Idealizing Women in the Italian Renaissance ed. by Elena Brizio and Marco Piana (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Idealizing Women in the Italian Renaissance ed. by Elena Brizio and Marco Piana Alex E. Tadel Idealizing Women in the Italian Renaissance. Ed. by Elena Brizio and Marco Piana. (Essays and Studies, 55) Toronto: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies. 2022. 305 pp. $49.95. ISBN 978–0–7727–1106–9. This edited volume brings some valuable contributions to the study of Italian Renaissance women. Examining women's idealization between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries from various and sometimes complementary angles, it contains case studies in visual art, literature, philosophy, and theatre. The editors' Introduction outlines some of the issues at stake, describing the idealization of women 'both as a form of oppression and as a tool for social recognition' (p. 9) and positing a 'paradigm shift in the ideal of woman' (p. 10) in the Renaissance, while missing the opportunity to address some important questions, such as whether and how idealizations of women differ from the widespread Renaissance discourse of exemplarity. The editors state that their intention is to showcase the range of the debate on women, yet additional theoretical reflection together with more focus on idealization in some of the essays might have further clarified the specific issues involved in the study of this topic. Judith B. Steinhoff's 'Mandates for Women's Mourning in the Early Renaissance: Paintings and the Law in Trecento Florence and Siena' compares male and female [End Page 629] mourners in depictions of the Lamentation by Giottino and Ambrogio Lorenzetti to the gendered regulation of mourning in Sienese law. Sandra Cardarelli's A Depiction of Virtue and Beauty: The Patronage of the Saint Ursula Fresco in the Church of San Giorgio at Montemerano' analyses the only known example of female patronage in a church in the Maremma region in the fifteenth century and discusses Saint Ursula as a model of female piety. In 'Idealizing the Female Hero: Representations of Judith in Seventeenth-Century Italian Painting', Mathilde Legeay surveys the treatment of the problematic motif of the heroic female warrior and seducer in the work of artists such as Giovanni Baglione, Caravaggio, and Virginia Vezzi. Benedetta Lamanna's 'A Good Woman, a Good Wife: Strategies of Idealization in Sperone Speroni's Dialogo della dignità delle donne' examines the dynamics between patriarchal and proto-feminist discourses on women in Speroni's dialogue, whose ambiguities in this matter she compares to Castiglione's Il cortegiano. Francesca D'Alessandro Behr's 'Philosophy, Religion and the Praise of Women in Lucrezia Marinella' discusses the recurrent presentation of women as ethically and intellectually competent across Marinella's œuvre and focuses on her engagement with Neoplatonism. In 'Female Exemplarity, Identity and Devotion in Lucrezia Marinella's Rime Sacre (1603)', Sarah Rolfe Prodan explores female saints as models of meditation in Marinella's spiritual verse, with reference to her use of ekphrasis and to her views on the religious significance of female beauty. Rosalind Kerr's 'Idealized Actresses: Rebellious Female Voices' presents the first generations of prime donne in the second half of the sixteenth century and examines their portrayal of gender dynamics as actresses and playwrights. In 'Incarnating the Ideal: Vincenza Armani, the First Diva', Serena Laiena focuses on poetry published on the occasion of Armani's death in 1570 and analyses Petrarchan and Neoplatonic topoi employed in the poetic idealization of the actress. Pina Palma's 'For his Wife and Lover: Pontano's De amore coniugali' offers a discussion of Pontano's collection, which it compares with a miscellaneous set of classical and contemporary texts. Laura Giannetti's 'Femininity and Food Culture in Cinquecento Italy' examines instances in which the discussion of food in the letters of Isabella d'Este, in Moderata Fonte's Il merito delle donne, and in Virginia Galilei's correspondence departs from views on women and food displayed in contemporary conduct literature. In 'Ideal Sister, Ideal Poet: Cassandra and Gaspara Stampa', Jane Tylus considers a rare case in which a sister orchestrated the posthumous edition of a female poet's work, the 1554 Rime di Madonna Gaspara Stampa, which she relates to a collection Gaspara may have planned before her death. As the editors promise, this volume offers a...