Renaissance Italy

Come abbiamo visto citando Marx, ciò che è dato per un paese è dato per il mondo intero, è solo una questione di tempi. Va da sé che bisogna tener conto del grado di sviluppo di una società per spiegare analogie e differenze. Essendo l'Italia il più antico paese capitalistico, la sua borghesia era già decrepita quando riuscì finalmente a contrastare le forze internazionali che impedivano l'unificazione nazionale. Quest'ultima non era ancora completata che già si manifestavano in pieno le peculiarità di questa classe dominante trafficona, corrotta, politicantesca e completamente succuba del capitale. Tenendo conto del ripetersi storico da tragedia in farsa, questo retaggio storico è ben rappresentato dal quindicennio del partito berlusconiano con i suoi presunti nemici, in realtà simbiotici rappresentanti di un governo unico del capitale. Specie fuori d'Italia, sembra che sia difficile capire la genesi di questo fenomeno sociale. I commenti sono per lo più improntati a stupore che possa accadere. Eppure non solo accade, ma si generalizza, dato che non si contano i casi di governi che, in modo più o meno sbracato o clownesco, si dimostrano stupidi strumenti del capitale. Devono essere stupidi per svolgere la loro funzione.

The book takes an interdisciplinary approach and covers the origins of the Italian Renaissance through the Baroque period. It is comprised of fifteen chapters, organized chronologically, along with an introduction and conclusion. As the Renaissance is central to the teaching of Western Civilization courses, often functioning as a bridge between first and second semesters, this book will help provide background to the social, cultural, and political scene in Italy between the Medieval and Modern eras.

John Ruskin's stay in Venice as reported in The stones of Venice emphasizes the different ways of doing things, the different ways of seeing things and the flight from acquired concepts. The objective of the tourist who goes to the region is to be able to escape the ready-made thoughts and to discover another world.

Simonetta Vespucci est l’une des femmes les plus illustres de la Renaissance florentine. Laurent de Médicis la proclama « plus qu’aucune autre, ornée d’authentique beauté et de noblesse humaine ». Et si Ghirlandaio et Léonard de Vinci l’ont peinte mortelle, Politien et Botticelli n’hésitèrent pas à célébrer en elle l’incarnation de Vénus. Pourtant, de cette « brillante étoile » on ne sait presque rien.
Dans cet ouvrage, Germán Arciniegas s’est patiemment attaché à faire revivre la « reine de la Beauté » et la Brigade de ses amoureux. De Gênes à Florence, il nous entraîne dans l’univers d’ombre et de lumière du Quattrocento nous faisant partager l’intimité des conspirateurs et des humanistes, des artisans et des princes. Cette initiation à un monde aujourd’hui disparu est aussi une formidable leçon de poésie.
Germán Arciniegas est né à Bogotá en 1900. Ses premiers livres lui valurent l’estime et l’amitié de Stefan Zweig. Après avoir été ministre de l’Éducation à deux reprises dans son pays, il trouva refuge à Columbia University entre 1947 et 1957. Passionné par la famille Vespucci, son Amerigo y el Nuevo Mundo reste à ce jour la plus solide biographie du navigateur. Le monde de la belle Simonetta, paru en 1962 alors qu’il était ambassadeur en Italie, forme le second volet d’un triptyque complété en 1990, par sa biographie de Guido Antonio Vespucci : El embajador. Auteur d’une cinquantaine d’ouvrages consacrés pour la plupart à l’histoire des relations entre l’Ancien et el Nouveau Monde, le titre d’ « homme des Amériques » lui a été décerné en 1989, à New York, par The Americas Foundation. En 1994, le gouvernement mexicain l’a déclaré lauréat du prix international Alfonso Reyes.

This research will describe the first major operation launched by an Italian army against a heavily fortified city after the assimilation of the French style artillery into the warfare of the Peninsula. The paper will examine, in particular, the preparations for this “marvellous enterprise,” stressing the difficulties with the procurement of ammunition during the early stages of employment of these new guns.  Data have been gathered from the State Archives of Florence, Pisa, and Lucca. Furthermore, numerous chronicles and several diaries have been useful in highlighting the political, social, and economic background of the campaign.
The article demonstrates that, from the last years of the fifteenth century, the issues with supplying ordnance compelled the Italian regional states to develop the manufacture of pieces, shot, and powder, facing a “revolutionary challenge” in terms of management, commerce, and production.

Leonardo's enduring fascination with water―from its artistic representation to aquatic inventions and hydraulic engineering.

