Rewriting Lucrezia Borgia: Propriety, Magnificence and Piety in Portraits of a Renaissance Duchess

Part IIBecoming Visible

Through Portraiture

KATHERINE A. McIVER.indb 75 9/21/2011 11:55:51 AM


Chapter 4

Rewriting Lucrezia Borgia: Propriety, Magnificence, and Piety in Portraits

of a Renaissance DuchessAllyson Burgess Williams

In February 1502, Lucrezia Borgia’s wedding cavalcade arrived in Ferrara. As the twice-married, illegitimate daughter of the licentious Pope Alexander VI, and sister of the vicious Cesare Borgia, she was under intense scrutiny. Lucrezia managed to distance herself from these powerful but suspect relatives to become the revered duchess of Ferrara, ruling alongside her husband, Alfonso I d’Este, from 1505 until her death in 1519 at the age of 39. She proved to be an excellent wife and a good mother to their five children. Lucrezia not only possessed the necessary social graces to charm both Ferrarese citizens and foreign dignitaries, she was devout, extremely intelligent, and had a natural talent for administration. This last quality was essential, since condottiere princes like Alfonso were often away for long periods.

In the centuries following her death, history obliterated the real Lucrezia and replaced her with the vicious poisoner of Victor Hugo’s play and Donizetti’s opera. The actual duchess became invisible and her identity was elided with those of her father and brother, and refabricated to serve a romantic need for a female villain. Two sympathetic biographers, Ferdinand Gregorovius and Maria Bellonci, used documentary sources to sort out the truth, and the Ferrarese 2002 “Anno di Lucrezia Borgia” with its accompanying exhibition and catalogues did much to shed light on the real woman.1 More recently, Gabriella Zarri has investigated her spiritual life and Dianne Ghirardo her building commissions and land reclamation projects.2

A more nuanced understanding of Lucrezia Borgia’s historical circumstances can also be gained by examining portraits of the duchess. Unlikely images such as Bartolomeo Veneto’s semi-nude Vienna Flora are still, unfortunately, identified as Lucrezia, but such representations would have been inappropriate for the spouse of an Este ruler. Reputation was everything to a noblewoman, and portraits were an important means by which they could manifest and present an appropriate identity, especially since they rarely traveled outside their own territories once their childbearing duties began and were seldom seen outside their immediate courtly circles. As consorts to male rulers, Italian noblewomen were integral to the


Wives, Widows, Mistresses, and Nuns in Early Modern Italy78

functioning of the state, but were physically all but invisible, and their reputations depended upon the words of their peers.

In the first decade of her reign, it appears that Lucrezia Borgia’s pre-Ferrarese Borgia past was downplayed and a series of images presenting her as a virtuous, pious, and magnificent duchess were commissioned. By analyzing solidly identifiable portraits such as a medal, securely provenanced copies of a lost portrait by Bartolomeo Veneto, and a reliquary panel, Lucrezia Borgia can be further resituated into the courtly culture in which she lived.3

In analyzing the works of material culture dealing with courtly women, one must address the question of patronage. In Lucrezia Borgia’s case, who was responsible for creating her visual persona, her husband, or herself? This is a difficult question to answer in light of the scanty documentary evidence. However, as recent research has shown, noblewomen at the Northern Italian courts were expected to commission works of art and architecture. While Lucrezia’s sister-in-law Isabella d’Este was by far the most prolific female patron in constructing and decorating her living quarters, commissioning paintings and sculptures (including many portraits of herself), and collecting antiquities, she was not alone in these endeavors.4 Eleonora of Aragon, Isabella’s mother and Lucrezia Borgia’s predecessor, caused major renovations to the Castello of Ferrara in order to build and decorate suites of rooms to her taste, as well as commissioning sacred paintings for her own use.5 Katherine McIver’s work on Laura Pallavicina-Sanvitale, Giacoma Pallavicina, and Camilla Pallavicina has revealed the varied secular and sacred commissions of art and architecture of these Emilian noblewomen.6 Caterina Sforza’s innovative use of coins and medals and her architectural patronage would have been familiar to Lucrezia, whose first husband Giovanni Sforza was a distant relation, as were the Este, by marriage.7

As well as initiating and building a convent, Lucrezia had two sets of quarters renovated and decorated in the Castello and Palazzo di Corte of Ferrara, employing a team of six artists for one of the more ornately frescoed rooms. There are also documents showing that she commissioned devotional paintings by Bartolomeo Veneto and Fra Bartolomeo, and was in control of at least one portrait medal. Lucrezia Borgia also put a great deal of thought into her dress and self-presentation as one of the most elegant women in Northern Italy. It is, therefore, likely that she either commissioned or was consulted about images of herself, as there was a great deal at stake in fashioning a regal and unassailably virtuous persona for this duchess.

Lucrezia Borgia

When Lucrezia Borgia’s bridal train entered Ferrara on that cold winter morning in 1502, she created a sensation. Chroniclers and ambassadors carefully described


Lucrezia Borgia: Portraits of a Renaissance Duchess 79

her gold wedding dress decorated with brown satin stripes, and noted how her blond hair was loosely encased in a stupendous diamond- and pearl-encrusted hairnet. Her sumptuous clothes, jewels and the bounteous coffers of luxury goods attested to the riches and political favor that the pope, her father, had bestowed upon her new family. Duke Ercole d’ Este had initially been reluctant to accept the offer of the pope’s illegitimate daughter as bride for the heir to the duchy. Lucrezia was 22 years old, had already had two husbands and a young son, and her reputation was clouded by salacious rumors.

As was usual in this period, Pope Alexander VI and his son Cesare Borgia arranged all three of Lucrezia’s marriages for their own political advantage. She was first wed to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. When an alliance with the Sforza was no longer useful, their union was annulled on the excuse of his impotence. The family of the shamed (and perfectly virile) groom circulated rumors that Lucrezia had incestuous relations with her father and brother. It was also alleged that she bore an illegitimate child from a liaison with Pedro Calderon, a young courtier who was later found floating dead in the Tiber. The pope claimed this child as his own.8 Lucrezia’s beloved second husband, Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie, was murdered by her own brother Cesare when an alliance with Naples also became a liability. The heartbroken Lucrezia went to live in Nepi with her infant son, Rodrigo. Both families of her previous consorts had ties to the Este, but this aside, the pious Duke Ercole might also have disapproved of the far too worldly entertainments enjoyed by the pope and his court. However, a dowry of 100,000 ducats, some territory, and the promise of a vast reduction in papal taxes proved irresistible to the cash-starved Ercole. In addition, Ferrara and its environs would be safe from Cesare Borgia, who was rapidly seizing territories in the Romagna and the Marche.

