| Alfonso I d'Este | |
|---|---|
 Alfonso byTitian; Alfonso leans on a cannon, holding his sword | |
| Duke of Ferrara,Duke of Modena and Reggio | |
| Reign | 25 January 1505 – 31 October 1534 |
| Predecessor | Ercole I d’Este |
| Successor | Ercole II d'Este |
| Born | 21 July 1476 Subiaco,Papal States |
| Died | 31 October 1534(1534-10-31) (aged 58) Ferrara,Duchy of Ferrara |
| Spouse | Anna Sforza (m. 1491; died 1497) Lucrezia Borgia (m. 1501; died 1519) Laura Dianti (m. 1534)[a] |
| Issue Detail | Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara Ippolito II d'Este Leonora d'Este Francesco d'Este, Marchese di Massalombarda Alfonso d'Este, Lord of Montecchio (illegitimate, father ofCesare d'Este) |
| House | Este |
| Father | Ercole I d'Este |
| Mother | Eleanor of Naples |
 | This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(May 2024) |
Alfonso I d'Este (21 July 1476 – 31 October 1534) was Duke ofFerrara,Modena, andReggio from 1505 until his death in 1534. A prominent military leader during theItalian Wars, he served on various sides throughout the conflict. Renowned for his innovations in the use ofartillery, he earned the nicknameDuca Artigliere ("Artilleryman Duke").[3]
%2c_by_Battista_Dossi.jpg)
Alfonso was the son ofErcole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara andEleanor of Naples,[4] and became duke on Ercole's death in January 1505.
In the first year of his rule he uncovered a plot by his brotherFerrante and half-brotherGiulio d'Este, directed against him and his other brotherIppolito.[5] In September 1506 a trial forlèse majesté and high treason was held and, as expected, the death sentence was passed, but just as Ferrante and Giulio were about to mount the gallows they were informed that the duke had commuted their sentence to life imprisonment. They were led away to two cells in the Torre dei Leoni. Ferrante died in his cell after 34 years of imprisonment, while Giulio held on until he was pardoned in 1559, after 53 years of imprisonment. After his release, Giulio was ridiculed in the streets of Ferrara for his outdated clothes and died in 1561.
In theItalian Wars Alfonso preserved his precarious position among the contending powers by flexibility and vigilance and the unrivalled fortifications of Ferrara. During thefirst war, he fought with the Holy League against KingCharles VIII of France, assisting his brother-in-lawLudovico Sforza fromMilan, while his brother Ferrante fought for Charles instead.[6] A bout ofsyphilis, however, prevented him from commanding the Ferrarese contingent in theBattle of Fornovo in 1495, whereFrancesco II Gonzaga was defeated by the French.[7] Even then, the League was successful in expelling the French from the Italian peninsula after theSiege of Atella.
In 1508, he entered theLeague of Cambrai againstVenice, acting asGonfaloniere for the army ofPope Julius II. Two years later, however, he did not accept Julius' peace with Venice and turn against France, which was politically inconvenient for Ferrara. He remained an ally ofLouis XII of France and warred against the League instead. When the Bolognesi rebelled against Julius and toppled Michelangelo's bronze statue of the Pope from above the gate, Alfonso received the shards and recast them as a cannon namedLa Giulia, which he set on the ramparts of the castello. Juliusexcommunicated him and declared his fiefs forfeit, thereby adding Ferrara to thePapal States.
Alfonso fought successfully against the Venetian and Papal armies, winning theBattle of Polesella, capturingBologna, and playing a major part in the French victory at theBattle of Ravenna (1512). These successes were based on Ferrara's artillery, produced in his own foundry, which was the best of its time.[8][9] In both of his portraits byTitian, (Compare illustration above) he poses with his arm across the mouth of one of his cannon.
