Alfonso I d ' Este , Duke of Ferrara Alfonso d ' Este ( 21 July 1476 – 31 October 1534 ) was Duke of Ferrara during the time of the War of the League of Cambrai . Biography . He was the son of Ercole I d ' Este and Leonora of Naples . In the first year of his rule he uncovered a plot by his brother Ferrante and half - brother Giulio d ' Este , directed against him and his other brother Ippolito . In September 1506 a trial for lèse majesté and high treason was held and , as expected , the death sentence was passed , but just as Ferrante and Giulio were about to mount the gallows they were informed that the duke had commuted their sentence to life imprisonment . They were led away to two cells in the Torre dei Leoni . Ferrante died in his cell after 34 years of imprisonment , while Giulio held on until he was pardoned in 1559 , after 53 years of imprisonment . After his release , Giulio was ridiculed in the streets of Ferrara for his outdated clothes and died in 1561 . In the Italian Wars Alfonso preserved his precarious position among the contending powers by flexibility and vigilance and the unrivalled fortifications of Ferrara ; he entered the League of Cambrai against Venice and remained an ally of Louis XII of France even after Pope Julius II had made peace with Venice ; when the Bolognesi rebelled against Julius and toppled Michelangelo ' s bronze statue of the Pope from above the gate , Alfonso received the shards and recast them as a cannon named " La Giulia " , which he set on the ramparts of the castello : in 1510 Julius excommunicated him and declared his fiefs forfeit , thereby adding Ferrara to the Papal States ; Alfonso then fought successfully against the Venetian and Papal armies , gaining the Battle of Polesella , capturing Bologna , and playing a major part in the French victory at the Battle of Ravenna ( 1512 ) . These successes were based on Ferrara ' s artillery , produced in his own foundry which was the best of its time . In both of his portraits by Titian , ( " Compare illustration above " ) he poses with his arm across the mouth of one of his cannon . In 1526 – 1527 Alfonso participated in the expedition of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain , against Pope Clement VII , and in 1530 the pope again recognized him as possessor of the forfeited duchies of Modena and Reggio . Alfonso ' s first wife was Anna Sforza , the sister of Gian Galeazzo Sforza . His second wife was Lucrezia Borgia . Like his brother Ippolito I , Cardinal d ' Este , he was one of the great patrons of art of his time : for him the elderly Giovanni Bellini painted " The Feast of the Gods " in 1514 , Bellini ' s last completed painting . He turned to Bellini ' s pupil , Titian , for a sequence of paintings . In 1529 Alfonso created the most magnificent gallery of his time , his " studiolo " or " camerino d ' alabastro " ( ' small alabaster room ' ) , now usually known as his " Camerino " , in order to better display his works of art against white marble - veneered walls under a gilded ceiling . The pallor of the marble led to the name of this room as the " chamber of alabaster " . There are documents from Mario Equicola on 9 October 1511 , noting plans for painting of a room in Ferrara , in which " six fables ( " fabule " ) or histories ( " istorie " ) shall be placed . I have already found them and have presented them in writing . " A letter from Alfonso , dated 14 November 1514 , authorized payment to Giovanni Bellini , the first painting completed for the chamber . Titian is known to have painted two portraits of Alfonso : the first was widely acclaimed , singled out by Michelangelo and coerced as a diplomatic gift by Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor ; Alfonso induced Titian to paint a free replica , which the artist of the painting illustrated above has adapted for his model . Over the next two decades , Titian added three more paintings : " The Worship of Venus " ( Museo del Prado , Madrid ) , " The Bacchanal of the Andrians " ( Prado , Madrid ) , and " Bacchus and Ariadne " ( National Gallery , London ) . Dosso Dossi produced another large bacchanal , and he also contributed ceiling decorations and a painted frieze for the cornice , depicting scenes from the " Aeneid " , which gained immediacy by showing the heroes in contemporary dress ( " illustration , left " ) . All the bacchanals in the Alabaster Chamber dealt with love , and some refer to marriage . After the Este family lost control of Ferrara in 1598 , the Alabaster Chamber ' s paintings and sculpture were dispersed . Alfonso inherited from Cardinal d ' Este the poet Ariosto . Following in the lead of his father Ercole , who had made Ferrara into one of the musical centers of Europe , Alfonso brought some of the most famous musicians of the time to his court to work as composers , instrumentalists and singers . Musicians from northern Europe who worked at Ferrara during his reign included Antoine Brumel and Adrian Willaert , the latter of whom was to become the founder of the Venetian School , something which could not have happened without Alfonso ' s patronage . When Alfonso ’ s grandson Alfonso II d ' Este - - Robert Browning ' s duke of " My Last Duchess " - - produced no male heir , the main d ' Este line died out . A grandson of Alfonso I and cousin of Alfonso II , Cesare d ' Este had been born out of wedlock . He was recognized by the Emperor but not by the Pope , who took the Duchy of Ferrara by force . Nevertheless , the House of Este continued in Modena and Reggio . < br >