Lucrezia appears to have loved her father and brother, and it must have been heartbreaking to send her young son Rodrigo to his father’s Aragonese relatives in Naples, but she would doubtless have appreciated the opportunity to begin a new life as part of the prestigious Este family. Unfortunately, in 1503, within 18 months of her wedding, Alexander VI died, and Lucrezia ceased to be a political asset to the Ferrarese. King Louis XII of France even suggested that the marriage be ended.9 The Este did not do this, as it would have been extremely embarrassing for them, and they would have had to return her enormous dowry. Even so, Lucrezia might well have feared for her future.

Alfonso d’Este and Lucrezia became duke and duchess of Ferrara in 1505 after the death of Ercole, but Lucrezia’s position at court could still have been tenuous, as she did not produce the requisite male heir until 1508. As the illegitimate daughter of a pope from the minor Spanish aristocracy, a man now reviled and denounced by his successor Julius II, she may have felt that her background and history did not match that of most noblewomen of her rank. Contemporaries such as her sister-in-law, Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, and Elisabetta Gonzaga,



Duchess of Urbino had led much more sheltered lives, and did not welcome the new bride into their circle. Jealousy might have also been a factor. Lucrezia’s dowry contained 200 costly gowns and fabulous jewels, and her female peers might have felt unable to compete with her. Since magnificence was closely tied to status, in a world in which lack of funds could be quickly misread as political instability, this was no small consideration.

Lucrezia, however, naturally possessed many of the qualities that noblewomen needed to survive at court: intelligence, charm, skill at singing and dancing, and a pious nature. Este women were especially known for their perspicacity; the previous duchess Eleonora’s intellectual gifts had been praised in writing by the humanist Bartolomeo Goggio, and Isabella also liked to be thought of in the same vein. The marchesa quickly learned that her new sister-in-law Lucrezia was also intelligent. In a letter dated 19 January 1502 from Urbino, just weeks before the wedding, Isabella’s confidante Il Prete wrote the following of Lucrezia, whom he met as she traveled from Rome to Ferrara: “Each day I get on better with her and know that she is a woman of great intelligence, astute, and [when with her] one needs to have one’s wits about one. In sum, she is a wise lady, and it is not only my opinion, but that of the entire company.”10Coming from the very sophisticated court of Urbino, this was praise indeed.

Those attending her wedding noted how gracious and charming Lucrezia was, and this reputation only grew. She also proved herself invaluable as an administrator in Alfonso’s frequent absences. When Gaston de Foix’s French troops visited Ferrara in 1512, Jacques de Mailles, biographer of Pierre Trevail, Lord of Bayard, was present. He described the duchess in glowing terms, as a pearl in the world, who was of great service to her husband. He stated: “I would dare to say that in her time and for long after, one would not find a more triumphant princess, because she is beautiful, good, sweet, and courteous to all.”11 Lucrezia was also very popular with the Ferrarese people as a source of alms and as one to whom they could apply for assistance in legal matters. Pietro Bembo, the aristocratic Venetian scholar and poet, whom she befriended in 1503 during his stay in Ferrara, described Lucrezia as both virtuous and intellectual in the introduction to Gli Asolani, which he dedicated to her:

… as one who, longing rather to dress out her soul with comely virtues than to cover her body with precious clothes, devotes whatever time she can to reading or writing something; so, much as your beauty surpasses that of other ladies, the attractions of your mind may eclipse those of your body, and you may become, as it were greater than yourself …12

While Bembo’s Petrarchan flattery is somewhat formulaic, it seems to have stemmed from deep admiration. Since he was much respected in the courtly world and beyond, it spoke volumes.



The Amor Bendato Medal

Despite such praise, early in her reign Lucrezia Borgia may have felt it especially important to formulate a visual construction that secured her reputation as a virtuous woman. Due to the relative invisibility of noblewomen, portrait medals were an important means of presenting both likeness and appropriate inner attributes to one’s peers.13

In 1503, Lucrezia wrote to Pietro Bembo for advice about the obverse of a medal that she was planning to have struck.14 The resulting work might have been the medal dated to approximately 1505 by an unknown Mantuan artist (Fig. 4.1).15 It repeats a portrait that originally appeared on a medal produced to commemorate her marriage, an ingenious repurposing since it was recognizable and already had a marital (and therefore virtuous) context. Although it is difficult to know how much input Lucrezia had in the development of the original version, it is important to analyze her profile image in order to understand how it functioned in terms of its new obverse. The medal reveals a woman with a rounded face, a straight but rather prominent nose, and a slightly receding chin. The fullness under the chin and the small mouth were considered signs of beauty in the Renaissance, as was a straight, rather than an upturned nose.16 The head, with its long thick hair is uncovered, as was customary for unmarried women or new brides. A pendant hangs from her neck on a double cord, and her dress is fastened on the left shoulder with a brochetta di spalla, a type of brooch that often adorned brides.17

Distinguishing Lucrezia from a typical Renaissance bride is the ancient Roman style drape of fabric across her chest and shoulders. This is unusual, as most female portrait medals in this period display contemporary dress, as in the 1473 marriage medal of Ercole d’Este and Eleonora of Aragon, Alfonso’s parents.18

4.1 Mantuan School, Medal of Lucrezia Borgia and “Amor Bendato,” c. 1505, Museo Schifanoia, Ferrara



One rare example of Roman dress appears on a medal of Caterina Sforza dated 1480–84, struck while her husband was still alive.19 Such images emulate those seen on Roman coins of the Imperial era. For Renaissance women, the most revered ancient Roman female was Empress Faustina the Elder, wife of Antoninus Pius, a fact ascertained by the number of times her coins were reproduced in the fifteenth century. Renaissance collectors believed her to have been devoted to her family, and medals of her together with her husband bear the legend “concord.” Faustina’s image began to symbolize wifely and maternal virtues.20 In slightly later coins, images of her daughter Faustina the Younger were accompanied by similar “concord” inscriptions, but also identify her with fecundity, piety, and modesty.21 Lucrezia’s depiction in an all’antica dress may reveal an attempt to liken her to these much-admired Roman empresses, who were associated with piety, good moral values, dignity, and devotion to family. Faustina the Elder was known for her charitable works in Rome, and Faustina the Younger would have been a particularly good exemplar for Lucrezia (the wife of a condottiere-prince) as she was known to have accompanied her husband, Marcus Aurelius, on his military campaigns.22

Another Roman woman suggested by the all’antica dress might be Livy’s Lucretia, whose sense of chastity was such that she committed suicide after being raped and threatened with blackmail by one of her husband’s detractors. Ercole de’ Roberti had depicted her in his series of exemplary women painted for Eleonora of Aragon in the 1480s.23 The connection between the ancient Roman Lucretia and Lucrezia Borgia was noted by others. On her bridal journey from Rome to Ferrara, Lucrezia passed through Foligno, and Ercole d’Este’s envoys recorded that near the city gates the entourage had been greeted by “a figure representing the Roman Lucretia with a dagger in her hand. She recited some verses, saying that she would give way to Her Ladyship, who surpassed her in modesty, prudence and constancy.”24 Lucrezia’s image suggests that, like Faustina mère et fille and ancient Lucretia, she too is the loyal wife of a great man.

