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Netherlandish and Italian Female Portraiture in the Fifteenth Century

Netherlandish and Italian Female Portraiture in the Fifteenth Century

Gender, Identity, and the Tradition of Power

This book investigates the aesthetic and conceptual characteristics of fifteenth-century female portraiture on panel. Portraits of women increased substantially during this century. They formed part of a material and a visual culture borne out of the rapid rise of an oligarchy from entrepreneurial activities that was especially advanced in the urbanised territories of Italy and Flanders. For this reason, the portraits in this book are by Netherlandish and Italian painters. They are simultaneously illustrative of the emancipation of the genre from its medieval idiom, and of the responses to the matrix of patriarchy, under which society was organised. Patriarchy is an androcentric structure that places women in a paradoxical situation of legal and social disenfranchisement on the account of purported psychophysical inadequacy, whilst making them the catalysts, through arranged marriages, for the success of the spheres of power, which are controlled by men. Thus, these portraits are also a window into women’s lives in this structure. This book is the first systematic study of their sign-system and of the feminine experience of seeing and being seen, at the intersection of disciplines that include art history, anthropology, legal history, philosophy. The surprising results suggest new interpretations of form and function in female portraiture, women’s active role in the imaging process and the early instances of a pro-women ideology.
  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Illustrations
    • Fig. I.1 Ambrogio de Predis (ca.1455–after 1508). Bianca Maria Sforza, probably 1493. Oil on panel, 51 × 32.5 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1942.9.53).
    • Fig. I.2 Jacopo Maestro (painted by). Maiolica dish (Cafaggiolo), 1510. Tin-glazed earthenware, painted in colours. Diameter: 23.9 cm. Photo © The Victoria & Albert Museum, London (1717-1885).
    • Fig. 1.1 Masaccio (1401–1428). Expulsion of Adam and Eve, 1424–1428. Fresco. The Brancacci Chapel. In Evelyn Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy 1350–1500 (1997, rep.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 206.
    • Fig. 2.1 Filippo Lippi (ca.1406–1469). Woman with a Man at a Casement, ca.1440. Tempera on panel. 64.1 × 41.9 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (89.15.19).
    • Fig. 2.2 Pliny, Cristoforo Landino and Monte or Gherardo di Giovanni di Miniato (ca.1445–1497). Historia Naturale di Caio Plinio Secondo, tradocta di lingua latina e fiorentian per Christophoro Landino, pub. 1476. Manuscript illumination. Photo © Oxford,
    • Fig. 2.3 Attr. Maestro delle Storie del Pane (Emilian, active later fifteenth century). Portrait of a Man, possibly Matteo di Sebastiano di Bernardo Gozzadini, 1494(?). Tempera on panel, 50.2 × 37.1 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (19
    • Fig. 2.4 Attr. Maestro delle Storie del Pane (Emilian, active later fifteenth century). Portrait of a Woman, possibly Ginevra d’Antonio Lupari Gozzadini, 1494(?). Tempera on panel, 50.2 × 37.1 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1975.1.9
    • Fig. 2.5 Master of Frankfurt (active late fifteenth century–early sixteenth century). Self-Portrait of the Artist with his Wife, 1496. Oil on panel, 38 × 24 cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (5096) – photo: Rik Klein Gotink, Collection KM
    • Fig. 2.6 Workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio (attr. Fra Bartolommeo, 1472?–1517). Costanza de’ Medici (Costanza Caetani), ca.1480–1490. Tempera and oil on wood, 57.2 × 37.5. Photo © The National Gallery, London (NG2490).
    • Fig. 2.7 Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494). Portrait of a Woman, ca.1490. Tempera on panel, 20 3/8 × 15 5/8 in. (51.8 × 39.7 cm.) without painted border: 19 1/4 × 14 1/2 in. (48.9 × 36.8 cm.) frame: 31 × 26 3/8 × 4 7/8 in. (78.7 × 67 × 12.4 cm.). The Hunti
    • Fig. 3.1 Florentine (15th Century). Profile Portrait of a Young Man, 1430–1450. Tempera on panel, 42.4 × 32.5 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1937.1.14).
    • Fig. 3.2 Pisanello (ca.1395–ca.1455). Portrait of a Princess of the House of Este, 1435–1450. Tempera on wood. 43 × 30 cm. Photo © Musée du Louvre, Paris (RF 776).
    • Fig. 3.3 Franco-Flemish (early 15th Century). Profile Portrait of a Lady, ca.1410. Oil on panel. 53 × 37.6 cm. Photo © The National Gallery, Washington (1937.1.23).
    • Fig. 3.4 Attr. Lo Scheggia (Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi, 1406–1486). Wedding Coffin (‘Cassone’ or ‘Forziere’), 1449–1475. Tempera on wood. 41.5 × 165 cm. Photo © Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (KMS4785).
