HER MARRIAGE

15

dowry had been fixed at 25,000 ducats, while her trousseau was valued at 2000 ducats, and the jewels and other costly objects given her by the Duke were held to be worth another 3000, so that the whole of her marriage portion and outfit did not exceed 30,000 ducats, a modest fortune compared to her mother's dowry of 80,000 ducats and the 150,000 ducats that were settled on her sister-in-law Anna Sforza.

The wedding was celebrated at Ferrara on the 11th of February 1490, and after the ceremony in the ducal chapel, the bride rode through the streets of the city in her fine new chariot draped with cloth of gold, with the Duke of Urbino on horseback on her right and the Ambassador of Naples on her left. The banquet which followed was one of the most sumptuous ever held in the Castello of Ferrara. The walls of the Sala Grande were hung with the Arras tapestries brought from Naples by Duchess Leonora, including the "Queen of Sheba's Visit to Solomon," and six pieces known as "La Pastourelle," worked by hand in gold and silver and coloured silks of exquisite delicacy. These priceless hangings originally came to Naples with Queen Joan, and it was said that Flemish workers had been employed upon them during more than a hundred years. The Este princes held the tapestries among their choicest possessions and only used them on great occasions; and in after years they excited the admiration of the Emperor Charles V. when he visited Reggio as the guest of Alfonso d'Este, and insisted on examining each piece separately by torchlight. The magnificent dinner-service used at Isabella's wedding had been made in Venice

16

ENTRY INTO MANTUA

by a renowned goldsmith, Giorgio da Ragusa, from Cosimo Tura's designs. Crystal flagons and dishes of gold and enamel were supported by griffins and satyrs, dolphins and satyrs, the handles of golden bowls and cornucopias laden with fruit were adorned with genii or the eagles of the house of Este, while two hundred and fifty little banners, painted by Ferrara artists with the Este and Gonzaga arms, adorned the temples and pyramids of gilt and coloured sugar that were a triumph of the confectioner's art.1

On the following day the wedding party set out in the richly carved and gilded bucentaur, attended by four galleys and fifty boats, for Mantua, and sailed up the Po. The bride was accompanied by her parents, with their three young sons, Alfonso, Ferrante, and the future Cardinal Ippolito, as well as by her cousins, Alberto d'Este, Niccolo and Borso da Correggio, and a hundred chosen courtiers, who escorted her to the gates of Mantua. On the 15th of February she made her triumphal entry into the city, riding between the Marquis and the Duke of Urbino, and followed by the Ambassadors of France, Naples, Milan, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and other Italian States. The loyal citizens of Mantua hailed their young Marchesana with enthusiasm, and it is said that as many as 17,000 spectators were assembled in the town that day. The streets were hung with brocades and garlands of flowers. At the Porta Pradella a choir of whiterobed children welcomed the bride with songs and recitations. At the Ponte S. Jacopo, on the Piazza in front of Alberti's church of S. Andrea, at the

1 Gruyer, op. cit., ii. 83.

WEDDING FESTIVITIES

17

gates of the park, and on the drawbridge of the Castello, pageants and musical entertainments were prepared in her honour. At one point the seven planets and nine ranks of angelic orders welcomed her coming, and a fair boy with angel wings recited an epithalamium composed for the occasion at the foot of the grand staircase of the Castello di Corte. There Elisabetta Gonzaga received the bride, and the princely guests sat down to a banquet in the state rooms, while the immense crowds assembled on the Piazza outside were feasted at the public expense, and the fountains and cisterns ran with wine. The Marquis had borrowed large stores of gold and silver plate, of carpets and hangings from all his friends and kinsfolk. Giovanni Bentivoglio, Marco Pio of Carpi, the Gonzagas of Bozzolo, and many of Isabella's relatives had placed their treasures at his disposal for the occasion, and his brother-inlaw, Duke Guidobaldo, had lent him the famous tapestries of the Trojan war, which were the glory of the palace of Urbino. The festivities were prolonged until the last day of the carnival. Tournaments and dances and torchlight processions followed each other in rapid succession, and each day a fresh banquet was spread on tables in the Piazza, and confetti, representing cities, castles, churches, and animals in endless variety, were distributed to the delighted populace.1

Only one thing was wanting to complete the splendour of the festival. This was the presence of Andrea Mantegna, the great master who had spent thirty years in the service of the Gonzagas, and whose genius was so highly esteemed by the young 1 D'Arco, Notizie d'Isabella Estense, p. 31.

VOL. I.

B

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MANTEGNA'S ABSENCE

Marquis. In June 1488, Francesco had given him leave to go to Rome, at the earnest request of Pope Innocent VIII., who employed him to paint his new chapel of the Belvedere. The artist, however, was not happy at the Vatican, and complained bitterly in his letters to the Marquis of the irregular payments and indifferent treatment which he received from the Pope, declaring that he was a child of the house of Gonzaga, and wished to live and die in their service. He was uneasy too about his unfinished Triumphs in the Castello of Mantua, and begged the Marquis to see that the rain did not come in through the windows and damage these canvases, which were his best and most perfect works. Francesco replied in a friendly letter, assuring him that his Triumphs were perfectly safe, and wrote again at Christmas 1489, begging the painter to return as soon as possible, since his help was indispensable in preparing the pageants and decorations for the wedding. But the messenger who brought the letter found Andrea ill in bed and the Pope's frescoes unfinished, and the Marquis was forced to celebrate his marriage without the presence of his favourite painter.

CHAPTER II

1328-1478

The court of Mantua and house of Gonzaga-Gianfrancesco II., the first Marquis-Vittorino da Feltre and the Casa ZoiosaCecilia Gonzaga-Reign of Lodovico Gonzaga and Barbara of Brandenburg-Their patronage of art and learning—Marriage of Federico to Margaret of Bavaria-Betrothal of Dorotea Gonzaga to Galeazzo Sforza-Frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi.

MANTUA, which now became the home of Isabella d'Este, was a comparatively small city. The population only numbered 28,000, and the domains of the Marquis Francesco were both poorer and smaller than the Duchy of Ferrara. But under the rule of the Gonzaga family this little state had already acquired an important position in North Italy. Since the hardfought day in 1328, when Lodovico Gonzaga defeated the rival family of the Buonacolsi, and was chosen captain of the people, and afterwards appointed VicarGeneral by the Emperor, Mantua had rapidly increased in power and prosperity. His successors not only won the love of their subjects by their wise and paternal government, but by their hereditary valour and skilful diplomacy succeeded in maintaining their independence against their two powerful neighbours, Venice and Milan. There was less splendour and luxury at the court of Mantua than at Ferrara, but the Gonzagas showed as genuine a love of art and learning as the princes of the house of Este. Gianfrancesco I., the fourth prince of his race to bear