DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0383
CHAPTER XIX
1501—1507
Isabella asks Giovanni Bellini for a picture—Her correspondence
with Lorenzo da Pavia and Michele Vianello—The subject
changed to a Nativity—Delays of the painter—Isabella calls in
Alvise Marcello—Asks for her money to be returned—The
picture is completed and sent to Mantua in 1504—Isabella’s
negotiations with Giovanni Bellini through Pietro Bembo for
another picture, which is never painted.
Giovanni Bellini had naturally been one of the
first painters to whom Isabella d’Este applied when
she began to adorn her new studio. His father,
Jacopo, had frequently visited Ferrara and worked
for the Este princes, and Francesco Gonzaga often
met both the brothers Giovanni and Gentile during
the years that he spent in the service of the Venetian
Signory. Isabella herself admired Giovanni’s paint-
ings in the Council Hall on her first visit to Venice
in 1493, and three years afterwards asked the great
master to paint a picture for her Camerino. In 1498,
we know that she had been interested in comparing
certain paintings by Giovanni with Leonardo’s por-
trait of the youthful Cecilia Gallerani,1 and the excel-
lence of his art was well known to her through his
personal friends, Lorenzo da Pavia, Aldo Manuzio, the
great printer, and other cultured Venetians, with
whom she was in constant communication. Early
in March 1501, Michele Vianello, a distinguished con-
noisseur, who, according to Messer Lorenzo, had the
1 “ Beatrice d Este, Duchess of Milan,” p. 53.
841
1501—1507
Isabella asks Giovanni Bellini for a picture—Her correspondence
with Lorenzo da Pavia and Michele Vianello—The subject
changed to a Nativity—Delays of the painter—Isabella calls in
Alvise Marcello—Asks for her money to be returned—The
picture is completed and sent to Mantua in 1504—Isabella’s
negotiations with Giovanni Bellini through Pietro Bembo for
another picture, which is never painted.
Giovanni Bellini had naturally been one of the
first painters to whom Isabella d’Este applied when
she began to adorn her new studio. His father,
Jacopo, had frequently visited Ferrara and worked
for the Este princes, and Francesco Gonzaga often
met both the brothers Giovanni and Gentile during
the years that he spent in the service of the Venetian
Signory. Isabella herself admired Giovanni’s paint-
ings in the Council Hall on her first visit to Venice
in 1493, and three years afterwards asked the great
master to paint a picture for her Camerino. In 1498,
we know that she had been interested in comparing
certain paintings by Giovanni with Leonardo’s por-
trait of the youthful Cecilia Gallerani,1 and the excel-
lence of his art was well known to her through his
personal friends, Lorenzo da Pavia, Aldo Manuzio, the
great printer, and other cultured Venetians, with
whom she was in constant communication. Early
in March 1501, Michele Vianello, a distinguished con-
noisseur, who, according to Messer Lorenzo, had the
1 “ Beatrice d Este, Duchess of Milan,” p. 53.
841