Fifteenth Century Ideals Of Beauty example essay topic

The Representation of Women in Fifteenth Century Italian Portraiture The Italian Renaissance was a time of rebirth, a burgeoning of interest in the classical arts and sciences. Portraiture as a genre was on the increase, fuelled by a growing introspection through which man was becoming aware of the innate characteristics that made him an individual. Burckhardt, in The Civilisation of Renaissance Italy, devotes a chapter to tracing the representation of individual personalities in Renaissance literature. On reading his premise that, 'the development of personality is essentially involved in the recognition of it in oneself and in others. ' (Burckhardt, 1878), it can be seen that this statement is of prime importance when discussing portraiture of the same period. Once capturing a personality and not just a likeness became desirable, a change started in the way portraiture was seen.

It takes time before the desire to portray character overcomes the convention of depicting women in a profile format, like AlessoBaldovinetto's Portrait of a Lady in Yellow of c. 1465. Profile portraits were an accepted practice that continued to be popular during the entire fifteenth century. The fifteenth century was use dto seeing profile portraits in the donor paintings of their churches, a format that no doubt helped to distinguish donors from religious figures, as can be seen in Masaccio's The Trinity withthe Virgin and St. John. Although there was no taboo on contemporary figures sharing the same space as religious figures, there were obvious distinctions made between, usually in terms of scale and costume.

This leads us to a possible reason why the profile portrait remained in use in Italy when the rest of Europe was already more commonly utilising a three-quarter face format for portraits. It is possible that during the early part of thefifteenth century there was a taint of profanity around the portrayal of secular figures in a manner usually reserved for religious figures. The profile portrait also retained its popularity in Italy due to the influence of Roman coins. Portrait medals, based on Roman coinage, were produced in fifteenth century Italy and were made for presentation and for commemoration. In the Baldovinettoportrait we can see the remoteness and dignity that such a format bestows on the portrayal of the sitter. Her silhouette becomes a fluid line, defined against the flat background, and along with her distant gaze, promotes her remoteness from the viewer.

The dignity that is acquired comes at the expense of individuality. The woman int his portrait becomes as emblematic as the motif of palm leaves other sleeve. In male portraiture this reduction of the human physiognomy to emblem reinforces the portrayal of status. In GentileBellini's painting of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, what remains is the impression of a powerful man, the upholder of an important office cloaked in the garb of his rank. However, in the Portrait of a Lady in Yellow, the sitter's status is generic, conforming to contemporary conventions of beauty applicable to all women. Boccaccio, a fourteenth century poet, describes in the Tesidea the appearance of a beautiful woman, using conventions that were to remain in place throughout the fifteenth century; 'I say that her tresses seemed as gold... and combed so that not a single knot was in them, and they fell on the support of her shining white shoulders...

Her brow was ample and spacious, and white and level and very delicate, beneath which in a twisting arch terminating almost in a half circle were two eyebrows... Beneath these were two shining eyes... They were serious and long and well seated, and brown as others never were' (Boccaccio, Tesidea, quoted by Dempsey) Considering this quote, can we be sure that Baldovinetti's sitter had hair as golden as her dress, that her eyes were the shade of brown we see in the picture, whether indeed her eyes were brown a tall To what extent did contemporary ideals of beauty become overlaid onto the likenesses of women It is impossible to tell, but the way this unknown sitter corresponds to Fifteenth Century ideals of beauty must give cause to doubt the accuracy of her representation. With no spark of her individual character, and with doubts at the veracity of her portrayal, she is left mute, a symbol of the wealth and good character of the family whose emblem she displays so dominantly on her sleeve. By the end of the fifteenth century, the portrayal of women in portraiture was becoming markedly different.

The profile convention was gradually overcome by three-quarter views, falling into line with the way men had more commonly been represented from the middle half of the century. In Portrait of a Girl, a painting from the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio the format gives the sitter more presence, and the artist more scope for exploring facial characteristics. She does, however, still conform to the ideals of beauty and deportment of her age. Her static pose and averted gaze cause her to be an object to be gazed on just as much as the figure in Baldovinetti's Portrait of a Lady in Yellow. The change comes with Leonardo Da Vinci, and can be seen in his The Lady with the Ermine, a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, mistress of Ludovico Sforza. With her head and body turned at different angles, a position that is impossible to hold for any length of time, the pose becomes mobile.

The viewer is aware of the unnerving possibility other gaze travelling to meet their own. This fluid pose gives an increased sense of activity that had previously been omitted from female portraiture. Da Vinci believed that a portrait should show " the motions of the mind,' (Da Vinci; quoted by Henessy, p 101) and we can see this in the subtle characterisation of her face which gives her an alertness akin to that of the ermine she holds. At first glance it would seem that this image of Cecilia Gallerani hasa greater autonomy than that of the women we have previously looked at. She certainly has a greater presence, but Da Vinci remains in tight control of the portrayal, and the amount of individualisationhe gives to the painting is in order to convey his view of his sitter. The sitter is not in control of the way she is represented, and Da Vinci has used his own judgement to shown us a 'beautifulweasel' (Calder, 1970 p 111).

Cecilia Gallerani must have been aware of this, and the reason she disliked the painting. The artist has become a commentator on human character, and the aspects that he emphasises are not pleasant. Cecilia's likeness has been used as a vehicle for the display of Da Vinci's insight into the psyche, tos how the degree of perception that a painting could achieve. In the same way, later artists like Titian would use the likeness of beautiful women as a vehicle to show the beauty of the art of painting (see Cropper, 1986 p 175-190). The impression left after examining female portraiture of thefifteenth century, is one of sitters with little or no control over the way they are represented. Their static poses become a base over which male notions of respectability and beauty can be laid.

At first motif for the wealth and good standing of family, her image is later subsumed into a wider discourse on the nature of painting itself. It is not until the sixteenth century, with female artists like Anguissola Sofonisba, that women begin to enter this discourse, and in so doing, define their own standards in the genre of female portraiture. List of Paintings Baldovinetti, Ales so, Portrait of a Lady in Yellow, c. 1465. Wood, painted surface 62.9 x 40.6 cm. London: National Gallery Masaccio, The Trinity with the Virgin and St. John, 1425 Fresco Florence: S. Maria Novella Bellini, Gentile, Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, c.

1478. Panel, 63 x 47 cm. Venice: Museo Corner Workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of a Girl, 1490 Wood, 44.1 x 29.2 cm London: National Gallery Da Vinci, Leonardo The Lady with the Ermine c. 148355 x 44.4 cm

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