Lucrezia Crivelli was a mistress of Ludovico Sforza

Ludovico Sforza

Ludovico Sforza , was Duke of Milan from 1489 until his death. A member of the Sforza family, he was the fourth son of Francesco Sforza. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance...

, il Moro, Duke of Milan (27 July 1452 – 27 May 1508). Lucrezia was thought to be the model Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

 used for La belle ferronnière, which is now in the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

, in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. She was the mother of Ludovico's son Giovanni Paolo I Sforza

Giovanni Paolo I Sforza

Giovanni Paolo I Sforza was an Italian condottiero, the first in the Sforza family line of the Marquesses of Caravaggio....

, Marquess of Caravaggio

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

.

Duke's mistress

Lucrezia was a lady-in-waiting

Lady-in-waiting

A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...

 to Ludovico Sforza's wife before she became his mistress sometime before 1496. In 1497, a son was born to her, Giovanni Paolo. Ludovico's affair with Lucrezia caused much distress to Ludovico's wife, the accomplished and cultured Beatrice d'Este

Beatrice d'Este

Beatrice d'Este , duchess of Milan, one of the most beautiful and accomplished princesses of the Italian Renaissance, was the daughter of Ercole I d'Este and younger sister of Isabella d'Este and Alfonso d'Este....

 (29 June 1475- 2 January 1497), who tried without success to have Lucrezia banished from court. Leonardo da Vinci's painting La belle ferronnière, which is displayed in the Louvre, is presumed to be a portrait of Lucrezia. Leonardo had previously immortalised an earlier mistress of Ludovico's, Cecilia Gallerani

Cecilia Gallerani

Cecilia Gallerani , born in Siena, Italy, was the favourite and most celebrated of the many mistresses of Ludovico Sforza, known as Lodovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. She is best known as the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Lady with an Ermine...

, in his painting, Lady with an Ermine

Lady with an Ermine

Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, from around 1489–1490. The subject of the portrait is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably painted at a time when she was the mistress of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the service of the Duke.The painting is...

.

Her son by Ludovico, Giovanni Paolo I Sforza (March 1497- December 1535), became the first Marquess of Caravaggio as well as a celebtated condottiero

Condottieri

thumb|Depiction of [[Farinata degli Uberti]] by [[Andrea del Castagno]], showing a 15th century condottiero's typical attire.Condottieri were the mercenary soldier leaders of the professional, military free companies contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy, from the late Middle Ages...

. He married Violante Bentivoglio (1505–1550), a granddaughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza

Galeazzo Maria Sforza

Galeazzo Maria Sforza was Duke of Milan from 1466 until his death. He was famous for being lustful, cruel and tyrannical....

, by his mistress Lucrezia Landriani

Lucrezia Landriani

Lucrezia Landriani , was the mistress of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and the mother of his renowned illegitimate daughter, Caterina Sforza, Lady of Imola, Countess of Forlì...

. The marriage produced a son and a daughter. Ludovico Sforza died in 1508.

Lucrezia lived for many years under the protection of Isabella d'Este

Isabella d'Este

Isabella d'Este was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and at the French court...

, in Rocca di Canneto in Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

. Isabella was the elder sister of Beatrice, who had died in January 1497.