Women in Frames, the gaze, the eye, the profile in Renaissance portraiture

Simons, Patricia

doi:10.1093/hwj/25.1.4

Cited by 39 publications

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“…Put simply, why else paint a woman except as an object of display within male discourse? 18 As Cheney and colleagues remind us, 'humanism […] was long in liberating the "man-feminine" from her subordinate status' and Anguissola uses the 'outward' to represent an appropriate 'inward'. 19 In her hand Anguissola holds a small book, the text of which reads, 'Sophonisba Angussola virgo seipsam fecit, 1554'.…”

Section: 'She Held a Mirrhour Bright'mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Gazing in hir glasse of vaineglorie’

Tudor¹

2020

The Senses in Early Modern England, 1558–1660

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This chapter explores the problems that mirrors presented for women, at whom they were often directed, and discusses the potential for women to circumvent some of the mirror's negative associations. This essay will present three self-portraits by Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi which will reveal the different approaches of these women to the problem of representing themselves. These women seek out a new method of either sidestepping the issues of self-representation, often through a redirection of the gaze, or by presenting themselves as adhering to a particular set of societal conditions. Herbert Grabes's seminal work The Mutable Glass: Mirror-imagery in Titles and Texts of the Middle Ages and English Renaissance explores comprehensively the multiple meanings applied to the mirror in the early modern period, covering a vast number of exemplary texts from the period. He notes that the 'various properties of mirrors' were 'frequently the chief stimulus for employing the mirror-metaphor', and includes the 'false or flatt'ring' glass, which makes the individual appear more attractive, the 'true' or 'pure' mirror, which is 'closely associated with […] knowledge of the Divine', the tarnished or darkened mirror, which is 'an expression of a lack of moral integrity […] relating to knowledge of the Divine', and the brittleness of the mirror, which was used to signal transience. 1 The mirror metaphor, however, has yet more uses and Grabes describes instances in which 'man, or specifically another human being' is reflected in the mirror, and examples are frequent in literature which 'can offer us a mirror-image of human existence'. 2 William Rankins's A Mirrovr of Monsters (1587) is just such a text. Rankins's focus is on the dangers of 'show' and his text addresses the 'manifold vices' and 'spotted enormities' that are the result of the 'infectious sight of Playes'. 3 Rankins is particularly concerned with pride, and notes that players 'colour their vanitie with humanitie […] because vnder colour of humanitie, they present nothing but prodigious vanitie'. 4 Rankins expands his thoughts on pride and 'lecherie', using the character of Luxuria: Amongst y e rest to make hir séeme more amiable to hir best beloued shée painted hir faire face w t spots of shadowed modestie: not fro~ Apelles shop, whose colours

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Section: 'She Held a Mirrhour Bright'mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Gazing in hir glasse of vaineglorie’

Tudor¹

2020

The Senses in Early Modern England, 1558–1660

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“…Dans ce texte d'inspiration psychanalytique, Patricia Simons explique comment un puissant regard masculin a opéré une réification de la femme, dans la vie comme en art (SIMONS, 1992). En effet, entre 1440 et 1470, tandis que les portraits individuels avaient tendance à présenter les modèles masculins de trois-quarts, les femmes étaient systématiquement présentées de profil.…”

Section: Femmes à La Fenêtreunclassified

Les seuils de l’expérience. L’Annonciation de Crivelli et le genre de la peinture

Randolph¹

2007

perspective

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“…Men claiming women as their own through material objects gifted to them was not uncommon and has been explored in relation to women in Renaissance portraiture. 48 However, busks were not socially ostentatious courtship tokens like rings or jewels. The busk's position in the corset or bodice meant that whilst giving and receiving could be a public affair, wearing was a matter of intimacy, or even secrecy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

To Write a Distick upon It: Busks and the Language of Courtship and Sexual Desire in Sixteenth‐ and Seventeenth‐Century England

Bendall¹

2014

Gender & History

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Women in Frames, the gaze, the eye, the profile in Renaissance portraiture

Cited by 39 publications

References 0 publications

‘Gazing in hir glasse of vaineglorie’

‘Gazing in hir glasse of vaineglorie’

Les seuils de l’expérience. L’Annonciation de Crivelli et le genre de la peinture

To Write a Distick upon It: Busks and the Language of Courtship and Sexual Desire in Sixteenth‐ and Seventeenth‐Century England

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