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The Worlds of the Renaissance: Projects - Kim Smolik

Gender and Society:
Teacher Notes

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

  1. Introduction: Organizing Women

    1. Men's identity comes from occupation

    2. Women's identity based on place in sexual development
      1. Mothers
      2. Daughters
      3. Widows
        or
      4. religious group

  2. Women as Mothers

    1. Survival: the big job is to keep children alive
      1. Therefore, mothers are exceptionally important
      2. Economics are a direct link to birth rate
      3. Investment in children increased during Renaissance

    2. Elite families
      1. Mothers especially protective because they produce heirs/honor/represent family name
      2. Rich married younger, had more children
        1. more money to do so
        2. more time to spend with children, because they do not work
        3. They do not nurse their own children
          • "looks unladylike"
          • hire a wet-nurse
          • allows them to get pregnant sooner
      3. Wealthy parents more involved with children because mothers did not work

    3. Premarital Sex did not happen without marriage following
      1. Expected culturally
      2. Shame put on the woman if there was no marriage
      3. Extra dowry (money/gifts given to man's family when marriage takes place--however, the money belongs to the wife) offered to marry pregnant woman

  3. Daughters and Dowries

    1. Wealthy
      1. Protected/married with large dowry
      2. Dowry purchases ALLIES for family
        1. Available for only a number of daughters in each family
        2. As a bourgeois male: MUST provide for daughter.
          • dowry is first option
          • convent is second, cheaper alternative
      3. Widowed
        1. if widowed at young age... taken back by family with dowry, possibly remarried
          • if children were had in first marriage, this causes hardship because the children are not the responsibility of new husband
        2. old age... (children grown) no one wants her because she can't bear children. She and her children are possibly left destitute.

  4. Women in the Church: Want It vs. Don't Want it

    1. Don't Want It (to become a nun)
      1. Widows: as to not interfere w/families
      2. Paternal Tyranny: fathers put daughters in convent to maximize family wealth

    2. Want it
      1. Religious reasons
      2. As service to families
      3. Only place to pursue intellectual career
        • status exists
        • time devoted to study (not raising family)
        • some become authors: spiritual works, memoirs

  5. Women's Work

    1. Economic status dictated job
      1. Order:
        • patricians (usually no work)
        • bourgeoisie
        • artisans
        • craftsman/farmers
        • beggars
      2. Women could assume husband's guild position if he died

    2. Prostitution
      • brought on by economic hardship

PORTRAITS AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

  1. Portraits

    1. Introduction
      1. Historical setting
        1. Late Middle Age through the seventeenth century, portraits grew into significance
        2. neglected since Classical antiquity
        3. Renaissance portraiture emphasized idea of human dignity that was evident in the humanist movement
      2. Types of portraits
        1. Individual portraits used by public figures who wished to display their social standing
        2. Group portraits used as status symbol for large groups, corporate bodies such as guilds, trade associations
          • established hierarchy within the group as well
        3. Married couples and family portraits displayed the mores and conventions of the time
      3. Sitters and settings
        1. Sitters included: princes, craftsmen, bankers, humanist scholars, artists (and their wives and daughters)
        2. Portraits are products of compositions: an agreement between the artist and sitter, between aesthetic desires of the artist and what the sitter or patron hope to convey.
        3. setting was to define the sitter's role in society: interests, intentions, and values
          1. Landscape backgrounds often symbolized the public sphere (possibly land which the sitter rules over)
          2. Interior backgrounds gave symbolic expression to norms and values of the sitter
            examples of symbolism and its use
            1. desire to perfect knowledge of the world = instruments of technological progress and "modern" civilization i.e. telescope, globe
            2. books = spread of knowledge
            3. many symbols not about knowledge, but values and virtue, especially in portraits of women
        4. Women as sitters
          1. Mostly married women, brides or fiances, occasionally courtesans
          2. Objects in pictures emphasized qualities expected of women by society
          3. Settings were almost exclusively concerned with defining the the role of the female gender
      4. Types of poses
        1. Full-length, reserved for ruling princes or mobility
        2. Three-quarter-length and head-and-shoulder, most frequent, held various angles at which the sitter could face the spectator
          1. profile view, dignified and hieratic, taken from Classical antiquity
          2. Three-quarters view, half-length, and frontal view suggest direct address
        3. Portraits of men took the direct address poses earlier than women

    2. Specific Portraits of Women
      1. The Lady with the Ermine, approximately 1481, by Leonardo da Vinci
        1. face - gentle and childlike
        2. plain hair, averted gaze lends to air of chaste respectability
        3. Ermine (diametric symbolism) emphasizes woman's need to be both chaste and a devoted mistress
          1. symbolizes chastity and purity (white fur)
          2. sexually charged in its predatory nature, extended claw
        4. Fragility of woman, seen in slender hand
      2. Young Lady of the Este Family, Pisanello
        1. dress, hair, pose establishes portrait as courtly
        2. possibly a princess during marriage negotiations
          • tapestry background with blossoms, butterflies symbolize chastity
      3. Laura Battiferri, Agnolo Bronzino
        1. veil symbolizes marriage
        2. her hand motions to Petrarch's sonnets to Laura, where he refers to her as an unapproachable, unnattainable beauty, chaste and modes

    3. Portraits of Men and Women
      1. Federigo da Montefeltro and his Wife Battista Sforza
        Front Side
        1. 2 panels
        2. unusually, the paintings do not record an important event in the couple's life (betrothal or marriage)
        3. posed separately, no eye contact, appear distinct
        4. profile view creates formality, rigidness
        5. Duke's red biretta (hat) represents his majesty and power
        6. Wife wears:
          1. while veil - symbol of marriage
          2. jewels represent wealth
          3. pearls represent likeness to Mary (Virgin Mary was often portrayed with pearls)
        7. landscape: ships, coastline symbolize Duke's military power
        Reverse Side: Allegorical
        1. Duke is shown
          1. wearing knightly armor
          2. crowned by Glory
          3. surrounded by virtues of Justice, Wisdom, Valor and moderation
        2. Battista (Wife)
          1. reading prayer book
          2. assisted by Faith, Hope, and Charity (her qualities are praised as a credit to the Duke)

      2. Portraits of Men
        1. Portrait of Ugolino Martelli I, Agnolo Bronzino
          1. sitter was a humanist scholar, 20 years old
          2. presented as contemplative, reflecting on piece in open book (ninth book of the Iliad by Homer)
          3. statue of David in the background represents loyalty to Florence, sitter's home (David symbolizes the Florentine Republic. See "Ideal Society Teacher's Notes")

  2. Historical documents

    1. Of the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve by Ludovico Foscarini and Isotta Nogarola of Verona
      1. Identification of text
        1. discussion between Ludovico and Isotta
        2. 1451-53 established correspondence)
        3. they respectively defend Adam and Eve in terms of whose sin was greater
      2. Identification of authors
        1. Ludovico:
          1. Venetian doctor of arts and laws
          2. diplomat
          3. humanist
          4. initiated correspondence with Isotta, allowing her intellect to become public
        2. Isotta
          1. noblewoman
          2. learned

      B. Vergerius to Ubertinus of Carrara, Humanist letter

      1. Identification of the text
        • written to establish what makes a solid education for young men
      2. Identification of author


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