Caterina Sforza and the Art of Appearances: Gender, Art and Culture in Early Modern Italy (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

In the first major book in four decades on Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), Joyce de Vries investigates the famous noblewoman's cultural endeavors, and explores the ways in which gender, culture, and consumption practices were central to the invention of the self in early modern Italy. Sforza commissioned elaborate artistic and architectural works, participated in splendid civic and religious rituals, and collected a dazzling array of clothing, jewelry, and household goods. By engaging in these realms of cultural production, de Vries suggests, Sforza manipulated masculine and feminine norms of behavior and effectively promoted her social and political agendas. Drawing on visual evidence, inventories, letters, and contemporary texts, de Vries offers a penetrating new interpretation of women's contributions to early modern culture. She explains the correlations between prescriptive literature and women's actions and reveals the mutability of gender roles in the princely courts. De Vries's analysis of Sforza's posthumous legend suggests that what we see as "the Renaissance" was as much a historical invention as a coherent moment in historical time. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 List of Abbreviations 16 Dedication 17 Acknowledgements 18 INTRODUCTION 20 1 CREATING A SPECTACLE 32 Courtly Ceremony and Ritual in the Italian Renaissance 33 The Marriage of Girolamo Riario and Caterina Sforza 36 Ceremony and the Maintenance of Riario Power 47 Gender and Public Presentation in Caterina Sforza's Regency 57 Reversals of Fortune 78 2 BUILDING MAGNIFICENCE 94 Renaissance Architecture and the Humanist Ideal of Magnificenza 97 Establishing Authority: The Architectural Projects of Girolamo Riario 99 Architectural Magnificence in Sistine Rome 100 A Rome Away From Rome in the Romagna 109 Maintaining Authority: The Architectural Projects of Caterina Sforza 120 Residential Projects of "Comfort, Elegance, and Price" 121 Useful Fortresses 131 3 SPLENDOR IN THE PRINCELY COURT 148 Princely Presentation and the Virtue of Splendore 150 Splendor on Display: The Trappings of Ceremony 153 Staging the Domestic Realm 160 Silver Goods and Table Service 161 Fine Textiles 167 The Palace Chapel and Religious Paraphernalia 168 Personal Adornment 170 Accoutrements of the Hunt 173 Strategies of Collecting 175 Post-regency Splendor 183 4 THE CULTIVATION OF MIND AND SPIRIT 196 Religious Patronage in the Italian Renaissance 197 The Religious Patronage of Girolamo Riario 198 Caterina Sforza's Religious Patronage 207 Burials, A Widow's Duty 209 The Feo Chapel 212 Pious Acts 218 Humanism in the Riario Court 223 Caterina Sforza's Post-regency Intellectual and Spiritual Patronage 230 5 THE POLITICAL AFTERLIFE OF CATERINA SFORZA 246 Caterina Sforza's Last Testament 246 The Legend of Caterina Sforza in the Renaissance 255 Caterina Sforza and Italian Nationalism 269 Caterina Sforza's Role in Feminist and Gender Studies 283 Bibliography 294 Index 314 Drawing on visual evidence, letters, and contemporary texts, the author offers an interpretation of women's contributions to early modern culture. She explains the correlations between prescriptive literature and women's actions and reveals the mutability of gender roles in the princely courts