DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0211
LEONARDO’S PORTRAIT
171
A year after Beatrice’s death, on the 26th of April
1498, she sent to beg Cecilia Gallerani, Lodo-
vico’s former mistress, to lend her the portrait
which Leonardo had painted some years before, in
order that she might compare it with some fine
portraits by Giovanni Bellini which she had just
seen. Cecilia hastened to gratify the Marchesa’s
wish, and sent back Leonardo’s picture by Isabella’s
messenger, saying that she only wished it were a
better likeness ; not that this was the master’s fault,
for there was no painter in the world who could equal
him, but because, when he painted it, she was of
“youthful and imperfect age.”1 Leonardo himself
seems to have paid a flying visit to Mantua in the
following December, for in a letter from his villa
of Goito, the Marquis desires his treasurer to pay
Leonardo the Florentine eleven ducats for certain
strings of lute and viol which he had brought
from Milan, and begs him to do this at once, in
order that the master may be able to continue his
journey.2 But we know that he and his friend
Luca Pacioli, who dedicated his “ Book of Games ”
to the Marchesa, visited Mantua on their way to
Venice at the close of 1499. It was on this occa-
sion that Leonardo drew the beautiful portrait of
Isabella, in pastels, which is now in the Louvre.
The late M. Yriarte was the first to recognise
Isabella’s features in this drawing of the Vallardi
collection, and although Dr. Luzio has lately ex-
pressed doubt on the subject, there seems little
reason to question the fact. Leonardo has drawn
the brilliant Marchesa’s portrait in his own fashion—
1 “ Beatrice d’Este,” pp. 53, 54.
2 Luzio, Emporium, 1900, p. 352.
171
A year after Beatrice’s death, on the 26th of April
1498, she sent to beg Cecilia Gallerani, Lodo-
vico’s former mistress, to lend her the portrait
which Leonardo had painted some years before, in
order that she might compare it with some fine
portraits by Giovanni Bellini which she had just
seen. Cecilia hastened to gratify the Marchesa’s
wish, and sent back Leonardo’s picture by Isabella’s
messenger, saying that she only wished it were a
better likeness ; not that this was the master’s fault,
for there was no painter in the world who could equal
him, but because, when he painted it, she was of
“youthful and imperfect age.”1 Leonardo himself
seems to have paid a flying visit to Mantua in the
following December, for in a letter from his villa
of Goito, the Marquis desires his treasurer to pay
Leonardo the Florentine eleven ducats for certain
strings of lute and viol which he had brought
from Milan, and begs him to do this at once, in
order that the master may be able to continue his
journey.2 But we know that he and his friend
Luca Pacioli, who dedicated his “ Book of Games ”
to the Marchesa, visited Mantua on their way to
Venice at the close of 1499. It was on this occa-
sion that Leonardo drew the beautiful portrait of
Isabella, in pastels, which is now in the Louvre.
The late M. Yriarte was the first to recognise
Isabella’s features in this drawing of the Vallardi
collection, and although Dr. Luzio has lately ex-
pressed doubt on the subject, there seems little
reason to question the fact. Leonardo has drawn
the brilliant Marchesa’s portrait in his own fashion—
1 “ Beatrice d’Este,” pp. 53, 54.
2 Luzio, Emporium, 1900, p. 352.