|
Private Lives in
Renaissance Patricia Fortini
Brown |
|
This book offers an
engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture of
aristocratic families in sixteenth-century Illustrated with many varied and unusual
images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle
during a period of changing definitions of nobility. As the sixteenth century
opened, members of the participate were increasingly
withdrawing from trade, desiring to be seen as "gentlemen in fact"
as well as "gentlemen in name". The author considers why this was
so and explores such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and
display, the articulation of family identity, the interplay between the
public and the private, and the emergence of characteristically Venetian
decorative practices and styles of art and architecture. Brown focuses new
light on the visual culture of Venetian women - how they lived within,
furnished, and decorated their homes; what spaces were allotted to them; what
their roles and domestic tasks were; how they dressed; how they raised their
children ; and how they entertained. Bringing together both
high arts and low, the book examines all aspects of Renaissance material
culture and arrives at an account of Venetian households unequalled in
vividness and detail. Patricia Fortini Brown is a professor at |
|
|