Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2659
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Randolph , Adrian W. B.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Renaissance Household Goddesses: Fertility, Politics, and the Gendering of the Spectatorship [the author argues that these terracotta statuettes of Dovizia (a woman with a basket of fruit on her head who is leading a little boy), based on Donatello's statue now lost, can be read both as an embodiment of wealth and fertility and as a political, public symbol of the city and reminder of the pre-Medicean era; the author explores the implications of both female and male spectatorship].
  • Source: The Material Culture of Sex, Procreation, and Marriage in Premodern Europe.  Edited by Anne L. McClanan and Karen Rosoff EncarnaciĆ³n.  Palgrave, 2002.  Pages 163 - 189.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Decorative Arts Domestic Space Femininity in Art Gaze Iconography Politics in Art Terracotta Statuettes- Dovizia (a Personification of Wealth) Based on Donatello's Statue Now Lost Women in Art
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Six figures. Figure One Workshop of Giovanni della Robbia, "Dovizia," circa 1494-1513, glazed terracotta statuette (Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 15.211). Figure Two Workshop of Fra Mattia della Robbia, "Dovizia," circa 1494-1513(?), glazed terracotta statuette (Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1940.343). Figure Three Workshop of Giovanni della Robbia, "Dovizia," circa 1494-1513(?), glazed terracotta statuette (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22.16.6). Figure Four Filippo Lippi, "Madonna and Child with Stories from the Life of the Virgin" (Bartolini tondo), 1452- 1453, tempera on panel (Florence, Museo Palatino, Palazzo Pitti). Figure Five Domenico Ghirlandaio, "Birth of Saint John the Baptist," 1488-1490, fresco (Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel). Figure Six Sandro Botticelli, "Abundance," circa 1480, black chalk, pen, and brown ink, brown wash, white heightening on pink tinted paper (London, British Museum, Collection of Prints and Drawings, 1895-9-15-447).
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  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Dartmouth College
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2002.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0312240015