Isabella & Leonardo: The Artistic Relationship Between Isabella d'Este and Leonardo da Vinci, 1500-1506.

A study of the Renaissance art patron Isabella d'Este, Ames-Lewis's latest (after The Intellectual Life of the Early Renaissance Artist) is a slow-building accumulation of historical details and highly specific minutiae. While ostensibly focused on the relationship between Isabella and Leonardo da Vinci, the book actually functions more to contextualize Isabella's collection and interests in their historical artistic moment, if only because the relationship between herself and Leonardo was limited to correspondence, some drawings, and one portrait over six years. It is with vast and exacting detail that Ames-Lewis examines this patronage and the unique role Isabella held as the most significant female art patron of the time; unfortunately, that research is rarely put to any particularly illuminating use. Asides%E2%80%94such as that on the use of geology by the painter Mantegna%E2%80%94might momentarily perk interest, but the text quickly plunges back into clumsy organization and dry cataloging. Scholars interested in the critical practice of paragone or in the role of the studiolo in Renaissance life might find some of this information engaging. For the most part, however, the perhaps fascinating story of Isabella is only hinted at, and the book remains fixated on its own exhaustively specialized research. Color illus. (Apr.)