Formless, mutable, transparent: the element of water posed major challenges for the visual artists of the Renaissance. To the engineers of the era, water represented a force that could be harnessed for human industry but was equally possessed of formidable destructive power. For Leonardo da Vinci, water was an enduring fascination, appearing in myriad forms throughout his work. In Watermarks, Leslie Geddes explores the extraordinary range of Leonardo’s interest in water and shows how artworks by him and his peers contributed to hydraulic engineering and the construction of large river and canal systems.

From drawings for mobile bridges and underwater breathing apparatuses to plans for water management schemes, Leonardo evinced a deep interest in the technical aspects of water. His visual studies of the ways in which landscape is shaped by water demonstrated both his artistic mastery and probing scientific mind. Analyzing Leonardo’s notebooks, plans, maps, and paintings, Geddes argues that, for Leonardo and fellow artists, drawing was a form of visual thinking and problem solving essential to understanding and controlling water and other parts of the natural world. She also examines the material importance in this work of water-based media, namely ink, watercolor, and oil paint.

A compelling account of Renaissance art and engineering, Watermarks shows, above all else, how Leonardo applied his pictorial genius to water in order to render the natural world in all its richness and constant change.

This book studies the uses of orality in Italian society, across all classes, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, with an emphasis on the interrelationships between oral communication and the written word. The Introduction provides an overview of the topic as a whole and links the chapters together.
Part I concerns public life in the states of northern, central, and southern Italy. The chapters examine a range of performances that used the spoken word or song: concerted shouts that expressed the feelings of the lower classes and were then recorded in writing; the proclamation of state policy by town criers; songs that gave news of executions; the exercise of power relations in society as recorded in trial records; and diplomatic orations and interactions.
Part II centres on private entertainments. It considers the practices of the performance of poetry sung in social gatherings and on stage with and without improvisation; the extent to which lyric poets anticipated the singing of their verse and collaborated with composers; performances of comedies given as dinner entertainments for the governing body of republican Florence; and a reading of a prose work in a house in Venice, subsequently made famous through a printed account. Part III concerns collective religious practices. Its chapters study sermons in their own right and in relation to written texts, the battle to control spaces for public performance by civic and religious authorities, and singing
texts in sacred spaces.

This course presents a broad survey of historical forces at work over the past 6,000 years, examining the manners in which human societies have organized themselves along categories of race, ethnicity, class, and gender to meet the challenges of the increasing human population and its demands on natural resources: thus, it examines continuity and change in societies over time, in different places, and among various peoples.

If you want to contribute with an entry, please write to marco.sgarbi@unive.it

Gives accurate and reliable summaries of the current state of research. It includes entries on philosophers, problems, terms, historical periods, subjects and the cultural context of Renaissance Philosophy. Furthermore, it covers Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Byzantine and vernacular philosophy, and includes entries on the cross-fertilization of these philosophical traditions. A unique feature of this encyclopedia is that it does not aim to define what Renaissance philosophy is, rather simply to cover the philosophy of the period between 1300 and 1650.

À la Renaissance, les Alpes occidentales sont un lieu « de nulle part », un espace à la fois rêvé et vécu par les hommes. De nombreuses sources renseignent sur les différents discours portant sur la montagne. D’un côté, les récits de voyage et les cartes anciennes traduisent l’émergence de regards exogènes de la part des humanistes et des soldats qui, lors de leurs traversées du massif, font l’apprentissage des réalités du terrain. D’un autre côté, les légendes et les discours princiers véhiculent des représentations tantôt terrifiantes, tantôt élogieuses d’un espace fantasmé par les autochtones, politisé par les souverains. Toutes ces sources poussent à reconsidérer la Renaissance comme une période de transition entre rêves et réalités, deux termes à mettre au pluriel tant les expériences et les pratiques dans les Alpes sont diverses. Par une approche plurielle – littéraire, culturelle, militaire et politique – de la montagne aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, cet article entend montrer que les montagnes deviennent un espace faisant l’objet d’une appropriation à mesure que se construit un savoir géographie alpin, bien que persiste un imaginaire contredisant les pratiques empiriques du terrain.

