From Naples to Ferrara. The Collections of Duchess Eleonora d’Aragona

This study examines the collections of Eleonora d’Aragona, Duchess of Ferrara in relation to local social and cultural debates as well as larger diplomatic concerns outside of Ferrara. Duke Ercole d’Este and Duchess Eleonora d’Aragona presided over a court that had long been known as an erudite humanist centre, which drew in many artists, humanists, and literary figures, including the famous architect Biagio Rossetti. Eleonora’s collections housed across her suite of apartments, which included two studioli, are linked to the humanistic and artistic traditions of her natal city of Naples and adopted court of Ferrara as well as diplomatic entanglements outside of Italy. This chapter examines how the works in her collections made by local artists responded to cultural movements in Renaissance Ferrara, but also how other objects addressed the global by speaking to cross-cultural relations and diplomacy