Bust of Beatrice d'Este
Gian Cristoforo Romano (c. 1465-1512) · c. 1490-1491
A girl of about fifteen looks straight ahead with the composed stillness of an official portrait. Her hair is drawn back into a long braid bound with ribbons, a fine net covers the back of the head, and a jewel rests on her forehead. The bodice of her dress is patterned with embroidered motifs, cut with a goldsmith's precision, and the ties of the sleeves hang from the shoulders. On the socle a Latin inscription reads, to the divine Beatrice, daughter of Duke Ercole. She is Beatrice d'Este, the daughter of Ercole d'Este of Ferrara, who in 1491 married Ludovico Sforza, called il Moro, and became duchess of Milan.
Gian Cristoforo Romano, sculptor, medallist and courtier, made the bust around the time of that wedding. The frontal pose, the sharp profile and the emphasis on costume recall the portrait medals he also produced, and the bust is one of the few surviving marble likenesses of a Renaissance princess taken during her lifetime. Beatrice died in childbirth in 1497, aged twenty-two. The bust is recorded in the Grimani collection in Venice, passed to the Paris collector Debruge-Dumesnil, and was bought at his sale in March 1850.
Did You Know? Beatrice was still a teenager when this portrait was carved, and she died at twenty-two, so the bust records almost her whole adult life.
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