The essay aims to provide a possible solution to an ancient enigma that is both historiographical and archival: why are the late medieval and renaissance account books present in Florentine (and more generally Tuscan) archives with an almost overflowing abundance, in the face of a very thin Italian (not to say European) panorama? Why are more account books preserved between Florence and Prato for the 13th-16th centuries than in the whole of Europe put together? And finally, how can we explain that the family archives of the Florentine nobles conserved, still in the late Grand Duke's age, ledgers, cashbooks and journals written a few centuries ago, whose practical usefulness was apparently zero? Working on multiple fronts, that of economic history, that of the history of techniques and cultural formation, that of political-social history, the author compares the Florentine case with that of the other great Italian mercantile cities, finally proposing an image of Florence slightly different from the stereotyped image of the cradle of Humanism.

Silk manufacturing began in Lucca in the twelfth century and by the fifteenth century Italy had become the largest producer of silk textiles in Europe, nurtured by extensive domestic and foreign demand for the luxurious fabric. This essay explores the market for silk textiles, the organization of the silk industry, and the role played in it by guilds, entrepreneurs and their capital, and highly sought after artisans. Just as silk manufacturing was an important and lucrative business for entrepreneurs , this article argues, so was it a crucial strategic activity for the governments of Italy's Renaissance states, whose incentives , protections, and investments helped to start up and grow the sector with the aim of generating wealth and strengthening their respective economies.

In Living under the Evil Pope, Martina Mampieri presents the Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV, written in the second half of the sixteenth century by the Italian Jewish moneylender Benjamin Neḥemiah ben Elnathan (alias Guglielmo di Diodato) from Civitanova Marche. The text remained in manuscript for about four centuries until the Galician scholar Isaiah Sonne (1887-1960) published a Hebrew annotated edition of the chronicle in the 1930s. This remarkable source offers an account of the events of the Papal States during Paul IV’s pontificate (1555-59). Making use of broad archival materials, Martina Mampieri reflects on the nature of this work, its historical background, and contents, providing a revised edition of the Hebrew text as well as the first unabridged English translation and commentary.

Taking advantage of the vast archives of the Medici Grand Dukes, the authors of this volume present original research and fresh perspectives on the Medici family and the Tuscan court, revealing the mechanisms of Medicean diplomacy, patronage, and cultural brokerage.

The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive offers a unique window into early modern Florentine society through an exploration of the archives of the Medici ruling family. Teeming with circa three million letters, the archival collection of the Medici grand dukes housed at the Archivio di Stato in Florence chronicles the culture and history of Europe and beyond, across a span of over two hundred years. The letters of this collection, known as the Mediceo del Principato, embrace a great variety of themes including diplomacy, art,  medicine, food, science, and warfare. Since its contents originate from a court archive that served both the state and a ruling family, this collection comprises administrative, political, and financial correspondence, as well as more private and intimate accounts of the Medici themselves and their activity at court. At the same time, it would be a great misconception to assume that this enormous archival corpus pertains just to Florence or just to the Medici, given that the vast majority of these missives were written by ambassadors, agents, and informants stationed throughout Europe. This volume, The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive, aims to unlock not only the complex structure of the Mediceo del Principato but also the richness of its content. The sixteen essays address a variety of topics – book history, Ottoman relations, collections of New World artifacts, medical history, gender studies, and material culture – all with direct reference to the Medici grand duchy. The original research that supports these studies was drawn in part from the Medici Archive Project's online platform (BIA) for querying over 350,000 digitized and/or transcribed letters. Making use of these and other original sources, the essays in The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive shed new light on the mechanisms and strategies that enabled Florence to emerge from decades of internecine conflict and diplomatic chaos in order to enjoy cultural and political prominence.

This essay examines women’s scribal self-identification in Renaissance Italy through a study of colophons (scribal production notes) left by nuns at the end of the manuscripts they copied. Within the realm of female monastic book production, colophons are often thought to be formulaic and predictable texts that—though valuable for dating the manuscript and sometimes providing notes on production—do not offer much personalized information about the copyists. The author surveys a large number of nuns' colophons from fifteenth and sixteenth-century Italy and demonstrates that these female scribes presented a range of identities in the inscriptions they left – not all of them pious. The range of colophons reflects the diversity of women who were called to or placed in convent life in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy and demonstrates their adaptability to trends in both their religious community and the larger secular society. Treated as a genre of writing, these messages provide a vivid female-authored voice from the ‘anonymous’ walls of the convent and demonstrate how nuns creatively shaped their identity within the often-limiting strictures of monastic life. The study makes important contributions to Renaissance book history scholarship and reshapes an understanding of female agency in the period.

