Situated in the heart of Giulio Boiardo's and Silvia Sanvitale's new apartment complex in the Rocca Nuova at Scandiano, the Camerino dell'Eneide was a small rectangular room, lavishly decorated. The imagery depicted on its walls, particularly in the octagon, speaks not only to the more usual issues of self-fashioning, joint patronage and marriage alliances, but, more importantly, it illustrates the concept of the bilinear family. It is my contention that Laura Pallavicina is the matron of a bilinear family; she speaks of her power and of her position, not only through her daughter, Silvia Sanvitale, but in all her dealings whether it be through her letters to her life-long friend, Pope Paul III Farnese, or in the arrangement of the marriage of her son, Alfonso, to Gerolama Farnese in 1538. Through their artistic patronage both Pallavicina and Sanvitale, who used their own wealth to commission art and architecture, communicate publicly to their peers about fami­ly, religion and politics. Indeed, Laura Pallavicina, through her children, creates a certain dynastic image that conforms to the model of the bilinear family.