius
Maximus, had not been
cians were Jewish, as was his dancing master Giuglielmo Ebreo and previously represented

his favourite chess companion, but this has to be seen in the context in fifteenth-century art.
The vivid colours of
of a careful monitoring of Jewish activities in the public arena. the panel, concentrating

Te major artist to enjoy Ercole’s patronage was another Fer- on the contrast of Este
red and green, emphasize
rarese painter, Ercole de’ Roberti (ca. 1450–1496). Having worked its decorative as well

in Bologna from 1481 to 1486, probably to escape the afermath of as didactic function.
The squared red cloth
the Venice/Ferrara war, Roberti returned in around 1486 and was hanging behind the figures,

court painter by 1487, when he is documented as receiving a stipend permitting a glimpse

of slivers of landscape
from the duke. Like Tura before him, Roberti worked on all manner behind, also acts as a bold

of commissions; from mid-1489 to early 1490 he was involved in compositional device almost
identical to that used
gilding and painting marriage chests, a triumphal car, and a matri- by Rogier van der Weyden

monial bed for the wedding of the duke’s eldest daughter Isabella to (Fig.89), the artist so
admired in Ferrarese and
Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua. Tis was the !rst of many important Neapolitan circles.

Este marriage alliances made with ruling Italian families in the wake
of the war. Roberti performed a similar service for the marriage of
Beatrice to Ludovico Sforza, and Alfonso to Anna Maria Sforza. Te
huge dowries that Ercole had to provide for his daughters put a con-
siderable strain on the duchy’s !nances, but did not curb Ercole’s
spending on ambitious architectural and artistic projects. Neverthe-
less, he, like his brothers before him, was extremely imaginative in
thinking up new forms of levies and taxes. Te dowry that Alfonso’s
second wife, Lucrezia Borgia, brought with her helped to redress the
balance: Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) paid Ercole 100,000
ducats, as well as making gifs of land and valuables, to secure her
marriage to Alfonso in 1501.
In the early 1490s, Roberti worked mainly for the !rst duch-
ess, decorating her apartments in the Castello Vecchio (ca. 1489–93)

Este Ferrara

154 | 155
 and producing small devotional pictures. A series of three panels
showing famous women may have originally decorated her studio-
lo, and these provide a visual equivalent of the encomiastic treatises
on women written for Eleonora by the humanists at the Este court.
One of these, portraying the wife of Hasdrubal (praised by Appian
as surpassing her husband in honour), provides a !tting tribute to
Eleonora’s own courage and virtue (fi/. 96). Te picture shows how
successfully Roberti could adapt his style, which was ofen !ercely
emotional, to the courtly and decorative nature of the commission.
Here a harrowing subject – Hasdrubal’s wife immolated herself and
her children in the fames of a burning temple, rather than share in
the humiliation of her husband’s surrender – is treated in an almost
emblematic way.
Eleonora died in 1493, and a Roberti Pietà, dating from
around this time, may have served as her memorial. Te Pietà, which
was made for the church of San Domenico, was probably commis-
sioned by one of the religious confraternities patronized by the duke
and duchess (the funds would have been provided by the duke). Te
work is now known only through a copy in the Galleria Spada, Rome.

Fig.97
Ercole de’ Roberti
The Israelites
Gathering Manna

Probably 1490s. Tempera on

canvas, transferred from
wood, 28.9 × 63.5cm (113∕8 ×
251∕8in). National Gallery,
London.

This predella panel is

associated with another
panel, also in the
National Gallery, which
depicts the ‘Institution
of the Eucharist’. The
Old Testament episode of
the ‘Gathering of Manna’
(Exodus) was seen as
prefiguring the bread
and wine offered at Mass.
Moses and Aaron are seen
standing to the left as
the Israelites gather the
bread that has fallen
from heaven.
It portrays the duke and Eleonora, along with Eleonora’s brother Al-
fonso, Duke of Calabria (later King Alfonso II of Naples), as holy wit-
nesses of Christ’s Passion. Eleonora’s brother takes the role of Joseph
of Arimathea, while Ercole assumes the humbler role of Nicodemus.
Te painting echoes the real-life Passion plays that were promoted
by the duke and duchess and performed in 1481, and again in 1489,
1490 and 1491.
A small predella panel, which is sometimes associated with
this altarpiece, refects even more forcefully the theatrical ambience
of Ercole’s Ferrara. Roberti’s Te Israelites Gathering Manna (fi/. 9K)
appears accurately to record the stage-sets used for the classical plays
mounted in the ducal palace or grand courtyard. A local diarist of
the time describes a raised platform with !ve or six little painted
huts, equipped with curtains instead of doors. Humanists traced
the origins of theatre to the earliest religious celebrations of events.
Another small Roberti panel depicting the Last Supper recalls a dif-
ferent kind of drama – the Maundy Tursday suppers in which 13 of
Ferrara’s poor were invited by Ercole to re-enact Christ’s last meal in
the sumptuous surroundings of his palace.

Este Ferrara

156 | 157
Fig.98 The duke’ s intimate involvement with sacred drama is made
Guido Mazzoni
Lamentation over the
explicit in a large sculptural terracotta group by Guido Mazzoni
Dead Christ of Modena for the church of Santa Maria della Rosa (ca. 1483–5)
ca. 1483–5. Polychrome
(fig. 98). Mazzoni’s position at court was already well established:
terracotta, height of Holy he was involved in making theatrical masks (festival masks and
Woman 1.6m (5ft 4in). Chiesa
del Gesù, Ferrara.
wax-working were a Modenese speciality) as well as theatrical props
for the duke’s wedding back in 1473, and a document of 1481 exempts
This moving Lamentation
was originally made for
him from paying all taxes. In Mazzoni’s superb Ferrarese Lamentation,
Ferrara’s only surviving now housed in the church of the Gesù, the life-sized figures of Ercole
Templar church, Santa Maria
della Rosa. This connects
(as Joseph of Arimathea) and Eleonora (as a Holy Woman) join the
it with Ferrara’s crusading five other biblical ‘players’ grieving over the dead body of Christ. All
history, and a devotion to
the cause of the Holy Land
the figures are presented in an astonishingly lifelike manner. Court
and the Holy Sepulchre. decorum dictates that Ercole and Eleonora display their own grief
Eleonora and Ercole inhabit
the roles of a Holy Woman
in a dignified way – Ercole is particularly stiff and constrained. e
and Joseph of Arimathea commission, with its penitential theme and close identification with
(the rich man who paid for
Christ’s tomb). Ercole wears
Christ’s suffering, may reflect the religious mood of Ferrara in the af-
a fur hat and wolf-skin termath of the disastrous war with Venice (1482–4), and – in a more
coat, which elegantly falls
open to reveal a luxurious
personal vein – Ercole’s recent recovery from a severe illness.
fur lining. e use of terracotta (baked clay) – a relatively ephemeral
material compared to bronze or marble (Ferrara had no local stone
quarries) – was common in sculptural ornament. Local terracotta
adorned the remodelled facade of the Palazzo Schifanoia, comple-
menting the brickwork and contrasting with the imposing marble
portal. In life-sized figure sculpture the material took on a vivid
biblical symbolism – for men are ‘no more than mortal clay’. Sculpt-
ing in clay allowed for a !neness of detail that was comparable to the
waxen images of funerary masks (Mazzoni was familiar with life-
casting techniques) and the realism of Northern portraiture, and, in
the hands of masters of the stature of Mazzoni and Niccolò dell’Arca
in Bologna, it could mimic all manner of rich fabrics and materials.
Ercole’s brother-in-law, Alfonso II, who had featured in Rob-
erti’s Pietà, invited Mazzoni to Naples in 1489, paying all travel ex-
penses. Here, in around 1492, Mazzoni created a Lamentation group
for Alfonso II’s favoured church, Sant’Anna ai Lombardi di Monteo-
liveto, depicting Alfonso in the role of Joseph of Arimathea (fi/. 99)
– a persona in keeping with the gifs that Alfonso showered on the
church’s Olivetan order, including castles, property and valuables.
Te forensic and emotional veracity of Mazzoni’s portrait of Alfonso
caused Vasari to exclaim that here he was shown ‘truly more than
alive.’ Te dynastic and artistic ties between Naples and Ferrara, dat-
ing back to 1444, seem to have produced a heightened devotional
style that was eminently suited to courtly and aristocratic tastes –

Fig.99
Guido Mazzoni
Joseph of Arimathea
(Alfonso II), detail
from The Lamentation

1490–2. Terracotta, height

1.2m (4ft). Chiesa di
Sant’Anna ai Lombardi di
Monteoliveto, Naples.

The deep religiosity of

Alfonso’s last years is
etched in every furrow of
his face, while his status
is reflected in the weighty
richness of his winter
costume, his ring and his
large tooled-leather purse.
A small detail, straight
out of a Flemish painting,
symbolizes his intellectual
piety: a leather case
containing a pair of folding
reading glasses protrudes
from an opening in his coat.

Este Ferrara

158 | 159
a ‘modern’ idiom to rival the monumental narrative style that was
being so actively exported by Florence.
In the secular sphere, the Este lords probably commissioned
more palace frescoes than any other ruling family, though very few
have survived. Fortunately, Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti’s On the
Triumph of Religion (De Triumphis Religionis), a treatise written in
around 1497 in praise of Ercole d’Este, includes a detailed descrip-
tion of the interiors of the Este palaces and villas. Here, in a section
devoted to ‘magni!cence’, we !nd out about the splendour of rural
Belriguardo (eight miles from Ferrara), paid for with a ‘mountain of
gold’. Tere is a painted room with portraits of ‘wise men, with brief
and singular moral sentences’ and ‘an image of ancient Hercules on
a green !eld’, an obvious allusion to Ercole as the modern Hercules.
A painted plaque records that the Duke of Milan and the ruler of
Bologna were lodged there in 1493. Another room was frescoed with
lively scenes of Ercole ‘happily relaxed and natural’ with all of his
courtiers. In between the public and private apartments of the palace
was the Sala di Psiche, painted by the court’s ‘leading painter’. Roberti
is documented as working on cartoons for frescoes (almost certainly
the Psyche series) at Belriguardo in February 1493, with the duke at
his side all day long. Ercole’s bemused secretary could not under-
stand why the duke ‘wasted’ the hours in this way, when he could
be playing chess or out hawking and hunting. Clearly, Ercole’s keen
interest in such matters was regarded as unusual in court circles.
Te Cupid and Psyche series, based on Apulieus’s Te Golden
Ass (second century CE) was probably one of the most fascinating
fresco cycles of the period. Te comparison between the painted
palace of Cupid and Ercole’s Belriguardo is made explicit in Sabad-
ino’s description: it is ‘a palace, like this one, of marvellous beauty’.
Te frescoes featured fantastic and delightful landscapes: Sabadino
describes a dangerous mountain, grassy places and shady woods.
He invites comparison with a poem by Niccolò da Coreggio (the
Innamoramento di Cupido e di Psyche, dedicated to Ercole’s daugh-
ter Isabella) in which the same subject is ‘painted in light and sweet
maternal verse’. His continual insistence that the theme was a ‘mor-
al’ one ‘under a poetic veil’ suggests that the series may have had
its share of sensual delights. Another room was decorated with
an openly erotic subject: the Triumphs of Hymenaeus. Te enjoy-
ment of such subjects in aristocratic circles emerges clearly in court
commissions at the end of the century. Teir themes are in keeping
with the sensual pleasures of the gardens that surrounded such villa
retreats, with their cool fountains, scents of citrus and rosemary, and
licentious statuary.
 Roberti was later involved in one of the numerous fresco pro- Fig.100

jects at Belfore, where there were audience chambers decorated with Planimetric view of
Ferrara, showing the
exotic animals (the Este were ofen presented with such creatures as ÔErculean AdditionÕ

gifs), boar, bear and wolf hunts, court banquets, a pilgrimage cycle 1499. Woodcut. Biblioteca
and a series commemorating the wedding of Eleonora and Ercole. Estense, Modena.

Te duchess and her ladies feature prominently in the frescoes, im- The streets of the Addition
plying that the palace housed a ‘ladies’ court’. Rosenberg has suggested were set at right angles

that the palace, ideally positioned on the edge of the city by the barco to one another, with the
largest avenue – the Street
(hunting park), was used to lodge distinguished visitors who were of Angels – being some

passing through – leaving them with vivid images of Este hospitality. 16 metres (52 feet) wide.
Part of this avenue was
Belfore was incorporated into the ‘Erculean Addition’ – the closed to traffic, so that

vast city extension that Ercole built in the 1490s, with the Ferrarese the ‘angels’ (courtiers)
could safely use it for
Biagio Rossetti (1447–1516) as its architect (fig. 100). Ercole’s their promenades.

ambitious centralizing plans had begun in 1472, with the order

to construct an arcaded building that would provide an elaborate
passageway between the fortifed Castello Vecchio, where Borso had
spent his dying months, and the Palazzo del Corte. Rooms in the
Castello were ready for the duchess to move into by Christmas 1477
– Eleonora may have decided to move there following the attempted
coup a year earlier. Ducal apartments were also prepared, though
these primarily served Ercole’s diplomatic and business needs. Te
Addition, along with the colossal equestrian monument of Ercole

Este Ferrara

160 | 161
that was planned (designed by Roberti, but abandoned afer Ercole’s
death), shows most blatantly the self-aggrandizing nature of the
duke’s late commissions. By building an entire new quarter to the
north of the city, which more than doubled Ferrara’s size, Ercole was
also meeting the urgent defensive and economic needs of his capital,
which appeared markedly fragile afer the Venetian defeat (resulting
in the loss of Rovigo).
By 1493 the suburban area outside the medieval town – with
its monasteries, gardens and villas bordering the great Este hunting
park – had been laid out as streets and divided into parcels of build-
ing land. Tese were sold of to leading courtiers and other interested
parties, and by 1503 there were at least 12 gracious new palaces and
as many churches. One of these was Rossetti’s Palazzo dei Diamanti,
built by Ercole ostensibly for his brother Sigismondo in the most
prestigious quarter (near the ducal residence). With its exterior cov-
ered in marble blocks faceted to look like Este diamonds it was a
testimony to the duke’s love of expensive materials (fi/. 101).
Great broad tree-lined avenues ran from north to west, criss-
crossed by streets laid from east to west. Te further reaches of the
Addition were inhabited by artisans, middle-class families and in-
dustrial workers (swollen by the immigrant population). Te Piazza
Nuova, the principal square, was to be the site of the huge eques-
trian monument to Ercole, mounted atop a double-columned base.
Tis, like the previous Este equestrian monuments, was a communal
commission – although in this case, Ercole seems to have exercised
considerable control. Defensive structures, on the lines of those de-
signed by Francesco di Giorgio, transformed the new ‘Renaissance’
Ferrara into what Ariosto described as an ‘exquisite fortress’. Ercole’s
ideals of beauty and utility, elegance and virility are neatly summed
up by Ariosto’s felicitous choice of words. Practical and political re-
alism were, in the end, as important as the ‘marvellous’ in the lively
world of ducal Ferrara. Tis was the city where Ariosto wrote his
chivalric masterpiece Orlando Furioso (published in three diferent
versions in 1506, 1521 and 1532), yet it was also the setting for his
satirical comedy La Lena (1528). In the former, Arthurian romance
and dynastic celebration combine in an epic fantasy of polished bril-
liance; in the latter, the court gamekeepers surreptitiously sell pheas-
ants they have poached from the duke’s estates, watched by the silent
statue of Borso.
Fig.101
Biagio Rossetti
Palazzo dei Diamanti,
Ferrara
1493–1504 (completed 1567).
The Palazzo dei Diamanti was
positioned at the crossroads
of the Addition’s two most
prestigious streets, and
so its prominent corners
are faced in Istrian stone
and decorated with relief
carving. The effect of the
jutting stone diamonds on
the flank and facade (an
Este impresa) is even more
pronounced from this corner
viewpoint – emphasizing the
building’s urban context.
Este Ferrara
162 | 163
6

Te Art of Diplomacy: Mantua

and the Gonzaga

T
he entry of Pope Pius II into Mantua for the great Fig.102

Church Congress of 1459–60 marked a triumph for Andrea Mantegna

Camera Picta: Meeting Scene
Gonzaga diplomacy. Rulers and ecclesiastical lead- (west wall): See Fig.109

ers from all over Europe poured into the city, with This scene represents
their retinues of ambassadors, humanists, courtiers three generations of the

and diplomats. Te congress, called to initiate a cru- Gonzaga line – Marquis

Ludovico Gonzaga with his
sade against the Turks, provided a unique opportunity for Marquis sons, Cardinal Francesco

Ludovico Gonzaga to enhance his family’s international prestige and Federico, and grandsons
(Sigismondo and Ludovico,
through a display of lavish hospitality. His respected German con- holding hands). According

sort, Barbara of Brandenburg, granddaughter of Elector Frederick to the chronicler Mario

Equicola, Emperor Frederick
I of Hohenzollern, had actively promoted Mantua’s bid to host the III and King Christian I of

congress. Of a higher rank than her ‘small marquis’ husband, she had Denmark are also depicted.
The fanciful antiquarian
called on the support of all her relatives, especially her uncle, Mar- landscape – one of the first

grave Albert, who was, as Barbara said, ‘very well known in the court of its kind – conjures up
both the city of Rome and an
of His Majesty Emperor Frederick III’. When the news arrived that idealized Mantua (undergoing

the pope had decided to honour the small north Italian city, the court active restoration).

went into a frenzy of activity: Luca Fancelli, the Florentine engineer

and stonemason who had been in Mantua since 1450, began the con-
version of the old fortifed Gonzaga castle – the Castello di San Gior-
gio – into a luxurious residence, while the impressive palace complex
known as the Corte was vacated for the pope and his retinue.

Mantua and the Gonzaga

164 | 165
 Te papal court arrived in 1459, staying eight months in the
city (fig. 103). While it enjoyed the elegant rooms in the Corte
– the great Sala del Pisanello (Hall of Pisanello), the ‘white suite’
and ‘the green suite’ among them – Ludovico, Barbara and their
court were packed into the Castello amid the dust and din of work-
men. Among the pope’s entourage was Leon Battista Alberti (then
employed as papal abbreviator), who was to remain in the city
for several months afer the pope’s departure. He was to return
for extended stays in 1463, 1470 and 1471 in order to supervise
building work on his great Mantuan churches of San Sebastiano
and Sant’Andrea. Unfortunately, Ludovico’s own court painter,
Andrea Mantegna, who had agreed to enter the marquis’s service
in January 1457, had still not lef Padua (where he trained and was
working). Te emperor Frederick, too, whose presence had been
virtually guaranteed, never arrived.
Te pope greatly appreciated the scale of Gonzaga hospitality,
but found the city damp, excessively humid and unhealthy (many of
the papal retinue went down with fever), the streets muddy and the
constant croaking of the frogs in the surrounding lake a wearisome
distraction. Mantua, indeed, did not have much physically to recom-
mend it. Occupying a promontory of land in the River Mincio, it was
surrounded by lakes and swamps (malaria outbreaks were frequent),
and was small and poor compared to the great neighbouring states
of Venice and Milan. Nevertheless, its moat-like setting made it ex-
tremely secure, and the confuence of rivers and lakes made trans-
port and travel by boat easy between centres, guaranteeing a con-
tinual fow of trade, pilgrims and distinguished visitors, and making
Mantua particularly receptive to new trends. Te area was also rich
in farmland – the Gonzaga were originally wealthy landowners from
the small town of Gonzaga, south of the city. Most importantly,
Mantua was ideally placed to take advantage of the competing terri-
torial claims of Venice and Milan, acting as a fexible bufer between
the two and helping to ensure the delicate balance of power. Early
on, Ludovico’s ancestors had realized that they could capitalize on
their position, and improve the diplomatic standing of their court,
by investing their modest revenues, infated by their condottieri fees,
in architecture, scholarship and the arts.
Initial work in preparation for the congress had concentrated
on the complex of the Corte, which incorporated two old palaces of
the Bonacolsi family (expelled in a bloody battle by the Gonzagas
in 1328). Of its numerous painted rooms, one of the most stunning
was the Sala del Pisanello, a large hall on the piano nobile, or main
2oor, containing an incomplete mural decoration by Pisanello on
 Fig.103
Pinturicchio (Bernardino
di Betto) and workshop
The Congress of Mantua (from
Scenes from the Life of Enea
Silvio Piccolomini)

1502–8. Fresco. Piccolomini

Library, Siena Cathedral.

The cycle was commissioned

by Cardinal Francesco
Todeschini Piccolomini,
as a monument to his uncle,
Pope Pius II (r. 1458–1464).
This scene depicts the
great Congress of Mantua
of 1459, the purpose of
which was to persuade
Christian rulers to support
a new crusade against the
Turks. The pope is shown
in discussion with the
patriarch of Constantinople.
The inscription that appears
below the fresco refers to a
sea battle that was staged
by Ludovico Gonzaga in the
pope’s honour.

an Arthurian theme (fig. 1)4). It was painted for Ludovico’s father,

Gianfrancesco, probably in parallel with the chapel of the fortifed
villa of Marmirolo, Gianfrancesco’s hunting lodge, which contained
60 rooms adorned with similar subjects – ‘French’ chivalric episodes,
animals and heraldic devices (destroyed in the eighteenth century).
Pisanello’s Corte cycle was decorated in two di8erent phases (1433
– the year Gianfrancesco was granted the imperial title of Marquis –
and ca. 1437) but was never fnished: a large portion of it never got
beyond the stage of black and red (sinopia) under-drawing.
Te decoration’s chivalric subject matter – a grand tournament
and a banquet described in the French Arthurian romance Lancelot –

Mantua and the Gonzaga

166 | 167
Fig.104
Pisanello
Tournament Scene (detail
showing fallen knights)
ca. 1433 and ca. 1447.
Fresco. Sala del Pisanello,
Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.
Pisanello’s ambitious
unfinished tournament fresco
in the Sala del Pisanello,
in which 60 knights
participate in the melee,
conveys the excitement of
the occasion through the
knights’ various poses,
attitudes and gestures. Here
we see two fallen knights
– one attempting to stagger
to his feet, the other out
cold – as the action surges
around them.
encapsulated Gonzaga ideals of military valour, while a frieze con-
taining emblems – most notably the repeated image of a collar with
the letter ‘S’ – stressed Gonzaga prestige and chivalric and royal con-
nections. The collar identifies the Gonzaga with King Henry VI of
England, who used the ‘S’ combined with the white swan as a device,
and in 1436 bestowed on Gianfrancesco the honour of distributing
the collar to 50 of his finest men. Thus Gianfrancesco and his son
Ludovico (who had been duly betrothed to the emperor’s niece) are
shown in the illustrious company of the heroes of the Round Table.
Several of the other protagonists are shown in Gonzaga colours, in-
cluding a favourite dwarf from the court who charges into the scrum.
The frescoes would have provided the same pleasure and diversion
as the sizeable collection of French Arthurian romances in the Gon-
zaga library. They also superbly illustrate the image that the Gonzaga
aspired to – one succinctly remarked on by Filippo Maria Visconti in
1443: ‘… the lord Ludovico does not practise the profession of arms
for greed or gain, but to obtain honour and fame.’
As a condottiere, Ludovico was to fight for Florence, Venice
and Naples, but he was to gain his reputation as general of the Milan-
ese forces and as a great statesman in his astute brokering of power.
He was not as brilliant on the field as Federico da Montefeltro, or
as fearless as Sigismondo Malatesta: the former was to decorate his
palace with a series of tapestries on the Trojan War, the latter with
tapestries illustrating the battles of Charlemagne. Yet the Gonzaga
were custodians of a holy relic that they believed to be of equal stat-
ure to the legendary Holy Grail, placing them on the same footing
as the knights whose tournament they had so enthusiastically infl-
trated. Alfonso of Aragon, the ‘warrior-king’, claimed ownership of
the Holy Grail itself, housed in a twin-bowled sardonyx chalice with
golden base and mounts studded in rubies, pearls and emeralds.
Mantua’s relic of the ‘Most Precious Blood’ contained a few
droplets of Christ’s blood that were credited with miraculous prop-
erties. Tese had allegedly been preserved on the lance that the Ro-
man centurion Longinus stabbed into Christ’s side at the Crucifx-
ion (the lance was housed in the mythical Grail Castle). Longinus
converted to Christianity afer the holy blood cured his blindness.
Te sixteenth-century chronicler Stefano Gionta relates subsequent
events: ‘Tat same Longinus came to the city of Mantua … Lodg-
ing in an alms house on that very spot where is now to be seen
Sant’Andrea … he buried that vessel which was the Precious Blood.’
Te cult of the ancient relic was so important to the Gonzaga that the
Most Precious Blood appears on the reverse of silver coins, medals
and the city’s frst gold ducat.
Te pope’s visit provided Ludovico with further impetus to
transform Mantua into one of the most impressive of the smaller
Italian city-states. Hearing some of the pope’s criticisms from one of
his agents, he immediately set about improving the city, beginning
with the paving of the muddy central piazza. He no doubt discussed
a range of ideas concerning urban planning with both Alberti and
Pius II during their stay in the city: Pius himself was busy transform-
ing Corsignano, the small town where he was born, into an ‘ideal city’
in the humanistic idiom (renamed Pienza) and Alberti was advanc-
ing the classicizing ideas adopted by the most sophisticated centres.
Mantua had no signifcant Roman remains to speak of, but
it did have an illustrious citizen – the Roman poet Virgil, who was
represented on the principal facades of the Palazzo del Podestà and
the Palazzo della Ragione, and was very much the city’s presiding
spirit. Under Virgil’s mantle, and drawing on his own humanist ideas
and skills as an amateur architect and draughtsman, Ludovico en-
thusiastically embraced the neoclassical vision that had transformed
Florence and Rome. Filarete, in his treatise on architecture, made the
‘most learned’ Mantuan lord the mouthpiece for the following ideas:
‘I too was once pleased by modern buildings, but as soon as I began
to appreciate the ancient ones, I grew to despise the modern …’ Fan-
celli was placed in charge of every detail of the execution of Alberti’s
Mantuan buildings; he involved Ludovico closely, with the two men

Mantua and the Gonzaga

168 | 169
 engaging in wide-ranging technical discussions, and the many letters
between them demonstrating an easy and jovial rapport.
Te Palazzo del Podestà was restored to Alberti’s plans and
Alberti’s temple, San Sebastiano, was begun though never completed.
Its extraordinary architectural references to ancient basilicas, rang-
ing from those in Rome to Constantinople and Jerusalem, prompted
Ludovico’s son Francesco to wonder whether it would turn out to
be ‘a church, mosque or synagogue’. Te Benedictine monastery of
Sant’Andrea, at the heart of the city, was rebuilt as a more worthy
home for the Most Precious Blood, afer a decade of vigorous oppo-
sition from the abbot (fig. 1)5). Alberti’s design, submitted in 1470,
replaced an earlier one by the Florentine architect Manetti. Alberti
recommended his own in a letter to Ludovico as more suitable in
every respect: ‘It will be more capacious, more eternal, more worthy,
more cheerful. It will cost much less.’ Te interior (fig. 1)6), partially
based on Constantine’s Roman Basilica of Maxentius, was intended
to both accommodate and impress the crowds of pilgrims who came
from far and wide to see the relic. Te church’s towering new stature

Fig.105
Leon Battista Alberti
Sant’Andrea (exterior)

Foundation stone laid 1472;

nave and portico finished
1494. Mantua.