This anthology provides a panoramic view of fifteenth-century Florence in the words of the city’s own citizens and visitors. The fifty-one selections—many translated into English for the first time—offer fascinating glimpses into Renaissance thought. Together, the documents demonstrate the social, political, religious, and cultural impact Florence had in shaping the Italian and European Renaissance, and they reveal how Florence created, developed, and diffused the mythology of its own origins and glory.

The documents point up the divergences in quattrocento accounts of the origins of Florence, and they reveal the importance of the city’s economy, social life, and military success to the formation of its image. The book includes sources that elaborate on the city’s accomplishments in literature and the visual arts, others that present major trends in Florentine religious life, and still others that attest to the acclaim and admiration that Florence evoked from foreign visitors. The editors also provide an informative introduction, a detailed chronology of fifteenth-century Italy, maps, photographs, an annotated bibliography, and a biographical sketch of the author of each document.

Il 18 dicembre 1513, dal pulpito di Santa Croce, il predicatore Francesco da Montepulciano profetizzò una serie di sciagure che avrebbero colpito Firenze. L’episodio impressionò i contemporanei, afflitti da guerre e epidemie, ma è stato ridotto dalla critica a un’eco delle idee di Girolamo Savonarola. Grazie a una ricerca di prima mano su documenti e manoscritti, Michele Lodone mostra il peso di una tradizione diversa, e il rifiorire di attese apocalittiche coltivate per secoli ai margini dell’ordine francescano.
Le varie emozioni di chi ascoltò la predica (paura, preoccupazione, scetticismo), consentono all’autore di illuminare in modo originale la parzialità e soggettività di ogni testimonianza. Seguendo le tracce di Francesco attraverso fonti disparate, il libro mostra l’evoluzione di un uomo che, prima di trasformarsi in profeta, era stato eremita e predicatore di pace, e aveva tentato, alla vigilia della Riforma che divise il mondo cristiano, di riformare almeno se stesso e i propri compagni.

This study is devoted to the emotional experience of the famous Renaissance sculptor, goldsmith, and writer, Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), as it is portrayed in his life writing, the Vita. Providing the variety of arguments on the connection between the artist and contemporary intellectuals, who attended the Florentine Academy (1540–1583) together, I demonstrate that Cellini’s literary production can be examined productively against the background of Neoplatonic thought. In particular, Marsilio Ficino’s On Love, first published in the vernacular Italian in 1544, helps to establish an explanation of what Cellini meant when he decided to play the cornet while falling in love simultaneously with a young boy and girl, or  how he justified kicking or punching his servants, or why he did not kill his adversary, the artist Baccio Bandinelli, when he had the chance. These cases of radical affectivity are inscribed into Ficino’s concept of the “melancholy genius” manifesting melancholic madness. In Cellini’s Vita, the latter can not only turn humans almost into beast, literally (for example, in a bat); but, properly tempered by the means of music and poetry, as well as of individual and collective magic, it elevates one’s soul “on high,” which corresponds to the Neoplatonic concept of divine madness.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1.  Benvenuto Cellini and the Florentine Academy
1.1 Why did the Italian academies emerge?
1.2 Academic movement before the Florentine Academy
1.3 The Florentine Academy
1.4 Benvenuto Cellini’s writings in the context of the Florentine Academy
Chapter 2.  “Essendo io per natura malinconico”: Benvenuto Cellini and the Ficinian Legacy
2.1 “Grand theories” and “grounded” early-modern artists
2.2 Marsilio Ficino’s On Love
2.3 “Melancholy genius” concept
2.4 (Neo)Platonic love
Chapter 3.  “Tu ten sei gito a contemplar su ’n Cielo l’alto Fattore”: Benvenuto Cellini Ascending on High
3.1 Esoteric knowledge and censorship
3.2 “Furor divino” and “diabolico furore”
3.3 Different kinds of furor divino in the Vita
Conclusion

Did ordinary Italians have a 'Renaissance'? This book presents the first in-depth exploration of how artisans and small local traders experienced the material and cultural Renaissance. Drawing on a rich blend of sixteenth century visual and archival evidence, it examines how individuals and families at artisanal levels (such as shoemakers, barbers, bakers and innkeepers) lived and worked, managed their household economies and consumption, socialised in their homes, and engaged with the arts and the markets for luxury goods. It demonstrates that although the economic and social status of local craftsmen and traders was relatively low, their material possessions show how these men and women who rarely make it into the history books were fully engaged with contemporary culture, cultural customs and the urban way of life.

