Beatrice d'Este

For other women with this name, see Beatrice d'Este (disambiguation).

Beatrice d'Este
Portrait of Beatrice d'Este by Leonardo da Vinci, about 1495.
Born	29 June 1475 Ferrara, Italy
Died	3 January 1497(1497-01-03) (aged 21) Milan, Italy
Noble family	House of Este
Spouse(s)	Ludovico Sforza ​ (m. 1491)​
Issue	Massimiliano Sforza Francesco II Sforza
Father	Ercole I d'Este
Mother	Leonora of Naples
Signature

Beatrice d'Este (29 June 1475 – 3 January 1497), was duchess of Bari and Milan by marriage to Ludovico Sforza (known as "il Moro"). She was reputed as one of the most beautiful and accomplished princesses of the Italian Renaissance. A member of the d'Este family, she was the younger daughter of Ercole I d'Este and the sister of Isabella d'Este and Alfonso d'Este.

She was one of the most important personalities of his time and, despite her short life, she drew the ranks of Italian politics. She was a woman of culture, an important patron, a leader in fashion: alongside her illustrious husband she made Milan one of the greatest capitals of the European Renaissance. With her own determination and bellicose nature, she was the soul of the Milanese resistance against the enemy French during the first of the Italian Wars.

Life

Birth

Bust of Ferrante of Aragon king of Naples, grandfather of Beatrice

She was born on 29 June 1475 in the Castello Estense of Ferrara,second child of Ercole I d'Este and Eleonora d'Aragona. It was named in honor of Beatrice d'Este, sister of Ercole, and Beatrice of Aragon, sister of Duchess Eleonora. The Duke of Ferrara longed for a male heir, so her? birth was welcomed as a disgrace.

Childhood in Naples

Two years later Beatrice was taken to the Aragonese court with her mother and sister on the occasion of the second marriage of King Ferrante with Joan of Aragon. The procession, escorted by Niccolò da Correggio, arrived in Pisa and from there embarked on a galley arriving in Naples on 1 June 1477. On 19 September, Eleonora gave birth to Ferrante and when less than a month later she had to return to Ferrara, she decided to take her eldest daughter Isabella with her, while King Ferrante convinced her to leave both the newborn and Beatrice in Naples, with whom he had immediately shown himself to be in love.

Ercole d'Este, Beatrice's father, in a sculpture by Sperandio Savelli.

Beatrice thus lived in the Neapolitan city for eight years, entrusted to the care of the nurse Serena and the cultured and virtuous aunt Ippolita Maria Sforza,and grew up between the ducal residence of Castel Capuano,where she lived with her younger brother and with her three cousins, Ferrandino, Pietro and Isabella,and the royal residence of Castel Nuovo,where the king and queen of Naples resided. Ferrante considered it a "same thing" with the infanta Giovannella his daughter, so much so that the Este ambassador wrote in 1479 to her mother Eleonora that the father would also return her son, now that he was older, but not Beatrice, because "his majesty wants to give her in marriage and keep her for himself".

Marriage

The Ferrarese house of Este and the Milanese house of Sforza had always been on friendly terms and in 1490, in order to cement an alliance, Ludovico Sforza formally asked Ercole d'Este to give him the hand of his daughter in marriage. Ludovico, who was then duke of Bari and regent to the duke of Milan, had originally requested a betrothal to Isabella, Beatrice's older sister, but because she was already promised to Francesco Gonzaga, Ercole offered him Beatrice instead. Il Moro made no objection to the arrangement and Beatrice was married to him in January 1491.

Beatrice at the age of ten by Cosmè Tura, 1485

The official nuptials were to have taken place in 1490 in a double wedding with Beatrice marrying Ludovico and Isabella marrying Francesco at the same time, but the Duke of Bari postponed it more than once. Finally, around a year later, they were wed in a double Sforza-Este wedding: Ludovico married Beatrice, while Beatrice's brother, Alfonso d'Este, married Anna Sforza, the sister of Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Leonardo da Vinci orchestrated the wedding celebration.

Miniature of Beatrice at 19, contained in the donation certificate dated 28 January 1494 with which her husband assigned her numerous lands, now preserved in the British Library in London.

In Milan Beatrice will have two people dear in particular: the son-in-law Galeazzo Sanseverino, her faithful companion of adventures, to whom, especially in the early days, Ludovico entrusted the task of making his young wife have fun with trips to the countryside and similar entertainment, and Bianca Giovanna,illegitimate daughter of Ludovico and wife of the aforementioned Galeazzo, at the time of her father's wedding a nine-year-old girl, whom Beatrice immediately loved and wanted with her on every occasion.

Duchess of Milan

Beatrice had been carefully educated, and availed herself of her position as mistress of one of the most splendid courts of Italy to gather around her learned men, poets and artists, such as Niccolò da Correggio, Bernardo Castiglione, Donato Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others.

Her patronage contributed to a number of buildings, including the Sforza Castle in Milan and Certosa di Pavia. The Renaissance-era chronicler Francesco Muralto noted her beauty and love of dancing, further describing her as an "inventor of new clothes".

In May 1493 she visited Venice as ambassador for her husband in his political schemes, which consisted chiefly of a desire to be recognized as duke of Milan.

Portrait of Ludovico il Moro, 1496.