    • Fig. 3.5 Attr. Giovanni di Francesco del Cervelliera (1412–1459). Portrait of a Woman, ca.1445. Tempera on wood, 41.3 × 31.1. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum, New York (32.100.98).
    • Fig. 3.6 Filippo Lippi (ca.1406–1469), Portrait of a Woman, 1440–1442. Tempera on wood, cm. 49.5 × 32.9. Photo © Staatliche Museen, Berlin (1700) – Aufnahame: Jörg P. Anders, Berlin/00.
    • Fig. 3.7 Unknown maker. Standing Woman Wearing Chiton and Himation, Pudicitia, plaster casting of Roman Hellenistic statue. h. 206 cm. Photo © Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (KAS199).
    • Fig. 3.8 Scheggia (Giovanni di Ser Giovanni, active 1406–1486). Portrait of a Lady, ca.1460. Tempera and gold on panel, transferred to canvas 44.1 × 36.4 cm. Photo © The Philadelphia Museum of Art (cat.34).
    • Fig. 3.9 Italian. Belt with Profiles of Half-Length Figures, ca.1350–1400. Basse taille enamel, silver-gilt, mounted on textile belt. 175.3 × 2.5 × 1.7 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (17.190.963).
    • Fig. 3.10 Italian painter (Lombard). Twelve Heads, first quarter sixteenth century. Tempera on wood. 45.7 × 46.4 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (05.2.1-12).
    • Fig. 3.11 Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510). Portrait of a Young Woman, ca.1476. Tempera on panel. 61 × 40.5 cm. Photo © Pitti Palace, Florence (Inv.1912 n. 353).
    • Fig. 4.1 Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). An Artist Drawing a Seated Man, 1525. Woodcut, sheet: 13.3 × 14.9 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (17.37.90).
    • Fig. 4.2 Robert Campin (ca.1375/9–1444), Portrait of a Woman, ca.1435. Oil and egg tempera on oak panel, 40.6 × 28.1 cm. Photo © The National Gallery, London (NG653.2).
    • Fig. 4.3 Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (ca.1398/1400–1464). Portrait of a Lady, ca.1460. oil with egg tempera on oak, 37 × 27.1 cm. Photo © The National Gallery, London (NG143).
    • Fig. 4.4 Rogier van der Weyden (ca.1398/1400–1464). Portrait of a Lady, ca.1460. Oil on panel. 37 × 27 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1937.1.44).
    • Fig. 4.5 Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (ca.1398/1400–1464). Portrait of Isabella of Portugal, about 1450. Oil on panel. 46 × 37.1 cm. Photo © The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (78.PB.3).
    • Fig. 4.6 M. Bass, 2010, ‘anonymous, Portrait of Jacoba of Bavaria (1401–1436), Countess of Holland and Zeeland, Northern Netherlands, after ca.1480’, oil on panel, 64 × 50 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SK-A-498. in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish
    • Fig. 4.7 Workshop of Rogier Van der Weyden (ca.1398/1400–1464). Triptych of the Braque Family, ca.1450. Oil on wood. 41 × 68 cm (central panel); 41 × 34 cm (each wing). Photo © Musée du Louvre, Paris (RF 2063).
    • Fig. 4.8 Attr. Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494). Lucrezia Tornabuoni, ca.1475. Oil on panel. 53.3 × 39.9 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1952.5.62).
    • Fig. 4.9 Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553). Portrait of a Man, 1522. Oil on panel. 57.6 × 39.9 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1959.9.1).
    • Fig. 4.10 Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553). Portrait of a Woman, 1522. Oil on panel. 58 × 39.8 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1959.9.2).
    • Fig. 4.11 Petrus Christus (ca.1410, active 1444–1475/6). Portrait of a Young Woman, ca.1450. Silverpoint, framing lines with black chalk and with the pen in black ink, on grey prepared paper, 13.2 × 8.9 cm, MB 328 (PK) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotte
    • Fig. 4.12 Anonymous, drawing, seventeenth century (after Jan Van Eyck’s Portrait of Isabella of Portugal). Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisboa (PT-TT-CF-201).
    • Fig. 4.13 Rogier Van der Weyden (ca.1398/1400–1464), Portrait of a Woman with a Gauze Headdress, ca.1440/1445. Oil on oak panel. 47 × 32 cm. Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Acc. No. 545D – Aufnahame: Wolker- H. Schneider. Publikation nur mit Na
    • Fig. 4.14 Petrus Christus (ca.1410, active 1444–1475/6). Portrait of a Young Woman, ca.1470. Oil on oak panel. 29 × 22.5 cm. Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Acc. No. Cat. 41.
    • Fig. 5.1 Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494). Portrait of a Young Woman, ca.1490. Tempera on panel. 44 × 32 cm. © Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (282). Photo: Catarina Gomes Ferreira.
    • Fig. 5.2 Workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494). Portrait of a Girl, ca.1490. Tempera on wood. 44.1 × 29.2 cm. Photo © The National Gallery, London (NG1230).
