Quattrocento Female Portraiture: A Study of Literary, Cultural, and Artistic Relationships
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Date
1980-12
Authors
Van Ausdall, Kristen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
"Quattrocento Female Portraiture: A Study of Literary,
Cultural, and Artistic Relationships," is an analysis of the
unique visual nature of female portraiture in fifteenth-century
Italy. Although rarely commented on in modern
scholarship, depictions of men and women during this period
had differing rates of evolution and divergent stylistic
characteristics. The distinctions between male and female
portraits can be interpreted by investigating not only the
early visual precedents, but also the literary ideals of
women that pervaded Italian society, the examples of womanly
perfection established in Catholic doctrine, and the special
social roles that upper-class women fulfilled. The inter
action of cultural ideals created a complex feminine image;
a conflation of these ideals is revealed in the portraiture.
The necessity of an image which conveyed this desirable
information about a woman was determined by the transitional
character of Quattrocento society.
Description
155 pages
Keywords
Fifteenth_Century, portraiture, Italy, Catholicism, Feminine image