Alberti described the type

of temple he was planning
for Ludovico Gonzaga as ‘an
Etruscan shrine’, reflecting
Mantua’s legendary Etruscan
origins. Drawing on an
eclectic ancient vocabulary,
Alberti incorporates a
triumphal arch structure
into the design of the
facade – just as he had
done in some of his other
great building projects.
Yet here, in marked contrast
to his earlier temple at
Rimini (see Fig.26), the
triumphal arch is elegantly
integrated and adapted,
with perfectly proportioned
arched windows punctuating
its sides. The coffered
barrel vault ceiling inside
the great portico takes
its inspiration from the
Pantheon (see Fig.25).
– the facade incorporated a triumphal arch – transformed the char- Fig.106

acter of Mantua’s city centre, re-orientating it towards the complex of Leon Battista Alberti
SantÕAndrea (nave): See
court buildings nearby. Te former monastery’s revenues and prop- Fig.105

erty were appropriated by the Gonzaga, afer the transferal of author- The interior echoes the
ity from the Benedictines to Ludovico’s son Francesco. triumphal arch form of the

Andrea Mantegna’s ambitions, which were to become so exterior. The nave has an
enormous coffered barrel
entwined with those of his Gonzaga patrons, were also realized in vault Ð the largest executed

Sant’Andrea. On 11 August 1504 he was granted one of its chapels as since the classical period Ð
with three similarly vaulted
his burial seat, and, according to the terms of his will, it was decorat- chapels to either side.

ed with ornaments, sculpture and paintings. He even purchased the

land behind the chapel to ensure that the light through its circular
window would not be blocked. Tis funerary chapel, together with
his palazzo (built in the style of a Roman house – see fig. 37), appear
to testify to the remarkable reputation Mantegna commanded at his
death in 1506, following 46 years in Gonzaga service. But it is equally
the fruit of his relentless pursuit of public honour and recognition:
he petitioned Frederick III for the title of Count Palatine in 1469
(Ludovico’s secretary noted, with some irony, ‘He hopes to get the

Mantua and the Gonzaga

170 | 171
title free’) and was eventually knighted by Francesco Gonzaga in the
1480s.Yet, despite his artistic ‘dominion’ of Mantua, Mantegna’s will
was witnessed by his equals – all tradesmen, with the exception of
his close friend, the court poet and physician Battista Fiera. His son
even seems to have reproached the then Marquis Francesco for not
visiting the great artist on his deathbed.

Andrea Mantegna: Court Painter and Painter-Courtier

Mantegna had been approached to take up the position of court
painter shortly afer the death of Pisanello in around 1455. Marquis
Ludovico would have been well acquainted with his work for the
nearby Ferrarese court, and probably knew of his reputation through
the humanist eulogies then circulating. At one point, when Ludovico
despaired of Mantegna ever leaving Padua, he began negotiations
with another artist associated with the Este court, Michele Pan-
nonio. Mantegna, however, was a natural choice for the scholarly
Ludovico. Te marquis had been educated in Vittorino da Feltre’s
Casa Giocosa (Joyous House) – the famous school established by
his father. Alberti’s treatise On Painting, dedicated to Gianfrancesco
Gonzaga, was probably written with the Casa Giocosa in mind, for
this was one of the few establishments where its learned allusions
to ancient rhetoric, philosophy, poetry and history, coupled with an
emphasis on draughtsmanship, mathematics and geometry, would
have been clearly understood. Mantegna shared Ludovico’s passion-
ate interest in antiquity and was keen to elaborate on Alberti’s ideas.
Te three men probably discussed iconographic schemes when they
met during Mantegna’s frst decade in Mantua.
On 15 April 1458 Ludovico made Mantegna the formal o8er
of ‘ffeen ducats a month, the provision of rooms where you can
live with your family, enough food each year to feed six, and enough
frewood for your use’. Mantegna accepted graciously, but asked for
six months’ delay to fnish work to which he was already commit-
ted. Ludovico agreed, adding ‘take seven or eight, so that you can
fnish everything you have begun and come here with your mind at
rest.’ On 23 January 1459, Mantegna was given a length of crimson
damask embroidered with silver to make up his court livery. Seven
days later he was formally designated carissimum familiarem noster
(‘our most dear familiar’) and granted the use of the Gonzaga coat of
arms, together with the device of the sun bearing the punning motto
par un [sol] désir. Tese, Ludovico declared, were to be ‘the least of
the rewards’ he could expect. A ‘little ship’ sent by the marquis fnally
set out from Mantua in the spring of 1460, returning with Mantegna,
his family and belongings.
Mantegna’s frst major task was the decoration of the Gonza-
ga’s private chapel in the newly refurbished Castello di San Giorgio. Fig.107

Te chapel had been built according to Mantegna’s specifcations, Andrea Mantegna

Triptych, with The
and the artist may have travelled brie2y to Mantua to approve it in Ascension, The Adoration

mid-1459. Fancelli was in charge of the structural work and the in- of the Magi and The
Circumcision
terior refurbishment. Mantegna probably began the painted decora-
tion in 1460, producing panels for up to ten years aferwards. Te 1463–4. Tempera on wood,
86 × 161.5cm (2ft 10in × 5ft
chapel was destroyed in the sixteenth century – the Cappella del Per- 31∕2in). Uffizi, Florence.

dono at Urbino (see fig. 68) may be the closest existing parallel – but These panels formed part
three panels (collected together as the ‘Ufzi Triptych’) (fig. 1)7), of the original decoration

and two further panels, Te Death of the Virgin (Prado, Madrid) and of Ludovico Gonzaga’s
private palace chapel.
a fragment Christ Welcoming the Virgin in Heaven (Pinacoteca Na- At around the same time as

zionale, Ferrara) are associated with it. One of the Ufzi panels, Te Mantegna was working on this
commission, Ludovico’s peers
Adoration of the Magi, is curved in shape, and was probably intended were decorating their own

to ft the altar niche. Engravings of Te Deposition and Te Entomb- palace chapels (in Urbino,
Ferrara and Florence) with
ment with Four Birds of about 1465 (the latter featuring St. Longinus) various eye-catching schemes

may be connected with lost paintings for the chapel. (see, for example, Fig.13).
Mantegna’s decoration
Te chapel works are typical products of courtly art in that showcases his illusionistic

they are small-scale – the largest Ufzi panel is 75.6 × 73.7  centi- mastery and eye for
historical, geological and
metres (30¼ × 29½ inches) – highly decorative, and peopled with architectural detail, while

numerous slender fgures. Te architectural setting of Te Circum- also reflecting the interests
of his intendentissimo (very
cision in particular, with its polished marbles, stucco mouldings and learned) patron.

Mantua and the Gonzaga

172 | 173
Fig.108
Andrea Mantegna
Camera Picta (the oculus):
See Fig.109
For sheer entertainment
value and as a bravura
display of illusionistic
skill, the trompe l’oeil
ceiling of the Camera
Picta (which is flat but
appears concave) and oculus
– with its dramatically
foreshortened figures
and view through to a
dazzling lapis-lazuli
sky – was unrivalled in
its day. Ludovico would
probably have used the
surrounding mythological
vaulting compartments and
bust medallions of the
emperors as topics for
casual conversation. While
they would have triggered
responses about the public
virtues they embody or
allegorize, the oculus
exemplifies the personal
courtly value of hilaritas
(cheerfulness), and the part
secular decoration played
in restoring the spirit
(Ludovico Gonzaga suffered
from bouts of melancholy).
The women gazing down reflect
a playful tradition of
knowing ‘intrusion’ into the
real space – earlier palace
frescoes included fictive
architectural elements with
beautiful women looking on
from ‘balconies’.
gilt-bronze reliefs, is a showpiece for Mantegna’s all’antica prowess.
Mantegna was clearly anxious to conform to what was expected of
him at this early stage in his court career: each little panel is worked
up from detailed, carefully executed cartoons and the colours are
varnished for extra gloss. His bold individualism had been criticized
a few years earlier in Padua, when he had painted a fresco of Te As-
sumption of the Virgin with eight apostles rather than the full 12. In
the Mantuan Ascension, the head and shoulders of the four apostles
that make up the 12 are dutifully pressed in behind the main group.
In 1465 Mantegna began work on the decoration of a small
square chamber on the frst 2oor of the northeast tower of the Cas-
tello – the date is frescoed in the splay of a window to look like graf-
fti scratched into the plaster. Nearly ten years later the Camera Picta
(Painted Room, later known as the Camera degli Sposi) was complet-
ed (fig. 1)9): Mantegna’s dedicatory plaque to Ludovico Gonzaga
and his wife Barbara of Brandenburg is dated 1474. Mantegna paint-
ed the stunning illusionistic ceiling frst of all, with its fctive mar-
ble portrait busts of the frst eight Caesars, grisaille (monochrome)
mythological plaques, elaborate ‘stucco’ mouldings, glittering gold
‘mosaic’ and oculus – a simulated opening at the centre of the vault
giving way to a painted summer sky (fig. 1)8). He then proceeded
to depict the Gonzaga family and court (including the marquis’s fa-
vourite dog, Rubino) sitting in a garden loggia directly over the north
wall freplace (fig. 11)), gold-embroidered curtains on the south and
east walls, and the meeting scene on the west wall (fig. 1)2).
Tese frescoes give us a privileged glimpse into the enclosed
world of the Gonzaga inner court and are a remarkable display of
Mantegna’s virtù. On frst impression, we seem to be presented with
a wonderfully ‘natural’ and a8ectionate portrait of the marquis and
his wife, along with their family, closest advisers, court favourites,
horses and attendants. But the decoration is also a carefully con-
trived political artifce – a masterpiece of illusion in every way. Tis
is made explicit in an ambassador’s report of 1475, which alerts
Ludovico to Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s complaint that his own
portrait has not been included in ‘the most beautiful room in the
world’. Te insult is compounded by the fact that the decoration in-
cludes, in Galeazzo Maria’s own words, the ‘two most wretched men
in the world’: King Christian of Denmark and Emperor Frederick III
(both of whom had thwarted his plans to buy himself a royal title).
Ludovico tactfully averts a minor diplomatic incident by declaring
that Mantegna’s portraits ‘lack grace’, and explaining that the art-
ist had wanted to avoid giving displeasure and so, dissatisfed with
his attempt to capture Galeazzo’s likeness, had ended up burning it.
Mantua and the Gonzaga

174 | 175
Fig.109
Andrea Mantegna
Camera Picta: general view,
showing north and west walls
and ceiling

1465–74. Fresco, 8 × 8 ×
6.9m (26ft 6in × 26ft 6in ×
22ft 7in). Palazzo Ducale,
Mantua.

This small room in the

northeast tower of the
Castello di San Giorgio was
redesigned before Mantegna
began decorating it to give
it a near perfect cubic
form. The ceiling was raised
and two windows shifted, so
that natural light would
fall gracefully on the
frescoes. An additional
entrance door was inserted
in the west wall. The room
may be intended to invoke
the glory of Lucian’s The
Hall (second century CE),
which focuses rhetorically
on the relationship between
a place and those occupying
it, and how visual beauty
(the lustre of gold, walls
adorned with art, with
light evoking the light
of the sun) can stimulate
mental exaltation (rivalling
words). ‘The cultured
observer … will not rest
content with feasting his
eyes on beauty … the very
use to which the hall is
put, and the distinguished
quality of the audience,
are an essential part of the
praise bestowed upon it.’

Mantua and the Gonzaga

176 | 177
Notable in this context is the decidedly un2attering portrait of Bar-
bara of Brandenburg (her status eclipses beauty), juxtaposed with her
beautiful daughter-in-law and her forthright dwarf. Te explanation
seems to have been accepted: Galeazzo Maria had already planned a
fresco for his castle in Milan (1474) in which Ludovico was placed on
the same footing as the marquis of the tiny state of Monferrato!
!e original and distinguished function of the room provides
the key to events to which the frescoes may allude. Situated on the
frst 2oor of the oldest part of the Castello, the room was used both
as the marquis’s bedchamber and as an audience room, where Lu-
dovico received important visitors – lords, ambassadors and diplo-
mats – as well as his closest advisers and administrators. In marked
contrast to Pisanello’s teeming tapestry-style decoration, Mantegna
creates a light and airy antique-style loggia. Rich damask painted
hangings curtain o8 one corner of the room where a canopied bed
would have been. A small cabinet positioned on the west wall be-
hind Mantegna’s gold-embroidered cloth was probably used to store
important letters and documents (marriage contracts were signed
here), as well as the marquis’s keys (including those to the chapel of
the Most Precious Blood). !is may explain why letters feature so
strongly in the room’s decoration.
According to the Italian scholar Rodolfo Signorini’s research,
the court scene shows Ludovico receiving a letter (dated 30 Decem-
ber 1461 and now in the state archives) that contained an urgent sum-
mons from the Duchess of Milan. Ludovico was employed as Milan’s
lieutenant-general, and the letter informed him of Duke Francesco
Sforza’s grave illness. In the event of his death, Sforza rule could be
challenged, and Ludovico’s military services would be called upon.
On receiving this letter, Ludovico set o8 immediately for Milan,
meeting his sons Francesco and Federico (his heir) at Bozzolo, on
the border of Mantuan and Milanese territories. Francesco had just
been elevated to the princely rank of Cardinal (22 December 1461),
a momentous event for the family and the most important outcome
of Pius II’s stay in Mantua. !e meeting between father and cardi-
nal-son is apparently witnessed in the fresco by Barbara of Branden-
burg’s brother-in-law, King Christian I of Denmark (who visited in
1474 and had his portrait quickly added), and Emperor Frederick III
(Mantua’s overlord), neither of whom was actually present on the oc-
casion. !e inclusion of the young grandsons (not yet born) perhaps
alludes to one of the most signifcant achievements of the Gonzaga
– their ability to sire legitimate sons and heirs!
While Signorini’s interpretation is controversial, there is no
doubt that the scheme 2aunts Gonzaga papal and imperial connec-
tions. At the same time, the decoration leavens the serious business
of court with wit; much court humour of the period depends upon a
knowing parody of social status, intended to guard against the evils
of pride and envy. !e oculus on the ceiling not only displays the Fig.110
summit of Mantegna’s ingenuity and mastery of painted illusion, but Andrea Mantegna

also serves as an inaudible giggle permeating the air. Only the world Camera Picta: detail of
Court Scene (north wall):
of the court, one of discretion, honour and trust, is privy to the busi- See Fig.109

ness being conducted – and yet the court is being benignly watched. Ludovico Gonzaga and
Impudent putti, accompanied by a peacock and a precariously bal- his wife Barbara von

anced tub, are caught in the act of throwing an apple – or even about Hohenzollern-Brandenburg
(seated) are shown together
to urinate – into the room below. Here Mantegna trumpets his skill with Ludovichino and Paola

in the art of di sotto in su, an invention that Vasari attributes to him, (the youngest son and
daughter). Gianfrancesco
which applies the mathematical skills of perspective to things seen (the third son) and the

‘from below’. coupleÕs daughter-in-law

appear in the row behind.
!e Camera Picta, it seems, was also expected to play a sub- The fourth son, Rodolfo

tle role in in2uencing events: when the Milanese ambassadors came Gonzaga, is probably the
blond youth standing proudly
to Mantua to renegotiate Ludovico’s military contract in April 1470 with a dagger at his waist.

Mantua and the Gonzaga

178 | 179
(Gonzaga solvency – and thus Mantegna’s salary – was reliant on
it) they were shown the frescoes in progress. The ambassadors re-
ported that Ludovico showed them a room he was having painted
‘where are portrayed al naturale his lordship, Madonna Barbara his
consort, Lord Federico, and all his other sons and daughters. While
talking about these figures, he had both his daughters come, namely
the younger, Madonna Paola, and the elder, Madonna Barbara, who
seemed to us a pretty and gentle lady, with a good air and manners.’
Mantegna’s court fresco was therefore used to impress the am-
bassadors and show off the marriageable Gonzaga daughters, whose
grace could be set off by the verisimilitude of their painted portraits.
Having rejected two Gonzaga daughters on the grounds of con-
genital deformity, Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s passion for Barbara had
been inflamed by a portrait he had commissioned, which apparently Fig.111

‘drove him crazy’ (although a match with Bona of Savoy had been Andrea Mantegna
The Triumphs of Caesar,
arranged). The court fresco also presented the ambassadors with an Canvas II: Captured Statues

embodiment of Ludovico’s condottiere virtues – above all his fidelity and Siege Equipment

to those to whom he ‘pledged his person and state’. Word of Manteg- ca. 1484–late 1490s. Tempera

na’s monumental achievement spread quickly – one of the ambassa- on canvas, 2.66 × 2.78m (8ft
83∕4in × 9ft 11∕2in). Hampton
dors who reported it to Galeazzo Maria was portrayed in Galeazzo’s Court, London.

Pavia frescoes (1471), which imitated the Camera’s splendours. Mantegna’s nine splendid
Mantegna’s other most prestigious work for the Gonzaga was canvases freely intermingle

The Triumphs of Caesar (fig. 111) – a magnificent series of nine mon- ancient visual and literary
sources (here the colossal
umental canvases celebrating the military triumphs of Julius Caesar statues, wooden models of

‘in images that are almost alive and breathing’ (Marquis Francesco captured cities, and booty
are taken from accounts
Gonzaga). There is still no conclusive evidence as to which Gonzaga in Appian and Livy) with

commissioned this great work: Federico, who succeeded Ludovico as contemporary descriptions
of classical triumphs
Marquis in 1478, seems to have devoted the little time he had, when (such as Flavio Biondo’s

he was not embroiled in military campaigns, to the construction of Roma Triumphans of 1459)
and items derived from
a major new palace, the Domus Novus (which Fancelli embarked on fifteenth-century pageantry

in the early 1480s), and to urgent renovation work on the old Corte and military display.
Courtiers would probably
(a wall in his bedroom had collapsed in the autumn of 1480, and in have recognized the horse

December part of the ceiling of the Sala del Pisanello fell in). with its ‘lion of San Marco’
pendant as an allusion to
Unlike the Camera Picta, The Triumphs of Caesar contain Francesco Gonzaga’s command

only generalized allusions to the Gonzaga, which suggests that Man- of the Venetian forces:
the inscription, with its
tegna was given an unusually open brief. The few allusions there are reference to ‘envy scorned

– the imperial eagle (which the emperor Sigismund had allowed the and overcome’, also has
the ring of a contemporary
Gonzaga to use quartered on their coat of arms), the youths in red motto. The prominent bust

and white livery – are not exclusive to the Gonzaga court. Neverthe- may depict the Anatolian
mother-goddess Cybele, with
less, the series instantly won the family widespread acclaim. It was her mural crown (symbolizing

probably the young Marquis Francesco Gonzaga who realized that her role as protector of
the city-state), whose cult
Mantegna’s marvellously inventive archaeological maniera (style) – was adopted by Rome. The

given a stage large enough to display it – could only enhance his rep- nine canvases were hung
in Francesco’s newly built
utation. If this is the case, then it marks a new and highly significant Palazzo di San Sebastiano

phase in princely patronage. in 1506, where they formed

a living reminder of the
glories of antiquity.

A New Lord and Master

Francesco had succeeded his father Federico (who died from a fever
in 1484) at the age of just 17. Mantegna, who with each successive
marquis worried anew about his terms of employment, wrote a few
weeks later to Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence that ‘the disposition
of this new lord renews my hopes, seeing him all inclined towards
virtù’. Mantegna’s continual correspondence with Lorenzo de’ Med-
ici during Federico’s brief reign, requesting financial assistance and

Mantua and the Gonzaga

180 | 181
sending a couple of paintings as diplomatic gifts (Federico was
fighting for the Florentines), reveals that he was seriously unhappy
during these years; he probably offered his services to Lorenzo de’
Medici when the latter visited his house in 1483. Mantegna’s worries,
however, seem to have been dispelled when the new marquis be-
stowed on him the long-awaited knighthood and possibly the huge
open-ended commission of The Triumphs of Caesar (ca. 1484 on-
wards). Both these measures would have ensured that the venerable
master was kept happy and busy in Gonzaga service.
Mantegna, by now a highly practised courtier, quickly gauged
how to treat the new marquis, who was a busy military commander,
and when away from the battlefield enjoyed being entertained (he
greatly valued his dwarfs and buffoons). Francesco’s chief passions
were racehorses, cartography and military equipment, but he also
continued his father’s patronage of architecture and painted decora-
tion on a significant scale. He focused on the two palaces at Marmiro-
lo and Gonzaga (demolished in the eighteenth century), employing
local artists to decorate them swiftly and extensively. They featured
familiar subjects, such as important military triumphs, but they
also focused on Francesco’s famous thoroughbred horses (life-sized
in the massive Hall of the Barbary Horses), and his discriminating
taste for maps and views of cities – pertinent to the international
and commercial networks that operated between the great centres
(based on the most sophisticated cartographic knowledge available).
Meanwhile, Mantegna was granted two years’ leave from work on
The Triumphs of Caesar to decorate Pope Innocent VIII’s chapel in
the Vatican (destroyed in the eighteenth century).
While in Rome, Mantegna made superb drawings of ancient
monuments, infused by his own vigorous personal response rath-
er than a desire for archaeological exactitude (fig. 112), and began
to form a distinguished collection of antiquities. However, the fear
that the ‘bee’ might be deprived of honey, while away from the ‘hive’,
seems to have haunted Mantegna during these two years. Writing
from Rome, Mantegna does the young marquis honour with ‘all the
powers of my weak wits’ – urging him to keep on paying his sala-
ry. He shrewdly uses a racehorse analogy, speaking of the honour
he hopes to obtain from working in Rome: ‘And so, as with Barbary
horses, the first gets the ribbon, and I must get it finally.’ He then
provides Francesco with an amusing verbal caricature of the Sultan’s
brother who was living in the Vatican as the pope’s prisoner.
The seventh canvas of The Triumphs of Caesar, which may
have been largely painted on Mantegna’s return, features a courtly
group of jesters and buffoons who poke fun at the ranks of forlorn
 Fig.112
Andrea Mantegna
Emperor Trajan in the Fight
Against the Dacians

1488–9, chalk and ink on

paper, 27.2 × 19.8cm (103∕4 ×
73∕4in). Albertina, Vienna.

Mantegna had profound

archaeological interests
and had, early on, gained a
reputation as ‘a great lover
and student of antiquity’
(Felice Feliciano). His
first-hand experience of
Rome in the late 1480s
gave him the confidence to
combine this study of a
Trajanic relief with a fierce
animating spirit of his own.

captives paraded past them. Tis combination of jest and earnestness

would have delighted Francesco. His favourite dwarf Mattello made
a speciality of sending up monks. One of Mantegna’s sons, Franc-
esco, was to use similar courtly ploys in an attempt to prolong his
employment at the Gonzaga castle of Marmirolo, which he was in
the process of decorating with pictures of cities and the Triumphs
of Alexander. He sent Francesco Gonzaga a drawing of the King of
France, Charles VIII, who had invaded Italy and was being repelled
by Francesco in his role as commander of the Venetian army. ‘Since I
have heard from some people about the most serene King of France’s
appearance, and how greatly deformed it is, with the large eyes pop-
ping out, and fault in the large aquiline misshapen nose, with few

Mantua and the Gonzaga

182 | 183
Fig.113
Andrea Mantegna
Madonna della Vittoria
1496. Tempera on canvas,
2.85 × 1.68m (9ft 41∕4in × 5ft
61∕8in). Musée du Louvre,
Paris.
Two of the chief glories of
this elaborately crafted
altarpiece are the Virgin’s
ornate throne, decorated
with gilded bas reliefs from
the story of Adam and Eve,
and the pergola ‘apse’, with
its view beyond to a Mantuan
sky streaked with wispy
cloud. Studded with fruits
and flowers, and draped with
symbolic coral, pearls and
rock crystal, the pergola
structure also features
exotic birds perched among
its leaves. Recently, one of
these has been identified as
a sulphur-crested cockatoo
from Australasia, giving
rise to speculation about
Silk Road trade routes to
northern Italy at this time.
thin hairs on his head, the amazement of the image of such a little
hunchbacked man made me have a dream about it.’
Francesco’s costly and inconclusive victory over Charles VIII’s
army at the Battle of Fornovo on 6 July 1495 was commemorated
in a towering votive altarpiece, the Madonna della Vittoria, painted
by Mantegna (fig. 113). !e newly completed canvas was carried in
triumph through the streets on the anniversary of the battle. Its cere-
monial public display was partly to appease the court’s and the city’s
growing disquiet about the scale of revenues that Francesco had di-
verted to his military campaign, but largely to cast Francesco in the
role of military triumphator. Mantegna was paid the large sum of 110
ducats – but this was not money that would place a further drain on
the city’s purse: it had been forcibly extracted from the Jewish mon-
eylender Daniele da Norsa, who was made to underwrite the project
as an act of reparation. Norsa had whitewashed over a fresco of the
Madonna above the door of his new house with the full authority
of the local vicar (May 1495), only to be fned 110 ducats for the
‘o8ence’ – or face hanging.
!e Gonzaga generally had a reputation for protecting the
Jewish communities in their territory. On succeeding Federico in
1484, Francesco had banned the Franciscan Fra Benardino’s viru-
lent anti-Jewish preaching from the main square, relegating his ser-
mons to the church of San Francesco where he was advised to preach
with ‘loving kindness’ as beftted ‘a good churchman’. Francesco also
punished ‘baiting’, even among juveniles, and permitted Jews to be
armed in case of attack. !e persecution of Daniele da Norsa, how-
ever, was allowed to continue – his house was confscated and razed
to make way for the new church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, com-
pleted within a year of the victory, along with Mantegna’s altarpiece.
Daniele da Norsa does not appear in the altarpiece he paid
for. Francesco, clad in gleaming armour (demonstrating Manteg-
na’s Flemish-style mastery of lustro – lustrous re2ection), is shown
kneeling in homage, with a decidedly worldly glow spreading across
his reverent features. A drawing from about the same time, ofen at-
tributed to Mantegna (fig. 114), reveals a more sensitive and tender
sensuality. Kneeling opposite Francesco is the elderly St. Elisabeth
(patron saint of his wife Isabella d’Este) – possibly bearing the fea-
tures of Mantua’s ‘living saint’, the Gonzaga protectress and Domini-
can mystic, Osanna Andreasi – who presents the nude infant St. John
the Baptist.
Francesco is commended to the Madonna by Saints Andrew,
George (patron saint of the Gonzaga), Michael and Longinus, under
the protection of a choir-like pergola garlanded with fruit, 2owers
Fig.114
Andrea Mantegna
(attributed)
Portrait Drawing of
Francesco II Gonzaga,
fourth Marquese of Mantua

ca. 1495. Black chalk and

grey wash on paper, 34.8
× 23.8cm (133∕4 × 93∕8in).
National Gallery of Ireland,
Dublin. Purchased 1866,
NGI.2019.