After the birth of her eldest son Ercole, Beatrice's primary concern was to ensure her son's succession to the Duchy of Milan, which, however, legitimately belonged to the son of his cousin Isabella. The tensions between the two were accumulating over the following year, until, on 25 January 1494, the old king Ferrante died, who already foreshadowed the outbreak of a war that he had tried with all his might to avoid. Once ascended to the throne of Naples, his son Alfonso II did not hesitate to rush to the aid of his daughter Isabella, declaring war on his brother-in-law Ludovico and occupying, as the first sign of hostility, the city of Bari. Ludovico responded to the threats by leaving the green light to King Charles VIII of France to go down to Italy to conquer the kingdom of Naples, which he believed to be right, having been taken from the Aragonese from the Anjou.

In the turbulent phase of wars that followed, Beatrice found herself having to support her husband in her pro-French policy, despite the fact that this meant waging war on her own relatives. On 23 July 1494 she welcomed duke Louis of Orléans,cousin of the King of France, to Milan, who arrived in Italy with the avant-gardes of the army French, then, on 11 September of the same year, went to Asti to meet Charles VIII in person. The two were greeted with great riots and parties, and both claimed, according to the custom French, to kiss the duchess and all the beautiful bridesmaids of her retie on the mouth.

Galeazzo Sanseverino, son-in-law of Beatrice and of Ludovico il Moro.

King Charles in particular showed much admiration for the gracefulness with which he danced and the richness of her robes and requested a portrait of it, which could perhaps correspond to the sketch made by Leonardo da Vinci in charcoal. On the death of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Ludovico's usurpation was legalized.

The siege of Novara

Soon, realizing that his plans had not gone as planned, Ludovico abandoned the alliance with the French and joined the Holy League, expressly formed among the various Italian powers to drive foreigners from the peninsula. While Charles, after the conquest of Naples, was still in the kingdom, in a situation of serious tension, on 11 June 1495, contravening the orders of the king, Louis of Orléans occupied the city of Novara with his men and went as far as Vigevano, threatening concretely to attack Milan with the intention of usurping the duchy, which he considered his right being a descendant of Valentina Visconti.

Ludovico hastened to close himself with his wife and children in the Rocca del Castello in Milan but, not feeling equally safe, he contemplated leaving the duchy to take refuge in Spain. Only the iron opposition of his wife and some members of the council, as Bernardino Coriowrites, convinced him to desist from this idea.

Lodovico [...] so disheartened that he divided himself to be hospitalized in Arragona, and there he quietly ended his days in a private condition. But Beatrice d'Este, as a woman of strong and valiant soul, chased him up, and made him once think of him as Sovereign.

— Carlo Morbio, storia di Novara dalla dominazione de' Farnesi sino all'età nostra contemporanea.

Due to the serious tension of the moment, however, Ludovico fell ill, almost certainly due to a stroke that left him paralyzed for a short time, and therefore Beatrice found herself alone having to face the difficult situation of war. However, he managed to secure the support and loyalty of the Milanese nobles and to resist until the arrival of aid from Venice and Ferrara. It was then that her husband officially appointed her governor of Milan together with her brother Alfonso,who soon came to their rescue.

On this occasion Beatrice demonstrated – not unlike her male relatives – a remarkable inclination to war, as evidenced by the fact that alone, without her husband, she went to the military camp of Vigevano to supervise the order and animate the captains against the French, while Ludovico remained ill in Milan. This is considerable when one considers that the conduct of war operations was at that time the prerogative of men.

Children of Beatrice. Left: childish portrait of the eldest son Hercules Maximilian.

Right: childish portrait of the second son Francesco.

Louis d'Orléans, locked in Novara, was thus forced to endure a long and exhausting siege that decimated his men due to famine and epidemics, a siege from which he was finally defeated a few months later on the imposition of King Charles who returned to France.

Beatrice d'Este managed to expel from Novara the Duke of Orleans, who had seized it, directly threatening Milan over which she boasted rights of possession. Peace was signed, and Charles returned to France, without having drawn any serious fruit from his enterprise. Lodovico Sforza rejoiced in this result. But it was a brief jubilae his.

— Francesco Giarelli, Storia di Piacenza dalle origini ai nostri giorni

After these events Ludovico never separated from his wife again, indeed he took her back with him to the military camp near Novara, during the course of the siege. On the occasion of their visit was held, for the pleasure of the duchess who greatly appreciated the facts of arms, a memorable magazine of the army in full. Evidently the interference of Beatrice in certain matters did not have to garbare much to the Marquis of Mantua her brother-in-law, then captain general of the League, if at some point he invited not too kindly Ludovico to lock his wife "in coffers". In any case, Beatrice personally participated in the council of war, as well as in the peace negotiations, as well as having participated in all the meetings held previously with the French, who did not fail to be amazed to see her actively collaborating alongside her husband.

For some time, moreover, Ludovico had shown the intention to make her the sole ruler of the state, and in fact in 1494 he had given her numerous feuds, including the park and the castle of Pavia and even the beloved Sforzesca,the farm that Ludovico had years before created in the territory of Vigevano.

After the Battle of Fornovo (1495), both he and his wife took part in the peace congress of Vercelli between Charles VIII of France and the Italian princes, at which Beatrice showed great political ability.

The last year and death

In the summer of 1496 Beatrice and the Moor met Maximilian I of Habsburg in Malles. The emperor was particularly kind to the Duchess, going so far as to personally cut the dishes on her plate, and was greatly admired for her hunting skills and tenacious character. The three then made a trip to Bormio,visiting the spa. The emperor then stayed for some time in Milan, in strictly friendly relations with the two dukes, whose company he declared to be the only one he desired.

