MAGDALENE IMAGERY AND PROSTITUTION REFORM IN EARLY

MODERN VENICE AND ROME, 1500-1700.

by

RACHEL L. GESCHWIND

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Catherine Scallen

Department of Art and Art History

CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

May 2011

CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of

______Rachel L. Geschwind______candidate for the ______PhD. in Art History______degree *.

(signed)______Dr. Catherine Scallen______

(chair of the committee)

______Dr. Jon Seydl______

______Dr. Edward Olszewski______

______Dr. Holly Witchey______

______

______

(date) ___March 14, 2011______

*We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any

proprietary material contained therein. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A dissertation is a labor of love and a major project that involves innumerable influences, resources, and people. I would like to acknowledge the excellent professors upon whose guidance this project was formed: Dr. Edward

Olszewski, Dr. Charles Burroughs, Dr. Jon Seydl, Dr. Catherine Scallen, Dr. John

Garton, and Dr. Holly Witchey. Particular thanks to Dr. Olszewski, who has led my journey at Case Western Reserve University and whose unfathomable patience and wisdom have steadied my course.

I am indebted to the expertise and direction of the numerous librarians at

Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western, the Ingalls Library at the Cleveland

Museum of Art, the Spencer Library at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the

Jannes Library Staff at the Kansas City Art Institute. I wish to thank my family and friends, particularly my mother and father, who provided years of personal support, prayers, and countless conversations of love and reassurance. I would also like to express gratitude for the pastoral leadership of Father Leonard

Zamborsky, who served as my spiritual director and helped light the dark path.

Thank you to everyone who has patiently provided accountability, mental and spiritual support, and affirmation.

Last, and most important, this dissertation is dedicated to Saint Mary

Magdalene, and all those scholars who seek to exalt the Catholic faith in their studies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………..ii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS……………………………………………………….iv

CHAPTER 1.INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………...1

2. SEX AND THE CITIES: PROSTITUTION HISTORY AND REFORM………………..….20

3. MAGDALENE ICONOGRAPHY AND RELATIONSHIP TO PROSTITUTION…………………..……...53

4. POPOLANI: PRINTED CHAPBOOKS FOR THE POPULACE……………………………………………..…...81

5. “GET THEE TO A NUNNERY”: TRANSITIONAL HOMES FOR REPENTANT PROSTITUTES IN VENICE AND ROME………………………117

6. PRIVATE DEVOTION AND PUBLIC LIVES: THE MAGDALENE AS DEVOTIONAL AID IN ELITE PATRONAGE………...... …………………………153

7. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………….….196

ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………………………………………………..215

APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………….....283

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………...... 285

i

Magdalene Imagery and Prostitution Reform in Early Modern Venice and Rome, 1500-1700

Abstract

by

RACHEL L. GESCHWIND

This dissertation focuses on the development of devotional images of

Mary Magdalene, in Venice and Rome during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, pertaining to the reform of prostitution. Although the Magdalene has a rich history in Christian tradition and art, my examination focuses on images of the Penitent Magdalene, both alone and in a group, related to the campaign against prostitution in early modern Italy. Images discussed in this dissertation include: Religious chapbooks dedicated to the subject of the Conversion of the

Magdalene (Figs. 1, 2), analyzed in conjunction to their secular counterparts, prints and moralizing broadsheets dedicated to the Lives and Miserable Ends of

Prostitutes (Fig. 3); Carlo Caliariʼs Madonna and Child, Saint Mary Magdalene and Convertite for the Venetian Casa del Soccorso (Fig. 4), examined in opposition to Gaulliʼs frescoes at the Casa Marta in Rome (Fig. 5) and Guliegmo

Corteseʼs Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (Fig. 6); and two prominent versions of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene created for Vittoria Colonna and Cardinal

Federico Borromeo (Figs. 7, 8). The cities of Venice and Rome are the focus of

ii my analysis, representing in microcosm the Italian peninsula and efforts to reform prostitution there through the use of Magdalene imagery.

The approach of my dissertation emphasizes a range of patronage, including the open market, corporations, and influential individuals. My purpose in this dissertation is to present a comprehensive study of the complex purposing of the Magdaleneʼs image as a religious model and a social model for the reformation of prostitution in Venice and Rome from 1500 to 1700. The years

1500 and 1700 are the parameters of this investigation, coinciding with the introduction of syphilis in the early sixteenth century and the incarceration of prostitutes at the end of the seventeenth century. It is my conclusion in this dissertation that Magdalene imagery in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can be inextricably linked to prostitution reform, and that the images presented in this study were created in order to persuade, reinforce, and assist the intended viewer to participate in the popular campaign to decrease prostitution in early modern Venice and Rome.

iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure

1. Anonymous artist, Titlepage to Marco Rossiglioʼs La Conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, 1611, woodcut, Biblioteca Vaticano.