This gentle portrait,

which is sometimes
attributed to Francesco
Bonsignori, reveals a side
to Francesco’s character
that is often overlooked.
Archival material reveals
him to have been a sensitive
family man who shared the
responsibilities of power
– cultural, political and
diplomatic – with his wife.
In this respect, he seems
to have adopted a model
for rule that was perhaps
similar to that in other
courtly centres, where
highly able consorts acted
as deputies during their
husband’s continual military
absences (for example,
Battista Sforza and Eleonora
of Aragon).

and birds. Te holy blood is embodied in the writhing red veins of

a branch of coral suspended from its apex – a symbol of death and
resurrection. Te Venetian sculptor Pietro Lombardo was commis-
sioned to make a votive chapel for the ‘Most Unconquerable Em-
peror’ (as he addressed the marquis) to accompany Mantegna’s al-
tarpiece: some years later, when Francesco was incarcerated by the
Venetians (he was now fghting on the opposing side), Lombardo
was asked to reinforce the masonry of his cell!
Daniele da Norsa’s fortunes as a convenient scapegoat and ex-
emplar of ‘Jewish perfdy’ are explicitly illustrated in an anonymous
altarpiece made for Sant’Andrea. Depicting the Madonna and Child Fig.115

with Saints Elizabeth and Jerome (holding a model of the church Anonymous
Madonna and Child with
of Santa Maria Vittoria), it bears the inscription DEFEAT OF THE Saints and the Norsa Family

JEWS’ TEMERITY, and shows the truncated portraits of the Nor- ca. 1499. SantÕAndrea,
sa family at its base (fig. 115). A year earlier, Francesco had pro- Mantua.

claimed that even those residents who have made ‘an error with St. Jerome, on the left,
their false faith’ deserve to live in peace and security. The altarpiece, probably represents the

like Mantegna’s Madonna della Vittoria, serves as a type of symbol- priest Fra Girolamo Redini,
whom Francesco put in charge
ic retribution: Francesco had to neutralize public unrest, appease of the church of Santa Maria

anti-semitic outbursts, distract attention from the heavy battlefield della Vittoria (shown in a
model). The Norsa family,
toll, and celebrate the honourable achievements of warfare – all at with the men wearing

the same time. the (by then) compulsory

Jewish badge and their
On completion, the Madonna della Vittoria was exhibited wivesÕ heads bowed, are

outside Francesco’s palatial townhouse, San Sebastiano, as part of a relegated to the bottom zone.

devotional tableau vivant devised by his wife and

brother (Sigismondo, Vicar of Mantua), before be-
ing carried in procession to the new church. Man-
tegna’s Triumphs were also painted on canvas, using
one of the many special techniques that Mantegna
prided himself on. It is clear that Francesco intend-
ed such magnificent works to be easily portable, so
that they could be employed in public theatrical
extravaganzas and installed in purpose-built or de-
signed settings. The Triumphs were eventually in-
stalled in a long, specially designed banqueting hall
on the piano nobile of San Sebastiano. Here they
were displayed in a great gilded frame, with each
scene divided by pilasters. Immediately hailed as
one of the Gonzaga’s greatest treasures, their fame
was transmitted through engravings and woodcuts
and painted copies.
Canvases I and II, which vividly refer to
Caesar’s famous defeat of Gaul, may be a reference
to Francesco’s defeat of the French at the Battle of Fornovo. If so, the
imagery is discreet, but of tremendous power. For a more explicit
commemoration of the battle, however, Francesco relied on the tal-
ents of the court artist Francesco Bonsignori (ca. 1460–1519), who
was commissioned to make a record of the event and sent off to the
battlefield. This was probably one of a set of ‘triumphs’ that are men-
tioned in the same breath as Bonsignori’s notable series of ‘portraits
of court gentlemen’. While Mantegna’s prodigious skills and idiosyn-
cratic temperament were given a broad canvas to play with, Bon-
signori provided a more conventional service – and was regarded as

Mantua and the Gonzaga

186 | 187
Fig.116
Leonardo da Vinci
Portrait of Isabella d’Este
1499–1500. Black chalk,
chalk, sanguine, stump,
white highlights, white
prepared paper, 61 × 46.5cm
(24 × 181∕4in). Musée du
Louvre, Paris.
Leonardo’s profile portrait
of Isabella d’Este probably
served as the preparatory
drawing for a finished
portrait. A replica (in
Oxford) reveals that
Isabella was originally
shown with a book at her
fingertips: this damaged
and discoloured drawing
has been cut down on all
sides. A newly discovered
painting, unearthed in a
Swiss bank vault, claims
to be the finished Leonardo
portrait. Isabella had her
portrait painted by several
of the greatest artists of
the age, including Tura,
Mantegna and Titian. Such
portraits served as physical
surrogates, reinforcing ties
and affections.
one of the fnest exponents of the vexed art of portraiture. His por-
trait of Francesco’s wife, Isabella – owned by Isabella’s lifelong friend,
Margherita Cantelma – was considered a perfect likeness: Margher-
ita delightedly studied it when the two were apart.
Isabella dÕEste: Collecting for Pleasure and Prestige
Isabella d’Este, the eldest daughter and favourite child of Ercole
d’Este and Eleonora of Aragon, had become Francesco’s wife when
she was 17 years old. Like her mother, she took a keen interest in cul-
ture and had already developed a fastidious artistic eye. Mantegna,
who was absent in Rome at the time of Isabella’s arrival in 1490, took
the wise precaution of writing to her former tutor Battista Guarino,
asking him to recommend his services to her. Guarino wrote that
besides his excellence ‘wherein [Mantegna] has no equal, he is all
courtesy and kindness’, Isabella would obtain from him ‘a thousand
good conceits in designs and other things that will befall.’ By 1493,
Mantegna had submitted a portrait of her, which she declined on the
grounds that ‘it was so badly done that it did not resemble me at all’.
Isabella followed court custom in desiring to be represented in
the most 2attering light, adorned in the most fashionable garments
and jewellery (women had little or no recourse to the traditional
attributes of nobility, such as arms, chivalric decorations or heavy
gold chains). !e humanist Mario Equicola’s About Women (De
Mulieribus, 1501), commissioned by Margherita Cantelma, praises
Isabella as an exemplar of beauty, Christian devotion, political skill
and considerable cultural accomplishments. For the writer Giangior-
gio Trissino, who created a word-picture of Isabella in his Portraits
(Ritratti) of the fnest ladies in Italy (1524), Isabella’s gorgeous attire
was a mark of ‘liberality’ – a way of sharing her riches with everyone.
Physical beauty, too, was regarded as the outward manifestation of
virtue, in keeping with the latest Platonic ideas. Trissino described
Isabella arriving for Mass at Milan Cathedral in about 1507, wearing
a black velvet dress embroidered with gold, her waist hugged by a
gold-buckled girdle, her lustrous hair glimpsed through a bejewelled
gossamer net, and an open prayer book in her hand. Leonardo da
Vinci’s portrait drawing, which met with Isabella’s approval, origi-
nally showed her holding a similar book between her slender fngers
(fig. 11D). Isabella’s other most reliable surviving portrait is on her
medal, which she gave to the literary men she surrounded herself
with as a mark of her special favour. She kept a deluxe version made
by the sculptor Giancristoforo Romano – gold with a diamond-
Mantua and the Gonzaga

188 | 189
Fig.117 studded frame (fig. 117) – in her grotta (grotto) alongside an exqui-
Giancristoforo Romano
Medal of Isabella d’Este
site imperial antique cameo of Augustus and Livia (fig. 118) with
(obverse) which it could be favourably compared.
1498. Gold, diamonds and
Te young Isabella chose to concentrate her eforts on becom-
enamel, diameter 6.9cm ing a discriminating patron of the arts, although her cultural ambi-
(25∕8in). Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna.
tions were continually thwarted by lack of personal funds: art for
her apartments had to be paid for out of her own household income,
This is a luxury gold cast
of the medal that Isabella
and she frequently had to pawn her jewels. Consorts were usually
presented as a gift to poets expected to emphasize their piety through religious commissions or
and courtiers she favoured,
with the inscription ‘For
through the endowment of personal religious foundations. Isabella,
those who do her service’ however, was initially more interested in secular projects, inspired
on the reverse. Such tactile
images invited both physical
by the literary and poetic interests of her native Ferrarese court and
and aesthetic responses. the vogue for classical connoisseurship. Even traditional biblical
subjects – Old Testament types of vice and virtue – were preferred,
Fig.118 in her early commissions, in decorative antique guise (with precious
Cameo of a royal couple
materials like gilt-bronze and variegated marble mimicked in paint).
278–269 BCE. Indian Her ambitions as a patron are embodied in the commission of a ‘clas-
sardonyx, height 11.5cm
(41∕2in) – cut down.
sical’ standing monument to Virgil for a public square, an idea that
Kunsthistorisches Ludovico had considered with the humanist Platina and Alberti in
Museum, Vienna.
the 1450s, and one that Isabella enthusiastically revived in the late
Both this cameo and a cameo 1490s. Giovanni Pontano, who was approached through Francesco’s
in the Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg, have been
Neapolitan ambassador for scholarly advice on the monument, paid
identified as the ‘Gonzaga tribute to Isabella’s unusual initiative, especially considering that
Cameo’ once owned by
Isabella d’Este.
she was ‘a young woman, unable to read Latin’. Battista Fiera’s poem
praising the project – which was never to be realized (a drawing
attributed to the circle of Mantegna is all that survives) – was dedi- Fig.119

cated to Francesco Gonzaga, who would have paid for it. Pier Jacopo Alari-
Bonacolsi, called Antico
Isabella did not allow these difculties to inhibit her cultural Apollo Belvedere

preferences. She studied Latin, but found it difcult to master: she ca. 1520. Bronze with
was the only consort to hire a tutor for this purpose – the humanist dark brown, partly black

Mario Equicola, who came from Ferrara to Mantua some time before patina, hollow-cast,
partially fire gilded,
1500 and was appointed to the post in early 1508, becoming an in- eyes set with silver,

timate member of her inner circle. Instead of devouring Latin texts, height 41.3cm (161∕4in).
Ca’ d’Oro, Venice.
she acquired antique works of art for her collezione, for which she
developed an ‘insatiable desire’. While her husband’s advisers mar-
shalled bands of local artists to work at speed on expansive fresco
schemes, Isabella’s painstaking care for the small
intimate spaces she commanded defnes her style
and approach. She was determined to commission
and acquire the best art she could, and to ensure it
was of exquisite quality. She began her collection
with small objects like carved intaglios, cameos
and vases, graduating to sculpture, medallions and
coins. Her taste for such objects was well known
and she received many gifs: Mantegna’s son, Lu-
dovico, curried favour by sending her a medal, ‘be-
cause I know you delight in them extremely’.
Her gem-engraver Francesco Anichini, who
resided in Venice, was regularly sent designs by
Mantegna to carve. Giancristoforo helped her to
circumvent the papal embargo on exports of Ro-
man antiquities and, along with Mantegna and the
Mantuan sculptor Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari-Bon-
acolsi), advised her on the authenticity and quali-
ty of pieces. She commissioned bronze fgures by
Antico, and had his deluxe reductions of classical
masterpieces, like the Apollo Belvedere (fig. 119)
recast from originals made for the bishop-elect
Ludovico Gonzaga.
Although she did not have the resourc-
es to attract the best painters to Mantua, Isabella
did have the prestige. She could thus commission
artists of major standing or, failing this, buy fne
works second-hand. In this respect she established
an important precedent, becoming one of the frst
courtly patrons to buy works by Italian artists for their own sake.
On Giorgione’s death, one of Isabella’s agents alerted her to the fact
that there was a ‘very beautiful and singular’ picture of a night scene

Mantua and the Gonzaga

190 | 191
Fig.120
Andrea Mantegna
Pallas Expelling the Vices
from the Garden of Virtue

ca. 1499–1502. Tempera and

oil on canvas, 1.6 × 1.92m
(5ft 31∕2in × 6ft 5 5∕8in).
Musée du Louvre, Paris.

This remarkable fantasia

is probably the result of
Mantegna’s collaboration
with Isabella’s humanist
adviser Paride da Ceresara.
The allegorical figures are
identified by inscriptions:
Pallas Athene (Isabella)
rushes into the enclosed
garden, holding a broken
lance (Francesco had
presented her with this
knightly symbol following
his victory at Fornovo),
and scattering the Vices
in her wake. The anguished
anthropomorphic tree on
the extreme left symbolizes
‘Virtue Deserted’: the
Latin, Greek and Hebrew
inscriptions wound round her
trunk call on the Virtues
in the heavens (Justice,
Fortitude and Temperance,
shown in the sky) to return
and banish ‘these foul
monsters of Vices from
our seats’. The fourth
Virtue, Prudence – which
Isabella claimed as her
own – is imprisoned in the
rocky wall on the right (a
fluttering scroll reveals
her presence). Mantegna’s
abundant powers of invention
are demonstrated not only in
the extraordinary composite
figures (the armless Idleness
or the monkey-like Immortal
Hatred, Fraud and Malice),
but also in the explosion
of volcanic rock and the
profile heads forming from
dark cloud, as well as the
fertile river landscape
visible beyond.

Mantua and the Gonzaga

192 | 193

Fig.121
Andrea Mantegna
Mars and Venus, known as
Parnassus
ca. 1496-7. Oil on canvas,
1.59 × 1.92m (5ft 21∕2in × 6ft
5 5∕8in). Musée du Louvre,
Paris.
Isabella’s patronage of the
arts, and her special love
of song, music and dance
(she played the lute and
cittern and became highly
accomplished on the lira
da braccio), identified her
readily with Apollo and
the Muses. Here the Muses
dance and sing to Apollo’s
accompaniment, presided
over by Mars and Venus. The
theme is peaceful harmony
– Venus as ever disarms
her lover Mars – with the
only disruptive element
represented by a humorous
interchange in the ‘wings’.
Cupid aims his blowpipe at
the genitals of the raging
cuckolded Vulcan (Venus’s
husband), in what may be
intended as a witty Lucian-
type aside.
among his e8ects. She tried to buy it through a Venetian merchant,
only to fnd it had been painted on commission for someone else.
Florence and Venice (the latter less than 100 miles from Man-
tua) were almost certainly the frst to develop an art market to meet
an increasing demand for local pictures, statues and artefacts from
clients both in Italy and abroad. When Giovanni Bellini was ap-
proached by Lorenzo da Pavia (Isabella’s musical-instrument maker)
to provide a picture for Isabella’s studiolo, he succeeded in persuad-
ing her to take a Nativity in its place (which she hung in her bed-
room), a type of picture for which he had a ready stream of buyers.
Isabella’s most notable acquisitions, however, were obtained through
gifs that were made in recognition of her status. !us she acquired
Michelangelo’s Sleeping Cupid and a marble sculpture of Venus from
Cesare Borgia, and Lorenzo Costa’s contribution to her studiolo was
a gif from Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio.
Isabella’s frst studiolo, created at the close of 1491 in a tower
of the Castello, was loosely modelled on those of her uncles (Leo-
nello and Borso at Ferrara), although Isabella’s mother, Eleonora of
Aragon and her sister in-law before her (Ippolita Sforza, wife of the
future King of Naples, Alfonso II), had both created private female
spaces of this kind, devoted to music-making, study, writing letters
(a staggering 28,000 letters of Isabella’s have survived), reading and
spiritual contemplation.
Isabella decorated the walls with Gonzaga arms and heraldic
devices, and the 2oor with maiolican tiles lef over from a quantity
that Francesco had ordered from Pesaro for Marmirolo (see fig. 31).
Her individuality, nevertheless, was soon to fnd expression in the
mottoes and emblems that decorate the ceiling. !ey are all con-
cerned with extolling harmony and banishing the intrusion of any-
thing that disturbs the equilibrium of the mind, such as the ‘arrows’
of adverse fortune and envy. !e latter idea is contained in a typically
Ferrarese intellectual conceit: the numerals XXVII (ventisette) are a
pun on the words ‘vinti i saeti’, which mean ‘overcome the arrows’.
By the mid-1490s, following a long sojourn in Ferrara, Isabel-
la had also begun to assert her vision of a space that would display
classical allegories from the ‘excellent painters today in Italy’, to en-
hance the studiolo’s literary and therapeutic function. Here the dan-
gers of otium (idleness born of leisure) – so pertinent to the confned
nature of women’s lives – were to have no place. ‘Otium’ was to be
personifed as a malformed fgure with no arms (signifying inaction)
in one of the studiolo paintings commissioned from Mantegna, Pal-
las Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue, in 1497 (fig. 12)).
Here Mantegna’s artistic fantasia summons up all manner of terrors
and vices, which are neutered both by the painter’s ability to cap-
ture them and by the chaste and ‘virile’ goddesses who rout them
(Diana and Pallas, who embody Isabella’s qualities). Mantegna had
already completed one painted allegory for the studiolo, the Parnas-
sus (ca. 1496–7) (fig. 121), leaving a third barely started at his death.
Isabella’s detailed iconographic programmes for her pictures, sup-
plied by the Mantuan poet Paride da Ceresara and the Venetian
humanist Pietro Bembo, have been represented as unusual in the
context of Renaissance art, yet they are entirely normal within the
context of Este patronage and treat a moral theme suitable for a fe-
male patron – the triumph of Christian virtue over vice.
Isabella also conceived of the studiolo as a discussion point in
itself: a place where the work by the most excellent artists of the day
could be contrasted and compared. Mantegna’s intellectual but arid
style was beginning to look old fashioned – and she was looking for
painters whose style was perhaps sofer and sweeter, but who could
attempt to match his unparalleled inventive powers. Perugino, who
was the most famous painter in Italy at the time (and the son-in-law

Mantua and the Gonzaga

194 | 195
of Luca Fancelli), was advised to ‘ensure that his work could do hon-
our to his reputation’ as it should stand comparison with Mantegna
(letter, 22 November 1502). He produced a laboured Battle of Love
and Chastity (1505) afer an extensive correspondence that tied him
to a complex programme. !e picture su8ered, in Isabella’s opinion,
in comparison with Mantegna’s ‘rare delicacy’ of execution, and she
was exasperated by his tardy approach.
!e Ferrarese Lorenzo Costa’s contribution (fig. 122), was
painted at the suggestion of Isabella’s brother-in-law and Costa’s
patron, Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio of Bologna, who also arranged
and paid for the picture. Costa enjoyed considerable prestige at the
Bolognese court, and was found to be a real asset to the Mantuan
court – both temperamentally, and in his gracious and pleasing style.
Having failed to get Giovanni Bellini to contribute, Isabella commis-
sioned a painting from the Bolognese artist and goldsmith Franc-
esco Francia (which was removed from the studiolo in 1505). She
also sought to involve Bernardino Pariento (active in Padua, work-
ing in the Mantegnesque style) and Leonardo (working at the Sforza
court). While Botticelli and Filippino Lippi were considered, Isabel-
la’s choices seem to have been dictated by family and local connec-
tions as well as merit. !e Nativity by Bellini (now lost) was praised
on its arrival by Lorenzo da Pavia as a ‘truly beautiful thing’ in which
Bellini – Mantegna’s brother-in-law – ‘had made a great e8ort to do
himself honour, most of all in respect of Messer Andrea Mantegna.
True it is that for invention he cannot approach Messer Andrea, who
in this is excellent beyond compare.’
!e challenges that Isabella set her painters belong to the
realms of chivalric combat – now translated to an arena in which she Fig.122

could preside. Isabella enjoyed chivalric romances, and in 1492 had Lorenzo Costa
The Garden of the Peaceful
entered into a lively exchange of letters with the knightly Galeazzo Arts (The Crowning of a

Sanseverino at the Sforza court, debating the merits of two of the Female Poet)

most illustrious paladins of Charlemagne’s court, the knights Orlan- 1504–6. Oil on canvas, 1.64

do and Rinaldo. For her studiolo, she sent in her veteran champion × 1.97m (5ft 51∕4in × 6ft 6in).
Musée du Louvre, Paris.
(Mantegna, Count Palatine), and the other contestants were invited
to enter the lists and do themselves ‘honour’. Bellini had gracefully The programme for this
allegory was provided
withdrawn from the ‘tournament’ afer some deliberation, realizing by Paride: it has been

that in the realms of prescribed allegory and allÕantica decoration his suggested that the painting
represents the crowning
work would not stand comparison. He was happier to provide some- of Sappho, the famous

thing of his own poetic invention. Pietro Bembo wrote to Isabella in female lyric poet of Greek
literature, whose gifts
January 1506 that, although Bellini was still well disposed towards earned her the epithet

involvement in the scheme, ‘he does not like to be given many writ- ‘the Tenth Muse’ (a role
associated with Isabella’s
ten details which cramp his style; his way of working, as he says, is presiding spirit).

to wander at will in his pictures, so that they can give satisfaction to

himself as well as to the beholder.’
Isabella tried to get all her artists to conform to the techni-
cal example set by Mantegna. In addition to the iconographic pro-
gramme, the painters were sent the dimensions to work to, details of
the medium (egg tempera with an oil varnish like Mantegna), and a
piece of thread (the size of Mantegna’s largest fgure). A few months
before he died, Mantegna wrote to Isabella that he had almost fn-
ished designing his third painting for the studiolo, depicting the Co-
mus story, ‘which progresses whenever my imagination (fantasia)
inclines me’. Despite his illness he assured her that ‘that modicum
of wit’, which had been gifed by God, was ‘undiminished.’ On Man-
tegna’s death in 1506, Costa was asked to embark on a new version,
executed sometime between 1507 and 1515.
Isabella’s fascination with the idea of paragone, or compari-
son, also in2uenced the collecting of objects for her grotta. By the
time of her death, her studiolo and grotta contained more than 1500

Mantua and the Gonzaga

196 | 197
items. As well as seeking advice from her most erudite court artists,
she asked for an opinion on a group of jasper, crystal and agate vas-
es from Lorenzo de’ Medici’s collection, which Leonardo had made
coloured drawings of, marvelling at ‘the diversity of their astounding
colours’ (see fig. 19). Perhaps her most prized possession was the
Praxiteles Sleeping Cupid, which arrived in Mantua in 1506 and was
displayed alongside the modern version by Michelangelo. Her fond-
ness for statues and representations of male infants – from Cupid
and putti to the infant child John the Baptist (see fig. 113) – has been
related, by Stephen Campbell, to a personal investment in the theme
of childhood and procreation.
At the same time, the ambiguity of these images – like the
paintings in the studiolo – led to competing interpretations, which
admitted elements of subdued eroticism. Many of Isabella’s commis-
sions and acquisitions were to be the focus of di8erent intellectual
readings and literary games, which – in courtly circles of around
1500 – was positively encouraged. Battista Fiera crossed the bound-
aries of decorum that the literary world of the court so delicately
2irted with when he identifed Isabella directly with the adulterous
nude Venus (‘in a chaste bed with Mars’) in Mantegna’s Parnassus
(while her cuckolded husband looks on) (fig. 121).
With Francesco’s death in 1519 and the succession of her son
Federico as ffh Marquis of Mantua, Isabella, who was now recog-
nized as a key political player in her own right, carefully redefned
her role. Having ruled until Federico came of age, she moved her
apartments in 1522 to accommodate his new position, transferring
to more capacious rooms in the Corte Vecchia. Here she created a
second studiolo and grotta to encompass her growing collection of
antiquities, the latter’s vault adorned with her calm Senecan motto
‘Neither hope nor fear’. !e fve pictures from her previous studiolo
were moved to the new one, later to be accompanied by two new
mythologies commissioned from Correggio afer 1527.
While her secular commissions have come to defne Isabella,
the later period of her life saw some important religious commis-
sions. !e most signifcant of these is Francesco Bonsignori’s altar-
piece, dated ca. 1519, the year in which both Isabella and her devoted
friend Margherita Cantelma were widowed (fig. 123). !e altarpiece
depicts the beatifcation of Osanna Andreasi (d. 1505): Isabella’s
personal petition to the pope had secured Osanna’s sainthood and,
under her guidance, Giancristoforo had created her tomb (now de-
stroyed). Isabella and Margherita are shown kneeling in widow’s
dress, together with a trio of Dominican nuns. Among these is Isa-
bella’s daughter, Ippolita.
 Fig.123
Francesco Bonsignori
Altarpiece of the Beata
Osanna

ca. 1519. Oil on canvas.

Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.