Why was it advantageous for Lucrezia Borgia to be thought of as a bride long after her actual wedding to Alfonso? Or, why might Lucrezia Borgia’s self-image have become bound to bridal motifs? The events of Lucrezia’s wedding to Alfonso could have had something to do with forming her Ferrarese identity. As Joan Laird has said, “rites of passage are important facilitators in the definition of self in relation to society.”25 This would certainly have been true of a Renaissance woman’s wedding, which was probably the most important ritual event of her life. Not only did the woman pass from her father’s house into the house of her husband, now becoming his possession, but she assumed a new role, that of spouse. This new identity traditionally marked the beginning of the childbearing phase of her life, and introduced her to the responsibilities of caring for a household.26 Lucrezia could not claim to be a virgin: she had been twice married, had already born a child, and her reputation had been questioned. It would have



been beneficial to fuse the identity of bride with that of wife, since brides always carried the suggestion of virginity and new beginnings in a woman’s life. Indeed, poets honoring Lucrezia and Alfonso at their wedding wisely chose to honor this convention and diplomatically ignored her past. Their epithalamia focused on the bride’s magnificence and beauty in concert with appropriate female qualities. An unpublished series of Latin poems and epigrams called Borgias by Nicolò Maria Panciati, described Lucrezia as being more beautiful than Helen because of her incomparable modesty.27 Pellegrino Prisciani also likened her to Helen, but said Lucrezia was more virtuous, and “the most splendid model of modesty, chastity, refinement, affability, temperance, religiosity, and clemency.”28 Ariosto, in his wedding oration, completely ignored facts and described her as “pulcherissima virgo,” or most beautiful virgin.29 The body of the Renaissance bride seems to be automatically inscribed, or re-inscribed in this case, with virginity.

Lucrezia’s perpetuation of bridal identity might also have been inspired by the large frescoes of the wedding procession and banquet of her predecessor, the beloved Duchess Eleonora of Aragon, who had died in 1493. They were located in the Este palace of Belfiore, where the family frequently stayed, and reflected the wish, fortunately fulfilled, that unlike Ercole’s predecessor Borso d’Este, legitimate heirs would result from their union.30 Given the importance of brides and bridal imagery to the Este family, it is not surprising then to find that Lucrezia chose to re-use the portrait from her marriage medal.

The medal’s reverse bears a motto and motifs, which emphasized Lucrezia’s marital fidelity and chastity, instead of being paired with an image of the groom. The motto “virtuti ac formae pudicitia praecosissimum” (in virtue and beauty, modesty most precious), accompanies an image of blindfolded Cupid (amor bendato) bound to a tree, probably a laurel, on which are suspended a broken quiver, an inscribed tablet, a violin, sheet music, and a bow with a broken string. As Panofsky and Lawe have demonstrated, a bound Cupid, with the implements used to inflame passion broken around him, was a common image of chastity.31 This imagery originated with Petrarch’s Trionfi, and became popular in contemporary emblem books such as that by Alciati. The laurel is another symbol of chastity originating in the myth of Apollo and Daphne, in which Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree, rather than lose her virtue to Apollo. The medal seems to represent chastity as a victory over venal love. Two other contemporary women from courtly circles (Jacoba Correggio and Maddelena Rossi) also placed bound, blindfolded Cupid imagery on their medals.32 Even Lucrezia’s sister-in-law, Isabella d’Este, found the image of blind Cupid meaningful; it featured prominently in one of her studiolo paintings, Perugino’s Battle between Chastity and Love, commissioned in 1503.33 Lucrezia and her sister-in-law were not close, but there was constant personal and cultural interchange between the courts of Mantua and Ferrara. Lucrezia could have easily discovered the details of Isabella’s studiolo paintings from Isabella’s husband (with whom she was on very good terms), her own husband, or from



humanists such as Mario Equicola, whose treatise on love, the Libro di Natura di Amore, was written in 1497.34 Lucrezia’s medal reverse might be seen as a resonant synecdoche for Isabella’s narrative painting.

Even though symbols of female chastity such as the blindfolded and bound Cupid were extremely popular at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Lucrezia’s background might have provided a sound reason for adopting this imagery. She had considered other motifs. In 1503, when Lucrezia asked Pietro Bembo’s advice about emblems and mottos for a medal on which she was planning to have a flame device, he suggested the motto “Est Animum,” in order to link the flame to the human spirit, and possibly spiritual love.35 Perhaps Bembo’s concept was rejected, and the image of the bound Cupid, potentially a more effective statement of her moral code, was substituted. It is clear that this theme was selected for its suitability to her gender and also for its cultural legibility. Even as late as 1509, Lucrezia took no chances with her reputation and, much to the amusement of Isabella d’Este, asked the courtier Pietro Giorgio da Lampugnano to sleep in her antechamber in order to prove to her husband that she was chaste.36

Lucrezia (perhaps in concert with Alfonso, or perhaps alone) clearly felt the need to make a public statement about marital virtue, and did so by commissioning this medal. In pairing a marital portrait likening her to the virtuous and loyal Empresses Faustina and the female hero Lucretia who preferred death to dishonor, with the bound Cupid of chastity, the Duchess provided a multivalent representation of feminine goodness, purity, and aristocratic power which she knew would circulate to good effect.

After the birth of Ercole II d’Este in 1508, followed by that of Ippolito in 1509, Lucrezia’s position as duchess of Ferrara was firm. Later portraits of Lucrezia display not only female virtue and piety, but also magnificence, suggested by beautiful clothes and jewels. The means and ability to wear sumptuous garments and priceless gems were an essential part of the female ruler persona. They separated her not only from her own subjects, but from the wealthy patrician women of city-states such as Florence and Venice, whose personal display was limited by sumptuary laws. Sartorial splendor signified more than just wealth and high social standing, it was also morally coded, symbolizing munificence.

