The Renaissance Woman

1. Women Artists, esp. Sofinisba Anguissola or Artemesia Gentilleschi.
    
2. A specific painting. Any one image will raise larger issues and invite comparisons to other literary or visual works.
   • Bruegel, Dulle Griet. Mad Meg defies the devil and pillages during war.
   • Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece (Holy Family)
   • Titian, Rape of Europa; Venus of Urbino. Classic images of nude females
   • Van Eyck, Arnolfini Wedding. A painting about the mysteries of marriage.
   • Anon. French, Mary as Priest. Mid-15th c. painting
   • The Danse Macabre of Women. 1480s, a Dance of Death that illustrates only women.
   • Leda and the Swan. Why is Leda making love to this bird a worthy subject?
   • Dance of the Magdalen. Print by Lucas of Leyden, ca. 1514. Is Magdalen really dancing?
   • I Modi. the erotic best-seller of the Renaissance.
   • Leonardo da Vinci, Mary, Jesus and Anne. (Freud wrote significantly on this work)
      
3. Female authors: Christine de Pizan, Aemilia Lanyer, Veronica Franco, Marguerite de Navarre or a specific work of literature, not necessarily by a female, but treating women in some way.
    
4. Historical Women The list is long, and they don't necessarily have to be noble:
   • Bridget of Sweden
   • Joan of Arc
   • Anne of Brittany, an important art patron
   • Margaret of Austria, a ruler and art patron
   • Queen Elizabeth I of England
   • Isabella d'Este, art patron
      
5. Female Saints, who didn't necessarily live in this period, but as they were understood, adored and pictured in this period: Ursula, Anne, Catherine, your patron name saint?
    
6. "Famous Women": cycles of Amazons, Sibyls, Old Testament heroines, as a group or as individuals, for example, Lucretia, Susannah or Judith.
    
7. Culture of Courtly Love, Petrarch, Ariosto.
    
8. Courtesans. Many of these women are known by name, including Veronica Franco (subject of Dangerous Beauty) These professional lovers were also among the most educated women of this period.
    
9. Witchcraft (Artist Hans Baldung Grien). Feminists refer to these as the "burning times," because a very large percentage of those sent to the stake for witchcraft were female. Although there was a witch craze in America, limit yourself to Europe, please.
    
10. Treatises that theorize women and their behavior
    • Alberti, The Family
    • Castiglione, The Courtier
    • Tilney, The Flower of Friendship (on marriage)
    • Kramer & Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Female Witches).
       
11. Renaissance medicine (hysteria, birth control, childbirth, breast-feeding, etc.) There is a great deal of exciting work done here recently.
     
12. Women and Law: property, sumptuary law, marriage.
     
13. Women in the Reformation. The Protestant Reformation envisioned a new role for women, particularly in the context of the family. You might select a particular woman, or the ideas about women from in a particular tradition (Lutheran, Calvinistic, English Episcopalian, etc.)
     
14. Another topic of your choosing, but which MUST BE APPROVED. Please feel free to come in and discuss other ideas you might have, or connections to be made with other classes.
     

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This page is part of a course in progress. Last updated January 16, 2003.