2. Anonymous artist, Titlepage to Francesco Zucchetti, La Conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, 1620, woodcut, Biblioteca Vaticano.

3. Roman or Venetian, Titlepage to Maestro Andreaʼs Purgatory and Lament of the Roman Courtesan, c. 1530, woodcut, British Museum.

4. Carlo Caliari, Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene and Convertite, c. 1593, oil on canvas, Venice, Gallerie dellʼAccademia.

5. Bacciccio, Fresco vault with scenes from the Life of Saint Martha, c. 1670s, Casa Marta, Rome.

6. Guglielmo Cortese, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, oil on canvas, c. 1672, Rome, SS. Quattro Coronati.

7. Titian, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1531, oil on canvas, Pitti Palace, Florence.

8. Titian, Penitent Magdalene, 1560s, oil on canvas, Ambrosiana, Milan.

9. Cortigiana, from Cesare Vecellioʼs De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del mondo, 1590.

10. Attributed to Tintoretto, Veronica Franco? c. 1575, oil on canvas, Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.

11. German School, The Whore of Babylon from the Luther Bible, colored woodcut, 16th century, Bible Society, London.

12. Munich ivory panel, early fifth century, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

13. Two Marys at the Tomb. Detail of wall painting (c. 240 A.D.) from Dura- Europos. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery.

14. Two Marys finding the Angel at the Empty Tomb, The Crucifixion. On a sixth- century ampulla. Monza Cathedral.

iv 15. Pyxis Depicting Women at the Tomb of Christ, 500s, Ivory, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

16. The west front of abbey church Ste. Marie-Madeleine, Vézelay. Photographed in c. 1900.

17. Magdalene Preaches of the Risen Christ, Saint Albans Psalter. Illuminated manuscript. c. 1140, Hildesheim, Germany, Dombibliothek, Cathedral Library.

18. Mary Magdalene Preaches in a Pulpit, 1481. Relief by Francesco Laurana. Lazarus Altar, Church of La Vieille Major, Marseilles.

19. German Ecclesiastical Vestment, first half of fifteenth century. Cope embroidered with ten scenes from the life of Mary Magdalene. Saint Annen Museum, Lübeck.

20. Detail from Figure 19, Magdalene as Vanity with Animal-Headed suitors.

21. Magdalene Destroying Pagan Idols in Marseilles,1333-43. Miniature from the Leggendario Ungherese, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

22. Destruction of the Idols in Marseilles, late fourteenth century Fresco by Lombard Master, Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo (ex Disciplinati Church of S. Maria Maddalena.)

23. Magdalene Master. Penitent Magdalene with scenes from her life, Magdalen Master, c. 1270. Florence, Galleria dellʼAccademia.

24. Spinello di Luca Spinelli, Processional Banner with Magdalene and Flagellants of San Sepolcro, c. 1395-1400, tempera and gold on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

25. School of Rimini, Saint Francis and Mary Magdalene beneath the Cross, first half of the fourteenth century. Vatican Museums, Pinacoteca.

26. Jacopo di Paolo, Crucifixion with Magdalene and Beata, 1400, panel painting. Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville.

27. Giotto, Friar Teobaldo Pontano and Mary Magdalene, ca. 1320s, fresco, Cappella della Maddalena, Lower Church of the Basilica of S. Francesco, Assisi.

v 28. Giotto, Saint Mary Magdalene Receiving a Cloak from the Hermit Zosimus, c. 1320s, fresco, Magdalene Chapel, Lower Church of San Francesco, Assisi.

29. French Book of Hours featuring the Magdalene Exorcised by Christ, c. 1460- 70, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library.

30. Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition, c. 1490. Oil and gold leaf on panel. Los Angeles, Getty Museum.

31. Donatello, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1453-55, wood with polychromy and gold, Museo dellʼ Opera del Duomo, Florence.

32. Sandro Botticelli, Holy Trinity (Crucifixion with Saints Magdalene and John the Baptist), and Noli Me Tangere, The Conversion of Magdalene and The Last Communion of the Magdalene, 1491-93, tempera on panel, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.

33. Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Saint Mary Magdalene, 1519, oil on panel, Saint Louis Art Museum.