Gunpowder arrived in Europe from Asia in the 13th century. It was first used militarily by medieval armies in bombards, large gunpowder-fired siege guns. By the late 17th and 18th centuries gunpowder weapons were the dominant weapons used on European battlefields. The prevalence and importance of gunpowder weapons rose during the Renaissance period, between roughly 1350 and 1550. When Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in 1494, Italians were shocked at the power of his siege canons, and during the later phases of the Italians Wars, both artillery and handguns became increasingly common in battles. Gunpowder weaponry was not as important to warfare during the Renaissance as they would become in later periods, however technological developments of and tactical usage of gunpowder weapons did impact the Italian Wars. Siege guns proved to be very effective and led to the creation of new types of fortresses. Field artillery and firearms had a more limited impact on warfare but were still important weapons.

For the marriage of Francesco I de’ Medici and Johanna of Austria in 1565, Vasari and his assistants decorated the first courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio with frescos depicting cities in the Habsburg Empire. Subsequent uncertainty about the number and identification of the scenes can be resolved with the help of a travel journal by the Governor of the Tyrol, who was present at the wedding.

The study analyzes the presence and the depiction of exotic animals in Florence from the late 14th century to 1492, year of Lorenzo de' Medici's death and of the discovery of the Americas. In well-documented interdisciplinary research, the book sheds new light on a topic mainly neglected by attention to a number of sources: travellers' and pilgrims' descriptions of the exotic animals, documents mentioning their presence in Florence, drawings, paintings and frescoes depicting them, and the symbolism attributed to owning these creatures.

The powerful Medici family ruled the Republic of Florence on and off for three centuries, and the patronage of the arts is perhaps their greatest and lasting contribution to Western society.  When we hear the word Renaissance, we often first think of a work of art or one of the great artists of the period.  The Renaissance was the rebirth of classical civilization and it is in the arts that great progress and visual achievements were made, beginning in Florence and spreading throughout Italy and eventually Northern Europe.  Renaissance art was radical and new; it was impacted by and would impact literature, philosophy, religion and culture.  When examining six selected Medici commissioned works of art, the six different Italian Renaissance artists can clearly be given the label of genius.  They were geniuses because what they created was new, completely different from past works of art.  These works were considered so beautiful and exceptional, that even by today’s artistic standards, they maintain their well-deserved accolades.  The artists were revered during their lifetimes and patronized to create art with a purpose.  In fifteenth and sixteenth century Florence, art was mostly commissioned to display civic pride or devotion to the Christian faith.  The Medici were able to rule for so long with many supporters due to their unique patronage and desire to use the visual arts to gain and retain support for their control over the city that was the birthplace of the Renaissance.

Funde, Eigennamen und Schriftzeichen beweisen Roms lange Zugehörigkeit zur etruskischen Kultur. Die historisch faßbaren Anfänge des Etruskertums in Italien fallen mit der mythischen  Gründungzeit Roms (datiert auf 753 v. Chr.) zusammen. Die Sage berichtet vom korinthisch-etruskischen Ursprung der letzten römische Könige und von Einfällen der Etrusker unter dem König von Clusium Lars Porsenna nach dem Sturz der Tarquinier.  Die zwei römischen Gründungsmythen, die Äneas- und die Romulus-Sage, bezeugen die enge Verbindung Roms mit den etruskischen Nachbarn. Von den sieben sagenhaften Königen Roms, von Romulus bis Tarquinius Superbus, waren vier etruskischer Herkunft. Romulus ist der mythische Ahnherr der *Ruma, eines aus lat. Roma erschlossenen Geschlechternamens. Die erschlossene etruskische Form von Romulus lautet *Rumle. Von ihm leiten sich auch die Gentilizien Romulius bzw. Romilius ab. Auf die Romulii oder Romilii ist auch die erste der  sechzehn ältesten römischen Landtribus, die Romulia zurückzuführen. Remus gilt als der Ahnherr der Remmii, eines Geschlechts, das es wohl im ältesten Rom gegeben haben muß. Dem Gentilnamen liegt der etruskische Name  Rem-ne oder Rem-ni zugrunde. Von diesem Gentilizium leiten sich in und um Rom die Toponyme Rem-ona und Rem-oria her. Tyrrhener  und Römer wurden von den Griechen häufig synonym benutzt: Tyrrhenoì  è Rhomaîoi („Tyrrhener oder Römer“), ebenso wie Tyrrhenía è Italía. Einige Sprachelemente seien zusätzlich genannt: Im Etruskischen lauten die Namensbezeichnungen für Rom Ruma, für Römer Rumach, für Troja Truia, für Trojaner Truial. In der Frühzeit herrschte ein Priesterkönig (lauchme oder lochume, lat. lucumo) in jeder etruskischen Stadt, ein Titel, der möglicherweise auf die Heilskönige und Richter der nordostgeorgischen Bergstämme verweist, die häufig den Namen Luchumi trugen.