The Portrait of Lucrezia Borgia by Bartolomeo Veneto

The only painted portrait which can be securely related to Lucrezia Borgia is a richly colored bust-length panel, one of two copies of a lost original (Fig. 4.2). The artist has been identified as Bartolomeo Veneto. Lucrezia is the likely patron of this work, as the painter appeared on her payroll (and not her husband’s) between 1505 and 1508, and he remained in Ferrara until 1511. Even if it were not commissioned by Lucrezia, she would probably have chosen the clothes and jewels depicted.



The original must have been very beautiful; it was so prized by the Este family that it was copied and sent to the humanist collector Paolo Giovio when he requested her image for his portrait collection of famous people installed in a villa in Como. Giovio’s painting, which had an identifying inscription, can be traced from his descendants to the Rebuschini collection where it was photographed in color just prior to World War II, during which it vanished.37 An almost identical copy of the same work (square rather than oval) still exists in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes, France.38 Two other copies of the painting have also been recorded.39 Since the original painting must have been considered worthy of replication in the same way that many of Titian’s portraits were copied, the single extant copy bears close examination.

The Nîmes portrait was probably done between 1508 and 1510, perhaps to commemorate the birth of one her sons, Ercole II or Ippolito. Lucrezia is wearing a dark gown or camora with gold stripes of brocade. On the bodice are swags of gold embroidery from which are suspended small gold rings. Inventories of her guardaroba and descriptions of her trousseau show that she favored dark colors, such as black and dark brown (morello), with gold brocade stripes. The sleeves are full, slashed at the bottom to reveal the camicia, or underblouse. The white camicia, which is high enough not to reveal Lucrezia’s breasts, also has gold stripes, and a necklace made up of rectangular lozenge-shaped rubies and pearls suspended between two gold chains runs just above the neckline ruffle. There is an extraordinary display of wealth in the blouse alone, and the dress, of which we only catch a glimpse, must have been truly stunning. Her hair is captured in a snood-like hairnet, richly encrusted with pearls and precious stones, which crosses the forehead by means of a strand of gold thread from which pearls are also suspended. Lucrezia’s inventories show that she kept large numbers of loose pearls and other jewels ready to adorn clothes or hair ornaments as desired.40 The hairnet became one of Lucrezia’s fashion trademarks upon her wedding day; she entered the city wearing a spectacular loose version covered in pearls and diamonds, under which her hair flowed freely as was customary for brides.41 Here, in light of

4.2 Bartolomeo Veneto, Lucrezia Borgia, c. 1508–10, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nîmes



Lucrezia’s status as a matron, only two thick ringlets are allowed to escape from the hairnet to frame the sitter’s face. Given the high value attached to pearls in the Renaissance (their use in women’s clothing and jewelry was often proscribed in sumptuary legislation), the hairnet alone would have stunned the Renaissance viewer. Since pearls were so costly and likened to Christ by St. Augustine, they often appeared in paintings in the hair of the Virgin Mary. Lucrezia may have been using pearls to connect herself to Marian purity and regality, just as Queen Elizabeth I of England did later in the century.42

The use of the hairnet here must be considered as another reminder of Lucrezia’s bridal virtue and chastity. Together with the richly decorated camicia and camora, the significance of the portrait performance expands to suggest the great wealth and magnificentia of the duchess. Considering that the ducal coffers were often depleted by the expenses of famine or war, and Lucrezia’s jewels were often pawned for ready money in the first decade of the reign of the duke and duchess, this image would certainly suggest that the Este were financially secure.

Portraits had commemorative functions, and, as Alberti noted, were meant to make the absent present, but achieving perfect likeness was not always the primary goal of portrait artists, especially in the Italian tradition.43 The rather porous nature of identity that John Jeffries Martin has discussed in terms of the early modern self certainly comes into play in this image of Lucrezia.44 While some degree of reference to the sitter must have been necessary for recognition, a “speaking likeness” was not always completely desirable. It was essential for artists to portray the status and rank of the sitter and, for noblewomen especially, to suggest exemplary morals through facial beauty, dress, and sometimes props. This painting probably idealized Lucrezia’s features, giving her a generic sweetness. While the duchess was sometimes described as beautiful, most discuss her as an elegant young woman with clear eyes, a lovely smile and a graceful air, especially when dancing.45 Such generalized, flattering descriptions made by guests at her wedding are of little help in identifying portraits. The impression received is that she was not a stunning beauty, but a woman whose appearance was pleasant and who had all the qualities of carriage, movement, personality, and style essential to a nobleman’s wife.

The appearance of Lucrezia in this painting expands upon the ideals of beauty (straight nose and rounded face) discussed in terms of her portrait medals. Like many depictions of sixteenth-century Italian women, she has white skin, rosy cheeks, smallish curved lips, curly hair (unfortunately, no longer the ideal blond), smooth high forehead, arched eyebrows, large clear eyes, and soft shoulders. These characteristics are derived from the Petrarchan tradition of love lyrics, in which the female beloved was described in these ideal and set terms.46 These poetic conventions suffused not only the literature



but also the social fabric of Italian courtly society, especially in Ferrara. Mario Equicola’s work on the topic of love borrows heavily from this genre, as do Pietro Bembo’s Gli Asolani and Prose della lingua volgare, the most significant works in this tradition.47 The former work was dedicated to Lucrezia, and the latter was begun during Bembo’s stay in Ferrara. Love and feminine beauty were major themes in Boiardo’s late fifteenth-century epic Orlando Innamorato, as well as Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, first published in 1515, both of which were written in the courtly circles of Ferrara.

Idealizing a woman in either literary or visual terms was not mere superficial flattery; it implied that she was good. Beauty was inextricably linked to goodness in early modern gender ideology; a woman’s beauty was seen as having a direct relationship to her virtue. This explains why the Virgin Mary was always depicted as a beautiful, albeit modest woman according to the cultural standards of the day; she was the most virtuous and therefore the loveliest of all females.48 In the Nîmes portrait then, Lucrezia’s ideal beauty is one signifier of moral integrity, and the jeweled hairnet, recalling her bridal chastity, is another. Her gold-encrusted clothes would immediately have marked her as a noblewoman from courtly society, and, as shall be seen in the discussion of the following image, her magnificence would also be read as a virtue.