34. Bernardino Luini, Saint Mary Magdalene, oil on panel, 1525, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.

35. Unknown German artist, Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, c. 1480-90, hand colored woodcut, Kansas City, Missouri, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

36. Venetian, The Lives and Miserable Ends of Prostitutes, c.1600, engraving, Francis Douce Collection, Ashmolean Museum.

37. Title page of Danese Ugieri. Colophon: In Venetia per Benedetto di Bendoni, 1532.

38. Annibale Carracci, Mary Magdalene in the Wilderness, etching and engraving, 1591, Los Angeles County Museum.

39. Gregor Erhart, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1500. Polychromed limewood, Louvre.

40. Anonymous, La Conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, ca. 1611.

41. Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, tempera on canvas, c. 1485. Uffizi, Florence.

42. Ludovisi Cnidian Aphrodite, Roman marble copy of Praxiteles original of the fourth century B.C., Rome, Museo Nazionale.

vi

43. Veronese, Apotheosis of Venice, oil on canvas, 1585, Ducal Palace, Venice.

44. Martin Schongauer, Noli me tangere, engraving, c. 1470-80, Art Institute of Chicago.

45. Correggio, Noli me tangere, oil on canvas, 1525. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

46. Anonymous Flemish print, Hoofkijn van devotien (Garden of Devotion), late fifteenth century.

47. Anonymous German artist, Of the innermost soul, how God chastises her and makes her suited to Him, c. 1500, woodcut. University Library, Breslau.

48. Venetian, Lament of the Famous Courtesan Signora Anzola (verses by Bartolommeo Bonfante), woodcut, c. 1600, Milan, Bertarelli Collection.

49. Placard from San Giacomo featuring La caretta. Sixteenth century.

50. Exterior of S. Marta al Collegio Romano, Rome.

51. Exterior of Casa del Soccorso, Venice.

52. Baccicio, detail from Figure 5 ceiling vault, Saint Martha Raising the Dead Man.

53. Baccicio, detail from Figure 5 ceiling vault, Saint Martha Conquering the Dragon.

54. Baccicio, detail from Figure 5 ceiling vault, Assumption of Saint Martha.

55. Baccicio, prepatory drawings for vault frescoes, formerly Vienna. O. Nirenstein Collection.

56. Baccicio, Saint Martha in Glory, bozzetto. Genoa, Accademia Ligustica.

57. Baccicio, Saint Ignatius in Glory, fresco, Rome, Il Gesu.

58. Convertite, Venice, Giudecca. Photo: Author.

59. Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of Vittoria Colonna?, 1530, oil on canvas, National Museum of Catalonia.

60. Italian, (Top) Portrait medal of Vittoria Colonna (recto, left) and Ferrante

vii dʼAvalos (verso,right); (Bottom) Portrait medal of Vittoria Colonna (recto, left) with classicizing military trophies (verso, right). 16th century.

61. Giovanni Pisano, Detail of Prudence from the Pulpit, marble, 1301-10, Cathedral of Pisa.

62. Titian, Sacred and Profane Love, 1514, oil on canvas. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

63. Marcantonio Raimondi after Guilio Romano and Penni, Martha Leading Magdalene to Christ, engraving. London, British Museum.

64. Marcantonio Raimondi, Fragments from I Modi, c. 1527, engraving, British Museum.

65. Leonardo da Vinci, sketches for The Magdalene, c. 1498, pen and ink, London, Courtauld Gallery.

66. Caravaggio, Conversion of the Magdalene, c. 1598, oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of the Arts.

67. Guercino, Penitent Magdalene with Two Angels, ca. 1622, oil on canvas, Vatican Pinacoteca.

68. Peter Paul Rubens, Magdalene in Ecstasy with Two Angels, c. 1619-20, oil on canvas, Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts.

69. Antonio Canova, Penitent Magdalene, 1796, marble, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa.

viii Chapter I:

Introduction

In this dissertation, I demonstrate that images of the penitent Magdalene served as an icon during the reform of prostitution in early modern Venice and

Rome. Although the figure of the Magdalene is characterized by an abundant iconographical tradition in Christian art, this dissertation will focus on a few particular images and types of the female saint as case studies, in order to establish a relationship between these types of images and prostitution reform.

The types of Magdalene imagery discussed in this investigation, including popular prints, church decorations, and private devotional paintings, will demonstrate the ubiquitous role of the Magdalene as a model repentant prostitute, promoting the reform of prostitutes through the intercession of all classes of the Italian early modern public. I propose, through the case studies of select images, by means of function and patronage, that the Magdaleneʼs image in the Renaissance was inextricably linked to the increased and pervasive concern regarding prostitution. In order to maintain social order, decrease the threat of venereal disease, and reform popular morality as a religious expression, all classes of Venetian and Roman society actively engaged with images of Saint

Mary Magdalene as evidence of their participation in prostitution reform.