Whereas Isabella’s secular

patronage relied on male
advisors and agents, her
religious projects reveal
the strength and support
of female networks. This
altarpiece, which represents
the beatification of the
Mantuan mystic Osanna,
depicts a close-knit
community of women. Isabella
kneels to the second
left of the altarpiece,
together with her lifelong
companion Margherita
Cantelma. Margherita was
to charge Isabella with
one of her most important
projects, the building of
an Augustinian monastery
devoted to the ‘Presentation
of the Virgin’. Isabella’s
daughter Ippolita appears
among the Dominican nuns on
the right (she entered the
monastery of San Vicenzo
despite her parents’
attempts to dissuade her).
Another daughter, Livia, was
eventually to become abbess
of the Clarissan monastery
of Santa Paola.

Bonsignori’s style now also suits Isabella’s purposes: Battista

Fiera’s Latin poem Sylvae, which had been published in 1515, con-
trasts the serious and penetrating art of Bonsignori with Costa’s
‘sweet counterfeiting and blandishments’:

‘… Costa will minister to you with the three Graces, and Venus
… But if you would rather have the serious and hidden causes of
things pertaining to the soul – you do not paint, you say, the way
Bonsignori dares to: for that one refnes, while this one brings
things into being.’

Mantua and the Gonzaga

198 | 199
7

Local Expertise and Foreign

Talent: Milan and Pavia under
Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

A
round 1482, Leonardo da Vinci lef Florence, Fig.124

where he was a member of the painters’ Guild of Giovan Pietro Birago

Frontispiece to Giovanni
St. Luke, to try his luck at the great court of Mi- SimonettaÕs Sforziada

lan. According to one of his early biographers, he 1490. Biblioth•que

had been chosen by Milan’s staunch ally Loren- Nationale, Paris.

zo de’ Medici to present Ludovico Sforza, Duke This elaborate frontispiece

of Bari and regent of Milan (r. 1480–1508), with the gif of a silver to the Sforziada, a eulogy

lyre, since he was a superb player on the instrument. Leonardo went on the Sforza dynasty,
emphasizes LudovicoÕs
in the company of his gifed pupil, the young musician, singer and paternal care for his

actor Atalante Migliorotti. Staying on in the city, Leonardo present- nephew, Giangaleazzo, for
this edition was a gift to
ed a remarkable letter of self-recommendation to Ludovico, listing his youthful charge. In the

the complete range of services he could provide and stressing his right-hand border, the Moor
(Ludovico) emerges from a
skills as a military engineer. Tis letter, of about 1485–6, drafed in mulberry tree, embracing a

another’s hand, shows Leonardo’s understanding of the priorities of smaller tree (Giangaleazzo).
Their initials iog and l are
a great military court; it also reveals the subtle diferences between correspondingly entwined.

his own perceptions of a court position, coloured by his Florentine The two are portrayed at
the bottom of the page,
background, and the realities of such employment – which rarely with Ludovico preaching the

resulted from a direct approach of this kind. virtues of good government.

Behind them, LudovicoÕs
In his letter, Leonardo ofered to contrive portable bridges, patron saint, Louis, blesses

covered walkways and ladders, siege machinery, mortars capable of the ship of state which
bears Giangaleazzo and is
‘causing great terror and confusion’, sea vessels, impregnable covered steered by a Moor.

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ÔIl MoroÕ

200 | 201
chariots, catapults, mangonels, ‘and other machines of marvellous
efcacy’. Many drawings exist of the ingenious weapons he devised
during his Milanese years (fig. 125), although it is not known to
what extent they were used. At the end of his letter, he adds – almost
by way of a postscript – ‘In times of peace I believe I can give perfect
satisfaction to the equal of any other in architecture and the compo-
sition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one
to another … I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and
also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other,
be he who he may.’ Te fnal item is a specifc suggestion: ‘Again, the
bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal
glory and eternal honour of the prince your father of happy memory,
and of the illustrious house of Sforza.’
On his arrival, Leonardo (1452–1519) would have been
struck by the huge cultural diferences between republican Florence
and Sforza Milan. Although a great trading and manufacturing cen-
tre – located at the head of the vast Po Valley and the foothills of the
Alps – Milan’s character was defned more by its military ethos and
aristocratic ambitions than its commercial dealings. Geographically
and politically, Milan was connected as much to France and Ger-
many as it was to Florence and other Italian cities south of the Po.
Te River Po itself provided fuvial routes through major cities like
Turin, Piacenza and Ferrara, and was soon to be connected to Milan
by a network of small channels that Leonardo helped design.
Second only to Rome as a major centre of the new Chris-
tian Empire, Milan’s early sanctity and imperial grandeur had been
defned by St. Ambrose (Archbishop 374–397 CE). Te emblems
adopted by the Sforza and their Visconti predecessors boast not only
of their rich Lombard heritage, but also of their Roman Christian
past and their imperial German and royal French and English con-
nections. Galeazzo II Visconti (d. 1378) had married the sister of
Amadeo VI of Savoy, count of the mountainous state straddling the
Alps. Trough Savoy, French and English chivalric culture 7ltered
its way into Lombardy and, with the marriage of Galeazzo’s chil-
dren to the sons and daughters of French and English royalty, set
its stamp 7rmly on court ideology and culture. Galeazzo’s successor,
Giangaleazzo (d. 1402), had expansionist ambitions: only his prema-
ture death seems to have prevented him from becoming the penin-
sula’s overall ruler. By this time, Giangaleazzo had gained permission
from the Holy Roman Emperor to create the Duchy of Milan; for the
Visconti line to be hereditary; for the capital city of Pavia to become
a county; and for major territories, such as Bergamo, Brescia, Verona
and Vicenza, to be brought under Visconti rule.
 Te relationship between artist and patron was also markedly
diferent from that in Florence. While reputation was important, the
Milanese elite generally prized efciency and teamwork over indi-
viduality. e most important thing was to get the job done to a high
standard. is aspect is highlighted in a communication between
the noblewoman Zaccaria Beccharia and the then Duke of Milan,
Galeazzo Maria, where she asks him to intervene in a commission
she has entrusted to a group of eminent artists to ensure that they all Fig.125
blend their styles more efectively. Melding with another’s maniera Leonardo da Vinci

(style) was a skill that also lent itself to the ready imitation and as- Design for a ballistic
weapon (Atlantic Codex)
similation of the latest stylistic advances; so when a ‘foreign’ style like
Leonardo’s became fashionable, Leonardo’s Lombard collaborators ca. 1487–90. 20.3 × 27.5cm
(8 × 107∕8in). Biblioteca
became expert at subsuming his ‘manner’ into their own. Ambrosiana, Milan, Codex

While both Florence and Milan used art and pageantry as ex- Atlanticus, folio 149 recto.

pressions of ‘magnifcence’, there was a marked diference in scale This giant catapult, capable

and substance. is had been highlighted in 1471, when Duke of firing ‘100 pounds of
stone’, is tripped by lever
Galeazzo Maria (1444–1476), Ludovico’s elder brother, had made his action. An alternative

spectacular entry into Florence accompanied by his wife Bona of Sa- spring-pivoted trigger
(illustrated on the left) is
voy, sister-in-law of the King of France. Featuring 1,250 elaborately released by a mallet blow.

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

202 | 203
Fig.126 costumed courtiers, and more than a thousand horses bedecked in
Altar frontal with the
Allegory of the Pelican
caparisons of white and red velvet (Sforza colours) and 7tted out in
gold and silver, their dazzling procession had wound its way through
ca. 1550–1650. Coloured
silks, gold and silver,
the city to the church of Santissima Annunziata. At an estimated cost
90cm × 2.54m (3ft 111∕2in × 8ft of 200,000 ducats, the spectacle far surpassed Florentine pageants
4in). Museo Poldi Pezzoli,
Milan. Purchase, 1883,
and was regarded as a scandalous display of extravagance and an
Inv. 56. awesome manifestation of Sforza despotic power.
This silk cloth, with its
At home, Milan’s vast material wealth, founded on the man-
delicate design showing a ufacture of arms and armour, woollen cloth and silk, supported an
pelican feeding its young
with blood from its breast
immense bureaucratic network of court and state ofcials, and a
(symbolizing Christ the large population of local skilled artisans. Te administrative core of
Redeemer), is enlivened with
brilliant five-pointed flames
the Sforza court was more complex than that of any other northern
in gold and silver thread Italian court, let alone a republic. In Ludovico’s time, its machinery
(representing the Holy
Spirit). It is probably from
took on a new sophistication: secretaries, with virtually sovereign
the church of Santa Maria powers, were put in charge of the key departments of law, ecclesias-
delle Grazie: luxurious
cloths of this type were
tical afairs, foreign policy and 7nance. In theory, appointments and
donated as gifts by Ludovico the day-to-day running of these departments were in their hands;
and Beatrice.
in practice, the duke could and did intervene whenever it was in his
interests to do so. Te court reached far beyond the physical con7nes
of the ducal residences and connected court buildings. Subject towns
and districts were part of the sprawling governmental network, with
the duke appointing the Commissario and other high-ranking ducal
civil officers. The native nobility had their own palaces and some of
them were considerable patrons of art in their own right. The poet
Gaspare Visconti, for example, had his residence frescoed by Donato
Bramante with giant figures of ‘men of arms’. Often artists were at the
centre of conflicting demands from the court, the Church and the
communities who were variously involved in major civic commis-
sions. Some opted to work for more reliable local clientele.
The court was well provided with artists, goldsmiths, wood-
carvers, stonemasons (the finest in Italy), and architect-engineers
from the Lombardy region. It was also an active and voracious
consumer of deluxe items from local craftsmen, purchasing exqui-
site engraved plate from the city’s famous armourers, and luxury
silks, satins and brocades, which were also manufactured locally
(fig. 126). Ludovico combined a love of gold and precious gems,
on a scale only seen in Northern European courts and the King-
dom of Naples, with a sophisticated delight in such ‘refinements’ as
antique cameos, engraved carnelians, medallions, antique coins and
illuminated books. Although some artists were favoured, the court
traditionally liked to spread its patronage, inviting artists or artists’
consortiums to put in bids or tenders. Ludovico, however, who had
resided in Tuscany during his youthful exile, exhibited a keen per-
sonal interest in art and was hugely impressed by Tuscan cultural
developments. The Tuscan dialect was soon to be promoted as the
court language, replacing the less elegant Lombard. Ludovico was
also powerfully alive to the role of art in ‘inventing nobility’, and
the successful cultural policies of the Medici and the Della Rovere
families in Florence and Rome respectively. When the Medici were
ousted from power in 1494, Ludovico sought to embellish his treas-
ure-trove with all ‘the precious and portable things’ that had been so
assiduously assembled by Lorenzo de’ Medici.
In the early 1490s, the threshold to Ludovico Sforza’s treasury
in the fortress of the Castello Sforzesco was frescoed with an image
of the mythological giant Argus of 100 watchful eyes (fig. 107). The
fresco, considered to be largely by Bramante (ca. 1444–1514) with
the help of his Milanese follower Bramantino, is one of the most
naked expressions of Sforza financial power. The custodian of the
duchy’s coffers stands at the head of a long corridor, shown in dra-
matic foreshortening, holding a club in his hand. Below him, a mon-
ochrome roundel in bronzo finto (imitation bronze relief) shows a
sovereign presiding over the weighing of gold. In a bold subversion
of the Ovidian myth, in which Argus is beheaded by Mercury, the

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

204 | 205
Fig.127
Bramante and Bramantino
Argus Panoptes, in the
Rocchetta
ca. 1490. Fresco. Sala del
Tesoro, Castello Sforzesco,
Milan.
The attribution of this work
is controversial, although
it is usually regarded as
largely by the hand of
Bramante. The grandeur of
the architectural conception
and complex perspective is
typical of his mastery. The
figure of Argus (whose face
was damaged during work
on the vault undertaken
in Ludovico’s reign) is
flanked by ‘porphyry’
roundels, showing Mercury
lulling Argus to sleep
with his music, and then
slaying him. The peacocks,
which ‘inherited’ Argus’s
100 watchful eyes after
his decapitation, perch
alongside. The fresco,
whose inscription is now
barely legible, promotes
custodianship of the Sforza
treasures and state.
protector of robbers, Argus seems to have emerged victorious. In
his right hand there are traces of Mercury’s caduceus (wand), en-
twined with the green vipers associated with the heraldic device of
the Sforza’s Visconti predecessors.
Te fresco illustrates several key themes of Ludovico’s patron-
age. First is the use of classical/imperial imagery in the promotion of
Sforza ideology. Ten there is the stress on stylistic continuity: Bra-
mante (a farmer’s son from a village near Urbino, who was to develop
as a painter-engineer-architect of exceptional brilliance) readily as-
similates the styles of the court’s favoured artists – the Paduan/Ferra-
rese elements of Vincenzo Foppa’s paintings, the angular mannerisms
of Cristoforo and Antonio Mantegazza’s sculpture – into a heroic
classicizing vision of his own. Tis is paralleled by an iconographical
emphasis on political continuity with the previous Visconti regime
(a conscious policy up to this date). Te Argus fresco also reveals an-
other aspect of Sforza artistic policy: the use of stranieri (foreigners)
to school local artists in their specialist skills, and ofen vice versa.
Te best way to learn was through collaboration, a process
that came naturally to Lombard masters. Here Bramante, who was
renowned for his perspective expertise and illusionistic skills, prob-
ably collaborated with the local painter Bramantino, who was later to
write his own treatise on perspective. Te process was not peculiar to
the court: Leonardo, in his 7rst Milanese commission (1483–5) for
the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, was contracted to
work with the Milanese brothers Evangelista and Ambrogio de Pre-
dis (the latter was court painter to Ludovico). Te resulting Virgin of
the Rocks panel (fig. 1/8), a masterpiece of extraordinary and mys-
terious grandeur, with its brooding geological landscape, strikingly
subdued palette and bold chiaroscuro (atmospheric contrasts of light
and dark inspired by the Flemish manner), was clearly designed to
have a profound impact on the Milanese milieu (the Confraternity
numbered several leading courtiers among its members).
Te involvement of the de Predis brothers in this major com-
mission (which included colouring the sculpted elements that were
part of the overall altarpiece ensemble) also illustrates that family
ties were as important in Milan’s artistic world as they were in the
world of dukes and nobles. Tis was partly due to the relative weak-
ness of the guild system in Milan; whereas in Florence and Venice
the guilds were the dominant force in the cities’ economic lives, pro-
tecting their members from competition from outside and guaran-
teeing the quality of artistic production through rigorous controls, in
Milan the pratici (universities) ofered limited protection and were
unable to resist the infux of ‘outsiders’ looking for patronage. Many
Milan and Pavia under
Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

206 | 207
Fig.128
Leonardo da Vinci
Virgin of the Rocks

c. 1483–5. Oil on wood,

transferred to canvas,
199 × 122cm (6ft 63∕8in × 4ft).
Musée du Louvre, Paris

This, Leonardo’s original

version of the Virgin
of the Rocks – the first
picture he produced in
Milan – formed part of a
polyptych for the church of
San Francesco Grande. He
worked on this altarpiece
with the Milanese brothers
Evangelista and Ambrogio de
Predis; Ambrogio, a portrait
specialist (see Fig.6) was
by then, well established at
the Sforza court. Leonardo
no doubt hoped that this
prominent commission and
the de Predis’s high-placed
connections, along with his
own miraculous artistry,
would help accelerate his
progress. However, it
appears that this enigmatic
and iconographically
complex work did not meet
with the approval of the
Confraternity, largely
because their system of
payment was unable to
accommodate Leonardo’s
extraordinary individual
contribution (acknowledged
by his partners). Legal
wrangles ensued and it
was not until 1506–8 that
a second version (now in
London’s National Gallery)
was installed – probably as
a direct replacement.

local artists and courtiers owed their positions at court more to the
fact that their parents or relatives had served there before them.
Te 7rm of Solari and sons (and sons-in-law) produced the
foremost architects and sculptors during the Sforza years and monop-
olized work on all the major building projects. Tey sub-contracted
work to other crafsmen, transferred stone from one building to an-
other (principally from the cathedral to the Certosa (charterhouse)
of Pavia, but also from the Castello Sforzesco), ran a pro7table side-
line in terracotta mouldings and sculpture, and, according to docu-
ments, invested their substantial income in the wool trade. News of
contracts in the ofng spread quickly through the family grapevine;
Guiniforte Solari, who had inherited the position of architect of the
cathedral and the great Certosa from his father Giovanni, alerted his
future son-in-law Giovanni Antonio Amadeo when he heard that a
new sculptural facade for the Certosa was about to be commissioned
(1473). Amadeo hastily formed a pro7t-sharing consortium with his
brother-in-law Lazzaro Palazzi, Giovanni Giacomo Dolcebuono and
other eminent crafsmen and tendered for the job.

Leonardo and the Sforza monument

For large civic and court commissions, it was normal practice for
artists to organize themselves into such consortia and put in com-
petitive bids. Tus, it was somewhat unusual for Ludovico to take
up Leonardo on his ofer to revive the project to create an equestri-
an monument to his father. Correspondence dating from early 1484
with Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence reveals that Ludovico had tried
to hire acknowledged experts in the art of bronze-making who could
work in the masterly Florentine idiom. Te 7rst letter expressly asks
Lorenzo to send sculptors to Milan. Te two most quali7ed artists
were the pre-eminent bronze sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, Leon-
ardo’s master, who was in Venice making the equestrian monument
of the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni (an old enemy of the Sforza);
and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, who was shortly to take up the commis-
sion to make the bronze tomb of Pope Sixtus IV. Having failed to
secure the services of either artist, Ludovico probably reasoned that
Leonardo, who may well have been involved in the initial stages of
the Colleoni project, was the next best thing. Leonardo had worked
as a sculptor from his youth and was probably involved in sculpting
the large-scale bronze group of St. John the Baptist Preaching to a
Levite and a Pharisee over the north Baptistery Door in Florence
(with his pupil and close associate Giovanni Francesco Rustici). Lat-
er, however, Ludovico seems to have had serious misgivings about
entrusting Leonardo alone with such an ambitious project.
Te purpose of the equestrian monument was central to Lu-
dovico’s sophisticated cultural policy – the urgent need to establish
the legitimacy of the Sforza’s claim to rule, and to create a noble line-
age for the Sforza dynasty. It commemorated the founder of the dy-
nasty, the great condottiere Francesco Sforza (r. 1450–1466), who had

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ÔIl Moro’

208 | 209
seized power following the death of Filippo Maria Visconti (1447)
and the brief Ambrosian republic. His fimsy claim to the duchy
(he was married to Filippo Maria’s only child, Bianca Maria, an il-
legitimate daughter who had no legal claim to the dukedom) was
reinforced with all the military and political skills at his command.
Francesco had no aristocratic lineage – his soldier-father had adopt-
ed the name ‘Sforza’ (force/strength) as a way of marketing the fam-
ily’s military expertise – yet he was to become duke of one of Italy’s
greatest and wealthiest powers. He surrounded himself with former
comrades-in-arms, forged political and matrimonial alliances on the
Italian peninsula, and together with his wife established a highly re-
spected and efective regime.
Francesco Sforza was the mercenary ruler most praised by
Machiavelli in Te Prince. He had seized power afer a three-month
siege, funded by the Milanese nobles who had hired him, by taking ad-
vantage of others’ weaknesses. But, having achieved this ‘with a great
virtù (special talent) of his own’, he then maintained the power that
he had acquired ‘with a hundred pains’ with little efort. Tis, accord-
ing to Machiavelli, was because he no longer depended on fortune
or succumbed to opportunism; instead he limited his ambitions to
acquiring territory that he could sensibly hold, and only waged wars
that were conducted in self-defence. His was an example that many
princes, including his successors, would have done well to follow.
Te equestrian monument was dreamed up afer Francesco’s
death by his extravagant and dissolute son Galeazzo Maria – a great
patron of the arts and, in particular, of music. In November 1473,
the Commissario of ducal works, Bartolomeo Gadio, was set the task
of 7nding an artist to execute the life-sized bronze. Having scoured
the local talent and found none that was practised in ‘bronze-mak-
ing’, the Commissario was instructed to look further a7eld. Galeazzo
Maria had good reason to commemorate the 7rst Sforza duke in this
way. Emperor Frederick III had still not recognized the legitimacy of
Sforza rule. Te duke’s brutal murder put paid to the project, until it
was revived by Ludovico in the 1480s.
On Galeazzo Maria’s assassination, his wife Bona of Savoy
took over as regent until their seven-year-old son Giangaleazzo – his
rightful heir – came of age. But Galeazzo Maria’s two brothers, Lu-
dovico and the short-lived Sforza Maria, had ambitions of their own.
Afer a failed plot, which resulted in brief exile, the brothers secured
reconciliation with Bona (and then ousted her from power, executing
her trusted adviser). In 1480 Ludovico established himself as regent
of Milan and its territories, ostensibly ruling on behalf of the boy.
A man of powerful intelligence (grounded in a humanist training
under the Florentine Francesco Filelfo), he was not, however, a mil- Fig.129

itary man. Under the symbolic protection of a colossal equestrian Leonardo da Vinci
Design for the Sforza
monument embodying Sforza might, and with the support of the Monument

Church, civic and aristocratic communities, he believed that he could ca. 1485–90. Metalpoint on
achieve his goal though diplomacy and the quickness of his intellect. blue prepared paper, 15.2

Te resuscitation of the monumental equestrian monument can be × 18.8cm (6 × 73∕8in). Royal

Library, Windsor.
seen in the context of Ludovico’s own claim to the dukedom as son
of Francesco Sforza, as opposed to Giangaleazzo’s bid as grandson. This early design shows the
horse rearing over a fallen
Leonardo seems to have begun making drawings for the Sfor- enemy (providing support

za monument shortly afer his letter of around 1485–6. Initially the for the front hooves). The
captain twists backwards
design featured a horse rearing above a fallen foe (probably based (urging on his troops),

on an earlier idea by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, dating from when the holding the reins in his
left hand and the baton
project was frst mooted), an image of singular dynamism along the of command in his right.

lines of the famous ancient ‘Horse-tamer’ statues in Rome, but of His twisting pose forms a
counterpoint to the twisting
immense technical difculty as far as bronze casting was concerned head of the horse. Casting

(fig. 129). As the project evolved, it metamorphosed from a life- such a complex design
proved, in the end,
sized memorial into a political colossus and technological marvel – too complex.

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

210 | 211
the statue Ludovico planned was to be more than 7 metres (23 feet)
high and weigh approximately 72,000 kilograms (158,000 pounds).
By 1489, Leonardo had been commissioned to make a model, but it
seems that Ludovico was already experiencing doubts as to whether
such an ambitious design could be cast successfully, or carried out
single-handedly. Tis attitude has to be set against Leonardo’s rather
Florentine belief in the individual tour de force. At this point, Lor-
enzo de’ Medici received a fresh letter from Ludovico, stating that
since he wanted something ‘superlative’ he would like to be sent an
artist or two ‘apt in such work.’ By April 1490, how-
ever, Leonardo had rethought his design, using the
antique equestrian monument in Milan’s second
city, Pavia, as his starting point. He was attracted
by its marvellous sense of movement – ‘the trot al-
most has the quality of a free horse’ – and the sup-
pressed tension of the relationship between horse
and rider. Leonardo was now on the court payroll,
residing in the Corte Vecchia.
Leonardo combined ancient Lombard in-
spiration with detailed anatomical examination
and measurement of horses in the stables of his
main Milanese patron, Ludovico’s captain and fu-
ture son-in-law Galeazzo Sanseverino, as well as
another noble in the upper echelons of the Sforza
court, Mariolo de’ Guiscardi (whose palace Leon-
ardo designed). Drawings and notes reveal his
considerable knowledge of bronze casting tech-
niques (fig. 130), but also the near Utopian nature
of his conception. A colossal clay model was made,
which was still in Leonardo’s studio in the Corte
Vecchia at the time of the marriage of Ludovico’s
niece to Emperor Maximilian in November 1493.
Moulds were ready, a special casting pit was de-
signed and the model was even packed for transportation.
A year later, bronze assigned to Leonardo for the casting of
the monument was given to Duke Ercole d’Este as a precautionary
measure following the French invasion of Italy. Te monument was
never to be cast or erected on its intended site – the ravelin oppo-
site the entrance to the Sforza castle. In 1495, Ludovico was forced
to pawn 150,000 ducats’ worth of jewels to secure a loan from the
Venetians for a third of the amount. By 1497, Leonardo was despair-
ing about the ‘delay’ in progress on the horse. A letter from this time
complains about lack of funds, suggesting that while Leonardo was
paid for work done for the duke, he was not in receipt of a regular
salary. He was, however, now key to Ludovico’s urban projects, ana-
lysing some of the court’s most prominent buildings and modelling
a new piazza in front of the Castello as part of an ambitious plan to
create the perfect city, along the lines of Filarete’s imagined ‘Sforzin-
da’ (named for Francesco Sforza). Te latter had taken its inspiration
from the circular, almost ‘Vitruvian’ perfection, of Milan’s encom-
passing walls.
In about 1497, Leonardo drafed another extraordinary letter
for a patron or high-placed friend to send on his behalf. Tis was
addressed to the Commissario of buildings in the subject territory of Fig.130

Piacenza, where bronze doors were being planned for the Duomo. Leonardo da Vinci
Design for a casting pit
By this time, Leonardo had learned much about how commissions – for the Sforza horse

both civic and ducal – operated in the duchy. Te letter shows Leon- ca. 1493. Pen and ink,
ardo’s frustration with the system of favours 7ltering down from the 21 × 14.4cm (81∕4 × 55∕8in)

court, and the reliance on ‘inferior and coarse’ local men. Te front- Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid,
Ms 8936, fol. 149 r.
runners for the job are dismissed because they are not trained in
bronze-making: ‘Tis one is a potter, that one a maker of cuirasses, The main sketch on this
page of Leonardo’s notes
this one is a bell-founder, another a bell-ringer, and one is even a shows the casting pit from

bombardier.’ Worst of all, among the contenders is someone in the above (looking down on the
underbelly of the outer
duke’s service who has been bragging that he can pull favours from mould of the horse), abutted

the duke’s Farmer of Customs, having served as his ‘gossip’. Leon- by two rectangular and two
circular multiple furnaces.
ardo’s own credentials are based on the fact that he is the Florentine These were originally

artist ‘of the horse of Duke Francesco in bronze’. Artistic merit, as designed to melt down bronze
for cannon. The lower
Leonardo now realized, was not always of prime consideration. sketch shows how the horse

While Leonardo did not at this date have many prestigious (a later, more practical
design) is to be cast upside
ducal commissions to his name, he was clearly a valued member down, with molten bronze

of Ludovico’s household. He had become involved in all manner of poured through tubes into
the neck and body cavities.
courtly amusements and decorations, designing tournaments and
spectacular theatrical extravaganzas. Te two men’s relationship was
perhaps cemented by Leonardo’s disarmingly lovely portrait of Lu-
dovico’s mistress and muse Cecilia Gallerani (fig. 131), which in-
spired a sonnet by the court poet Bernardo Bellincioni. Te poet,
besides being dazzled by the brightness of Cecilia’s eyes, also praised
the fact that she seemed to be ‘listening’: perhaps Leonardo intended
to show her listening to music or poetry itself (Cecilia was a poet of
some distinction). In this sense, she can be seen as a modern heiress
to Guarino’s Muses.
Cecilia’s sensuously enlarged and slender hand strokes an er-
mine (illustrating the sense of touch). Te animal was added, and
then elaborately fashioned into a fabulous white-coated muscular
creature, at a late stage in the painting’s development, probably as a
reference to the duke himself: Ludovico was described by Bellincioni

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

212 | 213
Fig.131
Leonardo da Vinci
Portrait of Cecilia
Gallerani (The Lady
with an Ermine)

ca. 1489–90. Oil on panel,

53.4 × 39.3cm (21 × 151∕2in).
Czartoryski Museum, Krakow.