Das etruskische Erbe Roms gelangte erst Jahrhunderte später, während des Humanismus und in der Renaissance wieder zum Vorschein. Bei der Hinwendung zur Antike in der Rinascita spielte in der Toskana und in Latium, vor allem in Florenz und Viterbo, die Etruscheria, die Begeisterung für die Etrusker, eine besondere Rolle. Das Etruskertum diente als Modell gesellschaftlicher Erneuerung und fand Eingang in die kulturellen Programme der Renaissancefürsten, nicht zuletzt  der Medici. Der römische Baumeister Vitruv hatte  in seinem Augustus gewidmeten Werk De architectura  die tuskische Säulenordnung beschrieben. Diese Schrift regte die Renaissancearchitekten Andrea Palladio und Giorgio Vasari an. Der Palladianismus bildet zwei Jahrhunderte später eine der wichtigsten Stilrichtungen des Klassizismus. Durch die Lektüre von Palladio inspiriert, errichtete Thomas Jefferson sein Haus „Monticello“ mit toskanischem Portikus – die  erste toskanische Villa in der Neuen Welt.  Den Etruskern verdankt das  abendländischen Denken  schließlich  eine zentrale Kategorie – die Person.

Lavinia Fontana was a late Italian Renaissance painter of exceptional and formidable skill, particularly when it came to her depictions of fabric and ornamentation. The nobility of Bologna flocked to have her paint them bedecked in their silk, jewels, and lace. She solidified her place in Bolognese society through her considerable skill in painting, and became somewhat coveted as both a friend and a creator. In this paper, I focus on Fontana’s depiction of noblewomen and their place in society as conveyed through dress. By the means of her astute renderings of garments completed with painstaking detail, we are able to clearly see many elements of late Renaissance dress as applied to noblewomen in Northern Italy.
I base my studies on a close reading of the garments depicted by Fontana in both her self-portraits and commissions. I compare these with the work of contemporary scholars in analyzing her artwork, as well as with publications that ran in 16th Century Bologna. In particular, I analyze the fashions portrayed by Fontana to those pictured in Cesare Vecellio’s De Gli Habiti Antichi, et Moderni Di Diverse Parti Del Mondo. Through these close comparisons, one is able to see particular fashion trends, such as the abundance of pearls and silk, and the meaning behind the overelaborate representation of such materials. It is evident that portraits assisted Fontana’s patrons in solidifying their place in late Renaissance Bologna as being the most fashionable – and morally devout – women in the city.
This examination is furthered by a review of social etiquette and governmental oversight during this time period, including an investigation of traditional customs surrounding ceremonial moments in women’s lives, such marriage, birth, and mourning. Sumptuary laws in place in Northern Italy greatly affected what women could and could not wear. Furthermore, without a royal court, the nobility of Bologna clamored to fill the vacuous social space left; the surest way to solidify their place as fashionable members of the first class was through portraiture. Fontana was careful to observe these laws and unofficial codes, thus the women she depicts are immortals with morals.
Fontana’s pictures walked a fine line of extravagance within moral boundaries. Renaissance dress was important to the painter; her subjects’ social standing depended on her accurate depiction of their overconsumption within legal confines. This enhances our understanding of the garments worn in Bologna during the late 16th Century, as well as our understanding of the personality of Lavinia Fontana. Fontana painted her noble patrons as they wished to see themselves. She aggrandized them through their dress, but their morality was always of the utmost priority to her. In her portrayals, all of the noblewomen adhere to strict sumptuary laws, seemingly forever being enacted and repealed in late Renaissance Italy. She further glorified particular patrons, such as Eleanor de’ Medici and Isabella Ruini, through allegorical myths that furthered their beauty and their morals simultaneously.
Acting in the role of a woman painter was not an ordinary thing to do for someone in this era. Lavinia Fontana balanced her life through her temperate dress and enthusiastic religiosity. She expected nothing less from the proper women who sat for her. Through her innocuously rebellious career her star was catapulted, and Fontana herself became a noblewoman by association.