Portrait of Isabella d'Este by Titian, c. 1534,
now in Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Isabella d'Este was the most extraordinary woman of the Italian Renaissance. Born into one of the greatest families of the 15th century, the Estensi of Ferrara, she married another great family, the Gonzaga of Mantova. Her sister Beatrice married Duke Ludovico of the Sforzas of Milan and her brother Alfonso married Lucrezia Borgia. During her sixty-five years, she knew everybody: Titian, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelanggelo, all the Medici, all the popes, and most of the kings and queens of Europe. Her diplomatic genius gave her much more power than was normally the lot of an Italian duchess. And she turned Mantova into one of the greatest centers of art and culture of her day.
