The court and culture

Portrait of Isabella d'Este
by Titian
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries politics was dynastic and centred on the court. Political power depended on close access to the king. This made it possible for queens and mistresses to exert power, though ultimately this power depended on the consent of their husbands.

As well as being the focus of political power, the court was the centre of culture and it was in this area that the wife of the ruler could exercise considerable influence. 

Isabella d’Este (1474-1539)

This type of cultural power was especially marked in the Italian city states, and the supreme exemplar was Isabella d’Este, the Marchesa of Mantua. She was the daughter of Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara and Modena and his Neapolitan wife, Eleonora of Aragon. She grew up in a court that was a renowned centre of cultural patronage; Duke Ercole had Greek plays translated into Italian for performance, and Duchess Eleonora established her own library, which included Latin works and works of modern poetry. Isabella and her sister Beatrice received the same education as their brothers, becoming proficient in history, Greek and Latin. Isabella also learned to sing and play the lute, and like the rest of her family she was a keen hunter. 

In 1490 the age of fifteen she married Francesco Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1466-1519). The court of Mantua was already famous for its patronage of artists, and once there Isabella began to amass a collection of works of art for her private apartments. She wrote in 1502: ‘We desire to have in our camerino [little room] pictures with a story by the excellent painters now in Italy.’ At first her collection was housed in the castello di San Giorgio, but from 1519, after the death of her husband they were moved to her studiolo in the Ducal Palace. 

Castel di San Giorgio, Mantua
the initial home of Isabella's collection.

The Ducal Palace, Mantua
home of Isabella's studiolo.

Isabella and Mantegna: From 1460, though with some breaks in his service, Andrea Mantegna was the court painter at Mantua. He was already at work on his Triumphs of Caesar when Isabella arrived in 1490. The two struck up a partnership and she referred to him as her ‘expert in antiquities’. 


 In 1497 she commissioned him to produce a series of mythological paintings. His first was Parnassus. The Triumph of the Virtues was completed in 1502. His fourth canvass (completed by Lorenzo Costa) was the Coronation of Isabella d’Este. Isabella liked it so much that she made Costa her court painter.

Isabella and Perugino: In January 1503 she sent instructions to the Umbrian painter, Pietro Perugino for his Combat of Love and Chastity. You can read the instructions here. But in spite of her very detailed specifications, she was not happy with the result.


Isabella and Leonardo da Vinci: In 1498 Isabella wrote to her friend, the Milanese noblewoman, Cecilia Gallerani, 

Today we happened to be looking at certain fine portraits by the hand of Giovanni Bellini and we came to discuss the works of Leonardo.… Remembering that Leonardo has painted your portrait, we ask if you would be good enough to send us your portrait by this messenger so that we may be able not only to compare the works of the two artists, but also to have the pleasure of seeing your face again’. 

This portrait was The Lady with an Ermine, one of the most celebrated Renaissance portraits. 

She met Leonardo in the following year when he stopped at Mantua, while escaping from the invading French army. She asked him to paint her portrait but though he produced a head-and-shoulders sketch, he never completed the commission.

Portrait of Isabella d'Este,
unfinished sketch by Leonardo.
Musée du Louvre

In 1504 she tried again to commission a work from him, providing him with detailed instructions for what she wanted.


Isabella and Michelangelo: This was a troubled period in the history of Italy, with the French invasion of 1498 and the subsequent wars between the city states. Isabella exploited these troubles to build up her art collection. 

In 1502 Cesare Borgia captured Urbino, the home of her sister-in-law, Elisabetta Gonzaga (see below). She wrote to her brother, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara: 

The Lord Duke of Urbino [her brother-in-law, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro] … had in his house a small Venus of antique marble and also a Cupid, which were given him some time ago by His Excellency the Duke of Romagna [Cesare]. I feel certain that these things must have fallen into the said Duke’s hands, together with all the contents of the palace of Urbino in the present revolution. Since I am anxious to collect antiques for the decoration of my studio, I desire exceedingly to possess these statues, since I hear that His Excellency has little taste for antiquities, and would accordingly be the more ready to oblige. (Quoted Leonie Frieda, The Deadly Sisterhood, p. 251)

She believed the Cupid was an antique – in fact, it was a fake by Michelangelo, artificially aged to look ancient. Cesare sent the statue to her and it was housed among her treasures. She never returned it to her brother-in-law, the rightful owner.

Isabella and Titian: Towards the end of her life, she was painted by the Venetian painter, Titian. Between 1534 and 1536 he painted her with an ermine wrap around her shoulder, and made her look much younger than her 62 years. (She had rejected an earlier portrait that she did not consider flattering!)

Politician and patron: Throughout her long life Isabella exercised both political and cultural power. She governed Mantua so competently in her husband's absences, that he felt humiliated and their marriage broke down. As well as being a politician, she was an outstanding (and ruthless) collector of works of art and a (very demanding) patron of artists. But a century after her death, the great Gonzaga collection, which she had done so much to help build up, had to be sold. One of the purchasers was Charles I. 

Elisabetta Gonzaga (1471-1526)

Elisabetta Gonzaga
patron of court culture
by Raphael
Public domain

Isabella's sister-in-law and friend, Elisabetta Gonzaga, was the sister of her husband, Duke Francesco. In 1488, at the age of 17 she married Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, the son of Federico Duke of Urbino. 

In March 1507 the warrior Pope, Julius II, having crushed the rebellious city of Bologna, passed through Urbino on his way back to Rome. A number of his courtiers remained. During four memorable evenings Elisabetta presided over a conversational game in which the discussion focussed on the qualities of a perfect courtier. Later Baldassare Castiglione wrote up these conversations and in 1528 his book, The Courtier, was published in Venice, and subsequently translated into many European languages. 

