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Isabella d'Este painted by Titian.

Isabella d'Este (18 May 1474–13 February 1539) was marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance and a major cultural and political figure.

Born in Ferrara, she was the first daughter of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Leonora of Naples, daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples, the Aragonese King of Naples, and Isabella of Taranto.

At the age of 16 she was married to Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. Her younger sister was the equally famous Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan as consort to Ludovico Sforza. Isabella was related by birth or marriage to almost every ruler in Italy and is known as "The First Lady of The Renaissance". She was also known as "The First Lady of the World" and "La Prima Donna."

Drawing for an intended portrait of Isabella by Leonardo da Vinci.

She was well-educated in her youth in Ferrara, as her voluminous correspondence reveals. The Este sisters were exposed to many of the new Renaissance ideas: later Isabella became a passionate, even greedy collector of Roman sculpture and commissioned modern sculptures in the antique style. It is also common knowledge, at least among collectors of coins and numismatists, that she was an avid collector of ancient coins.

After her marriage to Francesco Gonzaga, she lived in Mantua. They were Ariosto's patrons while he was writing Orlando Furioso and both she and her husband were greatly influenced by Baldassare Castiglione, author of Il Cortigiano ('The Courtier') a model for aristocratic decorum for two hundred years, and it was at his suggestion that Giulio Romano was summoned to Mantua to enlarge the Castello and other buildings.
Under her auspices the court of Mantua became one of the most cultured in Europe. Among the other important artists, writers, thinkers, and musicians being drawn to it were Raphael, Andrea Mantegna, and the composers Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara. Her court sculptor was Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, who re-interpreted works of antiquity in small finely-finished and often partly gilded bronzes that earned him the nickname "L'Antico". She was painted twice by Titian, while a portrait drawing by Leonardo da Vinci is at the Louvre.Though there is little evidence to support that he actually painted it. A keen musician, she considered stringed instruments, such as the lute, superior to winds, which were associated with vice and strife; she also considered poetry incomplete until it was set to music, and sought the most skilled composers of the day to complete the task.

Isabella played an important role in Mantua during their time of need. When her husband was captured in 1509 and held hostage in Venice, she took control of Mantua's military forces and held off their invaders until his return in 1512. While ruling, she seemed to be much tougher than her husband. Therefore, upon his return he realized that he'd been shown up and grew angry at her, allowing her to travel and live glamourously until his death of disease in 1519. After the death of her cousin, Isabella ruled Italy as regent for her son, Frederick. She began to play an important role in Italian politics, steadily advancing Mantua's position. Her many important accomplishments include advancing Mantua to a Duchy and also obtaining a cardinalate for her younger son. She also showed great diplomatic and political skill in her negotiations with Cesare Borgia, who had dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, the husband of her sister-in-law and good friend Elisabetta Gonzaga (1502).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Isabella d'Este

• Triumph of the Virtues, a painting by Mantegna for Isabella's studiolo

• The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi, by Jacqueline Park
• The historical novel, Rinascimento privato, by Maria Bellonci, Mondadori, 2002, narrated from the viewpoint of Isabella d'Este, first published in 1985, winning the Strega Literary Award. An English translation, Private Renaissance: a Novel, was published in 1989 by Morrow.
• Figures prominently in Leonardo's Swans, a novel by Karen Essex, published in 2006 by Doubleday.