Leonardo diser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo~Isabella d'Este~ Cartone per il Ritratto di Isabella d'Este1

Leonardo diser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo~Isabella d'Este~ Cartone per il Ritratto di Isabella d'Este1500Black andred chalk, yellow pastel chalk on paperThe LouvreMuseum. Isabella d'Este (19 May 1474 – 13 February 1539) Marquise ofMantua. She wasborn to the Duke of Ferrara and his wife Eleanor of Naples in 1474, the oldestand favorite of their children. Her mother ensured that she received anexcellent education, even by male standards of the day, which emphasized theclassics, including Greek and Latin. However, she seems to have struggled morein learning to read Latin, and in adult life received additional lessons tohelp her reading skills. She was particularly fond of music, singing anddancing, and learned to play several instruments including the lute andharpsichord. Her taste in music was predominantly secular. Isabellastarted to collect objets d’art soonafter she moved to her palace in Mantua. With regard to paintings, she wasforemost a collector who relied on the advice of others in the court, ratherthan a connoisseur in her own right. Surprisingly, her purchases had to be madefrom her own wealth, which was quite limited, and in times of hardship sheresorted to pawning jewelry to raise funds. Her patronage concentrated mainlyon music and sculpture. She was unusual for promoting women as singers, andplacing them in choirs. Her literary sponsorship was limited: she seems to haveenjoyed swashbuckling stories of the adventures of knights, such as those inLudovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, and was a faithful supporter of his work.Hersponsorship and taste in paintings is largely reflected in the works which shecommissioned for her private study, her famous studiolo, which thankfully havebeen well preserved as they passed to the French Kings, and most are now in theLouvre as a result. Combined with records in her copious correspondence and acrucial inventory, it has been possible to reconstruct this studiolo in detail.Her period of collecting covered the appointments of two court painters inMantua: Andrea Mantegna until his death in 1506, thereafter Lorenzo Costa.Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) Parnassus (Mars and Venus) (1496-97), oil oncanvas, 159 x 192 cm, The LouvreMuseum, Paris. Thispainting refers to the classical myth of the affair between Mars and Venus, the latter beingmarried to Vulcan, who caught themin bed together and cast a fine net around them for the other gods to come andmock their adultery. The lovers are shown standing together on a flat-toppedrock arch, as the Muses dance below.To the left of Mars’ feet is Venus’ childCupid who is aiming his blowpipe at Vulcan’s genitals, as he works at hisforge in the cave at the left. At the right is Mercury, messenger of the gods, with his caduceus and Pegasus the winged horse. At the farleft is Apollo making music for theMuses on his lyre.It’s anunusual theme for a woman of the time to have chosen, although it has largelybeen interpreted with reference to a contemporary poem which seems lessconcerned with the underlying story of adultery exposed. AndreaMantegna (1431~1506), Triumph of the Virtues (Pallas Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue)1499~1502, tempera andoil on canvas, The Louvre Museum, Paris. PietroPerugino (1448–1523), Combatof Love and Chastity (1503), tempera oncanvas, The Louvre Museum, Paris. Its themeis literary, as laid down in the contract by Isabella’s court poet, and shows afight between the personifications of Love and Chastity, which may have workedwell in words but doesn’t translate into visual art at all well.It featuresa gamut of mythological figures in no particular order, including Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter and Europa, Polyphemus and Galatea,and Pluto and Proserpina – all couples in which the man abducted and/or raped thewoman. In front are Pallas Atheneabout to kill Eros with a lance, anda more evenly matched fight between Dianawith her bow and Venus, who issingeing the huntress with a burning brand. Isabella laid out strictinstructions, for example requiring that Venus, who is traditionally shownnaked, was clothed. Even the owl perched in the branches of the sacred olivetree at the left was prescribed in the commission. When Perugino didn’t followthese, she protested, and on completion she wrote that it should have beenbetter finished to set alongside her Mantegna, and was clearly unimpressed. Forthis the artist was paid just 100 ducats. LorenzoCosta (1460–1535), The Gardenof the Peaceful Arts (The Crowning of aFemale Poet) (1504-06), oil on canvas The Louvre Museum, Paris.Mantegnahad originally been commissioned to paint this, but died before he could makemuch progress on it. Costa started from scratch, and under Isabella’s directionaccording to her poet’s literary theme produced this strange painting which isoften known as an allegory of Isabella’scoronation, or construed as an account of Sappho’scareer.LorenzoCosta (1460–1535) and Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), TheReign of Comus (1506-11), tempera oncanvas, The Louvre Museum, Paris.Anothercommission which Mantegna had started to work on just before he died wascompleted by Costa in 1511, The Reign of Comus, which again uses tempera for acomplex composition. Comus, ruler of aland of bacchanalia, sits talking to a near-naked Venus in the left foreground. Just to the right of the centreforeground, Nicaea is lyingunconscious through alcohol, against Dionysus(Bacchus), who got her into a stupor so that he could rape her.Under thearch is the unmistakable two-faced Januswith Hermes, apparently repellingpotential newcomers to the bacchanal. In the centre is a small group ofmusicians, and various naked figures are cavorting in the waters behind. References ~AlisonCole (2016) Italian Renaissance Court ~ Art, Pleasure and Power, Laurence King.~ChristineShaw (2019) ~Isabella d’Este, A Renaissance Princess, Routledge. -- source link

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