In recent months, however, relations between the two spouses had become very worn out due to the adulterous relationship that Ludovico had with Lucrezia Crivelli, his wife's lady-in-waiting. Despite the bad moods, Beatrice found herself pregnant for the third time, but the pregnancy was complicated both by the sorrows caused by the discovery that Lucrezia was also expecting a child from Ludovico, something for which she felt deeply humiliated, and by the premature and tragic death of the beloved Bianca Giovanna,Ludovico's illegitimate daughter and her dear friend from the first day of arrival in Milan. The birth finally took place on the night between 2 and 3 January 1497, but neither the mother nor the son survived.

In a letter written hours after her death, Ludovico informed his brother-in-law Francesco Gonzaga that his wife, "gave back her spirit to God" half an hour after midnight. Their child had been born at eleven at night and was a stillborn son.

Ludovico went mad with pain and for two weeks remained locked up in the dark in his apartments, after which he shaved his headand let his beard grow, wearing from that moment on only black clothes with a torn cloak of a beggar. His only concern became the embellishment of the family mausoleum and the neglected state fell into disrepair.

She was buried in the choir of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The duke commissioned a funeral monument for himself and his wife to Cristoforo Solari, but following his death in captivity in France, he was transferred, empty, to the Certosa di Pavia where he still stands today.

In 1499 Louis d'Orléans returned a second time to claim the Duchy of Milan and, since there was no longer the proud Beatrice to face him, he had an easy game on the dejected Moro, who after an escape and a brief return ended his days as a prisoner in France.

Lodovico, who used to draw every vigor of mind from the provident and strong advice of his wife Beatrice d'Este, having been kidnapped by death a few years earlier, found himself isolated and devoid of daring and courage to such an extent, that he saw no other escape against the proud procella that threatened him except in fleeing. And so he did.

— Raffaele Altavilla, Breve compendio di storia Lombarda

Appearance and personality

Tomb of Ludovico il Moro and Beatrice d'Este by Cristoforo Solari.

The portraits that remain of her and the descriptions of those who knew her give us the image of a curvy young woman, pleasant, with a small nose and slightly turned upwards, full cheeks typical of the Aragonese, short and round chin, dark eyes and long brown hair down to the waist that she always kept wrapped in a coazzone, with a few strands left to fall on the cheeks, a costume that she had already assumed during her childhood in Naples by the will of her ancestor Ferrante, who made her approach and dress in the Castilian manner.

The Mural presents it as "in iuvenili aetate, formosa ac nigri colorix". We know that she was of short stature and therefore used to wear tiles to reduce the difference in height with her husband, over one meter and eighty meters tall. In the International Footwear Museum of Vigevano there is also a pianella dating back to the late fifteenth century attributed to the Duchess which, considering the size, must have had 34-35 feet.

Thanks to her young age, Beatrice was of a happy, cheerful, carefree, playful character, but, not unlike all her male brothers, she was also unreflective, violent, impulsive and easily let herself be carried away by anger. Proof of this are many episodes of the Milanese period, including a famous one that happened in April 1491 when, going with some of her ladies to the market disguised as a commoner, she was surprised by a downpour, and while returning to the castle she squabbled on the street with certain commoners who had insulted her because of the clothes with which she and the ladies had sheltered their heads from the rain, not being customary in Milan to dress in that way. On another occasion, realizing that Ludovico wanted to make her wear a dress that he had sewed the same for Gallerani, he made a scene and forced him to end the extramarital affair.

Left: bronze test for a big head with the effigy of Beatrice, which Ludovico il Moro had minted immediately after the death of his wife (1497).

Right: silver reproduction of the aforementioned big head (1989).

In any case, the court of Milan was a court that loved pranks and Beatrice in particular, having evidently inherited cruelty from her Aragonese relatives, liked heavy ones, if Ludovico writes that one morning she had fun with her cousin Isabella to throw her ladies off her horse. The most terrible jokes, however, were all against the serious Este ambassador Giacomo Trotti, at the time seventy years old, who found himself several times the house invaded by "large quantities of foxes, wolves and wild cats", that Ludovico bought from certain villani vigevanesi and that Beatrice, having realized how much similar beasts were in "great hatred and annoyance" to the ambassador, made him throw into the house as much as he could by means of waiters and staffers who resorted to the most unthinkable expedients.

Since the ambassador was also quite stingy, Beatrice even went so far as once to rob him of what he was wearing, however for a good cause: while in fact Ludovico held him still by the arms, she took away two golden ducats from the scarsella, the silk hat and the new oltremontano cloth cloak, then gave the two ducats to Trotti's niece, who evidently had to find it in need. The ambassador continually complained to the duchess's father, saying: "and these are my earnings, since I have the damage and insults, as well as I should waste time writing them!"

Such heavy jokes were perhaps also due to a sort of personal revenge: Ludovico used to openly confide in Trotti of everything, and the latter, especially in the first weeks of marriage, kept Duke Ercole constantly informed of the behavior that his daughter kept in bed with her husband. It is not certain that Beatrice had become aware of it, but she certainly did not have to like trotti's meddling when he reproached her for her frigidity by saying that "men want to be well seen and caressed, as is just and honest, by their wives", if the latter then reported to her father that his daughter was with him "a little wild".

Nevertheless, Beatrice had limits and never reached the cynicism of her grandfather Ferrante. In fact, when Isabella of Aragon was widowed by her husband Gian Galeazzo, who became aware of the fact that her cousin, although pregnant, remained for the whole time locked up in the dark rooms of the castle of Pavia, forcing even her young children to dress the mourning and to suffer with her, Beatrice had great compassion and insisted that she come to Milan and improve the conditions of the children.

