This edited collection presents fresh and original work on Vittoria Colonna, perhaps the outstanding female figure of the Italian Renaissance, a leading Petrarchist poet, and an important figure in the Italian Reform movement. Until recently best known for her close spiritual friendship with Michelangelo, she is increasingly recognized as a powerful and distinctive poetic voice, a cultural and religious icon, and an important literary model for both men and women. This volume comprises compelling new research by established and emerging scholars in the fields of literature, book history, religious history, and art history, including several studies of Colonna’s influence during the Counter-Reformation, a period long neglected by Italian cultural historiography. The Colonna who emerges from this new reading is one who challenges traditional constructions of women’s place in Italian literature; no mere imitator or follower, but an innovator and founder of schools in her own right.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Twenty-First Century Vittoria Colonna
- Part 1: Literary and Spiritual Sociability
- 1. The D’Avalos-Colonna Literary Circle: A ‘Renewed Parnassus’
- Shulamit Furstenberg-Levi
- 2. Late Love: Vittoria Colonna and Reginald Pole
- Part 2: Widowhood
- 3. Magistra apostolorum: The Virgin Mary in Birgitta of Sweden and Vittoria Colonna
- 4. Outdoing Colonna: Widowhood Poetry in the Late Cinquecento
- Part 3: Poetry
- 5. The Epistolary Vittoria
- 6. ‘Ex illo mea, mi Daniel, Victoria pendet’: A Forgotten Spiritual Epigram by Vittoria Colonna
- 7. Religious Desire in the Poetry of Vittoria Colonna: Insights into Early Modern Piety and Poetics
- Part 4: Art
- 8. ‘Inscribed Upon Their Hearts’: Copying and the Dissemination of Devotion
- 9. Titian, Colonna, and the Gender of Pictorial Devotion
- 10. ‘A More Loving and Constant Heart’: Vittoria Colonna, Alfonso d’Avalos, Michelangelo and the Complicated History of Pontormo’s Noli me tangere
- Part 5: Readership
- 11. ‘Leading Others on the Road to Salvation’: Vittoria Colonna and Her Readers
- 12. ‘In Competition with and Perhaps More Felicitously Than Petrarch’: The Canonization of Vittoria Colonna in Rinaldo Corso’s Tutte le rime (1558)
- Part 6: Impact
- 13. Colonna and Petrarch in the Rime of Lucia Colao
- 14. ‘I Take Thee’: Vittoria Colonna, Conjugal Verse and Male poeti colonnesi
- 15. ‘She Showed the World a Beacon of Female Worth’: Vittoria Colonna in Arcadia
- Volume Bibliography
- Index of Citations of Colonna’s Letters and Verse
- Thematic Index
- List of Illustrations
- Fig. 6.1. Vittoria Colonna, ‘Response from the Divine Vittoria of the Aterno to Daniele Fini’. Spiritual epigram (I.437: 209r). Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, Ferrara.
- Fig. 6.2. Vittoria Colonna, ‘Response from the Divine Vittoria of the Aterno to Daniele Fini’. Spiritual epigram (I.437: 209v). Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, Ferrara.
- Fig. 8.1. Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pietà, c. 1540, black chalk on paper, 11.38 in. × 7.44 in. (28.9 × 18.9 cm). Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
- Fig. 8.2. Copy after Michelangelo Buonarroti, Ganymede, sixteenth century, black chalk on off-white antique laid paper, wings of eagle incised with stylus and damaged, parts then retouched, 14.21 in. × 10.63 in. (36.1 × 27 cm). Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Mu
- Fig. 8.3. Giovanni Bernardi (copy after Michelangelo Buonarroti), The Rape of Ganymede, 1532 or after, bronze, 2.63 in. × 3.56 in. (6.7 × 9 cm). National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection, Washington, D.C.
- Fig. 8.4. After Donatello, Madonna and Child before a Niche, mid-fifteenth century, bronze, 3.94 in. × 3.06.in. (10 × 7.9 cm). National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection, Washington, D.C.
- Fig. 8.5. Follower of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pietà, mid-sixteenth century, gilt bronze, 6.62 in. × 4.5 in. (16.8 × 11.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Henry Victor Burgy, 1901, New York.
- Fig. 8.6. Central or Northern Italian, Pax with Pietà, c. 1575, gilded bronze, 7.19 in. × 4.94 in. × 2.81 in. (18.3 × 12.6 × 7.1 cm). National Gallery of Art, Gift of Claire, Monica and Antonia Geber in memory of their parents, Anthony and Margaret Mary G
- Fig. 8.7. Handle affixed to back of Figure 8.5.
- Fig. 8.8. Paduan, Christ’s Body Held by Two Angels, fifteenth century, silvered bronze, 3.94 in. × 3.38 in. (10 × 8.6 cm). National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection, Washington, D.C.
- Fig. 8.9. Albrecht Dürer, The Mass of Saint Gregory, 1511, woodcut, 11.56 in. × 8.12 in. (29.4 × 20.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Anonymous Gift, 1917, New York.
- Fig. 8.10. Marcantonio Raimondi after Michelangelo Buonarroti, Naked Man Viewed from Behind Climbing a River Bank, c. 1509, engraving, 8.25 in. × 5.38 in. (20.9 × 13.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Anonymous Gift, 1929, New York.
- Fig. 8.11. Nicolas Beatrizet after Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pietà, 1547, engraving, 14.75 in. × 10.31 in. (37.5 × 26.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1966, New York.
