Editing Isabella d'Este (section)

== Appearance ==
[[File:Medaglie_dei_fratelli_d'Este,_Isabella,_Beatrice,_Alfonso_e_Ippolito.jpg|link=https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Medaglie_dei_fratelli_d'Este,_Isabella,_Beatrice,_Alfonso_e_Ippolito.jpg|left|thumb|Confrontation of the Este brothers' medals: Isabella, [[Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara|Alfonso]], [[Ferrante d'Este|Ferrante]], [[Ippolito d'Este|Ippolito]] and [[Sigismondo d'Este (1480–1524)|Sigismondo]] had inherited the typical Este nose of their father; [[Beatrice d'Este|Beatrice]] the slightly upturned one of her mother. Furthermore, all were dark-haired, except Ferrante and Sigismondo, who had recovered, as it seems, the traditional blond of the Este.]]
Isabella's appearance was frequently written about in her lifetime. [[Mario Equicola]] said that "her eyes were black and sparkling, her hair yellow, and her complexion one of dazzling brilliancy."{{sfn|Cartwright|1903a|p=9}} Similarly [[Gian Giorgio Trissino]]'s ''I Ritratti'' has a fictionalized [[Pietro Bembo]] describe Isabella's "rippling golden hair that flowed in thick masses over her shoulders,"{{sfn|Cartwright|1903a|p=9}} in a passage that, according to art historian Sally Hickson, identifies Isabella as the "living paragon of female beauty."{{sfn|Hickson|2009|p=17}} The real Bembo praised Isabella's "beautiful and charming hand and pure, sweet voice" in a letter addressed to her.{{sfn|Cartwright|1903a|p=273}} The alleged beauty of Isabella attracted the attention of the king of France, [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]], who asked the chaplain Bernardino of Urbino about her features and attempted to arrange a meeting with her. However, this meeting never took place as shortly after he returned to France.<ref name=":4">La galleria dei Gonzaga, venduta all'Inghilterra nel 1627–28: documenti degli archivi di Mantova e Londra, Alessandro Luzio Cogliati, 1913, p. 223.</ref><ref name=":0">Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, Milano, Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1890, p. 116.</ref>

Isabella herself frequently diminished her own appearance; commenting on his portrait she told [[Francesco Francia|Francia]] that he had "made us far more beautiful by your art than nature ever made us."{{sfn|Hickson|2009|p=10}} Likewise she told Trissino that "your praises of us far exceed the truth",{{sfn|Cartwright|1903b|p=105}} and said of Titian's portrait that "we doubt that at the age he represents us we were ever of the beauty it contains."{{sfn|Hickson|2009|p=19}} In 1534, in the same year that Titian's portrait was painted, Titian's friend, Pietro Aretino, mocked her appearance, calling her "the monstrous Marchioness of Mantua, with ebony teeth and ivory eyelashes, dishonestly ugly and ultra-dishonestly tarted up."{{sfn|Bonoldi|2015|p=78}}{{sfn|Hickson|2009|p=19}} Despite her desplays of modesty, Isabella was also known to lose herself in front of a mirror.{{sfn|Chambers|Martineau|1981|p=56|ps=: Jennifer Fletcher, 'Isabella d'Este, Patron and Collector'}}

Isabella was worried about her weight from an early age.{{sfn|Mozzarelli|Oresko|Ventura|1997|p=291|ps=: Luke Syson, 'Reading Faces: Gian Cristoforo Romano's Medal of Isabella d'Este'}} As an adult she discussed her weight with those close to her frequently. In 1499 she sent a portrait by [[Giovanni Santi]] to her brother Ludovico Sforza, complaining that it did not resemble her very much "for being a little fatter than me." Ludovico replied that he liked the portrait very much of her and that it was very similar to her, although "somewhat more fat", unless Isabella had "grown fatter after we saw her."<ref>Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, etc, p. 151.</ref>{{sfn|Chambers|Martineau|1981|p=56|ps=: Jennifer Fletcher, 'Isabella d'Este, Patron and Collector'}} In 1509 she complained to her husband that "if she had more to do with running the state she would not have grown fat",{{sfn|Chambers|Martineau|1981|p=63|ps=: Jennifer Fletcher, 'Isabella d'Este, Patron and Collector'}} while in 1511 her sister Lucrezia complained about an early draft of the Francia portrait that made her look too thin.{{sfn|Hickson|2009|p=9}}

Her face became damaged and prematurely aged by [[Venetian ceruse]].{{sfn|Condra|2008|p=35}}