Sarah Dunant on 'The Marchesa'
Online Members' book club
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From the acclaimed author Sarah Dunant, 'The Marchesa' takes us into the world of Isabella d’Este, leading female patron and collector of art in the Italian Renaissance.
Born in the 15th century, Isabella d’Este became known for her fashion, her cunning political manoeuvring, and her magnificent collection of art and objects. Her collection has since dispersed, but thousands of letters remain in the state archive of Mantua. From these letters, Sarah builds a picture of a formidable woman, unbound by the conventions of her time.
Art historian Siân Walters joins Sarah Dunant to discuss 'The Marchesa', a novel which masterfully weaves biography, scholarship and art.
This is a National Gallery Members’ book club event with time for questions at the end of the discussion.
Copies of 'The Marchesa' are available in our National Gallery gift shops.
Speakers
Sarah Dunant is an award-winning thriller writer, a broadcaster for the BBC and the author of five novels set in Renaissance Italy exploring women’s lives through art, sex and religion. She lectures on these subjects for the Arts Society of Great Britain and around the world. Her most recent novel 'The Marchesa', a study of the great Renaissance woman patron, Isabella d’Este was published in the summer of 2025.
Siân Walters is an art historian and the director of Art History in Focus. She studied at Selwyn College, Cambridge University and has been a lecturer at the National Gallery for over 20 years. Her specialist areas of research are Italian painting, Spanish art and architecture, Flemish and Dutch painting and the relationship between dance and art. Siân also lectures for The Wallace Collection and The Arts Society and leads specialist art tours abroad. She was a lecturer at Surrey University for many years and has lived and worked in France and Venice.
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A recording of this event will be made available to all ticket holders in the days following the event.
This recording will be available for two weeks.
Closed captions
Automatic closed captioning is available for this event.