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The lives of women during the Renaissance period were dictated by societal ideals that asserted the notion that a woman’s place was in the home. As the Renaissance encouraged the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature, and art, many of the beliefs surrounding femininity were greatly influenced by Aristotle. According to him, “the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.” This idea that women were divinely ordained for obedience is rooted in biblical texts. From the viewpoint of early-modern theory, Eve was created after Adam, so naturally she takes second place to him. The sole purpose of her existence then was to obey him and act as the auxiliary. As maintained by Italian Renaissance Scholar Leon Battista Alberti in his book Il Libri della Famiglia (1434), women are “almost all timid by nature, soft, slow, and therefore more useful when they sit still and watch over our things.” Thus, emphasizing the largely interior role of women. Renaissance artwork on domestic life is reflective of standard ideals of femininity, which primarily consisted of marriage, childbearing, and catering to the husband’s needs. Through the agency of various art forms from Italy – including portraits, cassoni, smaller, birth trays, and frescoes – one can note particular sets of aesthetics and social values regarding the topic. It is evident that the idealized woman is modest, chaste, virtuous, and compliant. Hence, scholars are able to reach consistent conclusions about prevailing Renaissance views on femininity and domestic life.
In Renaissance Italy, marriage was an event that held great importance. It was chiefly used as a tool to create political alliances, social upliftments, and economical benefits. Marriages were celebrated and commemorated through art, which portrayed individual and family virtues, along with lineage, by means of narratives and iconographies. Spalliera panels are an example of such. They were commonly made out of wood and decorated with intricate carving or painting, as well as being gilded. Spalliere were mainly painted to celebrate weddings and to be fitted to the marital bedroom. They were usually mounted on the walls at shoulder height or higher. Giovanni de Ser Giovanni Guidi’s ‘Wedding Scene’ (Figure 1) was pallier which was created to celebrate a marriage occasion in the Adimiri family. It portrays the extravagance of the celebration, which was customary at the time. Couples in rich and fashionable clothes can be seen dancing under the decorated tent. A group of people is playing some festive music and the attendants are serving food. Jacqueline Marie Musacchio states, “Within such a society, a great emphasis was placed on the continuation of the lineage. Politically and economically advantageous marriage alliances were carefully negotiated and extravagantly celebrated.” Such images of marriage express prevailing notions on the concept of femininity as they are representative of what was expected from a Renaissance woman. Marriage was an important part of a woman’s role due to the belief that women were supposed to be focused on domestic duties and continue their husband’s lineage. Therefore, scholars are able to reach consistent conclusions regarding the Renaissance perception of the topic as these were the general ideas of marriage in relation to femininity.
Another significant pallier that depicts the story of Nastagio degli Onesti was commissioned by Antonio Pucci to Sandro Botticelli in 1482-83 during the marriage ceremony of his son with a member of the Bini family. Four panels were used to illustrate the story. Nastagio was a rich man in Ravenna who fell in love with the daughter of Traversari. Unfortunately for him, she refused Nastagio. Hence, with a broken heart, he moved to a place near his hometown called Classe in order to forget about her. One early morning while walking through a pine forest, he witnessed a naked woman being chased by a knight and two dogs (Figure 2) with the intention to kill her. When Nastagio attempted to save the woman, the knight told him about how he had loved her once but she did not love him back. So he committed suicide. As she had no regrets for the misery she caused, she received the cruel punishment of being hunted every Friday and getting killed by the knight. Nastagio invites the relatives of his beloved and his parents to a grand banquet organized in the same place of the forest next Friday. As expected, the cruel hunting scene is repeated after dinner. After listening to the explanation from the hunter, the girl realizes how she had ignored and refused Nastagio’s love. With the fear of the same consequences as the woman, she accepts Nastagio’s hand in marriage. According to Richard Turner, this is an indication of the societal expectation of women’s obedience in the male-dominated society at the time. Thus, highlighting the belief that women were the lesser sex, and therefore they must obey men.