Images of Mary Magdalene hold a special place in Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a penitent saint, and a model of the

1 reformed sinner. During this period of the Protestant Reformation and subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, Mary Magdalene was the second- most commonly depicted female saint, surpassed only by the Virgin Mary.

Dedication to the Magdalene was due to the general fervor of reform in the

Catholic Church, but it was also a defensive response to challenges in the early sixteenth century regarding the Scriptural accuracy of the Catholic Churchʼs association of the Magdalene with the unnamed sinner in the Gospel of Luke

7:36-50.1

1 “36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in

2 The figure of the Magdalene in Medieval and Renaissance Catholicism symbolized the wayward, worldly woman who had repented and was rewarded for her penance by being the first person visited by the Risen Lord. The Latin tradition asserts that Mary Magdalene was the sister of Mary and Lazarus, lived the life of a courtesan, repented by anointing Jesus, attained pardon for her sins, and then became a disciple of the Lord. The established apocryphal legend of the Magdalene was codified in medieval literature by Jacobus de Voragine in The

Golden Legend (c. 1260-75), a collection of hagiographies compiling the traditionally held beliefs of the lives of venerated saints. In Voragineʼs Legend, the author states that after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, Mary

Magdalene traveled to France; after preaching in Marseilles, she retired to a life of hermitage in La Sainte-Baume.2

The Western tradition of Christianity is rooted in the assumption that Mary

Magdalene is the prostitute who anointed Christʼs feet (Luke 7:36-50), the woman out of whom seven devils were cast by Jesus (Luke 8:2), the one who followed his ministry and was the first to see His Resurrection (John 20:11-18). Catholic tradition also maintained that this woman was the same Mary mentioned in the

Gospels who was the sister of Lazarus and Mary (John 21:19, John 12:1-8, Luke

peace.” See Victor Saxer, Le culte de Marie Madeleine en Occident: des origines à la fin du moyen âge (Paris: Clavreuil, 1959), Susan Haskins, Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, (New York: Riverhead Books, 1993), and Marilena Mosco, ed. La Maddalen, tra Sacro e Profano, Ex. Cat. (Florence: Palazzo Pitti, 1986). 2 See Jacob de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. William Granger Ryan, 2 Vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

3 10:38-42).3 The Scriptural identity of the Magdalene in Christianity was initially constructed in the Gospel according to Saint Mark, in which the female saint first appears by name in the Easter narrative (Mark 16: 1-13). Although Markʼs

Gospel is presented as the second in the sequence of the four Gospel accounts, it is now generally believed by theologians to be the first written Gospel (c. 66-68

A.D.) and thus the source for Luke and Matthew.4 In Matthewʼs account, she is named first at the Crucifixion (27: 56) and again at the tomb (28: 1-10). In Lukeʼs

Gospel, the Magdalene is identified prior to the Crucifixion in reference to Christʼs travels and ministry, particularly his healings (8:2), as well as at the Crucifixion and Resurrection (Luke 23, 24). Johnʼs Gospel, known for its singular and affected language, is very different in that it clearly identifies the Magdalene at

3 The Magdaleneʼs conflated identity in Christian theology began as early as the second century, when Clement associated her with Mary of Bethany (Clement, Paidagogos, 2.8). Hippolytus (ca. 170-235) also made direct correlations of the Magdalene to the sensuous lover in Song of Songs (Hippolytus, Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles, 8.2; 24.60.). In the fourth century, discussion of the Magdalene by writers such as Ambrose and Jerome made reference to John 20:17 and the nature of the resurrected body of Jesus. Jerome, for example, questions the faith and intelligence of the Magdalene, claiming that she was forbidden to touch Christ due to her initial unbelief that He had Risen (Jerome, To Pammachius, 35.). Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 330-395) claims that the Magdalene is Eve and that her faith in the resurrection turned over her previous transgressions

(Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 3.10.16.).

4 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 3.

4 the foot of the cross (19:25) and describes the dramatic scene of Maryʼs recognition of Christ (20: 11-18).5

In the sixth century, theological literature dedicated to the Magdalene emphasized understanding of the female saint as a prostitute, which paralleled stories of penitent whores becoming popular in European Christianity, such as

Saint Mary of Egypt (344-421). Papal authority in a famous sermon delivered by

Pope Gregory the Great in 591 sanctioned this conflation of the Magdalene within the divergent Gospels.6 Gregory stated, “We believe that this woman [Mary

Magdalene] is Lukeʼs female sinner, the woman John calls Mary, and that Mary from whom Mark says seven demons were cast out.”7 In the early modern era, the Magdaleneʼs characterization as a repentant prostitute was thus long established in the cultural milieu, and the growing sensuality of her depiction in

Renaissance paintings and sculptures only served to reinforce her apocryphal identity.

