Isabella d'Este was Marchioness of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by numerous women. The poet Ariosto labeled her as the "liberal and magnanimous Isabella", while author Matteo Bandello described her as having been "supreme among women". Diplomat Niccolò da Correggio went even further by hailing her as "The First Lady of the world".
Pisanello, born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. He was acclaimed by poets such as Guarino da Verona and praised by humanists of his time, who compared him to such illustrious names as Cimabue, Phidias and Praxiteles.
La Belle Ferronnière is a portrait of a lady, usually attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, in the Louvre. It is also known as Portrait of an Unknown Woman. The painting's title, applied as early as the seventeenth century, identifying the sitter as the wife or daughter of an ironmonger, was said to be discreetly alluding to a reputed mistress of Francis I of France, married to a certain Le Ferron. Later she was identified as Lucretia Crivelli, a married lady-in-waiting to Duchess Beatrice of Milan, who became another of the Duke's mistresses.
Cosmê Tura, also known as Il Cosmè or Cosimo Tura, was an Italian early-Renaissance painter and considered one of the founders of the School of Ferrara.
Alfonso II d'Este was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este.
Leonello d'Este was Marquess of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio Emilia from 1441 to 1450. Despite the presence of legitimate children, Leonello was favoured by his father as his successor. In addition, his virtuous qualities, high level of education, and popularity among the common people as well as his formal papal recognition ultimately made him the most suitable heir.
Margherita Barbara Gonzaga, was an Italian noblewoman, Duchess consort of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio between 1579 and 1597 by marriage to Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. She was a significant cultural patron in Ferrara and Modena.
Margherita Gonzaga may refer to:
Niccolò III d'Este was Marquess of Ferrara from 1393 until his death. He was also a condottiero.
The Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta is a painting attributed to the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca. It portrays the condottiero and lord of Rimini and Fano Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, and is housed in the Musée du Louvre of Paris.
Portrait of Francesco d'Este is a small oil on wood panel painting by the Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden dating to around 1460. The work is in good condition and has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York since 1931. When attributed as a van der Weyden in the early 20th century, there was much speculation amongst art historians as to the sitter's identity. He was identified as a member of the d'Este family from the crest on the reverse, and long thought to be Francesco's father Lionello, an Italian and highly placed Burgundian prince and patron of Rogier. In 1939 Ernst Kantorowicz identified the man as Lionello's illegitimate son Francesco, which is now generally accepted. The panel was painted when the sitter was about 30 years old and is considered one of van der Weyden's finest portraits, in many ways a culmination of his later, more austere work.
Man with a Glove is an oil-on-canvas portrait by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, painted c. 1520. It is part of the collections of the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The Portrait of Sigismund of Luxembourg is a tempera on panel painting attributed to the Italian Late-Gothic master Pisanello and probably executed between 1432 and 1433. It is on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.
Woman with a Mirror is a painting by Titian, dated to c. 1515 and now in the Musée du Louvre.
The medal of John VIII Palaeologus is a portrait medal by the Italian Renaissance artist Pisanello. It is generally considered to be the first portrait medal of the Renaissance. On the obverse of the medal is a profile portrait of the penultimate Byzantine emperor, John VIII Palaeologus; the reverse contains an image of the emperor on horseback before a wayside cross. Although the date of the work is not clear it was likely to have been some time during 1438 and 1439, the years John was in Italy attending the Council of Ferrara. It is not known whether the emperor himself or his Italian hosts commissioned Pisanello to make the medal, but Leonello d’Este, the heir apparent to the marquisate of Ferrara, has been suggested as the most likely candidate. Several drawings by Pisanello are closely associated with the medal and these include sketches now held in Paris and Chicago.
Livia (Paola) Gonzaga was a Mantuan noblewoman.
Margherita Malatesta of the House of Malatesta was the wife of Francesco I Gonzaga of the powerful House of Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua in Northern Italy, whom she married in 1393. They were already related through the marriage of his sister, Elisabetta, to her brother, Carlo. Francesco's first wife Agnese Visconti had been executed for infidelity in 1391. Margherita and Francesco I were the parents of Gianfrancesco I the first Marquis of Mantua. Gianfrancesco married Paola Malatesta, daughter of Malatesta IV, in 1409.
Portrait of Lionello d'Este is a c.1441 tempera on panel painting by Pisanello, now in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. The work was recorded in the Costabili collection in Ferrara in 1841.
Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga is a Renaissance portrait of a young boy by Francesco Francia in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painter as author, the year 1510 and Federico II Gonzaga are considered to be sure, since conforming information is documented by numerous letters.
