Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts
Digby Hall, Sherborne
Tuesday 10 November 2026
10:15 am to 3:15 pm
Although less well known than Florence, Venice and Rome, the Italian princeley courts of Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino and Milan produced some of the most splendid art of the renaissance, by some of the greatest artists of the period, including Piero della Francesca, Pisanello, Mantegna and Leonardo da Vinci. Princely patrons not only used art as propaganda, but also as a means of expressing their private tastes and interests, often in a lavish style.
Presenter: Paula Nuttall
Paula gained her BA and PhD from the Courtauld Institute. She is a specialist in Renaissance art, both Italian and Northern European, on which she has published widely, notably “From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500 (Yale 2004)”. She has collaborated on major exhibitions including “Jan van Eyck: an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020)”. She was formerly a Director of the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year course, and lecturer at – among others – the Courtaul and the British Institute of Florence. Now largely retired, she continues to lecture for the Arts Society, to research and to write.
Programme for the day
10:00 -10:15 Arrival and Greeting
10:30 Lecture 1
The first two lectures will look broadly at the distinctive art produced for princely courts, which includes convents and chapels, castles and palaces, frescoed reception rooms and intimate private studies, aletrpieces, illuminated books, portraits and playing cards. We shall encounter some of the most colourful patrons of the period, including the fiesty Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, and her brother-in-law Lodovico ‘il Moro’ Sforza, who usurped the Duchy of Milan but eventually came to a sticky end in France. We shall explore some of the great works they and their families commissioned, including Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi at Mantua, and Leonardo’s Lady with the Ermine.
11:30 approx Coffee Break
12:00 Lecture 2
Lecture 2 continues our exploration of some of the great works they and their families commissioned, including Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi at Mantua, and Leonardo’s Lady with the Ermine.
13:00 approx Lunch
14:00 Lecture 3
The third lecture will focus on the court of Urbino, which boasts the most beautiful palace of the Renaissance and where Piero della Francesca produced a numbe rof his masterpieces, including the famous portrairs of Duke Federico da Montefeltro and his wife, Battista Sforza, and the Flagellation of Christ
15:00 Questions and Answers
15:00 Questions and Answers
15:30 Approx Closure and Departure
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