5 It is this Gospel account of the Magdalene and Christ that serves as the literary foundation for medieval and Renaissance depictions of the Noli me tangere.

6 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 13. 7 Pope Gregory the Great further explained the seven demons as all the vices, or cardinal sins, including lust, and he identified Lukeʼs unnamed sinner as Mary Magdalene, stating that she had previously used the precious ointment to anoint Christʼs feet to “perfume her flesh in forbidden acts.” As quoted in Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe, “The Chapel of the Courtesan and the Quarrel of the Magdalens,” Art Bulletin 84/2 (June 2002): 279. See Gregory the Great, Homiliarum in evangelia, Lib. II, in Patrologia Latina (Paris: J.P. Migne, 1844-64),

76/1238-46.

5 HISTORIOGRAPHY

The figure of Mary Magdalene has captured the imagination of devotees and historians alike for many centuries and many purposes. The seminal work of

Victor Saxer, in a 1959 collection of essays titled La Madeleine, VIIIe–XIIIe siècle, was among the first scholars who attempted to illuminate the cult of the

Magdalene in France, beginning in the Middle Ages. In 2000, Katherine Jansen published The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the

Middle Ages, updating Saxerʼs work and illuminating the role of the Magdalene for mendicant preaching orders in the Middle Ages.

Susan Haskins first published a thorough investigation of the figure of

Mary Magdalene in 1993, providing an exhaustive study of the saint, with particular emphasis placed on the complex understanding of the Magdalene in the Gospel accounts. In Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor, Haskins set herself to the task of clearing away the web of confusion regarding the true identity of the saint, illuminating the history of the interwoven Biblical passages.

Haskins surveyed the multiple adoptions of the Magdalene for numerous purposes, including that of a repentant prostitute. Although her work was largely historical, Haskins also reviewed images of the Magdalene from early Christian times to the present. Due to the breadth of material in the literary culture and iconographical traditions of the Magdalene, however, the authorʼs study was diffuse, and Haskins was unable to thoroughly probe issues of art-historical inquiry.

6 Haskinsʼ book may well have been inspired by the exhibition La

Maddalena tra Sacro e Profano, curated by Marilena Mosco in 1986 at the

Palazzo Pitti, Florence. For the exhibition, Mosco presented a chronological survey of images of the Magdalene, an impressive undertaking that attempted to illuminate the variety of iconography for the female saint. The catalog is also rich in essays, with seven sections containing contributions by more than thirty authors, with the overall theme involving the dual spiritual and secular roles of the

Magdalene. However, the authors neglected to emphasize the numerous

Counter-Reformation images of the Conversion of the Magdalene, which were alluded to only under the more ambiguous term “Vanitas.”8

Although Haskins and Mosco represent two of the most exhaustive and updated texts on the Magdalene, these studies unfortunately did not allow for an in-depth study of the Magdalene in Renaissance Italy. Additionally, due to the lack of specification in these works, the relationship of Magdalene imagery to the important social and religious concern of prostitution reform was not considered at length. It is my intention to closely examine the relationship of the cult of the

Magdalene in Renaissance and Baroque art to the preoccupation of the conversion of prostitutes by all social classes in Venice and Rome. Renaissance

Venice and Rome, with their unique social and political hierarchies, will serve as two exemplary case studies of Catholic Counter-Reformation art.

8 Karen Finlay, “Review: La Maddalena tra Sacro e Profano: Da Giotto a De

Chirico,” Burlington Magazine 129/1014 (September 1987): 607.

7 This dissertation fills a gap in Magdalene scholarship related to prostitution reform in early modern Venice and Rome. Although the iconography of the Magdalene is diverse, to date there has been no comprehensive study to examine her role as part of religious propaganda during the Renaissance and

Baroque eras. In her work on Roman prostitution, Elizabeth Cohen has stressed the interrelationship between Venice and Rome in the role prostitutes contributed to the public image of the cities. My intention is to compare and contrast the social and cultural dynamics of the respective cities, particularly with regard to expanding beyond the role of celebrated courtesans to that of the larger middle- and lower-status prostitutes and relate to Magdalene images.9

In Chapter Two, in order to understand the complexity of the iconography of the Magdalene and her meaning in Renaissance art and culture, it is important to survey the origins of her identity in the popular imagination. In this chapter, I introduce the popularity of the Magdalene in the early modern era both as a product of the general fervor of reform in the Catholic church and as a defensive response to challenges in the early sixteenth century regarding the Scriptural accuracy of the Catholic Churchʼs association of the Magdalene with the unnamed sinner in the Gospel of Luke 7:36-50. Prior to this debate, the

9 Elizabeth Cohen, “Seen and known: prostitutes in the cityscape of late- sixteenth-century Rome,” Renaissance Studies 12/3 (1998): 396. Cohen states: “A comparison of the two cities would be interesting, but more fruitful when the analysis of the prominent Venetian courtesans has been integrated into the larger context of middling and lower status prostitution and public policy.”