Ludovico Sforza’s mistress

Cecilia Gallerani was a
gifted writer and patroness
of art, literature,
philosophy and music. Her
portrait by Leonardo, whom
she described as ‘without
equal’, created a startling
new ideal for courtly female
portraiture. Caught in a
moment, mid-thought and
with the hint of a smile,
she is truly captured ‘from
life’. Isabella d’Este later
asked to borrow the picture
(though Cecilia cautioned
her that the portrait
showed her much younger,
and she had now ‘completely
changed’). Cecilia became
Ludovico’s mistress in
1489, aged about 15, and
was possibly pregnant at
the time this portrait was
painted: her baby was born
on 3 May 1491, just a few
months after Ludovico wed
Beatrice d’Este.

as ‘Italian moor, white ermine’ (Ludovico had been admitted to Fer-

rante’s Order of the Ermine in 1486). It may also punningly allude to
Cecilia’s name, gallee being the Greek for ‘ermine’ – as well as sym-
bolizing her purity and modesty. More controversially, it may signi-
fy the fact that Cecilia is pregnant – weasels were associated, from
ancient times, with midwifery and ‘protecting’ women in childbirth.
Te portrait, inspired by Flemish models, could not be more difer-
ent to the formal mode of Milanese ofcial court portraiture (see
fig. 6). Cecilia’s natural twisting pose embodies the quality of grazia
(grace) in which Leonardo excelled: he himself advised the paint-
er to elongate and make the 7gure delicate, so as to display ‘elegant
charm’ (leggiadria), to relax the arms, and to ensure that no part of
the body was arranged ‘in a straight line with the part next to it’.
Perhaps about this time, Leonardo became part of an infor-
mal Milanese academy, made up of artists, poets, musicians and
humanists, probably under Ludovico Sforza’s sponsorship. A mem-
bership list, recently discovered in a manuscript of 1513, includes
Bramante, the goldsmith and medallist Caradosso, together with
the poets Gaspare Visconti and Bellincioni. A later group of prints,
inscribed Academia Leonardi Vi [n] Ci are decorated with the
intricate labyrinth-like knot pattern with which, according to Vasari,
Leonardo ‘wasted his time’ (fig. 132). A similar
pattern adorns the bodice of Cecilia’s gown – and
decorated a room in her residence. By devising
such complex ornamental conceits (perhaps pun-
ning on vinci, vinco and vincolo), Leonardo proved
himself the perfect courtly companion.
Castiglione’s idealized portrait of court life
in his Book of the Courtier (Libro del Cortegiano,
1528) shows that the ability to elaborate on a theme
– to be quick-witted, provide efortless conversa-
tion and contrive new and unexpected delights
– was highly prized. Leonardo was an absolute
master of such courtly diversions, adept at devis-
ing visual and verbal puns and jokes, complex al-
legories, new musical instruments, mathematical
conundrums and amazing technical contraptions,
as well as being an expert in musical improvisation
and caricature. Ludovico’s court was particularly
fond of abstruse symbolism and intellectual puz-
zles. One little masterpiece of the art of the pun is a
sentence, devised by Leonardo, which contains fve
plays on the word moro (moor), Ludovico’s nickname (derived from Fig.132

his second name, Mauro, and from his noticeably dark complexion, After Leonardo da Vinci
Knot design
hair and eyes).
In January 1490, Bellincioni praised ‘the great brilliance and ca. 1495. Engraving, 29 ×
21cm (111∕4 × 81∕4in). British
skill’ of the scenic devices made by Leonardo for a performance of Museum, London.

his poetic drama Paradiso. Te theatrical extravaganza was staged Leonardo’s calligraphic
in the Castello Sforzesco in honour of the marriage of the young designs of knots are

Giangaleazzo to Isabella of Aragon (securing a major alliance with associated with a virtuoso
invention by Bramante – and
Naples) and included revolving planets set within a gleaming orb were probably intended to

of gold. Te following year, Leonardo was involved with numerous demonstrate artistic and
intellectual virtuosity as
other artists in the elaborate pageantry that accompanied the wed- well as alluding to ‘ties’

ding of Ludovico to Beatrice d’Este on 17 January 1491 in Pavia. His and ‘bonds’ (vincoli).

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

214 | 215
Fig.133 fantastic contrivance, staged in the palace of his main Milanese pa-
Facade of the Certosa,
Pavia
tron, Galeazzo Sanseverino, included a ‘wonderful steed … all cov-
ered with gold scales which the artist has coloured like peacock eyes’.
The Certosa in Pavia boasted
the involvement of the
Te peacock decoration, Leonardo wrote, signi7ed ‘the beauty which
most prominent figures in results from the graciousness coming from he who serves well’. More
the Lombard Renaissance.
These included Amadeo,
lasting decoration for the newlyweds, however, was provided by two
Cristoforo Mantegazza and leading Lombard artists, Bernardo Zenale and Bernardino Butinone,
Dolcebuono. Amadeo’s early
works were made for the
who on Giangaleazzo’s instructions decorated the Sala della Balla
Certosa, and by the time (Ball Room) of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (used by Beatrice a
he took joint charge of
the redesign of the facade
week afer the nuptials).
(from the early 1490s) he
had a formidable practice,
reputation, repertoire and
network of associates.
Scores of artisans
Te Certosa, Santa Maria delle Grazie and Castello Sforzesco
worked on the facade’s
ornate and exuberant Te marriage of Ludovico to the 15-year-old Beatrice, and the unit-
sculptural decoration – a
characteristic of Lombard
ing of the great houses of Este and Sforza, inspired a spate of artistic
architecture at this time. commissions, infuenced by Beatrice’s irrepressible vivacity, quick in-
telligence and the humanist culture of the Ferrarese and Neapolitan
courts. From the 1490s, Ludovico con7dently embarked on a series
of major projects, designed to reafrm his links with the Visconti,
stress the independence of the Sforza dynasty, and rival the achieve-
ments of rulers like Lorenzo de’ Medici and his wife’s father, Duke
Ercole d’Este, with whom he maintained close relationships. Two
mausoleum churches became the focus of his political and artistic
ambitions: the great Carthusian monastery at Pavia, known as the
Certosa (fig. 133), which had always been intended as the burial
 Fig.134
Giancristoforo Romano and
Benedetto Briosco
Tomb of Giangaleazzo
Visconti in the Certosa

1492–4. Marble. Certosa,

Pavia.

In his will, Duke

Giangaleazzo Visconti
determined that his tomb
should occupy the space
behind the high altar. His
eventual tomb, however,
executed in the 1490s
(the duke’s body was not
transferred to the Certosa
until 1473) occupies the
right arm of the south
transept. In a grandiose
concept, realized in two
masterly complementary
styles (with some
additional statues made in
1562), the emphasis is on
Giangaleazzo’s territorial
conquests – narrated in
Giancristoforo’s stirring
battle reliefs – coupled
with scenes commemorating
his learned and enlightened
patronage in the civic and
religious spheres.

place of the Visconti dukes, and the church of Santa Maria delle Gra-
zie, in which Ludovico intended to house his own tomb.
As early as 1483, Ludovico had decided to rebuild Guiniforte
Solari’s newly completed Dominican church of Santa Maria delle
Grazie, and from March 1492 he seems to have intended it as the site
of his sepulchral chapel. Te foundation stone of the Grazie’s new
choir was laid on 29 March 1492, and the Guiniforte Solari church
was gradually subsumed. In both Certosa and church, the distin-
guished court architect-engineer Amadeo took a leading role. He
was a trained sculptor of considerable experience, and his buildings
unite architectural structure with sumptuous sculptural ornament.
A grandiose tomb for Ludovico’s ancestor Giangaleazzo Vis-
conti (fig. 134), for the Certosa, was entrusted to the Roman sculp-
tor, humanist, literary man and courtier Giancristoforo Romano, who
had become an indispensable member of Beatrice d’Este’s entourage.
While directing work on the tomb and other antique-style sculptural

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

216 | 217
decoration in the Certosa, Giancristoforo was also active as a singer,
touring centres with Beatrice and her choir. He was in demand for
his classical erudition, too: he advised rulers in their purchase of an-
tiquities; inspected the newly unearthed Hellenistic masterpiece the
Laocošn for Pope Julius II (together with Michelangelo) (see fig. 13[);
and was the mouthpiece for the defence of sculpture in Castiglione’s
Book of the Courtier.
While there was no doubting Ludovico’s taste in such matters,
his political judgment was not so unerring. Te reasoning behind the
commission of the tomb was to assert the continuity of the Visconti–
Sforza regimes and thus the legality of Sforza rule. Yet in commemo-
rating the 7rst Visconti duke, Ludovico was also commemorating the
man on whom the French rested their claims to Milan. Giangaleazzo’s
daughter had married the son of King Charles V of France, and their
grandson, Louis Duke of Orléans, was soon to assert his right to the
Milanese state. It may be that Ludovico quickly realized the dangers
of his artistic strategy, for the tomb was not placed in the prominent
position originally intended for it.
Te close ties between Giangaleazzo Visconti (1351–1402)
and the courts of France (Giangaleazzo was married to Isabella of
Valois, daughter of King John II of France) had had a lasting impact
on artistic patronage in the duchy. His great castle in Pavia, built by
his father Galeazzo II, was furnished in the splendid style of a French
chateau, even though it was one of the most formidable of forti7ed
buildings. Its walled park, which extended to over 13 square miles,
was one of the court’s great delights. It was stocked with thousands
of deer, partridges and hare so that the duke and his court always
returned triumphant from hunting. Here all kinds of pleasures and
amusements were accommodated amid fountains, pavilions, and
spacious tree-lined avenues. With Pavia (site of the famous university
and the Visconti library) as the centre of his court, Giangaleazzo
had embarked on the building of the grand Certosa that was to
contain his mausoleum on the border of his park. In the words of a
Pavian historian, Giangaleazzo had ful7lled the archetypal princely
requirements of ‘a palace for his residence, a garden for his sport,
and a chapel for his devotions’. Te courtly nature of the Certosa
even extended to the monks’ cells, which were transformed into
‘courtiers’ cottages’ with garden loggias.
In 1491, besides commissioning the tomb of his great-grand-
father, Ludovico determined to complete the facade of the Certosa
in the most glorious manner. Te remaining brick substructure was
covered in Carrara marble and encrusted with rich sculptural dec-
oration. Amadeo was put in charge and, assisted by his colleague
Dolcebuono, employed the classicizing forms and ornament that had Fig.135

gradually found favour. Following in the wake of Venice and Padua, Ambrogio di Stefano da
Fossano, called Bergognone
Lombard workshops had been relatively slow to embrace the allÕan- Madonna and Child with

tica style championed by Florentine masters: Filarete’s elaborate an- Giangaleazzo Visconti
Offering a Model of the
tique garlands, which were to adorn the facade of Francesco Sforza’s Certosa

re-built Castello Sforzesco, were rejected by the stonemasons because ca. 1492–4. Fresco. Half-
they were costly, time-consuming and ‘not weatherproof ’, and he was dome at the end of the south

dropped as architect of Francesco’s great community hospital, the Os- transept, Certosa, Pavia.

pedale Maggiore, once his design had been adopted. By the 1490s, Bergognone worked on the

however, Lombard crafsmen had accumulated an impressive reper- decoration of the interior
of the Certosa over a
toire of classical forms and motifs (following Amadeo’s practice of period spanning more than

appropriating images from coins, cameos and the like). five years, reflecting the
building’s architectural
Ludovico also took a keen interest in the commissioning of progress in some of his

the Certosa’s interior. Ambrogio da Fossano, called Bergognone (ca. pictures. In addition to
the frescoes in the
1453–1523), a painter from the Piedmont, was put in charge of the transepts, he painted

vast co-ordination of the project. Tere are illusionistic mullions two polyptychs and eight
altarpieces (1490-4).
peopled with painted monks, choir stalls with intarsia (marquetry) In this dynastic scene,

work to rival that of Urbino, and frescoed ceilings painted in collab- the facade of the Certosa is
shown as complete, following
oration with his brother Bernardino. Bergognone fashioned elabo- a scheme for its external

rately gilded altarpieces and adorned the transepts with two dynastic decoration of 1473-4 and
probable modifications made
frescoes: one shows Giangaleazzo Visconti, in the company of his in the early 1490s.

sons Filippo Maria, Giovanni Maria and Gabriele Maria presenting

a model of the Certosa to the Virgin (fig. 1Y3); the other shows the

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

218 | 219
Fig.136
Leonardo da Vinci (?)
Portrait drawing of Bianca
Sforza (?)

1495–6. Chalk, pen, ink and

wash tint on vellum, 33 ×
22cm (13 × 85∕8in). Private
collection.

It has been suggested

that this profile portrait
– executed using the
pioneering French ‘three
chalk method’ that Leonardo
quickly mastered – was
originally bound in an
edition of the Sforziada
(now in Warsaw). Ludovico
Sforza had this printed
to mark the marriage of
his legitimized daughter,
Bianca, to Leonardo’s
main patron, Galeazzo
Sanseverino. She was to
die just a few months into
their marriage.

Coronation of the Virgin, fanked by Francesco Sforza and Ludovico

himself. Tese frescoes, which celebrate the Sforzas and the Viscon-
tis separately but in equal measure, reveal Ludovico’s growing conf-
dence in the independent strength of a Sforza dynasty.
His political manoeuvrings in this direction were swifly
bearing fruit. Te birth of his frst son and heir, Ercole (soon to be
renamed Massimiliano in honour of Ludovico’s imperial relation
and benefactor), now saw him focus on securing the dukedom for
himself. Te following year, just as Bona’s son Giangaleazzo reached
the age of majority, he died (allegedly of consumption). With the
death of Giangaleazzo, Emperor Maximilian invested Ludovico with
the dukedom – the frst ofcial recognition of Sforza legitimacy.
Afer a decent period of mourning, Ludovico was publicly pro-
claimed Duke in 1495. Personal tragedy, however, was swi ly to
intervene. In 1496, Ludovico’s beloved illegitimate daughter Bianca Fig.137
died suddenly, only a few months a er she had been legitimized and Cristoforo Solari

married to Galeazzo Sanseverino. She may be portrayed in a delicate Funerary statues of Ludovico
il Moro and Beatrice d’Este
coloured chalk drawing that has recently been attributed by Mar-
tin Kemp to Leonardo (fig. 136). Te following year, the 21-year- Begun 1497. Marble. Certosa,
Pavia.
old Beatrice died in childbirth, having delivered a stillborn son. In
May 1497, the Certosa was fnally consecrated, an event commemo- Beatrice’s effigy shows her
clothed in the much-admired
rated in a relief fanking Amadeo and Dolcebuono’s main doorway. costume that she wore to

Already, however, Ludovico’s artistic policy had been marked by a mark the birth of one of her
sons. The dress alone, which
decisive shi away from celebrating his dynasty’s Visconti descent. had bands of gold tissue and

In 1497, Ludovico commissioned a splendid double tomb crimson velvet, is thus a

symbol of the continuation
of himself and his late wife from the sculptor Cristoforo Solari of the Sforza dynasty.

(fig. 137), which was to be placed in the Grazie’s new choir. A docu- Although the marble can only
hint at the richness of the
ment of the same year reports that all the peritissimi architetti (most materials, her effigy may

expert architects) had been consulted on alterations to the Grazie originally have been draped
in a silken shroud of spun
and had been asked ‘to examine and make a model of the facade … gold. The double tomb was

and to adjust the church proportionally to the great chapel [choir]’. transferred from Santa Maria
delle Grazie to the Certosa
Among these experts were Bramante, Leonardo and Amadeo. in 1564.

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

220 | 221
Fig.138
Anonymous
View of Santa Maria delle
Grazie, Milan

Sixteenth century. Pen and

sanguine (red crayon) on
paper, 24.3 × 32.9cm (91∕2 ×
13in). Casa di Raffaello,
Urbino.

This drawing, which was

previously attributed to
Bramante, shows the new
church with its lantern and
dome, supported by a square
tribune with side apses,
towering over the modest
nave of Guiniforte Solari’s
‘old’ church (dating from
1463). Documentary evidence
reveals that at least two
leading architects were
closely involved in the
design and construction,
with the experienced Lombard
architect Amadeo playing
a pivotal role. While the
square block with prominent
corner piers also appears
in Amadeo’s earlier Colleoni
Chapel of the 1470s, the
addition of side apses
suggests Bramante’s delight
in combining structures of
different shape and volume.

Amadeo, it seems, was made director of building work for the church
and was probably responsible for many elements of the design and
decoration (fig. 138). Although there is no documentary evidence
of Bramante’s role in the building, the master seems to have infu-
enced the design of the great central-plan tribune (begun in 1492)
with its two large rounded side apses. Te numerological symbol-
ism, geometric patterning and architectural illusionism of the airy
domed interior also closely refect his ideas (fig. 139).
Bramante was to become the leading architect of his age, in-
volved in the urban refguring of Vigevano, before leaving for Rome,
where he was to realize the heights of his vision as the architect
of St. Peter’s. He and Leonardo were to become close friends and
 Fig.139
Giovanni Anontonio Amadeo
and Donato Bramante (?)

1492–7. Santa Maria delle

Grazie, Milan (interior of
the tribune, looking towards
the main altar).

There is no real unity

between the architecture
of the exterior and the
interior – and while the
interior comprises many
Bramantesque classicizing
elements, these are not
employed in a strict or
coherent manner. It has
been suggested that Amadeo
and others supervised and
adjusted these as they saw
fit. Ludovico, as was his
common practice, had sought
the advice of all the most
expert architects of the
day: he was by no means a
purist in his approach.

associates: while both were involved in the remodelling of the Santa

Maria delle Grazie, they probably shared ideas on dome shapes and
construction – and Bramante was to dedicate a book of poetry to his
‘cordial, dear, and delightful colleague’. As Ludovico’s regime gained
in confdence, their styles and ideas were to be absorbed into the
duke’s extraordinary new and individual aesthetic.
Te remodelled Grazie and the Castello Sforzesco were in-
timately related, forming the key buildings in an area of Milan that
Ludovico had decided to make into his personal enclosure. Lands
adjacent to the grounds of the castle, including parts of the ducal
gardens with an artifcial montagna (hillock), were granted to the
monastery so that, as in Pavia, the ducal castle, pleasure park and

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

222 | 223
Fig.140
Leonardo da Vinci
The Last Supper
(after restoration)
ca. 1492–8. Tempera and oil
over ground limestone, 4.6
× 8.8m (15ft 13∕4in × 29ft).
North wall of the refectory
of the convent, Santa Maria
delle Grazie, Milan.
The psychological drama of
the Last Supper, with the
apostles reacting animatedly
to Christ’s announcement
that one of them will
betray him, is increased by
Leonardo’s manipulation of
space and scale. The deep
painted room in front of
which the table is set is
made to seem like an annexe
of the monks’ long vaulted
refectory – even though the
focus of the perspective
construction (Christ’s
head) is high above eye-
level. This has the strange
effect of ‘elevating’ the
viewer: the duke and the
abbot, sitting at their
table at the other end of
the refectory, would have
felt spiritually ‘uplifted’
as the perspective pulled
their gaze towards Christ’s
commanding figure (painted
slightly larger than the
apostles to either side).
Leonardo also painted the
prominent coats of arms in
the lunettes above.
mausoleum church were linked. Next to the castle were the palaces
of Galeazzo Sanseverino and other members of the city’s elite, while
leading artists like Leonardo, Bramante and Caradosso resided in an
artistic quarter next to the Grazie. Te parallel work on Santa Maria
delle Grazie and the Certosa illustrates the vigorous cosmopolitan-
ism of the duchy of Milan at this time. Together these great buildings
bear witness to the technical and decorative genius of masters from
Urbino, Rome, Lombardy and Tuscany.
Te mathematician Luca Pacioli was employed by the duke
from 1496 to 1499, forming a great collaborative friendship with
Leonardo and testifying to Ludovico’s ‘singular devotion’ to the
church of the Grazie. Pacioli cites Leonardo’s Te Last Supper mural
(fig. 140), painted for the refectory of the church’s convent, and the
church’s tribune as supreme evidence of this. Leonardo’s famous mu-
ral further reveals the nature of the collaboration between ducal and
ecclesiastical patronage. Te Dominicans commissioned the work,
but the duke was inevitably involved because the order enjoyed
his patronage. Indeed, Ludovico’s involvement went much deeper
than this conventional funding relationship suggests. He had a pro-
found respect for the learned prior Vincenzo Bandello, with whom
he dined in the refectory twice a week. Bandello, the court’s leading
theologian, devised complex iconographic schemes for the refectory Fig.141
Giovanni Donato da
Montorfano
Calvary

ca. 1495, Fresco. South

wall of the refectory of
Santa Maria delle Grazie,
Milan.

Leonardo’s mural
relates formally and
iconographically to
Montorfano’s fresco on
the opposite wall. The
ruined underpainting in
the left and right
foreground reveals the
remnants of the kneeling
figures of Ludovico,
Beatrice and their
two legitimate sons,
Massimiliano (born 1493)
and Francesco (born in
1495) – added in oil
after the fresco had been
finished. Vasari attributed
these to Leonardo – and
they probably formed
the basis for the donor
portraits in other
Ludovico-related works
(see Fig.144).