In 1518 he sought the support of KingFrancis I of France to recover his feud ofModena from the Pope's hands, but it was unsuccessful. In 1526 Alfonso changed sides and participated in the expedition ofCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, against the League of Cognac, which includedPope Clement VII and Francis I. He provided Charles with his advanced artillery, arming hislandsknecht with especially madefalconets, which greatly helped the Imperial effort.[10] One of his falconets killed the League's land generalGiovanni delle Bande Nere.[11] The admiral of the League,Andrea Doria, also changed sides and joined the emperor, eventually granting him the victory of the war. With Charles' help, in 1530 the pope again recognized Alfonso as possessor of the forfeited duchies of Modena andReggio.
In January 1491, Alfonso marriedAnna Maria Sforza, the niece ofLudovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. The wedding was part of a double marriage arranged byLeonardo da Vinci, during which Ludovico himself married Alfonso's younger sister,Beatrice d'Este. Alfonso and Anna had one daughter who died in childbirth.
The marriage was primarily political, aimed at cementing ties between the Este and Sforza families. However, the alliance effectively ended with the deaths of both Anna (30 November 1497) and Beatrice (January 1497).
In 1501, Alfonso marriedLucrezia Borgia.[4] They had:
After Lucrezia's death on 24 June 1519, Alfonso formed a union withLaura Dianti, by whom he had two illegitimate sons (later legitimized):Alfonso and Alfonsino d'Este.
Like his brotherIppolito I, Cardinal d'Este, he was one of the great patrons of art of his time: for him the elderlyGiovanni Bellini paintedThe Feast of the Gods in 1514, Bellini's last completed painting. He turned to Bellini's pupil,Titian, for a sequence of paintings. In 1529 Alfonso created the most magnificent gallery of his time, hisstudiolo orcamerino d'alabastro ("small alabaster room"), now usually known as his "Camerino", in order to better display his works of art against white marble-veneered walls under a gilded ceiling.[13] The pallor of the marble led to the name of this room as thechamber ofalabaster. There are documents fromMario Equicola on 9 October 1511, noting plans for painting of a room inFerrara, in whichsix fables (fabule) or histories (istorie) shall be placed. I have already found them and have presented them in writing." A letter from Alfonso, dated 14 November 1514, authorized payment to Giovanni Bellini, the first painting completed for the chamber.Titian is known to have painted two portraits of Alfonso: the first was widely acclaimed, singled out byMichelangelo and coerced as adiplomatic gift byCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor; Alfonso induced Titian to paint a free replica, which the artist of the painting illustrated above has adapted for his model.[14] Over the next two decades,Titian added three more paintings:The Worship of Venus (Museo del Prado, Madrid),The Bacchanal of the Andrians (Prado, Madrid), andBacchus and Ariadne (National Gallery, London).Dosso Dossi produced another large bacchanal, and he also contributed ceiling decorations and a painted frieze for the cornice, depicting scenes from theAeneid, which gained immediacy by showing the heroes in contemporary dress (illustration, left). All the bacchanals in the Alabaster Chamber dealt with love, and some refer to marriage. After the Este family lost control of Ferrara in 1598, the Alabaster Chamber's paintings and sculptures were dispersed.
Alfonso inherited from Cardinal d'Este the poetAriosto. Following in the lead of his father Ercole, who had made Ferrara into one of the musical centres of Europe, Alfonso brought some of the most famous musicians of the time to his court to work as composers, instrumentalists and singers. Musicians from northern Europe who worked at Ferrara during his reign includedAntoine Brumel andAdrian Willaert, the latter of whom was to become the founder of theVenetian School, something which could not have happened without Alfonso's patronage.
.jpg)
When Alfonso's grandsonAlfonso II d'Este—Robert Browning's duke of "My Last Duchess"[15]—produced no male heir, the main d'Este line died out. A grandson of Alfonso I and cousin of Alfonso II,Cesare d'Este had been born out of wedlock. He was recognized by the Emperor but not by the Pope, who took the Duchy of Ferrara by force. Nevertheless, the House of Este continued in Modena and Reggio.
Media related toAlfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara at Wikimedia Commons
Alfonso I d'Este Born: 21 July 1476 Died: 31 October 1534 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Duke of Ferrara,Modena and Reggio 1505–1534 forfeit 1510–1530 | Succeeded by |