Alleged portrait, in fact quite similar, of the two sisters: Beatrice (left) and Isabella (right), in the ceiling fresco of the Sala del Tesoro of Palazzo Costabili near Ferrara. Attributed Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo and dated 1503–1506, without doubt after the death of Beatrice.

With her brothers she always maintained excellent relations, especially she showed affection towards Ferrante,with whom she had grown up in Naples, and towards Alfonso,who came several times to visit her in Milan. With her sister Isabella the relationship was already more complicated because, although the two felt a sincere affection for each other, for a certain period they moved away because of the envy of Isabella, who already from the very day of the wedding began to nourish mixed feelings towards Beatrice, to whom she envied both the lucky marriage, both the enormous wealth, and, above all, the two sons in perfect health born a short distance from each other, while she tried for years in vain to procreate an heir to her husband Francesco. However, over time the envy subsided, and then dissolved completely at the premature death of her sister, an event for which Isabella showed a deep and sincere pain.

Beatrice with her son Ercole Massimiliano. Detail from the Pala Sforzesca, ca. 1494–1495. Currently in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

The two sisters were however very different, although sharing the same ambitions, in fact unlike Isabella, who nuded resentment towards her daughters for being born females and poured the blame on her husband Francesco (who was instead very proud of his daughters), Beatrice was, despite her young age, a wife and an exemplary mother, loved her children very much and dedicated to them many attentions of which are witnesses the tender letters sent to her mother Eleonora in which she described the good health and growth of the little Ercole.

Vincenzo Calmeta, her faithful and affectionate secretary, praised her ingenuity, affability, grace, liberality, exalted her court of gentlemen, musicians and poets. He was certainly a lover of luxury so much so that the only wardrobe in her rooms at the castle of Pavia contained 84 dresses as well as countless other valuables.

Just like the grandfather Ferrante, Beatrice loved animals very much and her husband often gave them to her: among the many there are numerous horses, dogs, cats, foxes, wolves, a monkey and even sorcetti, also at the park of the castle of Milan there was a menagerie with numerous species of exotic animals. Nevertheless, Beatrice appreciated hunting just as much, especially that with the falcon, which must probably have already begun the ancestor during her childhood in Naples, having been King Ferrante a great lover of this discipline. He was also an excellent horseman and showed above all on these occasions to possess a swaggering and reckless character, so much so as to put her life in danger more than once, as when in the summer of 1491 during a hunting trip her mount was hit by an runaway deer. Ludovico tells, not without a certain admiration, that her horse impennò high "how much is a good spear ", but that Beatrice held firmly on the saddle and that when they managed to reach her they found her that "laughed and did not have a fear in the world". The deer with the horns had touched her leg but Ludovico specifies that his wife did not get hurt.

In the same way in the following year, while pregnant with her eldest son, Beatrice threw herself to the assault of an angry boar that had already wounded some greyhounds and first hit him. The hunting fatigues had to, however, on that occasion yield her a new attack of malarial fevers that had already affected her the previous year and that this time made the central months of pregnancy difficult, although without damaging the unborn child or complicating the birth.

Although very religious, Beatrice was not austere with regard to carnal matters: she knew well that wars are not won only with weapons and for this reason some of the bridesmaids of her retin had the task of sexually entertaining the sovereigns and foreign dignitaries guests of the court. It is in fact not without a certain surprise that historians remember how, when in 1495 she was at the camp of Novara, Beatrice did not hesitate to offer to personally procure to her brother-in-law Francesco Gonzaga, captain general of the League, a woman with which to celebrate the victory, officially to preserve him and her sister Isabella from the terrible Malfrancese who at that time devastated the peninsula, in truth to win his sympathies, as he wished to receive on loan from the Marquis the treasure that he had seized from the tent of Charles VIII following the battle of Fornovo,when the camp French had been looted, treasure of which the most interesting object was an album containing the licentious portraits of all the mistresses of the king of France.

However, she was quite modest as far as her own person was concerned, in fact she entrusted herself to the services of a single midwife, comare Frasina da Ferrara, who had introduced her mother and that Beatrice demanded that she come to assist her in Milan even during her third birth, despite the fact that the woman was sick at that time and despite the fact that her father had suggested another equally talented midwife from Ferrara. There were many insistences of the duchess and the people mobilized, who in the end comare Frasina set off on a mule to reach Milan in time.

Political role and relations with her husband

The "damnatio memoriae"

Italy at the dawn of the descent of Charles VIII (1494)

It is absolutely wrong the judgment of some scholars who believe that Beatrice had no role in the politics of the duchy, reducing her in fact to "modest and even pleasant" wife of Ludovico, as he himself describes her in a letter written shortly after the wedding. Beatrice pursued from the beginning the policy of her father Ercole,who for years had been plotting to replace Ludovico to Gian Galeazzo in the actual possession of the duchy of Milan and who with this precise purpose had given it to him in marriage. It is to be believed that without the interference of his wife Ludovico would never have taken the step of usurping the duchy to his nephew in all respects and that he would have been content to continue to govern him as regent as he had been doing for more than ten years. It is no coincidence that it was said, on the same admission of Ludovico, that with the birth of the little Ercole Massimiliano Beatrice had given birth to a son to her husband and also to her father.

Lunette by Beatrice d'Este in Palazzo degli Atellani in Milan, early sixteenth century, perhaps by Bernardino Luini.