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

224 | 225
 and the church; together with Ludovico, he decided on the symbolic
shape of the great choir. His programme for the tribune’s painted in-
terior decoration, with its celestial space and rings of cherubim sup-
porting Visconti and Sforza emblems, refects the delight in esoteric
symbolism that he and Ludovico shared.
Te refectory decoration, entrusted to Leonardo and a Lom-
bard painter, Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, in 1495, reveals the
same balance between theological and secular demands. In addition,
there is the customary division between commissions given to stra-
nieri and those given to local men. Montorfano’s Calvary (fig. 141)
decorates the wall opposite Te Last Supper (the kneeling 7gures of
Beatrice and Ludovico were inserted around 1495–6 from cartoons
by Leonardo). Leonardo’s masterpiece, completed in 1498, combines
Florentine monumentality and psychological narrative with the
Fig.142
courtly taste for decorative vegetation, illusionistic perspective and
Leonardo da Vinci heraldic symbols. Tese latter elements appear in the three trompe
Detail from lunette of
The Last Supper (after
l’oeil lunettes above the biblical scene, painted to seem like a shadowy
restoration): See Fig.140 apse. Tis same Mantegnesque combination appears in north Italian
manuscript illumination and in the works of Foppa,
Bergognone and Zenale (the latter apparently ad-
vised Leonardo on Te Last Supper). Te luxurious
garlands and foliage evoke the elaborate festive
greenery that adorned the duchy on ceremonial oc-
casions. Te letters, originally in gold, celebrate Lu-
dovico, his wife Beatrice and his heir Massimiliano.
In the large central lunette, bearing the Sforza
arms (of Visconti vipers and imperial eagles), more
(blackberries) appear among the fruit – a little pun
on the nickname of ‘Il Moro’ (fig. 14/). In contem-
porary poetry the name was ofen interwoven with
references to amore (love), both sacred and divine.
Te theme of symbolic foliage reached its
apotheosis in Leonardo’s decoration of a large
square ground-foor room in the north tower of
the Castello Sforzesco, known as the Sala delle
Asse (fig. 14Y), begun in April 1498. Unlike his
brother Galeazzo Maria, who planned to fresco
his private rooms in Pavia with portraits of him-
self and his family, his courtiers and his Visconti
predecessors, Ludovico characteristically chose to
celebrate himself and his wife in a more extravagantly imaginative
way. In keeping with the atmosphere of his inner court, the empha-
sis is on intellectual and visual conceits rather than bawdy slapstick
(one of the highlights of Galeazzo Maria’s fresco programme was the Fig.143

portrait of his Albanian favourite, who was to be shown unhorsed Leonardo da Vinci and
assistants
with his legs in the air!). Te decoration was inspired by the duke’s Sala delle Asse (detail of

mulberry tree emblem (moro), which like Il Moro (‘the Moor’) was a the northeast wall)

standard pun on Ludovico’s nickname. Ludovico had long used both ca. 1498. Tempera. Castello

the mulberry and the Moor as his favourite personal emblems. Te Sforzesco, Milan.

two fuse in one extraordinary image: Giovan Pietro Birago’s frontis- LeonardoÕs severely

piece for the edition of Giovanni Simonetta’s Sforziada (dating from damaged decoration was
substantially repainted in
the mid-1470s, published 1490) that Ludovico presented to his 1901Ð2, although subsequent

charge Giangaleazzo (fig. 124). It is possible that an adjoining pri- restorations have brought
details of his original
vate apartment in the castle, the Saletta Negra (Little Black Room), to light. Above the two

which Leonardo decorated prior to the Sala delle Asse, also included windows (northeast and
northwest) and on the facing
allusions to the Moor device. walls are four tablets

Leonardo’s marvellous arboreal room, painted in tempera, is with inscriptions, which

commemorated the highpoints
only a pale refection of what it once was. Te branches of 16 mul- of LudovicoÕs reign.

berry trees intertwine in intricate knot motifs like the osiers used These include the marriage
of his niece to Emperor
in basket weaving. Te trees, which bear small clusters of red fruit, Maximilian in 1493 and his

grow from rocky crevices, their branches supporting four plaques proclamation as Duke in
1495. Interestingly, the
inscribed with Ludovico’s political achievements, entwining around festive decorations for

the windows and reaching to the summit of the vault. Here they en- these two grand occasions
featured rich hangings
circle a gold oculus containing the joint arms of Ludovico and Bea- embroidered with

trice d’Este. Te slender and lavish gold cord weaving in and out of mulberry trees.

their leaves has been associated with the raw silk flament, ‘extrud-
ed … in repeated fgure of eight movements’ by silkworms fed on

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ÔIl MoroÕ

226 | 227
Fig.144
Master of the
Pala Sforzesca
Pala Sforzesca
(Sforza Altarpiece)
ca. 1495. Tempera on panel,
2.3 × 1.6m (7ft 67∕8in × 5ft
51∕4in). Pinacoteca di Brera,
Milan.
A surviving document
relating to the Pala
Sforzesca asks for the
painter to supply the duke
with a detailed description
of the way he intends to
treat the subject. In
particular, the writer
wants to know how much gold
and costly pigment will be
used and what details of
the ducal family’s garments
and accessories will be
included. Beatrice’s rich
beribboned dress, with its
alternating bands of gold
and deep blue and black
velvet, together with her
braided and bejewelled hair
(hanging in a long plait
encased in cloth down her
back), reveal her as a
figure of high fashion
in the latest style alla
castellana (from Spain).
She is accompanied by her
newly born son, Francesco,
in swaddling clothes.
Ludovico kneels with his
heir Massimiliano by his
side, while the protective
hand of Milan’s St. Ambrose
rests on his shoulder.
mulberry leaves. Ludovico was actively involved in the promotion of
the city’s famous silk industry and had planted a grove of mulberries
at his villa-farm near Vigevano. Te 7ligree gold threads were wo-
ven into a similar interlaced design in the fashionable silk garments
of Beatrice and prominent ladies at the Sforza court (in a pattern
known as fantasia dei vinci and made originally for Isabella d’Este)
and inspired partly perhaps by the knots damascened in silver or
gold on Islamic metalware. Te room was completed around 1498 –
the year in which Ludovico gave Leonardo a ‘vineyard’.
Te gi! of the vineyard was probably intended partly as rec-
ompense for the erratic payments that artists like Leonardo received
for their services. While a local master like Ambrogio de Predis as-
tutely combined court business with work for the ofcial mint and
ambassadorial assignments, Leonardo found himself scouring the
locality for paid work, ofering (as we have seen) to cast bronze doors
for Piacenza’s Cathedral. He was not alone in his plight. Bramante
might have seemed better placed – in receipt of a ducal salary of 7ve
ducats a month while serving as a ducal engineer – but payments
were neither regular nor forthcoming. In a humorous ‘dialogue’ with
his close friend and patron Gaspare Visconti, Bramante has Visconti
respond to the artist’s claims to poverty with the incredulous: ‘What
the court isn’t paying you? You have indeed 7ve ducats a month.’
To which Bramante replies: ‘To tell the truth, courts are like priests,
who give water, words, smoke and hot air.’ By the time Leonardo
had completed the Sala delle Asse, his star was waning too: in a rare
dra! letter, Leonardo alludes to his Lord’s mind being ‘preoccupied’,
that he holds himself in readiness to obey, and that ‘of the horse I say
nothing because I know the times…’
While the Sala delle Asse is one of the best examples of the
interweaving of allegorical themes and heraldic fantasia that were
so popular at Ludovico’s and Beatrice’s court, the Pala Sforzesca
(fig. 144) reveals an interweaving of the court’s favourite artistic
styles. It is a curious hybrid, with the ‘foreign’ styles of Leonardo and,
more feetingly, Bramante, gra!ed on to those of the favoured Lom-
bard masters, Ambrogio de Predis, Foppa, Zenale, Bernardino de’
Conti, Bergognone, and even the brothers Mantegazza. Te work,
still attributed to an anonymous master, is probably dated around
1495 and shows the ducal family (including the couple’s two legiti-
mate sons) being presented to the Virgin and Child by the Fathers
of the Church. Here the ofcial portrait style of Ambrogio mingles
with the Flemish facial types of Bergognone and Zenale; brilliant
Lombardian colour surrounds passages of Leonardesque sfumato
(smoky shadow); and a Bergognone compositional format for the
Milan and Pavia under
Ludovico ÔIl MoroÕ

228 | 229
Fathers of the Church (used in his Pavian altarpieces) is invaded by
a Leonardesque Madonna and Child.
Work on the Pala Sforzesca is roughly contemporaneous with
the commission of two altarpieces for the Certosa in 1496. Ludovico
had recommended to the monks that they use two of the most emi-
nent artists working in Florence at the time, both of whom had been
favoured by Lorenzo de’ Medici. Te duke clearly intended to make
the Certosa the artistic jewel of northern Italy, and assert Sforza
leadership in the cultural arena now the Medici were no longer in
power. Te two leading ‘foreign’ artists – Pietro Perugino and Filip-
pino Lippi – were duly commissioned, but three years later had still
not delivered their panels. In 1499, Ludovico wrote angrily to his
ambassador in Florence, declaring that both he and the monks had
been ‘wronged’. Ludovico was forced to fee Milan shortly a!er this
letter: he never saw Perugino’s altarpiece (ca. 1496–1500), painted
in rich, jewel-like oil colours, which was the only one to be deliv-
ered (its panels are now split between the Certosa and the National
Gallery, London) (fig. 143).
 Ludovico’s ruin was brought about by the succession of the Fig.145

Duke of Orléans to the French throne in 1498 (as Louis XII). But Pietro Perugino
The Virgin Adoring the
the seeds of disaster had been sown a few years earlier by a fatal mis- Child, the Archangel Raphael

calculation. With the birth of his own son and heir, Ludovico had with Tobias, and the
Archangel Michael
permitted his and Beatrice’s court to eclipse that of the incapassimo
(singularly incapable) Giangaleazzo and his wife Isabella (daughter ca. 1496-1500. Oil with
some tempera on panel;
of Alfonso II of Naples). Sidelined and humiliated, Isabella, who had central panel 114 × 63.5cm

already borne Giangaleazzo an heir, wrote a desperate letter to her (3ft 87∕8in × 2ft 1in),
left panel 114.7 × 56.6cm
father, begging him to intervene on their behalf. Te King of Naples (3ft 91∕8in × 1 ft 103∕8in),

had no alternative but to act, threatening to overthrow the usurper right panel 113.7 × 56.5cm
(3ft 8 5∕8in × 1 ft 101∕4in)
Ludovico, with Florence and the papacy by his side. In a last-ditch (all cut down). National

defensive move, Ludovico encouraged King Charles VIII of France Gallery, London.

to invade Italy in 1494 and pursue his historic claim to Naples – in These panels show why

exchange for French guarantees to support his own claim to Milan. Perugino was so sought
after in courtly circles
As Florence and Naples fell to the French, the threat to the at the end of the fifteenth

entire peninsula was exposed. Ludovico now joined the League of century. The rich saturated
colour is due to Perugino’s
Venice – an alliance organized by Venice, the papacy, Ferdinand II skilful manipulation of

of Aragon and the Holy Roman Emperor – with the aim of expel- oils, which also beautifully
differentiates the textures
ling France from Italian soil. Slenderly defeated at Fornovo, Charles of velvet, fur, feathers,

retreated. He died three years later and was succeeded by Louis XII, fish scales and metal. But
it was also the sweetness of
who was now bent on retrieving Milan and Naples, the two great Perugino’s heads, with their

Italian powers. ‘angelic’ expressions, that

was particularly admired.
As grandson of Giangaleazzo Visconti’s legitimate daughter,
Louis invaded the duchy in 1499. Having focused much of his re-
sources on cultural patronage, Ludovico found he had precious little
funds to employ mercenaries. Te seemingly impregnable Castello
Sforzesco was taken without a struggle, a!er the castellan had ac-
cepted a bribe. Ludovico fed to Maximilian in the Tyrol, from where
he observed the growing unpopularity of the French invaders and
their appointed governor. In 1500 he returned with a band of Swiss
mercenaries to aid an uprising, only to be taken prisoner by the
French. Te triumphal entry of Louis XII into Milan was duly organ-
ized by the cathedral’s fabbrica (building committee) – the cultural
community was nothing if not adaptable.
Ludovico was to die in French captivity in 1508. Leonardo
and Pacioli had hastily le! for Florence (Leonardo travelled via Ven-
ice and Mantua); Bramante and Cristoforo Solari had headed for
Rome. Much of the great art assembled by Ludovico was similarly
dispersed a!er 1499. Leonardo’s colossal clay horse, the symbol of
Sforza strength and Ludovico’s towering aspirations, was used by the
French archers for target practice. Ludovico’s father-in-law Ercole
d’Este tried unsuccessfully to salvage the mould, so that the great
‘snorting’ horse could be used to glorify his own regime.

Milan and Pavia under

Ludovico ‘Il Moro’

230 | 231
Epilogue

A Grander Stage

C
astiglione’s Book of the Courtier, a ‘portrait’ of the Fig.146

court of Urbino in 1506, was written between 1508 Raphael

St. Michael (detail)
and 1518. Te book is cast in the form of a series
of elegant and lively evening dialogues between ca. 1503–4. Oil on panel,
29 × 25cm (113∕8 × 9in). Musée
eminent courtiers, presided over by the Duchess du Louvre, Paris

of Urbino, Elisabetta Gonzaga (her husband, the This small chivalric panel,
crippled and sickly Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, had retired to bed). probably painted for a

At the time of its composition, Italy was in the throes of political princely patron in Urbino,
seems to stand on the cusp
turmoil. Te French invasion of 1494–5 had seen the Medici top- of a new era. It has been

pled and Naples forfeit its kingdom, and the subsequent invasion plausibly suggested that
its dramatic theme – the
of Milan in 1499 had precipitated a run of unstable governments pirouetting Archangel

(there were no less than 11 by the time of the Courtier’s publication Michael pinning the
struggling Satan beneath
in 1528). Castiglione, who had spent his early years at the Milanese his foot – refers to the

court, watched with sadness as Ludovico Sforza’s artistic treasures liberation of Urbino from
the despoiler Cesare Borgia
were scattered. In Mantua in 1502, he met the exiled Guidobaldo, (who occupied Urbino in

who had been ousted from power by Cesare Borgia. When Pope Ju- 1502). References to Dante’s
Inferno in the blazing city
lius II restored his relative Guidobaldo to power, Castiglione went and the background figures

into the prince’s service, bearing eloquent witness to the court of add to the sense of
terror overcome.
Urbino’s sunset years (1504–16).
Te confdence of the princely courts of the preceding centu-
ry – when Borso d’Este built a great mountain on the Ferrarese plain

A Grander Stage

232 | 233
and Ludovico Sforza triumphantly played of one power against an-
other – was temporarily shattered. Ludovico, who had turned his
back on war as a profession, felt he had been betrayed by humanism’s
elevated ideals. He had been praised to the skies by his humanist
courtiers for his magnifcence and virtù, but had lost his state. In his
political testament of 1500, he advised his sons to put their faith in
soldiers and fortresses. Machiavelli’s Te Prince (1513), building on
the intellectual legacy of princely treatises at the Aragonese court,
tried to inject a new note of realism and pragmatism into the prac-
tice of exercising and maintaining power (in his diplomatic career,
he had handled Florentine relations with Cesare Borgia). He wrote:
‘there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live
that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done
learns his ruin rather than his preservation.’
Yet it was precisely because of the difculties in reconciling
the conficting roles of prince and condottiere that humanistic and
chivalric ideals had been promoted so vigorously at the prince-
ly courts. Afer the peace of Lodi in 1454, the battlefeld virtues of
military prowess and loyalty had been assimilated into the world of
courtly behaviour and the imagery of magnifcent rule. Now, with
the projectile power of French cannon, and advanced artillery and
infantry techniques, the individual valour of the knight/condottiere
began to appear outmoded. While the 16-year-old Guidobaldo had
been thrilled to receive a wedding present of jousting armour and a
stud horse from his uncle Francesco Gonzaga, Italian rulers increas-
ingly preferred to be associated with the great heroes of antiquity.

RomeÕs Ascendancy
With the swif changes ushered in by the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici
in 1492 and Florence’s subsequent decline, together with the brute
realities of the wars that followed, came the realization of a new or-
der and an expanding world. Te Genoan Christopher Columbus
had discovered the New World of the Americas in 1492, and this
was paralleled by the continual rediscovery of an ancient imperial
world (unearthed during the increased building activity in Rome)
of unimagined vitality, sophistication and grandeur. With Rome’s re-
surgence as a rich and dominant power on an imperial scale, artists
and patrons developed a renewed appetite for novelty and invention.
It was in Rome that the artist’s newfound creative and intellectual
status, which the courts had done so much to foster, would fnd an
appropriately large and thrilling stage.
 Italy was well accustomed to political turmoil, but this time Fig.147

the threats loomed larger, too, with foreign powers battling for su- Pinturicchio
Detail of the grottesche
premacy on Italian soil. Papal policy had had to radically alter its ceiling decoration from the

thrust, beginning with Alexander VI (r. 1492–1503) and continuing Piccolomini library,
Siena Cathedral
with Julius II (r. 1503–1513) and Leo X (r. 1513–1521). With France
and the Holy Roman Empire now actively involved in Italy’s afairs, Pinturicchio was among the
first painters to encounter
papal rule was no longer about asserting authority and preserving the fantastic grotesque

the uneasy balance of power; it had to confront the possibility of im- motifs in the subterranean
rooms of Nero’s palace
perial or French domination. Te worldly Valencian-born Alexander in the 1480s. By 1500,

(Rodrigo Borgia) enlarged the College of Cardinals, which now in- the underground chambers
were full of painters, who
cluded six relatives, among them his son Cesare. Attempting to di- according to a contemporary,

vide and rule, he was part of the League of Venice that expelled the ‘… go through the earth with
belly bands, with bread
French Charles VIII, but then forged an alliance with France (Louis and ham, fruit and wine,

XII needed papal sanction to divorce his wife and wed Charles’s wid- so as to be more bizarre
when they are with the
ow) to ensure the loyalty of the Papal States and gain territory for grotesques’. Pinturicchio

Cesare in the Romagna. decorated ‘countless rooms’

with grotesques (now
Military strongholds were a new focus for Alexander’s cultur- lost) in Rome’s Castel

al and courtly ambitions, with Pinturicchio (1454–1513) decorating Sant’Angelo (1490s) as well
as ornamenting this ceiling
both the interior of Castel Sant’Angelo (where Alexander and his with decoration directly

family withdrew to) as well as the lavish Borgia apartments in the inspired by the golden vault
of Nero.
Vatican (in a sacred and courtly style that still resonates with Maso-
lino’s). Tis suite of rooms embraced a remarkable recent stylistic
innovation, grottesche (grotesques), which imitated the ornate stuc-
co and fanciful painted decoration that had been discovered (from

A Grander Stage

234 | 235
the 1480s) in the caves and grottoes of the buried ancient Roman
Golden House of Nero. Pinturicchio, Raphael and Michelangelo all
explored the underground shafs, carving their names in the walls to
announce their presence. Te new style had an immediate impact.
Pinturicchio’s contract for the Piccolomini library in Siena (depict-
ing scenes from the life of Pope Pius II (Aeneas Piccolomini)) stipu-
lated grottesche for the ceiling decoration (fig. 147).
Afer Alexander’s death, Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rov-
ere) was lef to restore order and replenish a bankrupt treasury. As
contested states changed hands (Julius II was to retake Perugia and
Bologna in 1506 and force Cesare Borgia out of Romagna), the ex-
ample set by the courts proved remarkably resilient. In 1511, Julius
formed a Holy League with Venice, Spain and England, and expelled
the French from Italy (1512), taking Rimini (which had been seized
by Venice) under direct rule. Naples, already ceded by the French
to Spain, would be ruled by Spanish kings (notably the Hapsburgs)
right into the eighteenth century. Florence, freed from the Medici
oligarchy and ruled for a spell by the Dominican friar Girolamo
Savonarola, saw the Medici reinstated by Leo X (son of Lorenzo de’
Medici) in 1512.
Leonardo, who had initially fed to Florence, was soon enticed
back to Milan, settling in the city from 1508 until 1513, now tasked
with resuming his diverse and absorbing courtly and military activi-
ties for the French governor Charles d’Amboise, and with transform-
ing his original Sforza horse into a monument to the Milanese noble-
man Trivulzio (Charles’s successor). Many other artists soon resumed
work in the city, responding expertly to the needs of their new mas-
ters: Bramantino designed a set of tapestries for Trivulzio based on
the theme of the months, replacing traditional chivalric and courtly
scenes with classical set pieces featuring toga-wearing protagonists.
Leonardo’s achievements at the Milanese court won him em-
ployment at the court of the French king, Francis I (he had failed to
make headway in Rome) and transformed his reputation; he was to
die in the royal chateau of Amboise in 1519. Ludovico’s posthumous
reputation was lef to the judgement of Machiavelli who accused him
of inviting Charles VIII to invade Italy, paving the way for a wave of
foreign domination and wars in Italy that was to last until 1559. But
Ludovico’s unique artistic legacy, in the form of his painter-philos-
opher Leonardo and the painter-architect Bramante, was to help lay
the foundations for what came to be termed the ‘High Renaissance’.
Bramante went on to gain patronage in Rome, where he cre-
ated the frst centralized temple on uncompromisingly classical lines
– the Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio (based on the recently
 Fig.148
Caradosso (Cristoforo
Foppa) (attributed)
View of St. Peter’s
(reverse of portrait
medal of Julius II)

1506. Bronze, diameter

5.6cm (21∕4in). Raccolte
Archaeologiche e
Numismatiche, Milan.

Bramante’s plan for the new

St. Peter’s is commemorated
in this medal, examples
of which were buried in
the foundations of the
new church at Julius II’s
inauguration of the building
work in 1506.

discovered temple of Hercules Victor). Soon many of the greatest

artists and architects of the period – Michelangelo, Raphael and
Giuliano da Sangallo (Lorenzo de’ Medici’s and Alfonso II’s favourite
architect) among them – were working in the Roman milieu. Tey
were lured there by Julius II’s magnifcent project to restore the city
on imperial lines and create the most impressive court in West-
ern Christendom, which now embraced the new Americas. Julius’s
vision was driven by a resolute conviction that the demonstration
and wielding of temporal power was critical to the fulflment of the
papacy’s spiritual mission.
Familiar with Bramante since his time as cardinal in Milan,
Julius put the great man in overall charge of his artistic, urban and
architectural projects. Bramante was made chief architect of the new
St. Peter’s (an enormous undertaking, fnanced partly by the granting
of papal indulgences on a previously unimaginable scale), following
Julius’s bold decision to demolish the old basilica. He was also given
the task of enlarging the Vatican Palace on unambiguously imperial
lines. Bramante’s massive centralized design for St. Peter’s takes the
Pantheon’s great stepped dome as its inspiration while also clearly
referencing early Christian precedents (fig. 148). Te older decora-
tions of the basilica, many in bad repair, were to be replaced – though
Filarete’s bronze doors were to survive, as they were still deemed ft
for purpose.

A Grander Stage

236 | 237
 Precedence in the Vatican Palace was given to the decoration
of the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes illustrat-
ing scenes from Genesis (1508–12) demonstrated a new dynamic
sculptural force and heroic imagination that contrasts pointedly
with the courtly elegance of Pinturicchio’s Borgia apartments (which
Julius sealed up; they were not to be seen for another 400 years). Te
male nude, which in Michelangelo’s Florentine work had come to
stand for a republican ideal, here embodies the novelty, force and
sheer energy of God’s creation, and Julius’s ability to re-unite the pa-
gan and the Christian world in a singular vision of divinely inspired
power (fig. 149). Te 20 ignudi (naked fgures) are all variants of
a colossal ancient sculpture, with Herculean musculature, then in
Julius’s statue collection – the Hellenistic ‘Belvedere Torso’ (proba-
bly rediscovered during the rebuilding work on Colonna property
on Martin V’s return to Rome). Trough his mastery of the nude,
 Fig.149
Michelangelo
Ignudi, Sistine Chapel
ceiling (detail)

1508–12. Fresco. Vatican,

Rome.

Michelangelo’s ignudi (the

collective term he used
for the 20 male nudes on
the ceiling) are set around
the borders of his famous
Creation narrative. Their
athletic forms present a
classical ideal of male
perfection – and for this
reason they have variously
been thought to represent
angels, a Christian-Platonic
ideal, or the pagan world.
Many are shown with acorns,
the symbol of Julius II’s
Della Rovere family, which
Michelangelo suggestively
juxtaposes with exposed
genitalia to evoke virility.

which Vasari regarded as the ÔnoblestÕ form of design, Michelangelo

attained the very summit of achievement.
Under Pope Leo X, Rome reached even greater heights of
splendour and self-aggrandizement, with Raphael and his workshop
creating a style of virtuoso profusion that Loren Partridge relates to
the Ôever more self-righteous assertions of legitimacy, authority and
victoryÕ of a Church under attack. But even RomeÕs bubble was tem-
porarily burst by the advent of a non-Italian pope, the Dutch Adrian
VI (1521), who shunned his predecessorsÕ ostentation and unseemly
ÔworldlinessÕ. His reforms, coinciding with Martin LutherÕs devastat-
ing challenges to the ChurchÕs authority, led to a dramatic reduction
in artistic commissions in Rome. Castiglione wrote desolately from
the city, ÔIt seems to me as if I am in a new world and Rome is no
longer where it was.Õ With the Sack of Rome in 1527 by mutinous im-
perial troops (ostensibly on Italian soil to repel the French), and the

A Grander Stage

238 | 239
 shocking wave of ensuing rape, pillage and desecration, artists were
once more forced to fee to diferent centres. Tis continual dispersal
of talent, and the courtly artist’s fnely developed ability to adapt to
new environments, led to the spread of styles and, at the same time,
to their rapid transformation. Te frst-hand experience of Rome’s
outstanding ancient monuments, such as the Laocošn (fig. 150) –
sensationally discovered in 1506, and instantly recognized as the
unsurpassed Greek masterpiece described by Pliny the Elder – had
a profoundly liberating impact on artists and their styles (fi). 151).
But there was also a palpable sense of anger and dismay at the events
of Rome, bitterly and satirically articulated by the Venetian writer
Pietro Aretino. For many, this was God’s revenge, long foreseen and
prophesied, for the corrupt state of the Church and the self-interest-
ed policy of the papacy.

Fig.150
The Laocošn (Roman copy)

First century CE. Marble,

208 × 163 × 112cm (6ft 10in ×
5ft 4in × 3ft 8in). Museo Pio
Clementino, Vatican Museums,
Rome.

Michelangelo reportedly
described this astonishing
group – which was discovered
in 1506 in a vineyard on
the Esquiline Hill – as
‘a singular miracle of art
in which we should grasp
the divine genius of the
craftsman rather than try
to make an imitation of
it’. It depicts the Trojan
priest Laocoön and his young
sons struggling to liberate
themselves from the coiled
grasp of sea serpents.
RaphaelÕs Mastery Fig.151
Titian
Bacchus and Ariadne
Te assimilative and uniquely harmonious art of Raphael of Urbino
(1483–1520) was perhaps best placed to straddle the divide, setting 1523. Oil on canvas, 1.765
× 1.91m (5ft 91∕2in × 6ft
a style and standard for others to follow. Son of Giovanni Santi, who 31∕8in). National Gallery,

had served as court artist to Guidobaldo and Elisabetta, Raphael had London.

been brought up in the ambience of the ideal court that Castigli- This is one of three

one remembered with such sweet nostalgia. Precociously talented, mythological paintings by
Titian for Duke Alfonso
Raphael probably trained in his father’s workshop from a young age, d’Este’s famous camerino

and was possibly tutored by Timoteo Viti (his father’s successor as dÕalabastro (named after
its alabaster reliefs by
court artist) in the 1490s. Later, having fully absorbed the methods Antonio Lombardo) in the

of Perugino in Perugia, and the revolutionary lessons of Leonardo Via Coperta, Ferrara. The
camerino also featured
and Michelangelo in Florence, he received the invitation in 1508 Bellini’s Feast of The Gods

from Pope Julius II to work in Rome that he had carefully solicit- (See Fig.18) and paintings
by the Ferrarese court
ed (through well-placed intermediaries). Tere his art achieved the artist Dosso Dossi. Titian’s

‘faultless perfection’ that Vasari attributed to a study of the best an- exuberant scene takes the
figure of Laocoön as part of
cient and modern masters, and he and his school near-monopolized its ancient inspiration.

A Grander Stage

240 | 241
Fig.152
Raphael
Portrait of Baldassare
Castiglione

ca. 1514–15. Oil on canvas,

82 × 67cm (323∕8 × 261∕2in).
Musée du Louvre, Paris.

