Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 12516
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Musacchio , Jacqueline Marie.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy [The author argues that women were encouraged to fulfill their maternal role through a wide variety of images and objects that emphasized the delivery of healthy, male babies].
  • Source: Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy.  Edited by Geraldine A. Johnson and Sara F. Mathews Grieco.  Cambridge University Press, 1997.  Pages 42 - 60.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Decorative Arts Birth Trays Charms Childbirth Magic Pregnancy
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Eight Figures. Figure One Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend, "Birth of John the Baptist," late fifteenth century(Washington D.C., Howard University Art Gallery). A serving woman brings food to the mother on an oval tray. Figure Two Bartolomeo di Fruosino, birth tray, recto, 1428 (Private Collection). Painted with a scene showing the new mother in bed receiving female visitors. Figure Three Workshop of Orazio Fontana, low bowl, interior, c. 1540. (Formerly in the Fernand Adda Collection, London). Figure Four Bartolomeo di Fruosino, birth tray, verso, 1428 (Private Collection). The painted scene depicts a naked little boy in the woods. Figure Five Florence School, Painted scene on the inner lid of a marriage chest, third quarter of the fifteenth century (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery). The scene depicts a naked young woman reclining on a pillow. She has a garland draped around her hips. Figure Six Giovanni di Ser Giovanni, front panel of a marriage chest, c. 1470 (Grassina, Alberto Bruschi Collection). It depicts a bridal procession with the marriage chest going through the streets. Figure Seven Workshop of Orazio Fontana, maiolica tray, verso, late sixteenth century (Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts). The painted scene depicts a naked little boy with wings raising a laurel branch in each hand. Figure Eight Circle of Nicolà da Urbino, maiolica tray, verso, sixteenth century (Bologna, Museo Civico Medievale). Painted in the center on the underside is the word "maschio," male.
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  • Year of Publication: 1997.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0521562767