Women and the Visual Arts in Italy c. 1400–1650

This anthology of original sources from c.1400 to 1650, translated from Italian or Latin, is a companion to the authors Women in Italy, 1340-1650. Ideals and Realities, though it can be read independently. These texts, mostly unfamiliar and often vivid, deal with women’s involvement in the visual arts and material culture of their day.

The documents are from inventories, letters, diaries, wills, artists’ contracts, and more formal treatises or poetic works. Each section has a general introduction to the broader context and issues. Short introductions precede each text.Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and lecturers in art history or Italian studies, will deepen their understanding of the relationship between women, artists and the visual arts in early modern Italy. This book will be an essential aid for a class discussion and further research.
Part I deals with the material environments which women inhabited, their living quarters and contents, and women’s appearance outside the home, on everyday occasion, and in lavishly orchestrated spectacles. Part II examines women as agents, commissioning, supervising or bequeathing ambitious architectural projects. The commissioning and acquisition of painting and sculptures also show the reader the significance of different types of art for patronesses and intended audiences. Part III looks at women’s religious devotion, and the role played in it by buildings, paintings and objects. Part IV enables the reader to enter the working lives of female artists and the little-explored topic of how women authors of the time wrote about real or imaginary artefacts.