ticularly its women singers, and attracted composers, such
as LUZZASCHIand GESUALDO. Notable Renaissance build-
ings include the Castello Estense, the Palazzo di Schi-
fanoia, and the Palazzo dei Diamanti, which takes its
name from the diamond emblem of the Este on the facade.
Ferrara went into decline when the papacy regained con-
trol of the city in 1598 after the death of Alfonso II d’Este
without an heir.
Further reading: Stephen Campbell, Cosme Tura of
Ferrara: Style, Politics and the Renaissance City, 1450–1495
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998); Werner
L. Gundersheimer, Ferrara: The Style of a Renaissance
Despotism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1973).
Ferrara, Council of See FLORENCE, COUNCIL OF
Ferrari, Gaudenzio (c. 1475–1546) Italian artist
Born at Valduggia in Piedmont, Gaudenzio worked in
Lombardy, Piedmont, and Milan. Early influences upon
his style included those of LEONARDO DA VINCIand PERUG-
INO, although he also borrowed from the works of notable
German artists, PORDENONE, and Lorenzo LOTTOin devel-
oping his own highly emotional approach. His earliest
works were chapel decorations executed at Varallo in
northern Italy, where he also painted a major fresco cycle
on the life of Christ at the Sacro Monte (begun in 1517).
This cycle was unusual in that it incorporated a number of
terracotta figures, also by Gaudenzio, to enhance the
three-dimensional effect. Other frescoes painted in Lom-
bardy included series in San Cristoforo in Vercelli
(1529–32) and for the dome of Sta. Maria dei Miracoli in
Saronno (1534), which indicates the influence of CORREG-
GIO.
Ferreira, António (1528–1569) Portuguese poet and
dramatist
He was born in Lisbon and studied at Coimbra, where he
came under the influence of the humanist Diogo de Teive.
His life was spent as a judge in Lisbon, where he died a
victim of the plague. His poems, Poemas lusitanos (1598),
were published by his son. A friend and the outstanding
disciple of Sá de MIRANDA, Ferreira was an admirer of Vir-
gil and Horace and wrote epigrams, epistles, eclogues, and
odes as well as Petrarchan sonnets. He strongly defended
the use of Portuguese (as opposed to Latin or Spanish),
urging the reform of literature through the new meters (as
introduced by BOSCÁNand GARCILASO DE LA VEGA) and the
revival of classical models. He wrote two mediocre prose
comedies, Bristo and O Cioso 1622). His Tragedia de Dona
Inês de Castro (written after 1553; published 1586), a five-
act blank-verse play based on classical Greek models and
concerned with a famous historical incident, is the most
important and successful tragedy of Renaissance Portugal.
Festa, Costanzo (c. 1490–1545) Italian composer
Festa’s works mark the emergence of native Italian com-
posers from the lengthy period of dominance by Flemish
musicians. Festa probably came from Tuscany, and his ear-
liest works are found in the Medici Codex of 1518, which
was compiled on the marriage of Lorenzo II de’ Medici,
nephew of Pope Leo X. In the early 1510s Festa seems to
have been employed at the French court. In 1517 he
joined the papal choir in Rome, remaining a member until
his death. Despite his ecclesiastical duties, Festa’s histori-
cal importance is as one of the earliest madrigalists; the
first publication to use the word MADRIGAL, the anthology
Madrigali de diversi musici libro primo (1530), contains
compositions by him. His madrigals are less substantial
than his motets, though they show a good deal of textural
variety. Some are complex in their use of counterpoint
while others are consistently homophonic.Feuillants Reformed Cistercians named after Les-
Feuillans, near Toulouse, where their order was founded
in 1577 by Abbot Jean de la Barrière (1544–1600). En-
couraged by Henry III, the Feuillants were established in
Paris and played a major part in the reform of the capital.
By the time they were given status as an independent
order (1589), the Feuillants had spread to Italy, where
they were known as Bernardines. The order became less
austere during the 17th century but remained influential
until its demise at the end of the Napoleonic wars.Fiammingo, Dionisio See CALVAERT, DENYSFicino, Marsilio (1433–1499) Italian humanist scholar
and philosopher
Ficino was born at Figline, near Florence, and taken at an
early age into the household of Cosimo de’ MEDICI. In
stressing the divine origins of both Christian and pagan
revelations, he played a seminal role in the Renaissance
process by which the inspiration of Greek and Roman an-
tiquity, as preserved in the Platonic and Neoplatonic tra-
ditions, was absorbed and revived in the Christian world
of 15th-century Europe. In 1462 he became head of the
PLATONIC ACADEMY, which was based at Cosimo de’
Medici’s villa at Careggi. From there Ficino corresponded
with admirers all over Europe, including John COLETand
Johann REUCHLIN. A proficient Greek scholar, Ficino un-
dertook a new translation of PLATO’s works into Latin. This
translation, completed in 1477, aroused interest in Pla-
tonism throughout Europe and remained the standard
Latin text of Plato’s work for over a century. Ordained
priest in 1472 and appointed a canon of Florence ca-
thedral in 1484, Ficino made explicit his defense of Pla-
tonic philosophy in a Christian context with his
influential De Christiana religione (1476) and Theologia
Platonica (1482), arguing in the latter his belief in the im-
mortality of the soul. He wrote a number of biblical com-FFiicciinnoo,, MMaarrssiilliioo 1 17799