111-438 Women in Italian Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Art

Note

A knowledge of Italian language and history would be helpful

Credit Points

Coordinator

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject will introduce students to a pioneering area in Italian art history. Four major subjects will be considered: treatises on women and the women who commissioned them; women who were artists; women in the subject matter of Italian Renaissance art, such as the Biblical heroine Judith; and finally, but most significantly, female patronage, an area where women are much more than a marginal phenomenon. In this last area, well known patrons such as the 'superwomen' Isabella d'Este and the abbess Gioanna of Piacenza, will be studied in relation to works of art that they commissioned such as Correggio's frescoes in San Paolo, Parma. The patronage of lesser known women, amounting to ten per cent of Renaissance patrons will be explored. The lesser known were usually nuns and widows, who being financially independent, were able to commission works.

Assessment

Essays and assignments totalling not more than 6000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• H. Diane Russell, B. Barnes, Eva/Ave Women in Renaissance and Baroque Prints, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1990.
• P. Tinagli, Women in Italian Renaissance Art. Gender, Representation and Identity. Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York 1997.