Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

• Quick Search
• Advanced Search
• Article of the Month
• Translation of the Month
• Image of the Month
• Special Features

Click to view high resolution image Title: Profile of a Woman Creator: Pollaiuolo, Antonio, artist Description: From a series of portraits executed by Piero and Antonio Pollaiuolo. This woman wears a richly embroidered garment but no jewelry or elaborate haircovering. Portraits in which the female sitter displayed her material wealth were typically commissioned at the time of her wedding or as a commemoration of the event. Rendering the female sitter in profile drew from the majesty of classical portraiture but also served an ideological purpose: the woman's beauty and confident expression make her the embodiment of humanist virtue, in which outer beauty reflects inner merit, but her gaze is averted from the (likely male) viewer, thus encoding a sense of voyeurism into the work. Source: WikiMedia Commons Rights: Public domain Subject (See Also): Nuptial Imagery Profile Portraits Geographic Area: Italy Century: 15 Date: 1465 Related Work: Current Location: Berlin, Gemäldegalerie Original Location: Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Paintings Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Panel paintings; Oil Donor: Height/Width/Length(cm): 36.5cm// Inscription: Related Resources: Wright, Allison. The Pollaiuolo brothers: The Arts of Florence and Rome. Yale University Press, 2005

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index ©2014. Hosted by The University of Iowa Libraries.