Italy's eighteenth century : gender and culture in the age of the grand tour (original) (raw)

Women in the picture: Analyzing the position of women in Renaissance Italy (1405 – 1620). Trends and Issues E-Journal. Florida Council for the Social Studies.

Trends and Issues E-Journal, 2017

The purpose of this lesson is to examine written and visual primary sources to challenge student perceptions about Renaissance views of women. Students will read a text written by Baldassare Castiglione (d. 1529), an author used as an example of a traditional Renaissance intellectual in high school history textbooks (Ramirez, et al., 2008). While Castiglione encouraged education for women, his writing maintains traditional gender assumptions. Students will also analyze a source composed by Christine de Pizan (d. 1430), another Renaissance intellectual often mentioned in textbooks. After the written primary sources are analyzed, students will engage in a Visual-Thinking-Strategy (VTS) activity (Yenawine, 2013) culminating in the comparison of two artists’ (Caravaggio and Artemesia Gentileschi) rendering of the same topic, Judith Beheading Holofernes.

Revisiting Arcadia. Women and Academies in Eighteenth-Century Italy

Italy’s Eighteenth Century, 2009

Few Italian women had the opportunity to travel in the age of the Grand Tour. If they did, they were accompanied by husbands, sons, brothers, and parents. They were rarely alone. This was part of a more general impediment which kept women far from the loci of culture and from the means of procuring culture: books, travel, good instructors, and the frequenting of cultured persons in a manner not directly aimed at marriage, the objective normally allowed women who circulated in society. The academies were certainly an important means of overcoming this handicap, because they were capable of furnishing the loci and also the means for a female acculturation which was a viable alternative to their widespread convent education. In order to understand the possibilities for women in eighteenth-century Italy, we need to investigate further the presence and the roles of women in the academies. This chapter intends to respond briefly to the questions: When were the academies opened to women in Italy? Why did this occur and why only then? Who (or which academies) took this initiative? What sort of woman was accepted (and Translated by Matthew Sneider.

MA Thesis: Virtue and chastity in action: Women's patronage networks in the Renaissance courts of Northern Italy

2006

This qualifying paper examines the ways in which concepts of women's chastity and virtue influenced their ability to commission architectural spaces and artworks within the courts of Renaissance Italy. It synthesizes recent theories concerning the gendering of space, as well as scholarship concerning women's patronage to argue that women formed networks with their friends and relatives in order to navigate patriarchal patronage structures. This paper is divided into two chapters, covering the general history of feminine space and then moving on to specific cases of women's patronage of personal spaces. Chapter One argues that while women were active in creating spaces, which could speak publicly about their accomplishments and ambitions, they were also confined within those spaces. Chapter Two discusses the network created by five Renaissance noblewomen: Eleonora d'Aragona, Isabella d'Este, Veronica Gambara, Paola Gonzaga and Silvia Sanvitale, and asserts that the spaces created by and for these women were products of their relationships with each other.

AUP Official Sample Preview (Introductory Matter, Table of Contents & Introduction) to _Genevra Sforza and the Bentivoglio Family, Politics, Gender and Reputation in (and beyond) Renaissance Bologna_

(Sample Preview to _Genevra Sforza and the Bentivoglio_), 2023

This series provides a forum for studies that investigate women, gender, and/or sexuality in the late medieval and early modern world. The editors invite proposals for booklength studies of an interdisciplinary nature, including, but not exclusively, from the fields of history, literature, art and architectural history, and visual and material culture. Consideration will be given to both monographs and collections of essays. Chronologically, we welcome studies that look at the period between 1400 and 1700, with a focus on any part of the world, as well as comparative and global works. We invite proposals including, but not limited to, the following broad themes: methodologies, theories and meanings of gender; gender, power and political culture; monarchs, courts and power; constructions of femininity and masculinity; gift-giving, diplomacy and the politics of exchange; gender and the politics of early modern archives; gender and architectural spaces (courts, salons, household); consumption and material culture; objects and gendered power; women's writing; gendered patronage and power; gendered activities, behaviours, rituals and fashions.

“Fighting Eve: Women on the Stage in Early Modern Italy.” Quaderni d’Italianistica 37, 2 (2016): 23-47.

The Catholic revival in the sixteenth century coincides with the opening of the commedia dell'arte stage to women, leading to progress for female performers. However, the presence of women in the commedia dell'arte immediately shows contradictions and disagreements with the teaching of the Catholic Church. At this time, women were depicted as an emblem of Catholic morality: they were supposed to be devoted mothers and wives and their life was confined within the domestic household. In my paper, I analyze how difficult it was for women to prevail against religious and cultural prejudices and gain respect and recognition as actresses. My aim is to point out how the presence of women on the stage brought about a revolution for women's role in Western culture offering a freedom of expression against traditional moral patterns and giving female performers a chance to demonstrate cleverness and professionalism.

What to Wear in the Decameron and Why It Matters, Elissa Weaver in Patronage, gender and the arts in early Modern italy

Italica Press, 2015

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Patronage, gender & the arts in early modern italy : essays in honor of Carolyn Valone / Katherine a. Mciver and Cynthia stollhans, editors. pages cm.-(studies in art & history) summary: "sixteen essays by an international group of scholars that examine the role of noble women as patrons of architecture and music in early modern italy and that explore the behavior of woman art patrons and artists involved in the creation of art and architecture"-Provided by publisher.