She was known for the scandals surrounding her notorious love affairs, which brought her in conflict with the Venetian Inquisition and exemplified its opposition to the informal changes in women's positions in 18th-century Republic of Venice.
The case of Madaluzza Contarini Gradenigo was one of the more famed of its time, and belonged to the Inquisition's opposition to the new freedom of aristocratic women in 18th-century Venice.
This changed in the early 18th-century, when the daughters of the doge Domenico Contarini, by their example, ended the use of zoccoli, a type of shoe customarily used by Venetian upper-class women and restricting their movements.
[2] After this, the female members of the Venetian aristocracy begun to participate in social life escorted by the cavaliere servente, attended the theater and kept their own apartments outside of the homes, called Casino's, which soon became known as gambling halls.
On 1 February 1765, the Inquisition banned her from accompanying her spouse to his position in Paris, so as to not bring Venice into disrepute because of her personal lifestyle.