- Fig. 9.1. Titian, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1531, oil on wood panel. Galleria Palatina di Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
- Fig. 9.2. Antonio Allegri (called Correggio), Ecce Homo with Pilate and Virgin Mary Fainting, c. 1525–30, oil on panel, 99 × 80 cm. The National Gallery, London.
- Fig. 9.3. Lorenzo Lotto, Saint Catherine, 1522, oil on panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Fig. 9.4. Titian, Judith / Salome, c. 1516, oil on canvas. Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome.
- Fig. 9.5. Nicolò de’ Barbari, Christ and the Adulteress, c. 1505, oil on panel. Museo di Palazzo Venezia, Rome.
- Fig. 9.6. Titian, Christ and the Adulteress, c. 1513, oil on canvas. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
- Fig. 9.7. Titian, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1565, oil on canvas. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
- Fig. 9.8. Anonymous, Floor tile depicting the Cruelty of Love, c. 1470, tin-glazed maiolica. Galleria Nazionale, Parma.
- Fig. 10.1. Rime spirituali, MS containing 103 of her religious sonnets, gifted by Colonna to Michelangelo in 1540–41. Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 11539.
- Fig. 10.2. Jacopo da Pontormo (designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti), Noli me tangere, 1531–32, oil on panel, 124 × 95 cm. Private collection, Busto Arsizio, Varese, Lombardy.
- Fig. 10.3. Agnolo Bronzino (attrib. to) (copy after Michelangelo-Pontormo), Noli me tangere, post-1532, oil on panel, 172 × 134 cm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence.
- Fig. 10.4. Lavinia Fontana, Noli me tangere, 1581, oil on canvas, 80 × 65.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
- Fig. 10.5. Fra Angelico, Noli me tangere, c. 1438–40, fresco. Cell 1, Convent of San Marco, Florence.
- Fig. 10.6. Spanish, Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and the Noli me tangere, c. 1115–20, ivory, overall: 27 × 13.4 × 1.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Fig. 10.7. Hans Holbein the Younger, Noli me tangere, 1526–28, oil on panel, 76.7 × 95.8 cm. Queen’s Drawing Room, Windsor Castle, Royal Collection Trust.
- Fig. 10.8. Jacopo da Pontormo, Venus Kissed by Cupid, 1532–34, oil on panel, 128 × 194 cm. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.
- Fig. 10.9. Michelangelo, Study for the Risen Christ, 1532, red chalk on paper, 23.5 × 8.2 cm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence.
- Fig. 10.10. Michelangelo, Study for the Risen Christ, 1532, red chalk on paper, 14.8 × 23.7 cm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence.
- Fig. 10.11. Jacopo da Pontormo, Adoration of the Magi, c. 1519–23, oil on panel, 85 × 191 cm. Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
- Fig. 10.12. Michelangelo, Entombment, 1500–1, oil on panel, 161.7 × 149.9 cm. The National Gallery, London.
- Fig. 10.13. Agnolo Bronzino, Noli me tangere, 1561, oil on panel, 289 × 194 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Fig. 10.14. Alessandro Allori, Noli me tangere, early 1560s–early 1570s, oil on copper, 36.5 × 31.4 cm. Sold, Christie’s, New York, 26 January 2012.
- Fig. 10.15. Nicolas Beatrizet (after Michelangelo), Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, c. 1546, engraving, 38.8 × 28.7 cm. British Museum, London.
- Fig. 10.16. Michelangelo, Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, c. 1542, black chalk on paper, 46.7 × 33. 7 cm. Private collection.
- Fig. 10.17. Master of the Saint Ursula Legend (central panel, The Sudarium borne by angels) and Filippino Lippi (wings, showing Christ and the Samaritan Woman and the Noli me tangere), Del Pugliese Triptych, 1490–1500, oil on panel, central panel: 49.5 ×
- Fig. 10.18. Cima da Conegliano, Doubting of Saint Thomas with Bishop Magno, 1505, oil on panel, 215 × 151 cm. Gallerie dell’Academia, Venice.
- Fig. 10.19. Cristofano Allori, The Penitent Magdalene Lying in a Landscape, c. 1600, oil on copper, 29.6 × 43 cm. Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
- Fig. 10.20. Jacopo da Pontormo (designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti), Detail, Noli me tangere, 1531–32, oil on panel, 124 × 95 cm. Private collection, Busto Arsizio, Varese, Lombardy.
- Fig. 10.21. Lucas van Leyden, Noli me tangere, 1519, etching, 13.2 × 16.8 cm. Albertina, Vienna.
- Fig. 10.22. Skull of Mary Magdalene, discovered in 1200s, inset into reliquary. Basilica of Saint Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence, France.
- Fig. 11.1. Giovanbattista Vitale, Rime spirituali di diversi eccellenti poeti toscani. Naples, Horatio Salviani, 1574. Page view with thematic annotation. Case Y 7184 7465, Newberry Library, Chicago.
- Fig. 11.2 Ferrante Carafa, Le rime spirituali della vera gloria humana in libri quattro, et in altrettanti della divina. Genoa, Antonio Belloni, 1559. Detail of index with thematic annotations. Case Y 712.C234, Newberry Library, Chicago.
- Fig. 14.1 Bernardo Tasso, Rime di Messer Bernardo Tasso. Divise in cinque libri nuovamente stampate. Venice, Gabriele Giolito, 1560. Page view showing title of sequence on the death of the poet’s wife (V.79). Harvard Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA.
- Fig. 14.2 Berardino Rota, Sonetti del S[ignor] Berardino Rota in morte della S[igno]ra Portia Capece sua moglie. Naples, Mattia Cancer, 1560. Title page. Harvard Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA.
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