When then, at the time of the first invasion French, Beatrice perceived the first differences of interest between the two – Ercole had remained officially neutral, but leaned towards the French, Lodovico instead had sided with the Holy League – he showed himself very embittered and did not hesitate, even with the usual filial reverence, to reproach her father for not having wanted to send them the aid requested. Moreover, both the diplomatic mission to Venice, her constant presence in the councils of war and in meetings with the French, and, above all, her decisive stance in the excited days when Orleans threatened Milan, in stark contrast this time to her husband's intentions to escape, clearly demonstrate that her decision-making and political power was much more consistent than is commonly thought. Add to these assertions also the actual drift of the Sforza state following the death of Beatrice.

Beatrice helped her husband with wise advice in the offices, not even as a prince, but as an Italian prince; and that state prospered as long as such a woman stayed with Lodovico. With her dead, public ruin had no more restraint.

— Unknown author, Orlando Furioso corredato di note storiche e filologiche.

The only reason why the duchess's work went unnoticed in the eyes of posterity, even more than for her very premature death, was that unlike her sister Isabella, who did not care to diverge openly from the interests and decisions of her husband Francesco,so much so that the latter lamented it by saying that in doing so his wife was making him ridiculous and accused her of having been the cause of her own ruin, even going so far as to call her "that whore of my wife", Beatrice always took care not to disfigure her husband in the eyes of public opinion and never put their marital discords ahead of the common interests of the family.

The ancient authors

It was the contemporary historians on the other hand, unlike the modern ones, to recognize its importance: in addition to Sanudo, who writes of her that although "five months pregnant" wherever her husband went "for everything he followed him", Guicciardini also notes that Beatrice was "assiduously companion" to her husband "no less in the important things than in the pleasant ones". Paolo Giovio, on the other hand, paints an entirely negative picture of it, blaming Beatrice – traditionally attributed to Ludovico – for having called the French to Italy, although he is the only author to speak of it in these terms:

Beatrice, wife of Lodovico ... woman of superb and great pomp, the many times he used to use much more arrogantly, than it is convenient for a woman, to intrude in the handling of important things, dispense the offices and still command to' judges of criminal and civil things, so that Lodovico, who until then had been seduced by her flattery, was kept very loving of his wife, was sometimes forced to please the desire of the troublesome woman

— Dell'historie del suo tempo di Mons. Paolo Giovio da Como, vescovo di Nocera tradotta per Lodouico Domenichi, 1560.

All the opposite her secretary, Vincenzo Calmeta judges the behavior worthy of praise, not of reproach, when he writes of her:

She was a woman of literature, music, sound and a lover of every other virtuous exercise, and in matters of the state, above sex and age, of manly tolerance. She solved the occurrences with such dexterity and unity, and nevertheless went away satisfied whoever from her Lordship of her did not obtain the benefit, that what she obtained. She added to this a liberality with her, from which it can be said that in her time she had been the only receptacle of every virtuous spirit, by means of which every laudable virtue was beginning to be put into use.

— Vincenzo Calmeta, Triumphi.

Detail of the cenotaph with the effigy of Beatrice.

Not unlike Baldassarre Castiglione remembered her, many years later, with a few but significant words in his Cortegiano: "it still hurts me that you all have not met the Duchess Beatrice of Milan [...], so that you will never again have to marvel at the ingenuity of a woman".

Ludovico Ariosto went even further, unifying Beatrice's fate with those of her husband and of the whole of Italy:

Beatrice bea, vivendo, il suo consorte,
e lo lascia infelice alla sua morte;
anzi tutta l'Italia, che con lei
fia triunfante, e senza lei, captiva.

Her consort Beatrice, while she has breath,
Blesses, and leaves unhappy at her death;
Yea, Italy; that, with her, triumphs bright,
Without that lady fair shall captive be.

—Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto 42, (octaves 91–92) —William Stewart Rose

Bernardino Corio even claims that already at the age of thirteen, even before arriving in Milan, Beatrice together with her father Ercole had urged Ludovico to reduce entirely in his own hands the government of the city, however her real influence in that period is difficult to prove. Nevertheless, already at the time of her stay in Naples, and therefore in a still puerile age, he proved to be such as to induce Count Diomedes Carafa to write to her father: "of her I predict that she will be a woman of great spirit and able to command ".

Modern authors

Even in the nineteenth century there are sporadic mentions of it in the works of authors almost always little known: Luzio and Renier called her "the soul of all the exploits and delights of her husband"; Francesco Antonio Bianchini calls her "a woman of high feeling and of a manly soul", Anton Domenico Rossi "of soul more than manly"; Goffredo Casalis "woman of lively spirits and rare sense"; Samuele Romanin "princess of great talent and perspicacity, and although young, very knowledgeable of state affairs." Jean de Préchac add that she "had a great influence on the will of Ludovico: she was the only confidant and the ruler of his thoughts. The immature of her death [...] spread the days of Lodovico with bitterness; he had but disasters and ruins"; Raffaele Altavilla writes that Ludovico "used to draw every vigor of mind from the provident and strong advice of his bride", and Pier Ambrogio Curti that "our duke lacked the most effective advice, the soul of his enterprises, with the death of the unsead Beatrice d'Este, whom dominated him at her own will, and to whom he publicly flaunted an extraordinary affection, and from that hour he no longer had his propitious luck". Antonio Locatelli disagrees with many praises, saying that she "had only wickedness as a woman".

After a long silence, her figure has been more recently re-evaluated in works by historians such as Maria Serena Mazzi (2004), Alessandra Ferrari, Laura Giovannini and Luisa Giordano (2008).