The Reliquary Casket of St. Maurelius by Giovanni Antonio da Foligno

The only extant full-length portrait of Lucrezia Borgia appears on the reliquary casket of one of the oldest patron saints of the city, the seventh-century Christian bishop-saint Maurelius (Figs 4.3 and 4.4). It is still kept in the former cathedral of Ferrara, the venerable Olivetan church and monastery of San Giorgio, just outside the city walls.49 The casket was decorated on three sides with engraved silver panels by Giovanni Antonio (Leli) da Foligno, court jeweler and minter, and it was probably commissioned by either Lucrezia or Alfonso d’Este, or jointly between 1513 and 1514 as a votive offering for safe deliverance from the tumultuous events of the previous year.50 Not only had Alfonso survived the bloody battle of Ravenna, but he was also absent from the city for many months while evading papal troops after an assassination attempt in Rome by Pope Julius II. The pope threatened to invade Ferrara, and put the city under interdict, forbidding public worship and disallowing the Christian sacraments. If this were not enough, Lucrezia’s 12-year-old son by the Duke of Bisceglie died in Naples.

Votive portraits on reliquaries are rare, which makes this example extraordinarily significant. Although it is impossible to determine who initiated the commission for this work, it should be noted that, unlike the increasingly


4.3 Giovanni Antonio da Foligno, Reliquary panels of San Maurelius, c. 1514, Church of San Giorgio fuori le mura, Ferrara



pious Lucrezia, Alfonso commissioned very few works of sacred art. Since her arrival in Ferrara, she had taken every opportunity to explore and develop her spirituality. As had her mother-in-law, Lucrezia patronized the Clarissan convent of the Corpus Domini throughout her life. Known as a center of female Franciscan learning, it had been the residence of the noted fifteenth-century humanist and spiritual authority Caterina de’ Vigri, whose influential tract, the Sette armi spirituali, was published in 1475.51 Lucrezia became a Franciscan tertiary as early as 1502, and was buried in a Clarissan habit in the church, where her frequent retreats (especially after unsuccessful pregnancies) were noted by Ferrarese chroniclers.52

In 1505, during one such pregnancy, the duchess left Ferrara for Modena because of the plague. During her visit, she wrote to Alfonso that although it was almost time for her confinement (“la mia persona essendo grossa”), she had been anxious to visit some noteworthy reliquaries at the Benedictine abbey of Nonantola on the feast day of Beato Hadrian III, and told her anxious husband of her arrangements to stay at a house at the abbey.53 Lucrezia’s interest in relics, combined with her increasing piety, may have led her to suggest a commission linking the Este family to the sacred remains of an important Ferrarese saint during perilous times.

Like another of her Estense forbears, Beata Beatrice II d’Este, she initiated her own convent, founding the Clarissan nunnery of San Bernardino in 1510.54

4.4 Giovanni Antonio da Foligno, detail of Lucrezia Borgia, Reliquary panels of San Maurelius, c. 1514, Church of San Giorgio fuori le mura, Ferrara



The first nuns came from Corpus Domini, and included her niece Camilla, the illegitimate daughter of Cesare Borgia.55 The daughters of other noble families joined the convent, to form a highly signorile community. The duchess also developed close relationships with a number of important priests and nuns, including the Franciscan Fra Raffaele Griffi, under whose instruction she became a Franciscan tertiary, Suor Laura Mignani, an Augustinian nun in Brescia famous for her spirituality,56 and the learned Augustinian priest, Antonio Meli da Crema (1449–1528), from Sant’Andrea in Ferrara. She commissioned a series of meditations on the gospels and the psalms from the latter priest so that she might instruct her ladies-in-waiting in their devotions. He dedicated it to Lucrezia on 10 April 1513, making it contemporaneous with the reliquary.57

Lucrezia’s religious devotion and Alfonso’s (and indeed Ferrara’s) almost miraculous survival of the events of 1512 make the Este commission of the votive reliquary casket for Saint Maurelius understandable. Of the three panels on the reliquary, one displays Alfonso I d’Este, the quintessential Christian knight in armor kneeling before Saint Maurelius, guarded by two equerries. The other shows the abbot of San Giorgio, as caretaker of the relics, receiving the saint’s blessing near the church of San Giorgio with Ferrara in the background. The panel depicting Lucrezia (Fig. 4.4) is by far the most detailed: the duchess is depicted with a large retinue standing before Saint Maurelius, holding the hand of her young son Ercole II, who is receiving a blessing from the patron saint of the city that he will one day rule. Along with Alfonso d’Este and the abbot, the bodies of Lucrezia and her son are blessed by the saint as well as existing perpetually close to his sacred body, imbuing all with sanctity.

The head and shoulders of Lucrezia are copied from a medal on which the duchess appears with the same profile and fillet or ferronière around her forehead, and with her hair similarly pulled back in a jeweled hairnet that continues down her back in a braid.58 This hairstyle is suitable to a married woman, as her hair is mostly covered, and is particularly appropriate in a sacred setting. Her hairnet does not appear to be quite as ornate as the one worn on her wedding day, or seen in Bartolomeo Veneto’s portrait, but it is still clearly an item of luxury.

Behind Lucrezia are her five elegant ladies-in-waiting, a marker of her nobility and prestige. Since they are more simply dressed than she, with unadorned hair, they do not detract from her presence. The duchess’s dress is more ornate, and her camicia is not as low in the front as are those of her donzelle, setting an example of modesty. Her striped gown bears a resemblance to the one described by guests at her wedding, such as that of the Venetian Marino Sanudo, who wrote that Lucrezia wore “a dress with large French-style sleeves, in gold with dark brown satin stripes.”59 Other sources note that over the course of the first six days of festivities, she seems to have worn no less than three gold dresses, with stripes of black or dark brown and large sleeves.60



For this permanent public record of her appearance, Lucrezia seems to have selected the same type of garments that she was married in; Ferrarese viewers of the casket would instantly recognize her and be eternally reminded of her bridal splendor and purity.

The group is depicted under a portico, since women were rarely seen outdoors. Lucrezia and two of her ladies hold zibellini, the furry skins of small animals in their hands. The furs, either marten, sable or ermine, were carried by fashionable wealthy women. On 19 January 1516, one of Lucrezia’s inventories listed “A sable with a head of beaten gold, with a ring in its mouth attached to a chain of gold,” suggesting how prized these accessories were.61

The donzelle seem oblivious to the holy scene on the left of the picture plane; it is only the duchess and the official heir to the duchy who are privileged to experience the presence of the saint. Saint Maurelius’s favor for young Ercole suggests that he is giving his blessings for the continuation of the Este dynasty at a time when this was by no means certain. The image is a clear statement of status, succession, and the right to rule, although Lucrezia’s status here is partly due to the fact that she had fulfilled her prime function as a wife and produced an heir. One cannot help wondering if at least some of the impetus for this scene came from the death of her first son, Rodrigo of Bisceglie, who succumbed without his mother at his side, knowing her only through her letters and gifts. Given Lucrezia’s strong commitment to Christ, and her belief in the efficacy of relics, she would have taken great solace in the fact that she and Ercole II were protected. The relief is also politically significant; here, she is publicly and permanently inscribed into Ferrarese history as a pious mother and splendid duchess.

An important literary corollary to both the reliquary and the Bartolomeo Veneto portraits exists, and an analysis of it elucidates the decorum of female representation at work in Lucrezia’s images. It is a dialogue by Giovanni Giorgio Trissino, called I Ritratti, written in 1514 and published ten years later.62 It honors Isabella d’Este, but given the setting and description, could just as easily have been written for Lucrezia.63 The author purports to visit a Ferrarese noblewoman’s house, and recounts a conversation set in Milan of 1507 between Vincenzio Macro and Pietro Bembo, the close friend and correspondent of Lucrezia. In this conversation, Macro describes a Ferrarese beauty seen on her way to church, accompanied by a great retinue. Macro has been stupefied by the loveliness and grace of the lady, but does not know who she is. From Macro’s physical description, Bembo recognizes this woman as Isabella d’Este, and rounds out the “portrait” of the Marchesa of Mantua by listing her many non-physical qualities: her musical skill, prudence, magnanimity, and gentleness. Oddly, Trissino was emulating the ancient author Lucian’s Icones, in which two interlocutors describe Emperor Verus’ mistress Panthea.64 In discussing how Isabella’s internal qualities surpass even her great external beauty, Trissino’s



fictional Bembo adheres to the Petrarchan formula discussed above as the courtly world’s template for female praise, which provided a decorous means to conflate beauty with virtue rather than lust.

After describing Isabella’s physical charms, Trissino discusses her as having a mix of graciousness and majesty, probably very similar to the woman of proud bearing we see in the votive panel.65 Likewise, the clothes that the Marchesa was described as wearing (a black velvet dress, decorated with gold ornaments, pearl necklace and gold-buckled girdle) are similar to the dress Lucrezia wears in the Bartolomeo Veneto portrait. Isabella’s dresses, of which she was inordinately proud, often displayed her personal imprese of musical notes and knots. Even more striking is the fact that Isabella was said to be wearing a gold net on her head, with a ruby and pearl ornament suspended at her forehead, with her hair visibly shining through the net.66 This is interesting because Lucrezia, as her likenesses have shown, favored the reticella, or hairnet, while Isabella’s favorite head adornment was a puffy hat called a zazara, like the one seen in Titian’s portrait of her.

Trissino describes Isabella as holding her prayer book, about to enter church. He is not only recreating one of the few occasions in which one could actually see a noblewoman in public with her ladies-in-waiting, but also chooses this particular scene so that he could indicate Isabella’s piety. In the Saint Maurelius reliquary portrait, Lucrezia Borgia is also at the front of her retinue, but instead of holding a prayer book, she and her son are being honored with a visit from the city’s patron saint. For women who did not move in the courtly circles of Isabella and Lucrezia, sumptuary laws discouraged such lavish display in female dress and jewelry, but for Trissino, beautifully made luxurious clothes are a significant marker of status and magnificentia.67 It was considered appropriate for both ideal princes and princesses to show magnificence as an indicator of moral as well as familial nobility. Trissino connects Isabella’s sumptuous clothes with her liberality, and in doing so turns a possible vice (that is, vanity) into a virtue.68

Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, whose 1497–99 treatise entitled De triumphis religionis, written in Ferrara for Duke Ercole I, also linked the two virtues, calling magnificence the sister of liberality.69 One also might read Lucrezia’s portraits in the same manner; after all, she was well known for her almsgiving. Therefore, the show of magnificence on Lucrezia’s reliquary casket panel and the painted image: the beautiful gowns, the jeweled hairnets, and the retinue of finely dressed donzelle, may all be read as symbols appropriate to a princess and of her liberality. For Lucrezia, such images of magnificence and piety would have been an important part of her public presentation, especially during a time when most of the Este funds were being directed towards waging war and protecting the duchy.

The real Lucrezia Borgia was from all contemporary accounts the consummate duchess: intelligent, resourceful, gracious, pious, and fashionable. Portraits of her were used to great effect in the first tumultuous decade of her Ferrarese life, in order to obliterate her Roman past, and to make sure she was perceived as a



virtuous woman suitable as a consort to a duke, whose family was one of the oldest and most noble ruling families in the Italian peninsula. The “Amor Bendato” medal, Bartolomeo Veneto’s painted image, and Giovanni Antonio da Foligno’s reliquary portrait are clever multivalent constructs, providing insight into the varied personae that a Renaissance duchess deemed appropriate and necessary for self-presentation.

Notes

1 Many thanks to Erin Campbell and Jo-Anne Berelowitz for their encouragement and comments. This chapter is based on Chapter 3 of my doctoral dissertation, “‘Le donne, i cavalier, l’arme, gli amori’: Artistic Patronage at the Court of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara” (UCLA, 2005). For scholarly biographies of Lucrezia Borgia, see: Ferdinand Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia (New York, 1968 [1874]); Maria Bellonci, Lucrezia Borgia, sua vita e suoi tempi (rev. edn, Milan, 1960); Nicolai Rubinstein, Lucrezia Borgia (Rome, 1971); Mario Catalano, Lucrezia Borgia (Ferrara, 1920); Michael Mallett, The Borgias, The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Dynasty (London, 1969); Anna Maria Fioravanti Baraldi, Lucrezia Borgia “la beltà, la virtù, la fama onesta” (Ferrara, 2002); Laura Laureati, Lucrezia Borgia [Ferrara, Palazzo Bonacossi, October 5–December 15, 2002], exh. cat. (Ferrara, 2002).

2 Gabriela Zarri, La religione di Lucrezia Borgia – le lettere inedite del confessore (Rome, 2006); Diane Ghirardo, “Lucrezia Borgia’s Palace in Renaissance Ferrara,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 44/4 (December 2005): 474–497; and “Lucrezia Borgia as Entrepreneur,” Renaissance Quarterly, 61/1 (Spring 2008): 53–91.

3 For the wide range of images purported to be of Lucrezia Borgia, consult: A. de Hevesy, “Bartolommeo Veneto et les portraits de Lucrezia Borgia,” Art Quarterly, 2 (1935): 233–250; Berenice Vigi, “Lucrezia Borgia: Ricerca di un’identità,” in Cultura figurativa ferrarese tra XV e XVI secolo, Ranieri Varese, ed. (Ferrara, 1981), 191–223; Claudia Rousseau, “Lucrezia Borgia d’Este, Illustrious Lady, Dearest Wife,” in Italian Renaissance Studies in Arizona, Jean R. Brink and Pier R. Baldini, eds (River Forest IL, 1989), 131–154; Fioravanti Baraldi, Lucrezia Borgia; Laureati, Lucrezia Borgia.

4 Most recently see Stephen J. Campbell, The Cabinet of Eros (New Haven and London, 2006); Clifford Brown, Isabella d’Este in the Ducal Palace in Mantua: An Overview of Her Rooms in the Castello di San Giorgio and the Corte Vecchia (Rome, 2005); and Luke Syson, “Reading Faces: Gian Cristoforo’s Medal of Isabella d’Este,” in La Corte di Mantova nell’eta di Andrea Mantegna 1450–1550, C. Mozzarelli, R. Oresko, and L. Ventura, eds (Rome, 1997), 281–294.

5 Thomas Tuohy, Herculean Ferrara; Ercole d’Este (1471–1505) and the Invention of a Ducal Capital (Cambridge, 1996).

6 Katherine A. McIver, Women, Art and Architecture in Northern Italy 1520–1580 (Aldershot UK and Burlington VT, 2006).



7 Joyce de Vries, Caterina Sforza and the Art of Appearances (Aldershot UK and Burlington VT, 2010).

8 Ghirardo, “Lucrezia Borgia as Entrepreneur,” 88.9 Mallett, The Borgias, 265.10 Italian citation in Alessandro Luzio, “Isabella d’Este e i Borgia,” Archivio storico

lombardo, ser. 5 (1914), pt. 1, 539. Translations are mine unless otherwise noted.11 Le Loyal Serviteur Histoire du bon Chevalier, le Seigneur de Bayard, Ch. 45, cited in

Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia, 332.12 English translation from Pietro Bembo, Gli Asolani, Rudolf B. Gottfried, ed. and

trans. (Venice, 1505; New York, 1971), 3.13 See Joyce de Vries, “Casting Her Widowhood: The Contemporary and Posthumous

Portraits of Caterina Sforza,” in Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe, Allyson Levy, ed. (Aldershot UK and Burlington VT, 2003), 77–92; Marjorie Och, “Portrait Medals of Vittoria Colonna: Representing the Learned Woman,” in Women as Sites of Culture, Susan Shifrin, ed. (Aldershot UK and Burlington VT, 2002), 153–166; and Marjorie Och’s chapter in this volume, “Vittoria Colonna in Giorgio Vasari’s ‘Life of Properzia de’ Rossi.’”

14 The correspondence can be found in the following sources: B. Gatti, ed., Lettere di Lucrezia Borgia a messer Pietro Bembo (Milan 1869), 12; T. Travi, ed., Pietro Bembo. Lettere (Bologna, 1987–93), vol. 1, 153.

15 Bronze 60 mm examples in Berlin and Ferrara, Museo Schifanoia. See G.F. Hill, A Corpus of the Italian Medals of the Renaissance before Cellini (London, 1930), cat. no. 233.

16 Mary Rogers “The Decorum of Women’s Beauty: Trissino, Firenzuola, Luigini and the Representation of Women in Sixteenth-Century Painting,” Renaissance Studies, 2 (1988): 47–88.

17 Adrian Randolph, “Performing the Bridal Body in Fifteenth-Century Florence,” Art History, 21/2 (June 1998): 182–200.

18 Attributed to either Sperandio or Cosmè Tura. Examples in the National Gallery, Washington DC, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. G.F. Hill and Graham Pollard, Renaissance Medals (London, 1967), 27, cat. no. 116.

19 British Museum. See de Vries, Caterina Sforza, 32–34. The medal has a personification of Fortune on the reverse, and the motto “To you and to Virtue.”

20 See Beverly Louise Brown, “The Bride’s Jewellery: Lorenzo Lotto’s Wedding Portrait of Marsilio and Faustina Cassotti,” Apollo, 169/561 (January 2009): 48–55.

21 Luke Syson, “Consorts, Mistresses and Exemplary Women: The Female Medallic Portrait in Fifteenth-Century Italy,” in The Sculpted Object 1400–1700, Stuart Currie and Peta Motture, eds (Aldershot UK and Burlington VT, 1997), 45.

22 J.P.V.D. Baldson, Roman Women: Their History and Habits (Westport CT, 1975), 141–144.

23 Galleria Estense, Modena.24 Mary Rogers and Paola Tinagli, eds, Women in Italy, 1350–1650, Ideals and Realities,

a Sourcebook (Manchester, 1988), 90.25 Joan Laird, “Women and Ritual in Family Therapy,” in Readings in Ritual Studies,

Ronald Grimes, ed. (Upper Saddle River NJ, 1996), 358.



26 Nicole Belmont, “The Symbolic Function of the Wedding Procession in the Popular Rituals of Marriage,” in Selections from the Annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, Robert Forster and Orest Ranum, eds (Baltimore, 1982), 2.

27 The MSS are located in the Biblioteca Ariostea: Nicolai Marii Panciati ferrariensis, Borgias. Ad. Excell. D. Lucretiam Borgiam Ill. Alphonsi Estensis Sponsam celeber MDII. Cited in Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia, 246.

28 Pellegrino Prisciani, Orazione per le nozze di Alfonso d’Este e Lucrezia Borgia, Claudia Pandolfi, ed. (Ferrara, 2004).

29 “Ludovici Areosti Ferrariensis Epithalamion,” in vol. 1 of Ariosto’s Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italorum (Florence, 1719–26), 342–346.

30 The fresco was destroyed, but was described by Sabadino degli Arienti in 1497. Werner Gundersheimer, Art and Life at the Court of Ercole I d’Este: The “De triumphis religionis” of Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti (Geneva, 1972), 71.

31 Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (New York, 1972), Ch. 4, “Blind Cupid”; Kari Lawe, “La medaglia dell ‘Amorino bendato,” in La corte di Ferrara e il suo mecenatismo, 1441–1598, Marianne Pade et al., eds (Copenhagen, 1987), 233–245.

32 The medals of Jacoba Correggio and Maddelena Rossi are in Hill, Corpus, 59, cat. nos 234 and 235; and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, ‘La prima donna del mondo.’ Isabella d’Este Fürstin und Mäzenatin der Renaissance (Vienna, 1994), 383.

33 Louvre, Paris.34 Maria Bellonci argued that Lucrezia and Francesco Gonzaga had an affair; it probably

more correct to say that they had a platonic epistolary friendship. They rarely had an opportunity to see one another, both were heavily guarded at all times, and Francesco was extremely ill with syphilis for the last years of his life.

