The Life of Vittoria Colonna. Ramie Targoffs Renaissance Woman tells of the most remarkable woman of the Italian Renaissance Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara. Vittoria has long been celebrated by scholars of Michelangelo as the artists best friend - the two of them exchanged beautiful letters, poems, and works of art that bear witness to their intimacy - but she also had close ties to Charles V, Pope Clement VII and Pope Paul III, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Pietro Aretino, Queen Marguerite de Navarre, Reginald Pole, and Isabella dEste, among others. Vittoria was the scion of an immensely powerful family in Rome