Marital bond

Ludovico, on the other hand, was sincerely in love with his wife, although he continued to have lovers even after the wedding, like most of the lords of the time. In a letter he writes of her: "she is more dear to me than the light of the sun". The harmony of the couple is also confirmed by Giacomo Trotti, as well as by the correspondence between his sister Isabella d'Este and Galeazzo Sanseverino who already after the marriage writes to her "there is such a love between them that I don't think two people can love each other more ".

Bust of Beatrice in the entrance portal of the Rectory of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan.

On the other hand, Malaguzzi Valeri notes that if it is true that the love shown by Ludovico should not be nourished by any doubt, however, the extent and the real nature of the feeling with which his wife reciprocated him remains uncertain. Undoubtedly, even if at the beginning Beatrice showed herself reluctant, her husband still managed in a short time to conquer her with his generosity, affability and liberality, but above all with the very rich gifts that in the early days he brought her almost every day, so much so that already a few months after the wedding Beatrice wrote a series of letters to her father, all to thank him that he had deigned to "place me with this illustrious Lord my consort" who "who does not leave me in desire for anything that can bring me honor or pleasure", and still adds: "I am completely obliged to your lordship, because she is the cause of all the good I have". What transpires from the correspondence of that period is therefore a very young Beatrice dazzled by the wealth and importance of her husband, who was then one of the most powerful men on the peninsula, endowed with considerable charm and who did not yet show the weaknesses and contradictions of recent years.

It should also be noted that her mother Eleonora never had to urge her to take care of her husband during his illnesses, something that Beatrice always did spontaneously and in person, as she had to exhort the other daughter Isabella, who instead used to neglect her sick husband as well as neglected even her daughters. Always unlike Isabella, with whom Ludovico himself claimed years later to have had a secret relationship, a rumor that his father-in-law Ercole promptly hastened to deny, beatrice never fell back even the slightest suspicion of adultery. Precisely because he blindly trusted her, Ludovico granted her great freedom and entrusted her with the task of entertaining foreign rulers and dignitaries.

Beatrice, on the other hand, was aware of her husband's extramarital affairs, but did not give them weight because she knew they were passing distractions. The balance was drastically upset with the appearance of Lucrezia Crivelli in the ranks of the mistresses, as Beatrice had to realize that this time Ludovico had seriously fallen in love and that he had begun to dedicate to the new lover all the care and attention that he once dedicated to her.

Union of the Sforza and Este coat of arms, tombstone in memory of Duke Ludovico il Moro and his wife Beatrice d'Este, Conca di Viarenna in Milan,1497.

Education and Patronage

Beatrice d'Este belonged to the best class of Renaissance women, and was one of the cultural influences of the age; to a great extent, her patronage and good taste are responsible for the splendour of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, the Certosa of Pavia, and many other famous buildings in Lombardy.

She spent her adolescence in the Ferrara court together with her sister Isabella and her half-sister Lucrezia, surrounded by artists such as Matteo Maria Boiardo, Niccolò da Correggio, Pietro Bembo, Antonio Cornazzano, Antonio Cammelli, Tito Strozzi, Antonio Tibaldeo and many others. Having been raised by her grandfather Ferrante, Spanish by birth, Beatrice as a child was used to expressing herself in a mixture of Catalan, Castilian and Italian, a habit that she seems not to have preserved as an adult. Her mother directed her to the study of Latin and Greek as well as Greek and Roman history under Battista Guarino,one of the most esteemed humanists of the time, however she never mastered ancient languages correctly and did not even learn foreign languages. She learned dance from Ambrogio da Urbino and Lorenzo Lavagnolo as well as singing, so much so that in her travels she was always accompanied by singers and musicians. She was a player of viola, lute and clavichord, built for her by Lorenzo Gusnasco from Pavia, one of the best luthiers of his time.

She appreciated the Provençal chivalric poems and the Carolingian cycle as well as the representation of Greek comedies and tragedies of which her father was a great fan. She especially loved to listen to the commentary of the Divine Comedy by Antonio Grifo, a passion also shared by her husband who often stopped with her to listen to her readings.

She used her position as a lady of one of the most splendid courts in Italy to surround herself with men of culture and exceptional artists. Her court was frequented by painters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Ambrogio de Predis, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Andrea Solari, architects such as Bramante and Amadeo, sculptors such as Gian Cristoforo Romano, Cristoforo Solari and the Caradosso,poets such as Niccolò da Correggio, Bernardo Bellincioni, Antonio Cammelli, Gaspare Visconti, Serafino Aquilano, Antonio Grifo, humanists such as Baldassarre Castiglione, musicians and luthiers such as Franchino Gaffurio, Lorenzo Gusnasco, Jacopo di San Secondo, Antonio Testagrossa, as well as many of the most famous singers and dancers of the time.

At her death, as Vincenzo Calmeta wrote, "everything went to ruin and precipice, and from happy heaven to dark hell the court was converted, so that each virtuous was forced to take another path". Thus began the slow diaspora of Milanese poets, artists and writers, forced, especially after the definitive fall of the Moro, to seek their fortune elsewhere.

Beatrice fashion leader

Beatrice is now known above all for her inventive genius in creating new clothes, which were one of her greatest passions and which she sometimes sewed on her own. As long as he lived he had no rivals in any court, he dictated fashion in many cities of the time and it was following her example that numerous Italian noblewomen, even outside the Milanese court, adopted the coazzonehairstyle, which came very much into vogue.