8 apocryphal legend of the Magdalene provided preachers and theologians with numerous examples of positive Catholic dogma as an exemplar of the contemplative life, the necessary role of penance, and a relevant model for women. One of the most effective and important uses of the Magdalene in preaching concerned her connection with prostitution.10 The characterization of

Mary Magdalene as the repentant prostitute gained enormous popularity as a model penitent saint among the mendicant orders in the thirteenth century.

Revival of the medieval image of the ascetic saint in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries similarly coincided with the revival of the medieval preoccupation with the conversion of prostitutes. Popular images of the penitent

Magdalene were thus commonly set in a grotto, which related to the legend that she lived the remainder of her life as a hermit in France, atoning for her sins. The purpose of Chapter Two is to introduce and illustrate the scriptural and iconographic tradition of the religious interpretation of Mary Magdalene, particularly in the role of a penitent.

In Chapter Three, I discuss the turbulent history of prostitution and prostitution reform in Italy. A survey of the history of prostitution and its cultural implications is particularly important in understanding the prostitute in the early modern era, and how the Magdalene came to represent her positive role model for repentance. In the fourteenth century, the Venetian government publicly

10 The Magdaleneʼs association with prostitution was a result of the classical reputation of Magdala as a town known for its harlots, as well as the aforementioned homily of Pope Gregory the Great in 591.

9 announced that prostitution was omnino necessarie in terra ista (entirely necessary to the state). The emphasis and eminence of the Magdalene in Venice is largely due to the fact that Venice was renowned for its enormous trade, which included the market of sexual commodities. Rome attracted many courtesans and prostitutes with its large population of wealth and single men, particularly ostensibly celibate ecclesiastics. Acceptance of the status of the courtesan was related to that of mistresses and concubines, such as the mistress of Pope

Alexander VI (r. 1492-1503), who was openly acknowledged even before

Alexanderʼs papal election.

Concurrent with the Protestant Reformation and the epidemic of syphilis, however, prostitution slowly underwent a reform throughout Europe. But criminalization of the sex trade remained largely ineffective,11 and the number of prostitutes and images of the Magdalene continued to proliferate in tandem.

Regardless of the moral offense caused to theologians and canon lawyers, the prostitution policy adopted was that of “practical toleration.” That idea originated in the writings of Saint Augustine (354-430), who reiterated Roman law, which merited the legality of prostitution. Augustine observed that established patterns

11 In 1566, when Pope Pius V attempted to abolish prostitution in Rome, the urban merchant class inflamed the city with hysteria. Although Pius was forced into retreat, this papal action drastically reduced the number of prostitutes in the city and paved the road for Pope Sixtus V in 1586 to impose the death penalty on prostitutes and those who committed other “sins of nature.” See Tessa Storey, Carnal Commerce in Counter-Reformation Rome (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 15-16.

10 of sexual relationship would be endangered if prostitutes were not available, and therefore it was better to tolerate prostitution than suffer the consequences.12

Even though lawmakers and theologians had adequate precedents, the majority of Christians felt uneasy about the presence of prostitutes in their communities; attempts to reform prostitution were stipulated not only by the rise of venereal disease in Europe but also in response to growing criticism from Protestant reformers. The official acceptance of prostitution by papal authorities, as well as those officialsʼ highly visible personal relations with courtesans, gave the reformersʼ opposition to prostitution religious legitimacy.13 The aim of Chapter

Three is to illuminate the history of prostitution and prostitution reform in Italy in order to fully comprehend the cultural and religious significance of the Magdalene as a representative of the repentant whore.

After introducing the iconographic and Scriptural traditions of the

Magdalene in Chapter Two and prostitution reform history and its cultural permeation in Chapter Three, in Chapter Four I begin my investigation into the

12 Secular and religious authorities throughout the early modern era maintained that if prostitutes were not available, honest women would be in danger of sexual assault, or men would resort to sodomy with other men. See Augustine, De ordine, 2.4 in J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus…series Latina, 221

Vols. (Paris: Garnier, 1844-64), 32: 1000.

