urite convent of
S. Maria della Grazie. It was a work after Leonardo's own heart, and he
determined to frame an altogether new and original composition, a Last
Supper which should be unlike all others in Italy. This time at least
the duke's fastidious taste should be satisfied, and the Lombards should
be made to own that Leonardo the Florentine was an artist who had no
equal.

Another of Isabella's favourite artists, Maestro Lorenzo, the gifted
organ-maker, was absent from court, and had left his old home at Pavia
to take up his abode at Venice near his friend Aldo Manuzio, the
printer. But during this visit the Marchesa saw "the beautiful and
perfect clavichord" which he had made for Beatrice, and vowed to leave
no stone unturned until she had obtained a similar one. Unfortunately,
when she wrote to inform Messer Lorenzo of her wishes, he was engaged in
making a viol for the Duchess of Milan, and had also promised Messer
Antonio Visconti a clavichord, so that he was unable to satisfy the
impatient Marchesa as quickly as she would have liked. Nothing daunted,
however, Isabella returned to the charge, and addressed a letter in her
sweetest and most persuasive strain to Count Antonio Visconti, begging
him, since her desires were so ardent and she had already waited so
long, of his courtesy to allow Messer Lorenzo to begin her clavichord as
soon as Duchess Beatrice's viol should be finished. The count naturally
enough was unable to refuse the request of so charming a princess, and
as usual Isabella got her own way. On Christmas Day, 1496, she wrote
joyously to tell her Venetian agent, Brognolo, that Messer Lorenzo had
just arrived at Mantua, bringing the precious clavichord, which was as
beautiful and perfect as it could possibly be. But the saddest part of
the story has yet to be told. After the death of Beatrice, and
Lodovico's final ruin, Isabella d'Este remembered the matchless organ
which Lorenzo de Pavia had made for her sister, and wrote immediately
to the Pallavicini brothers who had joined in the betrayal of the
Castello, begging them, if possible, to let her have the instrument. A
considerable time elapsed before her wish was gratified, but in the end
her perseverance triumphed over all difficulties, and on the last day of
July, 1501, she wrote to tell Messer Lorenzo that the beautiful
clavichord which he had made for the Duchess of Milan had been given her
by Galeazzo Pallavicino, the husband of Niccolo da Corre