The asymmetry of the count’s

face, with its different-
sized eyes, helps give this
famous portrait its graceful
vitality. Castiglione
himself had advised that
harmony should never be
too affected: ‘Imperfect
consonances should be
introduced to establish
contrast’ so that one enjoys
‘the perfect consonances
even more’.

painted commissions. As the consummate artist-courtier, Raphael

had his own palace, was appointed to the ofce of Scriptor Brevium
in Leo X’s Chancery, and succeeded Bramante as chief architect of St.
Peter’s (something Michelangelo was to achieve in later years). Only
his premature death prevented him from becoming a cardinal – and
thus the frst artist-prince.
At the same time as Michelangelo was wrestling with the
challenge of the Sistine ceiling – working in near isolation and in
huge physical discomfort – Raphael and a small number of assis-
tants were embarking on the decoration of the Vatican apartments
(completed under Leo X, with a greatly explanded workshop team
that included Giulio Romano and Perino del Vaga). Michelangelo
was to have continual run-ins with Julius over money, which he later
blamed on both Raphael and Bramante, complaining that the two
were bent on his ruin. Te Umbrian pair had developed a close-knit
approach to papal patronage (Bramante, 40 years Raphael’s senior,
took him under his wing – Vasari describes him, rather fancifully,
as a ‘relative’).
Te social and emotional bonds of friendship, so essential to
courtly intellectual exchange and advancement, fnd expression in a
type of portrait genre popularized by Raphael – the so-called friend-
ship portrait. Mantegna had provided an early example of this type,
featuring two intimate friends associated with the Ferrarese intellec-
tual milieu: the Hungarian humanist and poet Janus Pannonius and
his companion Galeotto Marzio da Narni. Alberti’s Della Famiglia,
written some 100 years before the publication of Castiglione’s book,
had defly described the qualities that would win amici in such cir-
cles. Virtue is a given, but the other most desirable quality is ‘a certain
something for which I cannot fnd a name, which attracts men and
makes them love one person more than another. It is something that
resides I don’t know where, in the face, in the eyes, the manner, and
the presence of a man, giving him a certain grace and charm full of
modesty. I can’t express it in words at all.’
Raphael’s portrait of Castiglione (fi7. 1O2) sums up both his
own gentilezza (gentility) and many of the courtly ideals of the time.
Te picture is a visual manifestation of artistic and aristocratic grazia
(grace), decorum and stylish ease. Te informality of Castiglione’s
pose and the disarming simplicity of the design belie the complex-
ity of the image. Castiglione, like Alberti before him, had urged
the perfect courtier ‘to practice in all things a certain nonchalance
(sprezzatura) that conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says
or does seem uncontrived and efortless’. Sprezzatura is essentially
the art of hiding art, embracing the delights of visual deception and
containing the germ of surprise.
While Raphael and Michelangelo were at work in the Vat-
ican, the young Federico Gonzaga was lodged in the Vatican Bel-
vedere as a boy hostage to the pope (1510). By this means, Mantua
managed to avoid a punitive war with the papacy. When he became
the ffh Marquis of Mantua (r. 1519–1540), Federico determined
to bring some of Rome’s full-blown magnifcence to his state. Using
the ebullient Pietro Aretino as his agent, and the refned Castiglione
as his ambassador (who returned to Mantua in 1523), he succeeded
in enticing Raphael’s foremost pupil, Giulio Romano, to Mantua in
1524. Aretino was later to provide a similar service to the French
king, Francis I and the Spanish emperor, Charles V, spreading the
fame of artists like Titian and Rosso Fiorentino through the power
of his pen.

A Grander Stage

242 | 243
Fig.153
Giulio Romano (executed
by Rinaldo Mantovano and
assistants)
Sala dei Giganti (detail)
1530–32. Fresco, Palazzo del
Te, Mantua.
The Palazzo del Te was built
with double foundations
and extra-thick walls on
a swampy site. The whole
architecture was designed
to be strange and disjointed
– with a vault that Vasari
compared to an oven – so
that even before the
tumultuous decoration (in
which Jupiter destroys the
giants with a thunderbolt),
the room seemed on the point
of collapse. The giants
had had the temerity to
attempt to take possession
of Zeus’s Mount Olympus (the
personal impresa of Federico
II). Vasari marvelled
at the effect provided
by the continuous fresco
decoration, which makes the
room appear to be located
on one vast plane in the
countryside. When a fire was
lit in the rusticated stone
fireplace (now lost), the
grotesque, tumbling giants
almost seemed to ‘burn’ in
its flames.
Liberating Forces
Giulio (ca. 1499–1546) was to remain in Mantua as court painter and
architect for 22 years; the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini
(1500–1571) found him there, ‘living like a lord’. Whereas Mantegna
had relied on few assistants, Giulio, drawing on Raphael’s fertile ex-
ample, delegated manual execution of his extraordinarily rich ideas
to a swarm of pupils, allowing them to produce engravings from his
preparatory drawings for broad circulation. Te sheer exuberance
and sensuality of his designs, his translation of antique prototypes
into a ‘modern’ idiom, and his brilliant feats of illusionism reveal the
persistence of ffeenth-century court ideals, now infltrated by Mi-
chelangelesque energy, and burlesque eroticism and satire. Te great
Sala di Psiche (1527–30) in Mantua’s Palazzo del Te is designed to
titillate and delight, while the Sala dei Giganti (1530–2) is a colossal
and boisterous display of illusionistic skills calculated to thrill and
overwhelm the viewer (fi7. 1O3). With the palace itself, Giulio took
great architectural liberties, introducing irregular proportions and
making a virtue of the resulting oddities.
In Giulio Romano’s famboyant decorations there are still the
ilarità (gaiety), delizie (delights) and decorative illusionism that were
so prized and promoted by the ffeenth-century courts, but there is a
deliberate move away from the elegant light-headedness of the ceil-
ing oculus of Mantegna. Fifeenth-century perspective illusionism
had not just expanded the imaginary world of the picture space, but
had opened up whole rooms to trompe l’oeil architecture with views
of the world outside. Now artists were looking to elicit a heightened
emotional response and demonstrate their mastery of the extraordi-
nary as well as the ‘real’. Te dizzying illusionism of Correggio’s illu-
sionistic dome for nearby Parma Cathedral is a parallel development
to Giulio’s expansive Mantuan schemes.
Te decorum that had previously dictated the shape of courtly
behaviour and the arts, is only observed by Giulio in so far as his dec-
orations adorn a pleasure palace. Te Palazzo del Te’s ‘braggart and
fanciful nature’ has been associated with Federico’s desire to sweep
away the dominance of Rome – then seen to be toppling under its
own corruption. Te frescoes were painted to entertain the Spanish
emperor Charles V on his second visit to Mantua, and can be seen
as a raucous celebration of a dynasty that survived by ‘prostituting’
itself to the papacy and to the invading French and Spanish powers.
Te sixteenth century was to see the swallowing-up of small princely
and republican states and the emergence of large ‘triumphalist’ pow-
ers: Mantua and Lucca were among the few survivors.
 Te reinstated Medici in Florence supported a style that would
erase recent memories of the briefy renewed Republic (1494–1512).
Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus (unveiled in 1534), whose fashion-
able bulging muscular physique was compared by the sculptor Ben-
venuto Cellini to ‘a bag of melons’, adopts the weighty form of an
antique colossus, to complement and contrast with Michelangelo’s

A Grander Stage

244 | 245
youthful David (1501–4). But it was not until Cosimo de’ Medici
came to power, following a decisive military triumph, and was subse-
quently made Duke of Florence in 1537 (later Grand Duke of Tusca-
ny), that the Medici regime was secure. Creating a full-blown court,
and allying himself to the Spanish court of Charles V through mar-
riage to Eleonora of Toledo, Cosimo symbolically usurped the civ-
ic heart of Florence, moving his residence from the Palazzo Medici
into the civic seat of government, the Palazzo della Signoria (the new
‘Palazzo Vecchio’). Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was put in charge
of the decoration of its rooms (painting over Leonardo’s republican
Battle of Anghiari in the process), as well as overseeing the building
of the large Ufzi complex where the city’s administrative ofces (uf-
fci), guilds and Medici court artists were to have their quarters.
Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists, written for Cosimo de’ Medici
in 1550 and revised in 1568, defnes grazia as one of the hallmarks of
the modern artist’s most ‘beautiful style’ (bella maniera). Infuenced
by Castiglione and the superb artistry of Raphael, he urges the artist
to disguise his labour and study, and to stress instead his facilità
(ease) and prestezza (quickness of execution). Te appreciation of
these qualities was no doubt encouraged by the speed required of
artists at court (Vasari himself complained about being kept at work
until three in the morning), and the levels of profciency attained
in fresco and oil techniques. Castiglione even recommended that a
painting should not be fnished too thoroughly, but should hint that
the artist is so skilful that he can aford to hold something in reserve.
Tis tantalizing ‘lack of fnish’ and dashing virtuosity, exhibited so
boldly in Titian’s and Tintoretto’s work, belongs to a world in which
the artist’s abundant powers of invention and fuency were coming
to be valued more than painstaking realism, a fxed viewpoint, and
delicacy of technique.
In his ‘Life of Giulio Romano’ Vasari claimed that no one was
‘better grounded’ (being the pupil of Raphael was the equivalent of
noble lineage), ‘bolder, more confdent, more inventive, versatile,
prolifc, and well rounded, not to mention for the present that he was
extremely gentle in conversation, jovial, afable, gracious, and abso-
lutely abounding in the fnest manners’. It was precisely this com-
bination of professional skills and social accomplishments that was
expected of a court artist in the frst half of the sixteenth century.
Vasari recognized that the court artist had to live in an environment
ruled by envy and ambition, where there was no peace or tranquillity.
Yet while an accommodating environment might be conducive to
family life and artistic study, it did not act as a spur to artistic great-
ness. In his ‘Life of Perugino’, he remarked: ‘When a man has learned
all he needs to learn in Florence and … wants to make himself rich,
he must leave, and sell the excellence of his works and the reputa-
tion of the city to other places, just as the learned scholars from the
university do.’
Te scenario of artists and humanist scholars looking for
wealth and fame at the courts sets the stage not only for the eleva-
tion of the status of the artist and their native cities (which Vasari
so prized), but also for a remarkable cultural exchange, across styles
and borders, that was to transform aesthetic and technical stand-
ards. While humanist courtiers like Pietro Bembo and Castiglione
recalled the intimate atmosphere of courts like Pesaro or Urbino
with particular fondness, it was perhaps the great cosmopolitan
courts of Naples, Milan, and ultimately turn-of-the-century Rome,
that provided the best opportunities for cultural transformation and
advancement. Leonardo, who learned Latin in Milan, having origi-
nally rejected the book learning embraced by the moneyed aristoc-
racy in Florence, found a generous climate of ideas that embraced
all manner of contrivance and invention. ‘In an odd way’, concludes
Jacob Bronowski in his essay on Leonardo, he ‘could follow his bent
there’. Later generations may have come to associate the courts with
oppression, decadence and luxury, but it was in this hierarchical and
seemingly inimical environment that the Renaissance artist achieved
a measure of creative and intellectual freedom, and where his inge-
nuity was invited to take many forms.
By the sixteenth century, artists well understood the wealth,
opportunities and prestige that could be conferred by distinguished
courtly patrons. At the same time, they displayed a marked self-con-
fdence in their own value and the marketability of their maniere.
Early in his career, Titian was prepared to defraud a papal legate for
whom he had painted an altarpiece by selling one of its side panels
(a magnifcent nude St. Sebastian) to Alfonso d’Este and replacing
it with a replica. Titian’s way was smoothed by a shif towards a more
‘courtly’ culture in Venice (with the rise of a group of patrician fami-
lies who had close political and familial associations with the papal
court), as well as his own experience at the Ferrarese court. He went
on to enjoy the patronage of Federico II Gonzaga, the Habsburg em-
peror Charles V and his son Philip II, as well as successive popes,
turning from altarpieces to portraits and smaller decorative works.
His portraits, in particular, came to embody the requirements
of courtly sitters, providing a superior individualized template for
the future. Te three-quarter-length portrait of Federico Gonzaga
of ca. 1530 reveals not only the assured confdence of the patron –
who casually pets his dog as if it were a loyal intimate – but also the

A Grander Stage

246 | 247
Fig.154
Titian
Federico II Gonzaga
ca. 1530. Oil on panel, 125
× 99cm (4ft 11∕4in × 3ft 3in).
Museo del Prado, Madrid.
This surpassingly elegant
portrait immortalizes
the patron of some of the
greatest painters of the
sixteenth century – Giulio
Romano, Correggio and
Titian among them. Federico
commissioned more than 30
pictures from Titian over
their 17-year association,
including many masterpieces.
Here, Federico is shown
in an embroidered velvet
doublet with his adoring
Maltese dog, sheathed sword
and rosary to hand. The
picture became a model for
Titian’s imperial portraits,
furthering Federico’s
diplomatic relations with
Spain and consolidating his
reputation as a splendid
soldier-prince.
dazzling facility of the artist in this most courtly of art forms
(fig. 154). While Mantegna insisted on working from life, Titian
could produce likenesses from medals, miniatures or other paint-
ings, and the widespread use of canvas meant that they could be
much larger in format – and easily transportable. Federico was so
enamoured with Titian’s portrait skills that he used the artist to fur-
ther his relations with Charles V. Titian’s armoured portrait of the
Holy Roman Emperor earned him 500 scudi (roughly the equivalent
of 500 ducats) and the titles of Count Palatine and Knight of the
Golden Spur, but most importantly ushered in a more forceful and
monumental style that other rulers were quick to employ.
Titian built his reputation not only through his artistic prow-
ess and his social attentiveness, but also through a canny entrepre-
neurial approach, deploying his sons, relatives and pupils to help
paint variants of his most popular works – leading to the develop-
ment of what have been termed ‘multiple originals’. Titian’s famous
‘Venus’ type (drawing on an acclaimed idealized Venus by Giorgione,
which Titian completed afer his death), infamed the passions of
a coterie of elite collectors. A Titian Venus – whether reclining in
a landscape or in a bedchamber – not only refected the aesthetic
tastes of the time, but through its ‘resemblance’ to other versions ad-
mitted the owner into a socially exclusive club of connoisseurs, help-
ing to foster a sense of active masculine belonging – perhaps akin to
a knightly ‘Round Table’.
Artists like Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael, who achieved
fame at the courts, used their reputation and connections to guar-
antee their independent standing. Michelangelo found himself in
the enviable position of being able to decline invitations to work for
the Turkish emperor, Francis I, Charles V, the Signoria of Venice and
Duke Cosimo de’ Medici. For the resident ‘court artist’, his ‘privileges’
may have been extended to include the recognition of artistic free-
dom of expression (within a less prescriptive notion of decorum),
but he was still expected to ‘serve’. Te nature of the court artist’s and
patron’s continuing mutual dependency is made clear in a passage
from the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini’s famboyant autobiography
(1558–62). Here he relates how his patron King Francis I took him
to task one day:
‘It is a strange thing, Benvenuto, that you and others, clever as
you are, refuse to recognize that you cannot display your talents by
yourselves and that you can only demonstrate your greatness when
we give you the opportunity; you should therefore show rather more
obedience, and rather less pride and self-love.’
A Grander Stage

