Date of Submission
Spring 2016
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Art History
Project Advisor 1
Diana DePardo-Minsky
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This paper explores the relationship between clothing and the presentation of women in the cultural, political and economic milieux of the Renaissance Florence. It traces dramatic stylistic shifts in female portraiture through an analysis of three different case studies dating from circa 1465 to 1545 beginning with Antonio del Pollaiuolo’s Portrait of a Young Lady, then Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, and, finally, Angolo Bronzino’s Portrait of Eleonora del Toledo and Her Son Giovanni. These portraits reveal that changes in pose and dress paralleled contemporary attitudes toward the female subject. They document the socially determined career of a woman and the constraining regulations she adhered to when maiden, married or mother. Nevertheless, this progression reveal an increasing role for women in the service of the economy, the arts, and the State.
Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Schuler, Morgan Lee, "The Significance of Female Attire as Shown in Florentine Portraiture of the Quattrocento to the Cinquecento" (2016). Senior Projects Spring 2016. 365.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016/365
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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