Strategies of Female Patronage of Three Generations in the Renaissance on the Example of Eleonora of Aragon, Isabella D'Este and Margaret Palaeologa

Current paper aims to examine strategies and approaches to female patronage on the example of three ladies from the same family – Eleanor of Aragon, Isabella d'Este and Margherita Palaeologa. Patronage was significant during the Renaissance because it helped to glorify the customer's virtues, but women's collecting was very limited socially and financially. The objectives of the research are to analyze the socio-cultural environment of their upbringing and the parameters of patronage of female rulers, and to compare them with each other. Eleanor used strategies familiar from her childhood to consolidate her and her husband's position on the throne of Ferrara, while Isabella used active patronage to cultivate her own image as a wise woman and ruler. Margherita, for her part, promoted the position of her sons through the stewardship of collections. Despite their kinship and mutual influences, they all used different collection tactics and cultivated different images of themselves as active women.