Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

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Title: Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement
Creator: Lippi, Filippo, painter
Description: A woman stands in a domestic setting as a man looks into the window. He wears a red biretta and is rendered in profile.The woman, also in profile, is dressed as a newlywed; she wears a sella on her head. Her sumptuous gown displays rich embroidery, and on her sleeve the word lealtà (loyalty) is spelled out in pearls. The man holds a cloth displaying a coat of arms that is likely the arms of the Scolari family. This work probably commemorates the 1436 marriage of Ranieri Scolari and Angiola di Bernardo Sapiti.That the man looks in from the outside while the wife is circumscribed by the boundaries of the home speaks to contemporary gender expectations. 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. Interestingly, although Ranieri is depicted as facing Angiola, his eyes are not on her person but seem to look past her.
Source: WikiMedia Commons
Rights: Public domain
Subject (See Also): Classical Influences Jewelry Nuptial Imagery Profile Portraits Windows
Geographic Area: Italy
Century: 15
Date: ca. 1440-1444
Related Work:
Current Location: New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 89.15.19
Original Location:
Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Paintings
Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Panel paintings; Tempera
Donor:
Height/Width/Length(cm): 64.1cm/41.9cm/
Inscription: On cuff: LEALTÀ [LOYALTY]
Related Resources: