Francesco Francia's Lost Portrait of Isabella d'Este (ca. 1511–12): Context and Heritage

• In Event: Portraiture in Italy

Abstract

The lost portrait of Isabella d’Este painted by Francia, exhibited in Ferrara in 1512 together with Federico Gonzaga's (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), probably represents the link between Leonardo's cartoon in the Louvre and Titian’s portraits connected with Isabella. The paper will examine already known documentary sources in relationship with Francia's artistic connections in Bologna and outside. Evidence will be considered in the historical and political context of Mantua and Ferrara, ruled by the Gonzaga and the Este, Rome and Bologna, fully submitted to the pope, on the brim of a new attempt by the Bentivoglio to regain their role. A recently re-emerged female portrait may represent a new piece of evidence in a set of questions about the not fully documented portrait of Isabella, focusing on the relationship between north-eastern Italian style (Lombard and Venetian art) and Bolognese early classicism.

Author

• Carla Bernardini, Comune di Bologna