DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0036
8
ELISABETTA GONZAGA
better see him about that varnish, if you have not
already spoken to him, that he may bring or send
you some without delay.”1
Leonora on her part wrote to express her joy not
only at the prospect of receiving Messer Andrea’s
Madonna, but of seeing Francesco himself, and the
young Marquis met with a cordial welcome when
he reached Ferrara with his precious picture. Man-
tegna’s Madonna was given a place among Leonora’s
choicest treasures, and is mentioned in the inventory
of her pictures, taken after her death, as “ a painting
on panel of Our Lady and her Son with seraphim,
by the hand of Mantegna.” The picture now hangs
in the Brera, and its smiling cherub faces and glowing
tints are almost as fresh and fair as on the day on
which they left Andrea’s workshop.
It is uncertain if Leonora herself brought her
daughter to visit her affianced husband at Mantua,
and there saw Mantegna at work on the great series
of Triumphs which he was painting for the Marquis,
but we know that, in February 1488, Francesco’s
sister Elisabetta visited Ferrara on her way to cele-
brate her marriage at Urbino, and received the rite
of confirmation from the Bishop of Ferrara in the
chapel of the ducal palace in the presence of the
Duke and Duchess and their family. There Isabella
met the sister-in-law who was to become her dearest
and closest friend, and the warm welcome which the
motherless young Princess received from the kind
Duchess Leonora, and the sisterly affection of the
Marchesana, were a great consolation to her in the
grief which she felt at parting from her brothers
1 Archivio Gonzaga, Copialettera, 126, quoted in Andrea Man-
tegna, by Paul Kristeller, App., p. 482.
ELISABETTA GONZAGA
better see him about that varnish, if you have not
already spoken to him, that he may bring or send
you some without delay.”1
Leonora on her part wrote to express her joy not
only at the prospect of receiving Messer Andrea’s
Madonna, but of seeing Francesco himself, and the
young Marquis met with a cordial welcome when
he reached Ferrara with his precious picture. Man-
tegna’s Madonna was given a place among Leonora’s
choicest treasures, and is mentioned in the inventory
of her pictures, taken after her death, as “ a painting
on panel of Our Lady and her Son with seraphim,
by the hand of Mantegna.” The picture now hangs
in the Brera, and its smiling cherub faces and glowing
tints are almost as fresh and fair as on the day on
which they left Andrea’s workshop.
It is uncertain if Leonora herself brought her
daughter to visit her affianced husband at Mantua,
and there saw Mantegna at work on the great series
of Triumphs which he was painting for the Marquis,
but we know that, in February 1488, Francesco’s
sister Elisabetta visited Ferrara on her way to cele-
brate her marriage at Urbino, and received the rite
of confirmation from the Bishop of Ferrara in the
chapel of the ducal palace in the presence of the
Duke and Duchess and their family. There Isabella
met the sister-in-law who was to become her dearest
and closest friend, and the warm welcome which the
motherless young Princess received from the kind
Duchess Leonora, and the sisterly affection of the
Marchesana, were a great consolation to her in the
grief which she felt at parting from her brothers
1 Archivio Gonzaga, Copialettera, 126, quoted in Andrea Man-
tegna, by Paul Kristeller, App., p. 482.