248 | 249
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Picture Credits
Details of collections are given in the captions.
Additional information, copyright credits, and
photo sources are given below. Numbers are
fgure numbers unless indicated.
Front Cover © Photo Josse, Paris
akg-images/Erich Lessing 2, /Joseph Martin
130, /Mondadori Portfolio/Electa 109
Albertina, Vienna Inv. 2583r 112
Alinari Archives, Florence/Iberfoto/BeBa
105, /Mauro Magliani/Reproduced with
the permission of Ministero per i Beni e le
Attività Culturali 79, /Mauro Magliani 139,
/Mauro Ranzani Archive 16, /Seat Archive/
Roberto Sigismondi 98
Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea Ferrara,
0.16.5.6., photo B&G Studio Fotografco,
Ferrara 84
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
3 (Ms Latin 5888, f1r.), 124 ( (Manuscrits -
Vélins 724 Folio 9)
Bridgeman Images 21, 91, 123, 131, 136,
144, 153, /Reproduced by permission
of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees/©
Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth 49, /
De Agostini Picture Library 1, 92, 134, /
Mondadori Portfolio/Electa 7, 127, /Royal
Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II, 2014 111, 129
© Te British Library Board 54
© Board of Trustees, British Museum 87,
132, 148
© CAMERAPHOTO Arte, Venice 26,
94a&b, 95
Canali Photobank, Milan 52, 115, / on licence
from Amministrazione Doria Pamhilj
s.r.l. 85
Guglielmo Chiolini, Pavia 133, 137
Corbis/Alinari Archives 56, /Massimo Listri 8
© Araldo De Luca, Rome 150
© Fabbrica di San Pietro in Vaticano 39, 41
© Fotografca Foglia, Naples 22, 23, 24, 32, 57,
60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 99
© Fotomoderna, Urbino 78, 138
Getty Images/Alinari Archives/Mauro
Magliani 74, /DeAgostini 107
© Photo Josse, Paris 55, 120, 121, 128, 152
KHM-Museumsverband 47 (Inv.-Nr.
GG_1840), 117 (Inv.-Nr. MK 6833 bb), 118
(Inv.-Nr. ANSA IX A 81)
© James Morris, Ceredigion 40
© 2015 - Ministero per i Beni e le Attività
Culturali Soprintendenza Speciale
per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed
Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale
della città di Firenze. Tutti i diritti
riservati. All rights reserved. 19
© National Gallery of Ireland 114
© Quattrone, Florence 12, 13, 17, 48, 77, 102,
108, 110, 142
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (domaine de
Chantilly)/René-Gabriel Ojéda 29
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais/(musée du
Louvre)/Jean-Gilles Berizzi 46, 113, /Gérard
Blot 75, /Angèle Dequier 35, 122, /Marc
Jeanneteau 44, /Tierry Le Mage 116, /Tony
Querrec 146
Robert Harding/Gunter Lenz 71
Photo Scala, Florence 14, 27, 30, 36, 37,
43, 67, 101, 106, 126, /Art Resource/Te
Philadelphia Museum of Art/ 89, /Art
Resource/Image © Te Metropolitan
Museum of Art/ 90, /DeAgostini Picture
Library 25, 50, 70, 93, 100, /DeAgostini
Picture Library© Veneranda Biblioteca
Ambrosiana 125, /courtesy of the Ministero
Beni e Att. Culturali 9, 11, 15, 34, 53, 66, 68,
72, 73, 80, 81, 82, 104, 119, 135, 140, /Museo
Nacional del Prado © Photo MNP 154 /©
Te National Gallery, London 69, 83, 88, 97,
145, 151, /Opera Metropolitana Siena 103,
147, /Mauro Ranzani 141, /Luciano Romano
51, /Luciano Romano/Fondo Edifci di
Culto - Min. dell’Interno 10, /White Images
p2, p4–5, fgs 45, 143
SuperStock/age fotostock/Pietro Scozzari 76
© V&A Images 28, 31, 42a&b, 58, 59a&b
© Photo Vatican Museums/P. Zigrossi, A.
Bracchetti 149
Index
Numbers in bold refer to illustrations.
A Bellini, Giovanni 143, 194, 196–7
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile) 34, 35
Adrian VI, Pope 239
Agostino di Duccio
Chariot of the Moon 46, 47
Portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta 9
Alberti, Leon Battista 8, 14, 15, 33, 45, 47, 48,
56, 62, 63, 67, 77, 111, 114, 119, 124, 128, 138,
139, 140, 143, 166, 169–70, 172, 190, 243
Sant’Andrea, Mantua 166, 169, 170, 171
Self-portrait medal 62, 139
Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini 45, 46, 47
Alexander VI, Pope 155, 235–6
Alfonso I, King of Aragon, Naples and Sicily
34, 37, 38, 39, 44, 51, 80–99, 100–1, 102–5,
122, 138, 152, 169
King Alfonso and his Court (Crespi) 89
portrait medal (Cristoforo) 95, 96
portrait medal (Pisanello) 94, 97
Alfonso II, King of Naples 22–3, 36, 44, 157,
159, 194, 231, 237
all’antica 14, 16, 47, 77, 86, 94, 99, 115, 119,
132, 149, 175, 197, 219
Amadeo, Giovanni Antonio 68, 209, 219
Certosa, Pavia 209, 216, 217, 218, 219, 221
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan 216–21,
222, 223
Ambrogio de Predis 71, 206, 208, 228
Bianca Maria Sforza 16
Andreasi, Osanna 184, 198, 199
Angelo Maccagnino da Siena 140, 146
Erato 54, 55
Anichini, Francesco 191
Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsi) 60
Apollo Belvedere 191
Antonio de Chelino 104
Antonio dei Fedeli 51
Apelles 59, 75, 79, 91, 124
Apollo 111, 141, 194
Apollo Belvedere (Antico) 191
Aquila, Andrea dell’: Castel Nuovo relief 104
Aretino, Pietro 62, 240, 243
Argus Panoptes (Bramante) 205–6, 207
Ariosto, Ludovico 136, 162
Aristotle 31, 38, 77, 94, 120
Assumption of the Virgin (Masolino) 41, 42
auctoritas 56, 153
Arras Workshop (?): hunting tapestries 48
B Dolcebuono, Giovanni Giacomo 209, 216,
Bacchus and Ariadne (Titian) 241
Bandello, Vincenzo 225
Bandinelli, Baccio: Hercules and Cacus 245
Barbara of Brandenburg 165–6, 174, 178,
179, 180
Barocci, Ambrogio 110, 116
Portal, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino 117
Battle of the Sea Gods (Mantegna) 78–9
Beccharia, Zaccaria 203
Belbello da Pavia 149
Bellincioni, Bernardo 213, 215
Bellini, Gentile 143
Feast of the Gods 36, 37, 241
Bellini, Jacopo 140, 143, 149
Bembo, Benedetto and Bonifacio
fresco, Castle of Torrechiara, Parma 6, 7
tarot cards 32
Bembo, Pietro 132, 195, 197, 247
Bentivoglio, Annibale: cenotaph 20
Bentivoglio, Antongaleazzo 194, 196
Bergognone 219, 226, 228
Madonna and Child (fresco, Certosa) 219
Bernardino de’ Conti 228
Berruguete, Pedro 107, 110, 119
Portrait, Federico da Montefeltro 4–5,
130–2, 133
Bianca of Savoy 22, 202
Biondo, Flavio 17, 45, 181
Birago, Giovan Pietro: Giovanni
Simonetta’s Sforziada 200, 201, 227
Boccaccio, Giovanni 54, 88, 155
Boccati, Giovanni 114
Boiardo, Feltrino 137–8
Boiardo, Matteo 135, 137
Bologna 13, 20, 62, 76, 147, 155, 158, 160,
196, 236
Bona of Savoy 54, 181, 203, 210, 220
Bonacolsi family 166
Bonsignori, Francesco 72, 186, 187, 199
Altarpiece of the Beata Osanna 198, 199
Borgia, Cesare 194, 233, 234, 236
Borgia, Lucrezia 155
Botticelli, Sandro 75, 197
Bracciolini, Poggio 37–8, 150
Bramante, Donato 68, 205–6, 215, 221–3,
225, 228, 231, 236–7, 242–3
Argus Panoptes 205–6, 207
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan 222, 223
St. Peter’s, Rome 222, 237, 242
Bramantino 206, 236
Argus Panoptes 205–6, 207
Brancaccio, Rinaldo 83
Brera Altarpiece (Piero) 106, 107, 110, 126
Briosco, Benedetto: Tomb of Giangaleazzo
Visconti 217
Brunelleschi, Filippo, 8, 33, 115
Bruni, Leonardo 99
Bugatto, Zanetto 74
Buonconte da Montefeltro 123
Butinone, Bernardino 216
C 219, 221
Caesar, Julius 86, 94, 101, 140, 144, 174, 181
Triumphs of Caesar (Mantegna) 180, 181,
182, 187
Calvary (Montorfano) 225, 226
Cangrande della Scala, Lord of Verona 83
Cantelma, Margherita 188, 198, 199
Caradosso 215, 225
medal showing St. Peter’s 237
Carafa, Diomede 105
Carafa, Giovanni 81
Carbone, Ludovico 144
Castiglione, Baldassare 107, 111, 115, 132,
215, 218, 233, 239, 241, 243, 246, 247
portrait (Raphael) 242, 243
Cavallini, Pietro 83, 88
Cellini, Benvenuto 244, 245, 248
Cennini, Cennino 77
Chariot of the Moon (Agostino) 46, 47
Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily 82–3
Charles V, King of France 218
Charles VI, King of France 54
Charles VIII, King of France 74, 132, 183–4,
231, 235, 236
Charles V, King of Spain 59, 243–8
Christian I, King of Denmark 165, 174, 178
Chrysoloras, Manuel 97, 99, 140
Cicero 56, 94, 140
Clement, Pope IV 82
Colantonio 90
Legend of St. Vincent Ferrer 22–3
St. Jerome in his Study 92, 93
Colleoni, Bartolomeo 48, 209
Columbus, Christopher 234
condottiere 21, 48, 61, 79, 104, 108, 111, 122,
125, 136, 140, 166, 168, 181, 209, 234
Congress of Mantua (Pinturicchio) 167
Correggio 198, 244, 248
Cortese, Paolo 23, 107
Cossa, Francesco del: Hall of the Months,
Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara, 74, 139, 146,
149, 150, 151, 152, 153
Costa, Lorenzo 194, 196–7, 199
Garden of the Peaceful Arts 196, 197
Crespi: King Alfonso and his Court 89
Cristoforo di Geremia: portrait medal of
Alfonso of Aragon 95, 96
Crivelli, Taddeo: Borse d’Este’s Bible 148, 149
Crucifixion (Weyden) 142
D
Dalmau, Louis 89
Dante 111, 120, 233
Decembrio, Angelo: On Literary Polish 136,
137–9, 147
delizie 135, 244
depintori della corte 51, 59
Dialogues de Pierre Salmon (Boucicaut) 54
Diptych with Portraits of Federico da
Montefeltro and Battista Sforza (Piero)
23, 24–5, 124, 125
Donatello, 8, 65, 83, 90, 104, 105
Horse’s Head 104, 105
Duc de Berry 48, 54, 139
Dürer, Albrecht 77
E
Ebreo, Giuglielmo 155
Eleonora of Aragon 22, 22–3, 54, 69, 105,
130, 152–7, 158, 161, 186, 188, 194
Index
252 | 253
Emperor Trajan in the Fight Against the
Dacians (Mantegna) 183
Equicola, Mario 120, 165, 188, 191
Erato (Angelo Maccagnino) 54, 55
Este, the 15, 26, 34, 59, 134–63, 172, 195, 216
Este, Alfonso d’ 36, 53, 153, 155, 241, 247
Este, Baldassare d’ 71, 147, 150
Este, Beatrice d’ 22, 34, 153, 155, 204,
214–18, 221, 225, 226–8, 229, 231
Este, Borso d’ 48, 52, 61, 71, 74, 93, 119,
136–8, 141, 144–53, 161, 162, 194, 233
Bible of Borso d’Este 148, 149
Este, Ercole d’ 19, 21, 41, 69, 130, 136,
152–63, 188, 212, 216, 220, 231
Este, Francesco d’: portrait (Weyden) 143, 144
Este, Isabella d’ 22, 51–4, 77, 90, 120, 139,
153, 155, 160, 184, 188–98, 199, 214, 228
portrait medal (Romano) 188, 190
portrait (Leonardo) 188, 189
Este, Leonello d’ 47, 53, 56, 62, 96, 113, 119,
136–44, 146, 153, 194
portrait medal (Pisanello) 96, 138, 139
Este, Niccolò III d’ 21, 73, 136, 139, 144, 149,
152, 153
Eugenius IV, Pope 16, 26, 45, 63, 65, 66,
93, 121
Evangelista de Predis 206, 208
Eyck, Jan van 16, 75, 89–93, 124
Virgin of Chancellor Rolin 90, 91
F Ghirlandaio, Domenico 75
Facio, Bartolomeo 37, 90–1, 93–4, 99, 103, 124
Fancelli, Luca 165, 169, 173, 181, 196
fantasia 62, 77, 78, 193, 194, 197, 228
Feast of the Gods (Bellini) 36, 37, 241
Federico da Montefeltro 19, 23, 48, 53, 75,
106, 107–33, 168
portrait (Piero) 23, 24–5, 124, 125
portrait (Justus of Ghent): 4–5, 130–2, 133
Ferrante I, King of Naples 22, 52–3, 54, 97,
102, 103, 104, 105, 122, 130, 132, 153, 214
Ferrara 8, 13, 15, 21, 22, 26, 28, 41, 45, 47,
51, 53, 60–2, 67, 73, 96, 109, 114, 119, 129,
130, 132, 134–63, 173, 191, 194, 202, 247
Belfiore (villa) 69, 135, 136, 155, 161
Leonello d’Este’s studiolo 47, 53, 55,
56, 119, 140–1, 143, 146, 194
Belriguardo (villa) 69, 136, 146, 147, 160
‘Erculean Addition’ 161, 162
Palazzo del Corte 41, 143–4, 161
Palazzo dei Diamanti 41, 162, 163
Palazzo Schifanoia 48, 136, 144, 158
Hall of the Months (Cossa) 74, 139, 146,
149, 150, 151, 152, 153
Fiamma, Galvano 32–3
Fiera, Battista 37, 172, 190, 198–9
Filarete 63–8, 169, 219
Bronze doors, St. Peter’s, Rome 37, 63, 64,
65, 66–7, 103, 237
Self-portrait medal 66, 67
‘Sforzinda’ 66, 213
Filelfo, Francesco 211
Flagellation (Mantegna) 57
Flagellation of Christ (Piero) 126, 127
Foppa, Vincenzo 60, 206, 226, 228
Fouquet, Jean 16, 74, 92
Portrait of Gonella 73
Florence 7, 8, 11, 22, 23, 26–7, 33, 34, 45,
65, 82, 84–5, 89, 114, 119, 122–3, 144, 147,
160, 168, 169, 173, 180, 194, 201–3, 205,
206, 209, 230–1, 234, 236, 241, 245–7
Francesco di Giorgio 44, 110–11, 115–6,
118–21, 126, 131–2, 162
candelabrum for the Urbino cathedral 126
Fort of Rocca San Leo, near Urbino 123
Francia, Francesco 196
Francis I, King of France 59, 236, 243, 248
Frederick I, Emperor 165
Frederick II, Emperor 94, 101
Frederick III, Emperor 61, 165–6, 171, 174,
178, 210
G I
Gadio, Bartolomeo 210
Gagini, Domenico: Castel Nuovo reliefs
99, 100–1
Galeotto Marzio da Narni 243
Gallerani, Cecilia 213–5
portrait (Leonardo) 213, 214, 215
Game of Ball (fresco, Palazzo Borromeo,
Milan) 50, 51
Garden of the Peaceful Arts (Costa) 196, 197
Gaspare da Pesaro 88
Gasparino da Barzizza 21
Genoa 11, 26, 62, 92, 234
Gentile da Fabriani 34, 90, 96, 142–3, 146
Strozzi Altarpiece 34, 35
gentilezza 38, 243
Ghiberti, Lorenzo 8, 42, 65, 68, 78
Gionta, Stefano 169
Giorgio de Allegretto 69
Giorgione 191, 249
Giotto di Bondone 32, 59, 83–5, 88
fresco, Santa Chiara, Naples 84
Giovanni da Siena 67
Giraldi, Guglielmo 149
Giuliano da Sangallo 237
Giulio Romano 60, 242–6, 248
Sala dei Giganti (Palazzo del Te, Mantua)
244, 245
Gonella: portrait (Fouquet) 73
Gonzaga, the 26, 34, 45, 59, 61, 74, 108, 113,
164–99
Gonzaga, Barbara 180–1
Gonzaga, Elisabetta 132, 233, 241
Gonzaga, Federico I 34, 119, 164, 165, 178,
180–2, 184
Gonzaga, Federico II 74, 198, 243, 244, 247–8
portrait (Titian) 247–8, 249
Gonzaga, Francesco (Cardinal) 76, 164,
165, 170, 171, 178
Gonzaga, Francesco II (Marquis of Mantua)
37, 51, 62, 72, 76, 155, 172, 180–4, 185,
186–94, 198, 234
portrait drawing (Mantegna) 184, 186
Gonzaga, Gianfrancesco (Marquis of
Mantua) 62, 72, 168, 172
Gonzaga, Ludovico 14, 77, 111, 114, 143,
164, 165–78, 179, 180–1, 191
Gonzaga, Paola 14, 178, 180
Gonzaga, Sigismondo 164, 165, 187
Gozzoli, Benozzo: Journey of the Magi 28, 29
grazia 214, 243, 246
grotta 52, 190, 197, 198
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro 75, 107, 113,
122, 124, 129, 131–2, 133, 233–4, 241
Guarino, Battista 188
Guarino da Verona 21, 47, 56, 97, 137,
139–42, 144, 146, 150, 213
portrait medal (de’ Pasti) 139, 140
Guglielmo lo Monaco: doors of Castel
Nuovo 102, 103
Guillem d’Uxelles 89
Guiscardi, Mariolo d’ 212
H
Hadrian 44, 94, 127
Head of a Hound (Pisanello) 72
Horse’s Head (Donatello) 104, 105
Ideal City 114–5
impresa 41, 51, 163, 244
Innocent VIII, Pope 182
Institution of the Eucharist (Justus) 128, 129
intarsia 41, 114, 118–20, 219
Isabella of Aragon 214, 231
Bust of Isabella (Laurana) 2, 70, 71
Isabelle of France 82
Isabella of Clermont (Queen of Naples) 22–3
Isabetta da Montefeltro 130, 132
Isaia da Pisa: Castel Nuovo reliefs 100–1
Isotta degli Atti 7, 9, 47
Israelites Gathering Manna (Roberti) 156–7
J
Jacomart (Jaime Baço) 60, 86, 88–9, 92
Jean d’Arbois 142
Joanna II, Queen of Naples 82, 83
Joan, Pere 99
Joseph of Arimathea (Mazzoni) 159
Journey of the Magi (Gozzoli) 28, 29
Julius II, Pope 218, 233, 235–9, 241–2
Justus of Ghent 110–13, 124
Institution of the Eucharist 128, 129
Music 111, 112, 113
Plato 118–20, 121
Portrait, Federico da Montefeltro 130–3, 133
L
Ladislas, King 82, 83, 84, 90
Lady with an Ermine (Leonardo) 213, 214, 215
Lamentation (Rubinetto workshop) 69, 155
Lamentation (Mazzoni) 158
Lancelot 166
Laocoön 218, 240, 241
Last Supper (Leonardo) 224, 225, 226
Laurana, Francesco 70, 99
Bust of Isabella of Aragon 2, 71
Castel Nuovo reliefs 100–1
Laurana, Luciano 109, 114, 120
Palazzo Ducale, Urbino 19, 115, 116
Legend of St. Vincent Ferrer (Colantonio) 22–3
Legend of Theodolina (Zavattari brothers) 17
Leo X, Pope 235, 236, 239, 242
Leonardo da Besozzo 60, 87
Leonardo da Vinci 59, 74, 75, 76, 79, 188,
197, 198, 201–3, 206, 209–16, 221–8, 231,
236, 241, 246, 247
design for a ballistic weapon 203
designs for the Sforza monument and its
construction 208–10, 211, 212, 213, 236
Lady with an Ermine 213, 214, 215
Portrait of Bianca Sforza (?) 220, 221
Portrait of Isabella d’Este 188, 189
Sala delle Asse (Castello Sforzesco,
 Milan) 226, 227, 228
Last Supper 224, 225, 226
Virgin of the Rocks 206, 208
Liberius, Pope 43
Limbourg brothers: Très Riches Heures 49
Lippi, Fra Filippo: St. Anthony Abbot and
Archangel Michael 38, 39
Lippi, Filippino 75, 197, 230
Livy 94–5, 111, 181
Lombardo, Pietro 186
Lomellini, Battista 92
Lorenzo da Pavia 194, 197
Louis XII (Duke of Orléans) 218, 231, 235
Lucca 11, 244
M Melozzo da Forlì 33, 109, 110, 113
Machiavelli, Niccolò 16–17, 210, 234, 236
Madonna and Child with the Norsa family 187
Madonna della Vittoria (Mantegna) 184,
185, 187
maiestate 56, 153
Malatesta, Pandolfo III 34
Malatesta, Roberto 130, 132
Malatesta, Sigismondo 7, 17, 28, 29, 45–7,
53, 61, 108, 109, 110, 116, 118, 119, 121–2,
124–5, 127, 130, 168
Portrait of Sigismondo (Agostino) 9
maniera 76, 181, 203, 247
Mantegazza brothers 206, 216, 228
Mantegna, Andrea 56, 58, 59–62, 74, 75,
76–7, 143–4, 149, 166, 171–97, 243, 244, 248
Battle of the Sea Gods 78Ð9
Bust of Andrea Mantegna 58, 59
Camera Picta (Palazzo Ducale, Mantua) 74,
77, 164, 165, 174, 175, 176Ð7, 178, 179, 180–1
Emperor Trajan in the Fight 183
Flagellation 57
Portrait drawing of Francesco II Gonzaga
184, 186
Madonna della Vittoria 184, 185, 187
Pallas Expelling the Vices 40, 192Ð3 194
Parnassus 194, 195, 198
Triumphs of Caesar 180, 181, 182, 187
‘Uffizi Triptych’ 173, 174
Mantegna, circle of: marriage chest 14, 15
Mantua 13, 26, 28, 34, 37, 39–41, 45, 50,
60, 62, 74, 78, 108, 129, 149, 164–99, 231,
233, 243–4
Andrea Mantegna’s house 60, 61
Marmirolo (villa) 167, 182, 183, 194
Palazzo del Te: Sala dei Giganti 244, 245
Palazzo Ducale (Corte) 165–8, 172–80
Camera Picta 74, 77, 164, 165, 174, 175,
176Ð7, 178, 179, 180–1
Castello San Giorgio 165–6, 173
Isabella d’Este’s studiolo 51, 120, 194–8
Sala de Pisanello 39, 40, 50, 166–7, 168, 181
Santa Maria della Vittoria 184–7
Sant’Andrea 58, 59, 166, 169, 170, 171, 187
Maria of Aragon 96, 138
Maria of Castile, Queen Regent of Aragon 85
Marcus Auerlius 66, 94, 103
Martin V, Pope 27, 34, 40, 42–3, 238
Masaccio, 8, 40–1
Maso di Bartolomeo 114
Masolino 40–3, 47, 235
Santa Maria Maggiore altarpiece 40–3:
Assumption of the Virgin 41, 42
Miracle of the Snow 40, 41, 43
Maximilian I, Emperor 16, 71, 212, 220,
227, 231
Mazzoni, Guido 68, 74, 158–9
Joseph of Arimathea (Lamentation,
Naples) 159
Lamentation (Ferrara) 158
Medici, the 7, 26–9, 84, 131, 205, 230, 233,
236, 245–6
Medici, Cosimo de’ 26, 28, 29, 33, 37, 107,
114, 246, 248
Medici, Giovanni de’ 38–9
Medici, Lorenzo de’ 28, 29, 37, 75, 105, 119,
131, 181–2, 198, 201, 205, 209, 212, 216,
230, 234, 236, 237
Medici, Piero de’ 28, 29, 119
Pope Sixtus IV Nominates Bartolomeo
Sacchi 30, 31, 33
Michelangelo Buonarroti 194, 198, 218,
236–43, 245–6, 248
Sistine Chapel, St. Peters 75, 238Ð9, 242
Michelino da Besozzo 142
Coronation of Giangaleazzo Visconti 10, 11
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo 83, 114
Migliorotti, Atalante 200
Milan 8, 13, 19, 22, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32–3, 34,
38, 44, 48, 59, 60, 63, 66, 71, 79, 85, 108,
110, 116, 144, 166, 168, 178, 188, 200–31,
232, 236, 237, 247
Castello Sforzesco 205, 206, 207, 209,
215–6, 219, 223, 226, 231
Sala della Asse (Leonardo) 226, 227, 228
Palazzo Borromeo (fresco) 50, 51
Santa Maria delle Grazie 204, 216–7, 221,
222, 223, 224, 225
Last Supper (Leonardo) 224, 225, 226
Tower of San Gottardo 32, 33
Miracle of the Profaned Host (Uccello) 129,
130Ð1
Miracle of the Snow (Masolino) 40, 41, 43
mobilitas 109, 125
Montorfano, Giovanni Donato da: Calvary
225, 226
Muse, A (Calliope?) (Tura) 134, 135, 146
Muse Thalia (Pannonio) 144, 145, 146
Music (Justus of Ghent) 111, 112, 113
N 100Ð1
Naples 13, 15, 22, 27, 28, 36, 52Ð3, 60, 61,
80–105, 110, 122, 153, 159, 168, 205, 215,
231, 233, 236, 247
Castel Capuano 81–2, 86
Castel Nuovo 22, 34, 39, 44, 51, 52Ð3, 84,
85–7, 90–4, 98–105
Sala di Baroni 99
Triumphal Arch 94–5, 98, 99–105
Bronze doors 102, 103
Reliefs 94, 95, 99, 100Ð1, 102, 104
Santa Chiara (fresco) (Giotto (?)) 84
Nero 63, 66, 235, 236
Niccoli, Niccolò 37–8
Niccolò da Corregio 160
Niccolò dell’Arca 159
Nicholas V, Pope 33, 62, 101, 121
Norsa, Daniele da 184, 186–7
O Pliny the Elder 56, 72, 91, 139, 240
Oddantonio, Duke of Urbino 121, 127
Onofrio di Giordano 99
P
Pacioli, Luca 225, 231
Padua 62, 104, 136, 149, 166, 172, 174, 197,
206, 219
Pala Sforzesca 228, 229, 230
Palazzi, Lazzaro 209
Pallas Expelling the Vices (Mantegna) 40,
77, 192Ð3, 194
Pannonio, Michele 172
Muse Thalia 144, 145, 146
Pannonius, Janus 243
Panormita, Antonio 44, 81–2, 86, 90, 94
paragone 140, 197
Pariento, Bernardino 197
Paride da Ceresara 193, 195, 197
Parma: Castle of Torrechiara 6, 7, 18
Parnassus (Mantegna) 194, 195, 198
Pasti, Matteo de’ 46, 108, 122, 140
portrait medal of Guarino da Verona
139, 140
pastiglia 14, 17, 39, 40, 48
Paul II, Pope 149
Pavia 60, 96, 114, 116, 181, 201, 212, 215–21,
223, 226, 230
Certosa 208–9, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220–1,
225, 230
Perinetto da Benevento 87–8
Perino del Vaga 68, 242
Perugino, Pietro 75, 195–6, 230, 241, 246
Virgin Adoring the Child 230, 231
Pesaro 13, 68, 111, 114, 121–2, 247
Pesaro ceramic workshop: tiles 51, 194
Petrarch 8, 18, 113, 120
piano nobile 53, 115, 118, 166, 187
Piccolomini, Cardinal Francesco 167
Piccinino, Niccolò 108
Pier Maria Rossi 7, 18
Piero della Francesca 56, 90, 109–11, 124–9,
132, 143
Brera Altarpiece 106, 107, 110, 126
Diptych with Portraits of Federico da
Montefeltro and Battista Sforza 23, 24Ð5,
124, 125
Flagellation of Christ 126, 127
St. Sigismund Venerated by Sigismondo
Malatesta 108, 109, 124
Pietro da Milano: Castel Nuovo reliefs 99,
Pinturicchio 235–6, 238
Congress of Mantua 167
Piccolomini library, Siena 235, 236
Pisanello (Antonio Pisano) 34, 60, 61, 72,
78, 79, 90, 93, 95–101, 138–43, 172, 178
design for a salt cellar 70
Head of a Hound 72
portrait medals 93, 96–7
of Alfonso of Aragon 94, 97
of Leonello d’Este 138, 139
Sala de Pisanello (Palazzo Ducale,
Mantua) 39, 40, 50, 166–7, 168, 181
Vision of St. Eustace 141, 143
Pisanello, circle of 88
design for a decorative archway 80, 81, 100
Pius II, Pope 11, 47, 100, 120–1, 122, 144,
165–6, 167, 169, 178, 236
Plato (Justus of Ghent) 118–20, 121
Pliny the Younger 36, 44
Poliziano, Angelo 113
Index
254 | 255
Pollaiuolo, Antonio del 77, 123, 209, 211
Pontano, Giovanni 33, 35, 38, 56, 88, 90,
125, 131, 190
Pontelli, Baccio and Piero: intarsia 118Ð9
Pope Sixtus IV Nominates Bartolomeo
Sacchi (Melozzo) 30, 31
Prisciani, Pellegrino 150
Q 67, 71, 75, 152–3, 174, 178, 180–1, 203,
quadriga/quadrigae 99, 101
Quercia, Jacopo della 67
R Sforza, Ippolita 194
Raphael 108, 236, 237, 239, 240–3, 244,
246, 248
Portrait of Baldessare Castiglione 242, 243
St. Michael 232, 233
René d’Anjou 82, 102
Rimini 7, 13, 17, 45, 109, 122, 130, 236
Castel Sismondo 108, 109, 116
Tempio Malatestiano 9, 45, 46, 47, 108
Robbia, Luca della 114
Robert of Anjou 83
Roberti, Ercole de’ 76, 150, 155–7, 159–62
Israelites Gathering Manna 156Ð7
Wife of Hasdrubal 154, 155
Romano, Giancristoforo 68, 76, 191, 198, 217–8
portrait medal of Isabella d’Este 188, 190
Tomb of Giangaleazzo Visconti 217
Romano, Giulio see Giulio Romano
Romano, Paolo 99
Rome 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 21, 26–8, 31, 33, 34, 40,
45, 48, 62, 83, 85, 94, 96–7, 99–101, 103,
143, 144, 149, 165, 169, 182, 188, 202, 205,
211, 225, 231, 234–40, 241, 243, 247
Castel Sant’Angelo 235
Nero’s Golden House 235, 236
Pantheon 44, 45, 111, 170, 237
St. Peter’s 222, 237, 242
Bronze doors 63, 64, 65, 66Ð7, 103, 237
Sistine Chapel 75, 238Ð9, 242
Rosselli, Domenico 116
Rosselli, Francesco: Tavola Strozzi 52Ð3, 102
Rossetti, Biagio 161–3
Palazzo de Diamanti 162, 163
Rovere, Duke Francesco Maria della 132
Rovere, della family 26, 130, 205, 236, 239
Rubinetto (workshop): Lamentation 69
Russi, Franco dei: Borsa d’Este’s Bible 148, 149
Rustici, Giovanni Francesco 209
S Summonte, Pietro 90
Sabadino degli Arienti, Giovanni 160
Sagrera, Guillem: Castel Nuovo, Naples 34,
87, 99, 100
Sala dei Giganti (Giulio Romano) 244, 245
Sanseverino, Galeazzo 197, 212, 216, 220–1,
229
Santi, Giovanni 75–6, 108, 110, 123, 128–9,
241
Savonarola, Girolamo 236
Seneca 94, 198
Serragli, Bartolomeo 104
Sforza, the 13, 17, 26, 34, 66, 178, 197,
200–31
Sforza, Alessandro 111, 114, 122
Sforza, Anna Maria 155
Sforza, Battista 23, 24Ð5, 122, 124, 125, 126,
129, 186
Sforza, Bianca: portrait (Leonardo) 220, 221
Sforza, Bianca Maria: portrait (Ambrogio
de Predis) 16
Sforza, Caterina 54
Sforza, Francesco I 32, 34, 108, 121–2, 178,
209–11, 213, 219, 220
Sforza, Francesco II 225, 228, 229
Sforza, Galeazzo Maria 19, 28, 29, 38, 48,
210, 226–7
Sforza, Giangaleazzo Maria 71, 200, 201,
210–11, 215–6, 220, 227, 231
Sforza, Ludovico (‘Il Moro’) 16, 34, 75, 76,
79, 155, 200, 201–20, 221, 222–8, 229,
230–1, 233–4, 236
Sforza, Maria 210
Sforza, Massimiliano 220, 225, 226, 228, 229
Sicily 13, 81, 84, 85, 88, 94
Siena 11, 26, 67, 167, 235, 236
Sigismund, Emperor 108, 139, 181
signorie 7, 11, 13, 18, 21
Simonetta, Giovanni 201, 227
sinopia 40, 167
Sixtus IV, Pope 26, 30, 31, 33, 69–70, 75,
119–20, 129, 130, 131, 209
Solari, Cristoforo 231
funerary statues of Ludovico il Moro and
Beatrice d’Este 221
Solari, Giovanni 209
Solari, Guiniforte 209, 217
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan 217, 222
Spagnoli, Battista 37
St. Ambrose, Archbishop 202, 228, 229
St. Anthony Abbot and Archangel Michael
(Lippi) 38, 39
St. George and the Princess (Tura) 146, 147
St. Jerome in his Study (Colantonio) 92, 93
St. Michael (Raphael) 232, 233
St. Sigismund Venerated by Sigismondo
Malatesta (Piero) 108, 109, 124
Stefano da Verona 142
Stella dei Tolomei 144
stranieri 19, 206, 226
Story of Alexander the Great (Tournai) 137
Strozzi Altarpiece (Gentile) 34, 35
Strozzi, Filippo 52
Strozzi, Palla 34
Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano 137
studiolo 17, 47, 51, 53–4, 56, 111, 118Ð9, 120,
131, 132, 140, 143, 146, 156, 194–8
T Vision of St. Eustace (Pisanello) 141, 143
Tavola Strozzi (Rosselli) 52Ð3, 102
Tintoretto 246
Titian 59, 74, 188, 243, 246–9
Bacchus and Ariadne 241
Feast of the Gods (Bellini) 36, 37, 241
Federico II Gonzaga 247–8, 249
Tomb of King Ladislas 82, 83, 84, 91
Tournai workshop: tapestry 137
Trajan 14, 94, 95, 103, 139, 183
Traversari, Ambrogio 139
Trivulzio 236
Très Riches Heures (Limbourg brothers) 49
Trissino, Giangiorgio 188
Triumph of Death 86, 87, 88
Triumphs of Caesar (Mantegna) 180, 181,
182, 187
Trullo 51
Tura, Cosmè 8, 56, 59, 61, 69, 74, 76, 140,
144, 146–7, 155, 188
Lamentation (Rubinetto workshop) 69, 155
A Muse (Calliope?) 134, 135, 146
St. George and the Princess 146, 147
U
Ubaldini della Carda 120
Ubaldini, Ottaviano 110, 129
Uccello, Paolo: Miracle of the Profaned Host
129, 130Ð1
‘Uffizi Triptych’ (Mantegna) 173, 174
Urbino 13, 21, 28, 34, 53, 62, 90, 106–33,
173, 206, 219, 225, 233, 241, 247
Palazzo Ducale 19, 115, 116, 117, 120
Cappella del Perdono 110, 111, 173
Federico da Montefeltro’s studiolo 110,
118Ð9, 120, 131, 132
V
Valla, Lorenzo 81–2, 86, 93
Valturio, Roberto 17, 46, 122
van der Weyden see Weyden
van Eyck see Eyck
Vasari, Giorgio 7, 62, 65, 68, 72, 75, 84, 105,
126, 143, 159, 179, 215, 225, 239, 241, 243,
244, 246–7
Venice 7, 11, 26, 28, 37, 40, 69, 132, 143, 144,
149, 153, 155, 158, 162, 166, 168, 191, 194,
206, 209, 212, 213, 219, 231, 235–6, 247
Verrocchio, Andrea del 209
Vespasiano da Bisticci 102, 107–10, 113, 125
Vettori, Francesco 18
Virgil 37, 136, 169, 190
Virgin Adoring the Child (Perugino) 230, 231
Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (van Eyck) 90, 91
Virgin of the Rocks (Leonardo) 206, 208
virtù 60, 61, 62, 78, 174, 181, 210, 234
Visconti, the 13, 17, 26, 31-2, 202, 206,
216–8, 220, 221, 226
Visconti, Azzone, Lord of Milan 32–3
Visconti, Bianca Maria 32
Visconti, Filippo Maria 31–2, 88, 93, 96,
168, 210, 219
Visconti, Gabriele Maria 219
Visconti, Galeazzo II 22, 202, 218
Visconti, Gaspare 205, 215, 228
Visconti, Giangaleazzo 10, 11, 13, 202,
217–18, 219, 231
tomb (Certosa, Pavia) 217
Visconti, Giovanni Maria 219
Viti, Timoteo 110, 241
Vitruvius 41, 44, 45, 115, 132
Vittorino da Feltre 21, 108, 120, 139, 172
W
Weyden, Rogier van der 16, 69, 74, 75, 90,
143–4, 146, 155
Crucifixion 142
Portrait of Francesco d’Este 143, 144
Wife of Hasdrubal (Roberti) 154, 155
Z
Zavattari brothers 88
Legend of Theolinda 17
Zenale, Bernardo 216, 226, 228