Baldassare Castiglione
by Raphael
Public domain

The book set out the ideal of sprezzatura, a relaxed manner that covers hard work. It set out an ideal of ‘polite’ conversation in which men and women came together and conversed about a range of topics. It was the inspiration for highly educated court ladies who wished to surround themselves with learned men. Though the  men do most of the talking, The Courtier depicted a degree of equality between the sexes, a sharing of topics of conversation and cultural pursuits. 

The culture of the Renaissance court

Music, poetry, and dance formed an important element of court life, embodying the neoplatonic belief that number, rhythm, and harmony were a reflection of the movement of the heavenly spheres and the divine order of the universe. Music had particular importance. As Castiglione wrote:

It was the opinion of very wise philosophers that the world is made up of music, that the heavens in their motion make harmony, and that even the human soul was formed on the same principle, and is therefore awakened and has its virtues brought to life, as it were, through music.

The neoplatonic universe is infused with the principle of love. The love of physical beauty is the first step on the ascent to the contemplation of divine beauty. 

This philosophy made the musician a key figure in the Renaissance court. He was usually humbly born, but his skill brought him into the presence of court ladies. The same was true of the court poets. Music, poetry and love could be a dangerous combination. The poet, Pietro Bembo  had a possibly platonic relationship with Lucrezia Borgia. The Flemish musician, Mark Smeaton, and the Italian, David Rizzio, died because of their involvement with queens.

Music was also an expression of piety. William Byrd, a Catholic, survived as the composer for the Chapel Royal because of the patronage of Queen Elizabeth.

Lady Margaret Beaufort

Lady Margaret Beaufort  was the mother of Henry VII and it was through her descent from Edward III that he claimed the throne. As the heiress of the first Duke of Somerset, she was a sought-after marriage prize. In 1455 when she was twelve, she was married to Edmund Tudor, first earl of Richmond, the half-brother of Henry VI. He died of the plague in November 1456, leaving her a pregnant widow. On 28 January 1457, at the age of 13, she gave birth to Henry Tudor at Pembroke Castle. (See here for the exciting archaeological discovery of what seems to have been the room where he was born.) Her body never recovered from this very early childbirth, and though she married again (twice) she had no more children. A key moment in her life was when her husband, Thomas Stanley, changed sides at Bosworth.

After her son became king, she was given the title of ‘My Lady the King’s Mother’. This marked a dramatic change in her life. She was now a powerful woman who could act on her own initiative. Unlike other married women, she was allowed to control her property. 

She did not follow her Italian counterparts by patronising artists or founding a salon. She concentrated instead on stimulating the intellectual life of the two universities. She worked hand-in-hand with her chaplain, John Fisher, who became Bishop of Rochester in 1504.

Lady Margaret Beaufort
'My lady, the King's mother'
Public domain

In 1502 she founded the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge. In 1505 she re-founded and enlarged God’s house, Cambridge as Christ’s College. At her death, John Fisher founded St John’s College from her estate. 

She also endowed the Lady Margaret lectureship at Oxford, which became a professorship. Her legacy lives on at both universities.

Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici
Regent of France
Patron of court culture

Catherine de' Medici became regent for her son Charles IX in 1560, and even after he came of age in 1563 she continued to exert considerable influence over him and his successor, Henri III, who became king in 1574. Inspired by her late father-in-law, François I, she made her court a centre of artistic patronage. 

One of the celebrated Valois tapestries.
This depicts the meeting of the
Valois and Habsburg courts at
Bayonne in 1565.
Public domain

She is generally credited with bringing the earliest form of modern ballet and opera from Florence as well as introducing castrati to France. In 1573 she staged a series of celebrations for Henri III's election as King of Poland, and some of the music was provided by the first violinist ever heard in France.

She was regent at the time of the French Wars of Religion, and, faced with a country that was repeatedly plunged into civil war, she used the court as an instrument of politics to divert the rival Catholic and Huguenot noblemen from plotting to overthrow her son. She chose as potential ‘honey traps’ scores of beautiful young women, who became known as her ‘flying squadron’. They had to be ‘dressed like goddesses’ and provide diversions for the court nobility.

One of the most notable example of her patronage is the series of tapestries now in the Uffizi, known as the Valois tapestries. The tapestries were produced in Flanders, probably in Antwerp or Brussels at a politically sensitive time, when much of the Netherlands was in revolt against Spanish rule. There is some dispute over who commissioned them, but they were certainly destined for Catherine, and in 1588/9 she gave them to her granddaughter, Christina of Lorraine when she was betrothed to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The tapestries depict eight events in the life of the French court. Most of the figures were alive and politically important in the 1580s, though some of the scenes depict events of ten or twenty years earlier.

Like Margaret Beaufort, Catherine was a patron of learning. From 1572 work began on a new palace in Paris, the ‘Hôtel de la Reine’ on the rue Saint-Honoré, which she filled with books and collectors’ items. Her library had 4,500 works, including 776 manuscripts. At her other residence, the Château de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, she built up another library of nearly 4,000 books. These two collections form the basis for today’s Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Conclusion

1. In the early-modern period the court was the centre of culture, and women played a major role in this culture.
2. Women were patrons of the arts and learning. In the Italian courts in particular they commissioned works of art and presided over salons. In England, Lady Margaret Beaufort founded educational institutions.
3. A foreign-born queen could introduce the culture of her native country into her husband’s country.