Beatrix Estensis, Ludovici uxor. Copia libera antica.

The Muralto remembers her as "novarum vestium inventrix" and, thanks to the correspondence of the ubiquitous Trotti and the letters of Beatrice herself to her sister and husband, many descriptions of her rich clothes and inventions are preserved. An absolute novelty were, for example, striped dresses like the one she wears in the Pala Sforzesca and hers would also seem to be the idea of highlighting the waist by tightening around it a cord of large pearls that she defined in St. Francis style. The pearls of the rest were her greatest habit and since childhood he made constant use of them, both in the form of a necklace, both in hairstyles, and as a decoration of clothes. He loved very much the fabrics decorated with the Sforza and Este enterprises and above all with the motif of the Vincian knots designed by Leonardo da Vinci. He sometimes wore hats jeweled with magpie feathers and more extravagant uses are also known, such as the solid gold chain that he would seem to wear in the bust carved on the Portal of the room of the sink of the Certosa di Pavia, which was of exclusively male use.

Avecques luy fist venir sa partie
qui de Ferrare fille du duc estoit:
de fin drap d'or en tout ou en partie
de jour en jour voulentiers se vestoit:
Chaines, colliers, affiquetz, pierrerie,
ainsi qu'on dit en ung commun proverbe,
tant en avoit que c'estoit diablerie.
Brief mieulx valoit le lyen que le gerbe.
Autour du col bagues, joyaulx, carcans,
et pour son chief de richesse estoffer,
bordures d'or, devises et brocans:
ung songe estoit de la voir triumpher.

With him he brought his wife,
the one who was the daughter of the Duke of Ferrara:
at the end of the golden cloth in whole or in part,
from day to day she willingly dressed:
chains, necklaces, brooches, precious stones;
as a common proverb says,
he had so many that it was a devilry.
In short, the chain is worth more than the garland.
Around the neck rings, jewels, collars,
and around the head of riches embellished,
gold borders, mottos and brocades:
a dream was to see it triumph.

—André de la Vigne, Le Vergier d'honneur

At her death the role of fashion leader was assumed by her sister Isabella, who however did not preserve the inheritance.

Portraits

There are many portraits of Beatrice that have come down to us, both contemporary and posthumous. Most of these are of certain identification, either because they bear the name next to it or because of the distinctive features of Beatrice, such as the coazzone, which is present in each of them without exclusion. The most famous remain the bust made by Gian Cristoforo Romano,the funeral monument of Cristoforo Solari and the Sforza Altarpiece. However, Malaguzzi Valeri notes that like Solari he did not bother to reproduce the true traits of Beatrice, having to the funeral statue be placed at the top of a monument and therefore seen from below and from afar, so the unknown and coarse painter of the Sforza Altarpiece altered the physiognomy of Beatrice compared to the refined original drawings of Ambrogio de Predis, hardening the features of the face to make it almost unrecognizable: "he preferred to take care of the accessories of the dress with infinite monotony, so that the duchess, more than a living person, appears a doll too adorned".

The portrait of her as a child made by Cosmè Tura was lost in the last century, but a black and white photo is preserved in the catalog of the Zeri Foundation.

The alleged drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, preserved in the Uffizi with the number 209, is executed in lapis and watercolor,but was retouched hard a little everywhere by a hand of the sixteenth century.

Beatrice would not be the woman portrayed in the so-called Portrait of a Lady by Ambrogio de Predis at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which for a long time was attributed to her: the facial features are very dissimilar from those of her certain portraits, nor is there the usual coazzone. Investigations between 2010 and 2013 by Martin Kemp/Pascal Cotte and a German researcher brought to light strong evidence that the true sitter of the painting is not Beatrice d'Este but Anna Sforza.

It would rather be a portrait of Beatrice at the time of the wedding that was cataloged at the Uffizi as Portrait of Barbara Pallavicino by Alessandro Araldi, which, in addition to the best known elements, shows above all a pearl necklace with pendant that fully corresponds to the description made by Ambassador Trotti on the gift sent by Ludovico to the future bride in 1490.

Beatrice is also one of the possible candidates for identification with the so-called La Belle Ferronnière by Leonardo da Vinci.

She is also credited with the Portrait of a Young Woman in Profile byAmbrogio de Predis and the painting known as The Rothschild Lady or Portrait of a Young Woman in Profile, from private collection, considered the work of the circle of Leonardo da Vinci, and precisely of Bernardino de' Conti.

More recently she has been honored along with her court in works by painters such as Giambattista Gigola (1816-1820), Giuseppe Diotti (1823), Francesco Gonin (1845), Francesco Podesti (1846), Cherubino Cornienti (1840 and 1858), Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1920), and individually in Domenico Mingione's Portrait of Beatrice d'Este (2021), which faithfully reproduces Leonardo da Vinci's charcoal drawing.

• 
  The Rothschild Lady attributed to Bernardino de' Conti. Identified as a portrait of Beatrice. Late fifteenth century.
• 
  La Belle Ferronnière by Leonardo da Vinci
• 
  Portrait of a young woman in profile attributed to Ambrogio de Predis,presumably a portrait of Beatrice. Late fifteenth century.
• 
  Portrait of Barbara Pallavicino, by Alessandro Araldi. Florence, Uffizi Gallery.
• 
  Portrait of a lady in red, Bernardino Zaganelli. Here too the necklace seems to correspond to the description of Ambassador Trotti, moreover the motif of the Vincian knots on the bodice refers to a woman of the Sforza house.
• 
  Portrait of a Lady, Ambrogio de Predis.
• 
  The Forerunner or The court of Ludovico il Moro. Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale.
• 
  Pala Sforzesca (1494) with Beatrice d'Este, kneeling on the right.
• 
  Bust of the young Beatrice d'Este by Giovanni Cristoforo Romano, c. 1490.