13 Martin Luther addressed prostitutes as heathens, and Protestants began to treat these women as enemies to Christendom. John Calvin went further in his condemnations: He stated that any fornication was against the will of God and, in

1556, proposed the death penalty for prostitution.

11 role of the common citizen in the reformation of prostitutes, as manifest in a survey of printed religious chapbooks dedicated to the popular retelling of the

Conversion of the Magdalene. In these small printed works, a simple and often crude image of the penitent Magdalene was illustrated as a frontispiece for the subsequent text, which reinforced the apocryphal legend of the Magdalene as a repentant prostitute and emphasized her conversion (Figs. 1, 2). In order to establish the publicʼs participation in prostitution reform, an investigation into a small sample of chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the Magdalene will demonstrate the mass consumption of these images and ideas, as well as providing a biblical precedent for converting prostitutes. While the “patronage” of works on the open market is ephemeral and often impossible to trace, it is my assertion that the numerous editions and locations of publication provide conclusive evidence that these printed works were supported primarily by the patronage of an enthusiastic public.

These narrative chapbooks, which were inexpensive and mass-produced, will be compared and contrasted with the secular and moralizing broadsheets that illustrated the negative aspects of the lives of prostitutes and their inevitable ends if they did not repent. The study of chapbooks – quickly produced novellas used to educate a broad audience – illuminates Venice as a center for European printmaking as well as a city dedicated to reform. This graphic form, which has been largely overlooked, is an important sociological tool for ascertaining the popular audience of Magdalene imagery, in contrast to devotional paintings, as

12 discussed in Chapters Five and Six. Chapter Four introduces a select group of popular chapbooks dedicated to Mary Magdalene printed in Venice in order to discuss the iconographic traditions of her story, as well as the function of chapbooks as religious propaganda. My intention is to expand upon the seminal research undertaken by Lorenzo Baldacchini on sixteenth- and seventeenth- century chapbooks, referred to as stampe popolari religiose. In this chapter, I assert that the proliferation of these chapbooks and broadsheets reflects the public concern over the growing number of prostitutes, particularly street prostitutes and those of high visibility to the masses, and that these works reinforced the public participation in reforming prostitutes through the guise of the

Magdalene and her conversion.

In Chapter Five, I examine the public decoration of the Casa del Soccorso in Venice and Casa di Santa Marta in Rome, which were religious asylums dedicated to temporarily housing reformed prostitutes, fallen women, rape victims, and concubines. This chapter investigates the Casa Marta and the

Soccorso as case studies as a means of understanding the institutional artistic patronage of convents dedicated to repentant prostitutes. The significance of these institutionsʼ iconographical programs in their church decorations will demonstrate the propagandistic message of the administrators, who catered to an audience of the common prostitute, or meretrice. In the Renaissance, at a time when the marital dowry system was grossly inflated, it was easier for a deflowered woman with a dowry to proctor a marriage than it was for a dowerless

13 virgin. As a result, women of lesser means who turned to prostitution in order to garner the average dowry (2,000 to 4,000 ducats for the popolani class) constituted the sex economy of Venice and Rome.14 In order to remedy this economic and spiritual crisis, Pope Leo X officially approved the formation of the

Casa delle Convertite in Rome in 1520, and the Venetian Convertite soon followed.15

Although the spiritual dowry required for entrance to the Convertite was meager compared with rich convents, where fees averaged 1,000 ducats, the

Convertiteʼs dowry was still largely out of reach for the common Venetian or

Roman concubine or prostitute. For this reason, the Casa di Santa Marta, founded in 1546 by the Jesuits, was created as a refuge for penitent women who were not called to be nuns or were already married. In Venice, the Casa del

14 The ducat in the Renaissance was not printed with any denomination or value, so determining value is relative to wages and salaries. In 1479, a skilled craftsman working in the Arsenal in Venice earned an average two ducats per month, equaling about 200 soldi. For more on the monetary value of the ducat, see Frederic C. Lane and Reinhold C. Mueller, Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice: Coins and Moneys of Account (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), 7-12, 251. 15 The Convertite in Venice and Rome were largely supported by the Jesuits, who encountered many prostitutes at the Hospital for the Incurabili in Venice and Rome, created to control syphilis. The Jesuits did not found the Convertite in Rome or Venice, but these were some of the earliest charitable organizations associated with the order. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, had gathered a small group of like-minded individuals as early as 1534, and Pope Paul III approved their order in 1540.