Dowry was an important ritual for marriage during the Renaissance. No marriage was possible without it. Dowry is a gift of cash and goods from the bride’s family, which represented her share of wealth inherited from her father. Underprivileged girls had to work as domestic servants to raise money for their dowry, and some of them had to take charity support. It was mostly expected that the father would provide for the dowry. The goods that are gifted as part of dowry are called a donor, an Italian word for the trousseau. These things are often transported in cassoni from the bride’s home to the new home. A cassone is a kind of classy Italian-style deep chest made of wood with painted and gilded design. Cassoni was used to store the trousseau that included clothes and jewelry. These chests conveyed complex messages indicating family and individual virtues as well as family lineage. They were painted with stories from ancient history and poetry, making a link between the virtues of the characters and the owners. The link was established using their arms prominently placed as part of the design. The undersides of the lids used to have nude or partially nude pairs which can only be seen when the chest is open. This was used as a symbol of fertility. When the chest was placed in the marital bedchamber, the mother of the bride used to show off the dowry items indicating that they are in abundance with respect to the needs of the couple. The bedchamber was often redecorated where the chest was placed.
The stories that are painted on the Cassone are sometimes considered by scholars that they represent femininity. The historical and biblical stories were selected in connection with the feminine virtues of contemporary society. The Story of Esther (Figure 3) and King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Figure 4) are two significant examples of this. Marco del Buono Giamberti and Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso painted the cassone panel with the narratives of the great Old Testament exemplar Esther in their workshop from 1450 to 1465. They were well known for furniture painting in Florence. The story flows from left to right of the panel in a fifteenth-century setting. The contemporary architectural masterpiece, the Palazzo Medici, is seen in the background. The church in the center resembles the Duomo, along with a loggia that matches the one built by Giovanni Rucellai. This is a remarkable panel with fine decoration that is richly gilded with gold. The Jewess Esther contests with other virgins to marry King Ahasuerus of the kingdom of Shushan. The King selects her to marry and the wedding feast which all the princes were invited to is shown on the panel. The two episodes painted on the panel are taken from chapters 2: 17-18 of the book. The King is painted three times, first on a gray horse on the left side of the panel and then twice under the loggia. Esther is seen wearing a blue Florentine headdress. Above all, the panel carries an important message to the new bride to reflect on an ideal mythological character that represents feminine virtues.
Another Cassone painting (Figure 4) that depicts the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was painted in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. The borders of the panel are embossed and the designs are beautifully gilded with gold. The buildings in the painting do not follow any perspectival aspect and Gothic architecture is used all over. According to the Bible’s description, the Queen arrives in Jerusalem with a camel caravan full of spices, gold, and valuable stones. The Queen is seen supervising the packing of the gifts for Solomon and then sitting on a cart with men and women playing musical instruments on the left of the panel. On the right side of the panel, she is entering the city, and then inside the palace, she is seen kneeling before King Solomon showing her homage to him. According to scholars, the motifs of the Cassone painting were not only used for entertainment, but they were also exemplary for the concerned people. In this case, the panel painting of the marriage of Solomon and Sheeba not only portrays a wedding ceremony but also suggests the ideal relationship between husband and wife where the husband is in control of everything. As aforementioned, ideas of subjugation were integral to the concept of femininity during the Renaissance. Hence, scholars are able to make similar judgments concerning the notions on the subject.
Childbirth was an important part of marriage during the Renaissance. Female chastity was considered a great virtue to ensure legitimacy in lineage. Alberti emphasized that childbearing is the main reason for marriage. Another reason childbirth became so crucial during the Renaissance, was the radical decline in population by the plague in 1348 as well as the repeating epidemics in the next two centuries. They used different objects and artworks to encourage, celebrate and commemorate childbirth. The bride’s trousseau included paintings or reliefs of a virgin and child, as well as healthy boy dolls that looked like Child Christ or St John the Baptist. These were given to the bride to encourage her to give birth to a healthy boy like this. Male children were very desirable in that society. Painted birth trays or deshi da parto were very popular to celebrate and commemorate childbirth in Florence. The tray was used to serve sweets and fruits to the new mother. The back side of the trays used to have the family coats of arms or images related to fertility like putti holding poppy-seed capsules or infants urinating gold and silver streams.
