AT THE COURT OF ISABELLA D’ESTE

The court of Isabella d’Este (1474–1539) was the literary and artistic center of Italy in the early 16^th century. Great personalities such as Ludovico Ariosto, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Titian passed through it. The first printed editions of secular music by Ottaviano Petrucci were based, to a large extent, on the works of two musicians who were in Isabella’s service, Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Carra. The program is based on their own frottoles for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment (a precursor of the Baroque monody) and is interspersed with works of the period for solo lute, or viola da gamba and lute. At the same time, works of art by great painters created in her court are screened.