Vittoria Colonna

NAME VITTORIA

SURNAME COLONNA

PHYSICAL
DESCRIPTION A BUXOM WOMAN OF BEAUTIFUL FEATURES .

PLACE ROME, SMALL TOWN NEAR ROME, MONASTERIES, REIGN OF NAPLES.

TIME RENAISSANCE PERIOD

THE FACTS Daughter of the famous captain, Fabrizio Colonna, Vittoria was born in 1490 at Marino on Colli Albani, near Rome, her family feud. In 1509 she got married with Francesco Ferrante d'Avalos, marquis of Pescara, general captain of the emperor Charles V of Habsburg. Even though her marriage for political reasons, she always showed a great love for her husband. She sang of him in her rhymes both first and after his death in battle in 1525. During her widowhood the poetess led a strict and almost monastic life and she lived in some convents such as Saint Silvester in Rome, Saint Paul in Orvieto and
Saint Catherine in Viterbo. She joined the so called ' Neapolitan Group', of the Spanish noble Juan de Valdes, that was concerned with the Church reformation topics. Vittoria shared with Valdes the idea of a Lutheran spiritual reform without considering however drastic breaking with the Roman Church . Also her friendship with Michelangelo, the Italian very famous artist, who she met in Rome between 1538-40, was marked by a mutual spiritual and religious restlessness. After the failure of the revolt of Ascanio Colonna against the Pope Paul II, she saw the persecution and the ruin of her family. She died in 1547.

THE LEGEND Vittoria entered the legend as a rare female voice of the Renaissance poetry, for her innovating spirit. Her platonic relationship with Michelangelo gave birth to different and surface interpretations. Her memory got involved in the hate against her family ( the Colonnas ) and her free and nonconformist faith.
Vittoria can be rightly considered an exceptional woman breaking all the rules of her age concerning her sex : she was a woman highly educated, a poetess, friends of great artists like Michelangelo and thinkers like Valdés, but most of all she had a free mind that led her to form her own opinions in an original way. This aspect of her personality is especially apparent in the religious field where she examined with an indipendent eye Luther’s theory deciding finally what was worth accepting and what was not.
A great woman neglected by history and philosophers of later times.

NAME	VITTORIA
SURNAME	COLONNA
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION	A BUXOM WOMAN OF BEAUTIFUL FEATURES .
PLACE	ROME, SMALL TOWN NEAR ROME, MONASTERIES, REIGN OF NAPLES.
TIME	RENAISSANCE PERIOD
THE FACTS	Daughter of the famous captain, Fabrizio Colonna, Vittoria was born in 1490 at Marino on Colli Albani, near Rome, her family feud. In 1509 she got married with Francesco Ferrante d'Avalos, marquis of Pescara, general captain of the emperor Charles V of Habsburg. Even though her marriage for political reasons, she always showed a great love for her husband. She sang of him in her rhymes both first and after his death in battle in 1525. During her widowhood the poetess led a strict and almost monastic life and she lived in some convents such as Saint Silvester in Rome, Saint Paul in Orvieto and Saint Catherine in Viterbo. She joined the so called ' Neapolitan Group', of the Spanish noble Juan de Valdes, that was concerned with the Church reformation topics. Vittoria shared with Valdes the idea of a Lutheran spiritual reform without considering however drastic breaking with the Roman Church . Also her friendship with Michelangelo, the Italian very famous artist, who she met in Rome between 1538-40, was marked by a mutual spiritual and religious restlessness. After the failure of the revolt of Ascanio Colonna against the Pope Paul II, she saw the persecution and the ruin of her family. She died in 1547.
THE LEGEND	Vittoria entered the legend as a rare female voice of the Renaissance poetry, for her innovating spirit. Her platonic relationship with Michelangelo gave birth to different and surface interpretations. Her memory got involved in the hate against her family ( the Colonnas ) and her free and nonconformist faith. Vittoria can be rightly considered an exceptional woman breaking all the rules of her age concerning her sex : she was a woman highly educated, a poetess, friends of great artists like Michelangelo and thinkers like Valdés, but most of all she had a free mind that led her to form her own opinions in an original way. This aspect of her personality is especially apparent in the religious field where she examined with an indipendent eye Luther’s theory deciding finally what was worth accepting and what was not. A great woman neglected by history and philosophers of later times.