35 Travi, Petro Bembo. Lettere, vol. 1, 153.36 6 July 1509, letter of Tolomeo Spagnolo to Marchese Francesco Gonzaga (ASMN

B.2475) cited in Luzio, “Isabella d’Este e i Borgia,” pt. 2, 737.37 Color reproduction in Fioravanti Baraldi, Lucrezia Borgia, 142.38 Laura Pagnotta, Bartolomeo Veneto, l’opera completa (Florence, 1997), 56. Attributed

to Bartolomeo Veneto by Bernard Berenson; Charles Yriarte, Autour des Borgia (Paris, 1891), 103–132; Giacomo Bargellesi, “Bartolomeo Veneto e il ritratto della Beata Beatrice d’Este e Lucrezia Borgia,” Atti e memorie della deptutazione ferrarese di storia patria, 2 (1943–44), 9, 14, n. 18; de Hevesy, “Bartolommeo Veneto,” 245, 250 n. 16.

39 These are a bust-length portrait formerly in the Antonelli collection in Ferrara, and a three-quarter-length version in the Guggenheim collection in Venice. See Vigi, “Lucrezia Borgia: Ricerca di un’identità,” 211–212, figs 6 and 7.

40 On Lucrezia’s wardrobe see Polifilo [Luca Beltrami], Inventario della guardaroba di Lucrezia Borgia (Milan, 1903); and Rosita Levi-Pisetzky, Storia della cosume in Italia, vol. 3 (Milan, 1966). Inventories dating between 1516 and 1518 list packets of jewels, gold or enamel beads, valuable fabrics with gold or jewels, tiaras, sacred pendants and other bejeweled gold and silver items. Bellonci, Lucrezia Borgia, 555–582.

41 Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia, 242.42 Frances A. Yates, Astraea (New York, 1999), 78.



43 Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting and On Sculpture: The Latin Texts of De Pictura and De Statua, Cecil Grayson, ed. and trans. (London, 1972), 61; Joanna Woods-Marsden, ‘“Ritratto al Naturale”: Questions of Realism and Idealism in Early Renaissance Portraits,” Art Journal, 46/3 (Autumn 1987): 209–216.

44 John Jeffries Martin, Myths of Renaissance Individualism (New York, 2004).45 See Ferrarese chronicler Bernardino Zambotto, in Diario Ferrarese dall’anno 1476

sino al 1504, Giuseppe Pardi, ed. (Bologna, 1937), 314–315; also Cagnolo da Parma in Vigi, “Lucrezia Borgia: Ricerca di un’identità,” 196.

46 Elizabeth Cropper, “On Beautiful Women, Parmigianino, Petrarchismo, and the Vernacular Style,” Art Bulletin, 58/3 (September 1976): 374–394; Rona Goffen, Titian’s Women (New Haven and London, 1997), 86–106.

47 Cropper, “On Beautiful Women,” 390.48 Cropper, “On Beautiful Women,” 376, 379, 390, 392–393.49 On the reliquary panels see Matthiesen Fine Art, Da Borso a Cesare d’Este. La

scuola di Ferrara 1450–1628 (London, 1984), 143–144; Fioravanti Baraldi, Lucrezia Borgia, 137–138, 155; Laureati, Lucrezia Borgia, cat. entries 41a, b, c; Burgess Williams, “Le donne, i cavalier,” Ch. 2.

50 Foligno designed jewelry for Lucrezia, but also cast coins for the Ferrarese mint.51 Fioravanti-Baraldi, Lucrezia Borgia, 67.52 Zambotto, “Diario Ferrarese,” 314–315.53 “Desiderosa de vedere tante belle reliquie de sancti che se trovano a Nonantola …”

ASMo, Casa e Stato, busta 141, letter dated 9 July 1505.54 Beata Beatrice II d’Este (1233–c. 1270), the daughter of Azzo VII, lord of Ferrara,

was widowed on her wedding day. She became a nun, founding the Ferrarese convent of San Antonio in Polesine. See Bargellesi, “Bartolomeo Veneto e il ritratto,” 1–15. On the convent building see Ghirardo, “Lucrezia Borgia’s Palace.”

55 Gabriela Zarri, “Tra monache e confessori: la corte di Lucrezia Borgia” in L’età di Alfonso I e la pittura del Dosso, Gianni Venturi, ed. (Modena, 2004), 106. On the convent, which no longer exists, see Diane Ghirardo, “Strutturazione e destrutturazione del Convento di San Bernardino a Ferrara,” Analecta Pomposiana, 27 (2003): 385–392.

56 Zarri, “Tra monache e confessori,” 112.57 Libro de vita Contemplativa …, published 1527. Fioravanti-Baraldi, Lucrezia Borgia,

66.58 The one-sided medal, known as the “della reticella” is attributed to the Mantuan

school; its inscription reads “Lucrezia Esten Borgia Ducissa.” Hill, Corpus, 58, cat. no. 231.

59 Sanudo, vol. 4, 224, cited in Bellonci, Lucrezia Borgia, 255.60 Polifilo, Inventario.61 Yvonne Hackenbroch, Renaissance Jewelry (London, 1979), 387.62 Giovan Giorgio Trissino, I ritratti, in Tutte le opere de Giovan Giorgio Trissino non

più raccolte (Verona, 1729), vol. 2, 269–277; Rogers, “The Decorum of Women’s Beauty,” 47–88; Sally Hickson, “‘To See Ourselves as Others See Us’: Giovanni Francesco Zaninello of Ferrara and the Portrait of Isabella d’Este by Francia,” Renaissance Studies, 23/3 (June 2009): 288–310.



63 Humanists hoping for patronage sometimes switched dedications of written works from one ruler to another as necessary. For example, Ercole Strozzi changed the dedication of a poem originally written about Isabella d’Este’s marble Cupid to suit a similar statue owned by Lucrezia Borgia. See Luzio, “Isabella d’Este e I Borgia,” 5/61, 469–553; and 5/62, 673–773, 736.

64 Rogers, “The Decorum of Women’s Beauty,” 49; Lucian, Icones, A.M. Harmon, trans. (Cambridge MA, 1925), vol. 4, 257–295.

65 Trissino, I ritratti, 271.66 Trissino, I ritratti, 274–275.67 Rogers, “The Decorum of Women’s Beauty,” 58.68 Trissino, I ritratti, 276: “questa sua liberalità si può chiaramente comprendere da le

splendide sue vestimenta.”69 Gundersheimer, Art and Life, 50.



Documents

Rewriting Lucrezia Borgia: Propriety, Magnificence and Piety in Portraits of a Renaissance Duchess