Beatrice d'Este la duchessa influencer del Rinascimento

Poor Beatrice. When people talk about her, and they don't talk about her much, snobbish scholars tend to dismiss her as a Renaissance Paris Hilton. A cute, charming girl, but ultimately a bit vacuous and interested only in fashion. It always happens like this, in all families. Children end up having fixed roles, from which they never break free, or with difficulty. And in the House of Este, the male child was her brother Alfonso, heir to the family, and the intelligent and pampered one was Isabella, her older sister, destined to become Duchess of Mantua. And Beatrice, who knows? She was born and was already a disappointment to her father. He wanted another boy, but he ended up with a girl. Not knowing what to do with her, he quickly sent her off to Naples, to her grandfather and cousins. Beatrice was happy at the Neapolitan court, even if we know little about how she spent her time. He studies, of course, because at home they want cultured daughters, but he certainly doesn't seem like a genius, or at least he doesn't particularly shine. At a certain point, however, his family remembers they have a daughter. Mostly because Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Bari and uncle and guardian of the Duke of Milan, is looking for a wife. Ludovico is a rising lord, renowned for his sharp mind and unscrupulousness. He's not Duke of Milan, but he rules Milan, on behalf of his nephew, but everyone knows he'll get rid of him sooner or later. And with the usual Renaissance pragmatism, they prepare for that moment. Ludovico is forty, cultured, and charming. His first choice for a life partner falls on Isabella, known as the family intellectual and her parents' darling. But Isabella is already engaged to the Duke of Mantua, who is a real duke, so imagine if she'd leave him for someone who's only a regent. She may be less cultured, but Beatrice is decidedly more beautiful and graceful. A sweet little face, two lively eyes, that plumpness that in her sister is almost fat but in hers is just right to appeal to a man. She marries her quickly, before some other suitor comes along. Beatrice arrives in Milan, and blossoms. Not just because she arrives almost a child. She's fifteen, which is the age of all her husband's lovers. Today we'd call it pedophilia, but back then it was considered the norm. Far from her sister, her father, her brother, and the court, Beatrice blossoms, developing a character and an independent life. It's not all that easy. Isabella is always there, breathing down her neck. She carries on a long correspondence with the Moor, and has a say in everything: Isabella is one of those women who always thinks she knows how, when, and what to do. Often she's right; just as often, let's face it, she's just a presumptuous pain in the ass. But Beatrice is reluctant and doesn't snap. Her husband loves her; in fact, they say he's crazy about her. As can a self-centered, power-intoxicated Renaissance man, of course. He cheats on her constantly. When he arrives in Milan, his official lover is Cecilia Gallerani, but she quickly disappears after having a son with him. The subsequent betrayal is harder to stomach, because Ludovico takes to bed Lucrezia Crivelli, Beatrice's lady-in-waiting. Perhaps what annoys Beatrice most is that her husband has all his lovers painted by Leonardo da Vinci, and she gets nothing; she has to settle for a bust and a few works by lesser artists. But she does have her satisfactions. She immediately has two sons, while dear Isabella gives birth to daughters she hates, and struggles to provide her husband with an heir. Not even she, with all her arrogance, will ever be able to convince Leonardo to paint her portrait, and she'll try everything. Beatrice's personal success lies in fashion. She's the Chiara Ferragni of her time, an influencer beyond compare, a Jackie Kennedy of the Po Valley. In the courts, people want to know how the Duchess dresses. Even French ladies are invited by their king to copy her clothes, and she sends dolls to France to explain how to match dresses and colors, because there was no Instagram back then and the boors had to be updated like that. Cousins ​​from across the Alps, there you go. But the one who senses something more in his wife than a pretty doll's attitude is her husband. He uses her for delicate diplomatic missions, like the one in Venice. Beatrice makes a great impression; perhaps she doesn't achieve much, but she takes notes and senses the mood, then tells her husband in detail what she saw. She would have made an excellent spy, if she hadn't been forced to be a duchess and a woman. It's being a woman that gets her, and costs her her life. The beautiful duchess dies in childbirth, giving birth to a third son, who doesn't even survive. Ludovico will never come to terms with it, and with Beatrice he also loses his political fortune. He will die in exile, after being taken prisoner by the French, who had become his enemies. Beatrice was his star; without her, he has los...