An Isabella d'Este Of The Future

The kind of people who get to the very top of our system are often nerds with terrible taste. But what about their spouses and children?

Portrait of Isabella d'Este. Getty

Our tech and finance-based system has propelled a lot of philistine nerds to the top of the elite, and it is reflected in our culture. Can such a society ever create great art, or are they antithetical? It is worth remembering that the great patrons of the Renaissance, Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici, inherited their family's wealth. It was the earlier Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici who built the family wealth through banking. He appears to have had little or no interest in the arts. This started me thinking about the potential of the relatives, children, and spouses of elites.

In my megalomaniacal imagination, I was daydreaming about somehow seeding the idea in the mind of Melania Trump to become a historic patron of the arts. America has a tradition of the first lady championing a non-political cause. Why not this? Is there an equivalent in Europe? In Ireland? I absolutely believe that if state and money power were channeled into a rebirth of beauty, all of those “beauty is a social construct” people whining about her Christmas decorations would suddenly change their tune because they are ultimately just broke conformists. If all the grants and prestige were being doled out by a champion of beauty, they would change to the new value system in an instant.

With this in mind, I started thinking about the significant wife patrons that came up as I was reading about the Italian Renaissance. Isabella d’Este was one example - a classicist and the fashionable wife of Francesco Gonzaga. Using her access to wealth, she prioritized tasteful commissions, including Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, and Titian. Andrea Mantegna served as court painter to the Gonzaga family under her patronage, leading to the creation of the Triumphs of Caesar frescoes in the Palazzo Ducale.

Another was Eleanor of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. She oversaw two iconic Renaissance achievements - the renovation of the Pitti Palace, the primary residence of the Medici family, and the construction of the heavenly Boboli Gardens. She championed the development of luxury Florentine textiles, which became highly sought after across Europe. She also helped develop intricate jewelry which would show the world the skill of Florentine goldsmiths and jewelers, and she supported the decoration of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

Both of these women were formidable, intellectually gifted, and interested in power. They would likely be stateswomen in their own right if they were alive today. But the point still stands. They used their power to support culture.

Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni by Angelo Bronzino

These women did not just commission pretty portraits of themselves; they helped develop magnificent gardens and architecture and championed aesthetic excellence in export goods to boost the city's prestige. I’m reminded of how Joséphine Bonaparte championed French silk, aestheticizing a protectionist and patriotic message. Imagine if someone could emerge with the power to direct capital and state power into the development of magnificent projects and aesthetic excellence in manufacturing as part of a national revival like this…

People who are good at finance and tech are not typically aesthetes. But they are often married to them. Beauty, backed up by money and power is what worked for the Italians.

If you are out there, whoever you are, maybe my daydream will make it to you.

Boboli Gardens, Getty Images