    • Fig. 5.3 Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494). Portrait of a Lady, ca.1490. Tempera, oil, and gold on panel. 44.1 × 29.2 cm. Acquired by Sterling Clark, 1913. The Clark Art Institute (1955.938) Photo © The Clark Institute.
    • Fig. 5.4 Andrea del Castagno (1419–1497). Portrait of a Man, ca.1450. Tempera on panel. 54.2 × 40.4 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1937.1.17).
    • Fig. 5.5 Petrus Christus (ca.1410, active 1444–1475/6). Portrait of a Carthusian, 1446. Oil on panel. 29.2 × 21.6 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (49.7.19).
    • Fig. 5.6 Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510). Portrait of a Lady at the window (Smeralda Bandinelli?), ca.1470–1475. Tempera on wood. 65.7 × 41 cm. Photo © The Victoria & Albert Museum, London (CAI. 100).
    • Fig. 5.7 Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Ginevra de Benci (obverse), ca.1474/1478. Oil on panel. 38.1 × 37. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1967.6.1.a).
    • Fig. 5.8 Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Ginevra de Benci (reverse), ca.1474/1478. Oil on panel. 38 × 37 cm. Photo © The National Gallery of Art, Washington (1967.6.1.b).
    • Fig. 5.9 Agnolo (1466–1513) or Donnino (1460–after 1515) di Domenico del Mazziere. Portrait of a Young Woman, ca.1485–1490. Oil on wood. 45.4 × 34.8 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Cat. 80) – Aufnahame: Jörg P. Anders, Berlin/00.
    • Fig. 5.10 Portrait of Cassandra Fedele. llustration for ‘Cassandra Fidelis.’ In Giacomo Filippo Tomasini, Elogia virorum literis & sapiential illustrium ad viuum expressis imaginibus exornata (Padua: Sebastiani Sardi, 1644), 343-58 (344).
    • Fig. 6.1 Vittore Carpaccio (1472–1526). Portrait of a Woman, ca.1493–1494. Oil on panel. 28 × 24 cm. Photo © Galleria Borghese, Rome (450).
    • Fig. 6.2 Attr. Jacometto Veneziano (active ca.1472–d.before 1498). Portrait of a Lady with a Lagoon Landscape and Hills Behind, 1472–1494. Oil on panel and gilt. 25.4 × 19 cm. Polesden Lacey, Surrey (NT1246487). Photo © National Trust / Andrew Fetherston.
    • Fig. 6.3 Attr. Jacometto Veneziano (active ca.1472–d.before 1498). Portrait of a Woman (Possibly a Nun of San Secondo), ca.1485–1490. Oil and gold on wood. 10.2 × 7.3 cm. Photo © The Metropolitan Museum, New York (1975.1.85).
    • Fig. 7.1 Jan Van Eyck (active 1422–d.1441), Portrait of Giovanni (?) Arnolfini and His Wife, 1434. Oil on oak. 82.2 × 60 cm. Photo © The National Gallery, London (NG186).
  • Acknowledgements
  • Introduction
    • Portraiture from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century: An Overview
    • Studies on Portraiture: A Critical Assessment
    • Method and Structure of this Book
    • Final Remarks
  • 1. The Cultural Background of Female Portraiture
    • Social Literature
    • Amorous Literature
    • Surrender in Resistance
    • Conclusions
  • 2. Women in Marriage Portraiture
    • An Illustrated Exegesis of the Institution of Marriage
    • Betrothal, Wedding, and Morgengabe Portraits
    • Conclusions
  • 3. Women in Profile Portraiture
    • Looking as Feeling: A Culture of Seeing-as
    • Concinnitas, Urbanitas and Female Portraiture
      • Group One
      • Group Two
      • Group Three
    • Conclusions
  • 4. Netherlandish Female Portraiture in Context
    • Technical Observations
    • Female Portraiture in the Burgundian Culture
    • Garbed in Ootmoed: Spirituality of Humility
    • Seeing-In the Spiritual
    • Conclusions
  • 5. Netherlandish or Not Netherlandish? Is That the Question?
    • Perspectives on Italian and on Netherlandish Portraiture
      • a. The Politics of a Style
      • b. The Politics of Nature
      • c. The Politics of Animated Portraiture
    • Italian Portraits à la Netherland?
    • Conclusions
  • 6. Fifteenth-Century Venice: Performing Imaging
    • Considerations about Venetian Portraiture
    • Venetian Female Portraiture
    • Women’s Legal Status with Focus on Venice
      • a. Overview
      • b. Dowry
      • c. In Venice
    • Imaging as Performance
    • Conclusions
  • Conclusions
    • Anthropological Considerations
    • Technical Considerations
    • Conceptual Considerations
    • Gender and Identity in the Politics of Seeing
    • The Arnolfini Double Portrait: A Morgengabe?
  • Appendix
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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