A new historical view of the independent female portrait in fifteenth-century Florentine painting

Craven, Jennifer E. (1997) A new historical view of the independent female portrait in fifteenth-century Florentine painting. PhD.

Text CravenJE-Diss-1997.pdf.pdf - Publishers version Restricted to RUG campus Download (19MB)

Abstract

Among the many fifteenth-century Italian panel portraits that survive, those depicting women independent from their husbands' portraits were almost exclusively produced in Florence. A visual and historical examination from the perspective of women's experience in fifteenth-century Florence challenges current assumptions about the social role and evolution of their portraiture. Contemporary sources support a reconfiguration of patronage patterns, ownership issues, and the domestic display of portraits in upper-story chambers. Despite their private presentation, female portraits evolve in unison with women's prescribed image in the public domain, where legislators and appointed ufficiale delle donne obsessively sought to govern the language of social distinction communicated in the sumptuous dress of Florentine wives. This dissertation identifies two distinct female portrait types, the "mistress" and familial or "marriage" portrait. The popularity of the profile format, traditionally reserved for ruler portraits, and the fact that sitters appear in formal dress appropriate for a public appearance substantiate the idea that "marriage" portraits may have been presented to their intended household viewers as inflated images of the sovereignty of the young housewife. The typical spatial composition of this type of portrait, where the sitter is framed by windows or other "threshold" spaces between the public and private boundaries of the home, also serves to legitimate her newlyappointed role as a domestic guardian. In her husband's daily absences, the young Florentine housewife was expected to be an effective "ruler" of the household and its members, according to a patriarchal hierarchy that sanctioned this gendered division of labor. Familial female portraits may have been part of the Counter-dowry" gifts presented by a husband or father-in-law to a new wife after co-habitation had begun. Since husbands had the most to gain from a wife's transition to her new "figure-head" role in the home, these portraits may have been commissioned to facilitate the wife's rite of passage in a talismanic manner. The familial female portrait should be understood as a domestic art tradition that legitimized the merchant-class wife's special right to an otherwise masculine role.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Florentine painting, Fifteenth-century, thesis, dissertation, female, Italian
Language:	English
Publisher:	University of Groningen
Place of Publication:	Pittsburgh, U.S.A.
Date of graduation:	25 March 1997
Status:	Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Florentine painting, Fifteenth-century, thesis, dissertation, female, Italian
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2020 10:45
Last Modified:	02 Jun 2020 10:45
URI:	https://ebooks.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/180

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