One example of such a birth tray is “The Triumph of Fame” (Figure 5) painted by Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi in 1449 to celebrate the birth of Lorenzo, son of Lucrezia Tornabuoni and Piero de Medici. It was framed by Medici’s feather impresa. The painting indicates a bright future for the newborn child. The Knights are seen raising their hand to an allegorical character who is holding a winged cupid and a sword that symbolizes celebration through love and arms. The back side of the tray shows the armorial device of Lorenzo’s father which contains a diamond ring with three ostrich feathers and a banderole. The coat of arms of the Medici and Tornabuoni family can be seen in the upper left and right corners.
Childbirth was an all-female event conducted by midwives during the Renaissance. This is illustrated in a biblical birth scene titled “Birth of the Virgin” (Figure 6) found in the Tornabuoni chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence. This was a Fresco Painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Ghirlandaio portrays a scene of the birth of Mary in contemporary Florentine architecture with a staircase inside a room with a lavish interior. A frieze with a bas-relief of putti can be seen along with crafted wooden paneling. St Ann is seen reclining on her fifteenth-century bed, while three midwives are preparing to bathe the newborn. One of them is pouring water from a jug. A group of women in contemporary fashionable clothes led by Giovanni Tornabuoni’s daughter Ludovico is visiting the newborn. Their posture of standing gently with clasped hands represents the ideal modest female of the Renaissance period. Such images depicting childbirth represent an important societal ideal regarding femininity at the time. For women, it was vital to bear children in order to continue their husband’s lineage and provide them with a male heir. As stated by Jacqueline Marie Musacchio in relation to birth and baptism objects, “…they encouraged her to fulfill the maternal role prescribed to her by society.” Thus, it is evident that this was a crucial part of femininity that Renaissance women were required to accomplish. Scholars are therefore able to reach similar interpretations of beliefs around the topic through images.
Portraiture in the Renaissance period served a number of functions, including the spreading of propaganda, commemorating marriages, expressing one’s wealth and status, and many more. All through the 15th century, both portraits of the dead and the living were painted. They were chiefly representative of status rather than the realities of one’s inner life. Figures in portraits were highly idealized in terms of both wealth and appearance. The portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni (Figure 7), wife of Lorenzo Tornabuoni, was painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio around 1489-90. It was commissioned by Lorenzo after his wife’s death during childbirth in 1488. The painting was originally hung in the camera del poncho d’oro in Lorenzo’s suite in the Tornabuoni palace. It was a side profile of Giovanna which was a very common feature for 15th-century Florentine portraits. She’s wearing an elaborate gold dress and a gamurra vest, indicating the status and wealth of her family. Her clothing bears various Tornabuoni emblems, including two “Ls” on her shoulder, alluding to her husband Lorenzo. Aside from her precious clothes, the range of jewels featured in the portrait further emphasizes the family’s affluence. Giovanna is seen to be wearing a pendant made of gold, rubies, and pearls. A shoulder brooch is present in the niche behind her and is similarly decorated with rubies, diamonds, and pearls. These are the gifts that were generally given by the groom to the bride as a way to compensate for the huge financial expenditure that is required by the bride’s family. Hence, Giovanna is embodied by her husband’s riches and acts as a vehicle for male status and prestige. One may notice that most of the jewelry includes pearls. That is on account of the fact that pearls symbolize purity and perfection. In addition to her clothes and jewels, the figure of Giovanna conforms to the expected presentation of a Florentine woman in terms of beauty. She has a porcelain complexion, plucked eyebrows, and stylized coiffures – all of which that conform to contemporary beauty standards. The painting also idealizes Giovanna by expressing her religious ardor. A string of coral beads can be seen in the background, which is most likely a rosary. Coral had many implications during the time, including the belief that it aided in fertility and protected one from evil – further reinforcing ideas of purity and childbearing that were expected from a woman. Below the rosary lies a half-opened prayer book, which highlights Giovanna’s pious nature. This portrait conforms to the expected virtues of a Renaissance woman to have. Giovanna is beautiful, devout, and modest. Portraits of females during the 15th century adhered to this practice of idealization; representing the traits of what they believed to be the perfect woman.
To summarise, the beliefs surrounding femininity in the Renaissance mainly consisted of the notion that women were lesser than men. They were to be obedient, dutiful, modest, and chaste. Images of femininity and domestic life portray these ideals and values of what a woman should be. Scholars can easily identify such societal expectations concerning femininity through Renaissance artworks, as they allow them to reach similar judgments on the subject.
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