Issue

• Ercole Massimiliano, (1493–1530), count of Pavia, duke of Milan 1513 – 1515;
• Sforza Francesco, (1495–1535), Prince of Rossano and Count of Borrello 1497 – 1498, Count of Pavia and Duke of Milan 1521 – 1524 married in 1533 to Christina of Denmark (1522–1590), daughter of King Christian II of Denmark.
• The third son was born dead and, not having been baptized, could not be placed with his mother in the tomb. Ludovico, heartbroken, therefore had him buried above the door of the cloister of Santa Maria delle Grazie with this Latin epitaph: "O unhappy childbirth! I lost my life before I was born, and more unhappy, by dying I took the life of my mother and the father deprived his wife. In so much adverse fate, this alone can be of comfort to me, that divine parents bore me, Ludovico and Beatrice dukes of Milan. 1497, January 2".

Cultural influence

Literature

To Beatrice are dedicated the Triumphs of Vincenzo Calmeta (1497), a poem in third rhyme of Petrarch and Dante's inspiration in which the poet mourns the untimely death of the duchess, "his dear companion", and invokes Death to allow him to follow her, railing against the cruel Fate and misery of the human condition, until Beatrice herself descends from Heaven to console him and to draw him out of his "past error", showing him how in truth everything happens according to divine justice.

Beatrice appears as the protagonist or character in various literary works:

Tragedies

• The death of Ludovico Sforza known as the Moor, tragedy of Pietro Ferrari (1791).
• Lodovico Sforza known as il Moro, tragedy by Giovanni Battista Niccolini (1833).

Novels

• Lodovico il Moro, by Giovanni Campiglio (1837).
• Beatrice or La corte di Lodovico il Moro by Ignazio Cantù (1838)
• Leonardo – the Resurrection of the Gods, by Dmitry Mereskovsky (1901).
• La città ardente – novel by Lodovico il Moro, by Dino Bonardi (1933).
• Duchess of Milan, by Michael Ennis (1992).
• L'invito di Ludovico il Moro, by Federico G. Martini (1998).
• Leonardo's Swans, by Karen Essex (2006).
• The days of love and war, by Carla Maria Russo (2016).
• La misura dell'uomo, by Marco Malvaldi (2018).
• Il Moro – Gli Sforza nella Milano di Leonardo, by Carlo Maria Lomartire (2019).

Children's stories

• The Second Mrs. Giaconda, a novel by E. L. Konigsburg (1975).
• Il ladro di Leonardo, by Ave Gagliardi (2013).

Comics

• Ludovico il Moro – Signore di Milano, comic strip of 2010.

Cinema

• In the 1971 RAI miniseries The Life of Leonardo da Vinci, Beatrice is portrayed by Ottavia Piccolo.
• In the 2004 film Le grandi dame di casa d'Este by Diego Ronsisvalle she is played by Lucia Bendia.
• In the 2021 series Leonardo she is played by Miriam Dalmazio.

Music

• The French composer Reynaldo Hahn evokes her court in his 1905 suite for winds, piano, winds, two harps, and percussion, Le Bal de Béatrice d'Este.

Culinary

The invention of the Dolceriso del Moro, a typical dessert of Vigevano, is traditionally attributed to Beatrice herself, who would have conceived it in the spring of 1491 to please her illustrious consort. It is a kind of ricotta rice pudding, closed in a shortcrust pastry wrapper and enriched with candied fruit, pine nuts, almonds and rose water. This last ingredient served – as it seems – to induce harmony, harmony and fidelity in the couple.

Posthumous tributes

• The Pusterla Beatrice, one of the minor gates of the city in Brera,was dedicated by Moro to the memory of his wife;
• In modern times one of the tree-lined avenues along the ramparts of Milan, Viale Beatrice d'Este, was named after her.

Legends

It is said that in the Sforza castle of Vigevano, and precisely in the male's wing, on hot summer nights the spirits of Beatrice and her ladies continue to animate the apartments once belonged to the duchess and the so-called "loggia delle dame", which Ludovico had built specifically for his wife.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Beatrice d'Este

16. Obizzo III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara 8. Alberto d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara 17. Lippa Ariosti 4. Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara 18. Alberto Albaresani 9. Isotta Albaresani 2. Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara 20. Frederick II, Marquis of Saluzzo 10. Thomas III, Marquis of Saluzzo 21. Beatrice of Geneva 5. Ricciarda, Marquise of Saluzzo 22. Hugh II, Count of Roncy 11. Marguerite de Pierrepont 23. Blanche de Coucy-Montmirail 1. Beatrice d'Este 24. Ferdinand I of Aragon 12. Alfonso V of Aragon 25. Eleanor of Alburquerque 6. Ferdinand I of Naples 13. Giraldona Carlino 3. Eleanor of Naples 14. Tristan, Count of Copertino 7. Isabella of Clermont 30. Raimondo Orsini del Balzo, Prince of Taranto 15. Caterina del Balzo Orsini 31. Mary of Enghien

References

Notes

Sources

• Cartwright, Julia (1903). Beatrice D'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475–1497: A Study of the Renaissance. J. M. Dent.

Bibliografia

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External links

Media related to Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan at Wikimedia Commons