page_title: Il Perdono di Gesualdo
section_title: Eleonora d’Este
hierarchical_section_title: Il Perdono di Gesualdo / Analysis / Portraits / Eleonora d’Este
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Portrait de Leonora d'Este à Modène
context_page_description: Il Perdono di Gesualdo is an altarpiece created in 1609 by the Florentine painter Giovanni Balducci for a commission from the madrigal composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, of the kingdom of Naples. Conserved in the private chapel of Gesualdo's church, Santa Maria delle Grazie, the painting underwent important restorations in the late twentieth century, following the destructive Irpinia earthquake of 1980.
  A unique testimony, in the field of religious painting, to the devotion of the composer prince, Il Perdono di Gesualdo has been the object of numerous commentaries and analyses since the seventeenth century. These interpretations, focusing on the musician's murder of his adulterous wife and her lover, have shrouded the artwork in mystery.
  In the early twenty-first century, art historians and musicologists agree that certain ambiguities in the Perdono reflect the fascinating personality of its patron. The American musicologist Glenn Watkins believes the painting to be the only authentic portrait of Gesualdo.
context_section_description: Gesualdo's wife is the only figure whose gaze is turned toward the viewer. In a way, the modified version of this figure, with her gaze turned toward Christ, was in greater harmony with the attitudes of the other figures. In his analysis of the Perdono, Glenn Watkins suggests that Gesualdo intended for his wife to appear “as the sole person in the painting to maintain a blank frontal stare, a completely passive witness to the implorations of forgiveness.”
  Biographical information on the couples marriage sheds some light on the nature of their conjugal relations: with the support of her brother Cesare d’Este, Eleonora obtained her husband's permission to return to the court of Modena, where she stayed first from October 1607 to November 1608, then again from October 1609 to November 1610, “not without provoking the irritation of Gesualdo, who implored her to return to the conjugal residence.”
  Considering this absence, her portrait was likely created from a pre-existing portrait, such as the one conserved in the house of Este museum at the Ducal Palace of Modena, rather than from life.
caption: Portrait of Eleonora d'Este (anonymous, Ducal Palace of Modena)
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