14 Soccorso was founded in 1570, nearly thirty years after the Venetian Convertite; the name roughly translates as “help” or “first aid.” Similar to the Casa Marta, the

Soccorso offered a temporary solution and an entrance fee of a mere one ducat to estranged wives, concubines, and repentant prostitutes. The Casa Marta and the Soccorso became a halfway house for prostitutes, adulteresses, abused wives, and, in many cases, victims of rape, but was not designed as permanent quarters for these women. It is my assertion that the images decorating the institutional churches, the place for mass gathering and spiritual reflection for these temporary inhabitants, were designed to convert their penitents into a more permanent state of penitential vocation. In Chapter Five, I conclude that the religious authorities and supporters of the Casa di Santa Marta in Rome encouraged their convertite toward marriage, while at the Venetian Soccorso, administrators and donors envisioned the eventual fate of their penitents as the veil; these messages were conveyed through both institutionsʼ respective decorative programs.

In this chapter, I analyze the iconography of Carlo Caliariʼs high altarpiece,

Madonna and Child, Saint Mary Magdalene and Convertite (Fig. 4), in relation to the permanent relocation and formal vows of repentant prostitutes and fallen women from the Soccorso to the Convertite. It is my belief that this altarpiece can be viewed as religious persuasion on behalf of the Soccorsoʼs administrators to encourage the fallen women to live as true nuns at the Convertite for the spiritual gain of Venice, versus the Roman institution of Santa Marta and its

15 encouragement of marriage. Although fallen women were allowed to leave the

Soccorso in order to get married or reconcile with their husbands, it is my assertion that Caliariʼs altarpiece expressly encouraged the women to choose a religious monastic life.16 Caliariʼs altarpiece at the Venetian Soccorso will be analyzed for its unique promotion of the religious vocation as the ultimate redemption for these fallen women. This is in contrast to its Roman counterpart,

Guglielmo Corteseʼs high altarpiece of Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

(See Fig. 6) and Giovanni Battista Gaulliʼs vault frescoes depicting the life of

Saint Martha at the Casa di Santa Marta, with their emphasis on the active life and domesticity (See Fig. 5). The focus of this chapter will be to examine the institutional patronage of the Casa Soccorso and the Casa Marta in three separate painted works and to analyze their iconography in order to ascertain the motivations of the administrators, as communicated through images of the

Magdalene.

In Chapter Six, my dissertation culminates with a case study of elite patronage in the example of two noteworthy religious reformers living in Rome, who personally participated in prostitution reform and commissioned images of the Magdalene. In this chapter, I investigate two Penitent Magdalenes by Titian, whose numerous devotional half-length depictions of the saint, with their

16 The interpretation of the altarpiece as promotion of the veil for the fallen penitents is confirmed by the stipulation of seven wills given to the Soccorso between 1652 and 1683, which expressly stated that money donated to these women could be used only for spiritual rather than marital dowries.

16 emotional immediacy and sensuality, are representative of the early modern preoccupation with the penitent Magdalene.17 Titianʼs depictions of the saint were not only greatly influential to contemporary and later artists, but also represented the concerns and motives of the patrician elite. My interest in this chapter is to revisit Titianʼs Pitti Magdalene from the 1530s, recently linked to the patronage of

Vittoria Colonna, and Titianʼs Ambrosiana Magdalene, created for Cardinal

Federico Borromeo. The two were both active in religious reform in Rome and it is the undisputed piety of the illustrious Colonna, for whom the first Magdalene was created by Titian, that has confounded art historians in the interpretation of this blatantly erotic image of the Magdalene. Why would a devout Catholic noblewoman or an esteemed pious cardinal accept or desire such a sensual image?

Colonna, a native Florentine, lived for two significant periods of her life in

Rome, and used her money and influence to aid in the assistance of women, while Federico Borromeo, a native Milanese, lived in Rome from 1585 to 1601. In

1536, Colonna famously sponsored Angela Greca, who repented her life as a courtesan and became a nun in the convent of convertite in a ceremony performed at SS. Trinità dei Monti.18 In the case of Federico Borromeo, the pious

17 Titian created approximately forty variants of this subject in his lifetime. For the entire listings of Titianʼs Magdalenes, see Harold Wethey, Titian: The Relgious

Works (London: Phaidon, 1969), vol. 1, cat. nos. 120-129, pp. 143-151.

18 In a letter dated August 19, 1536, witness Carlo Gualteruzzi described Colonna as holding Angela Grecaʼs hand and leading her up the steps of the chancel. In

17 cardinal shared a lengthy correspondence with Caterina Vannini, a courtesan famous for her penitential conversion and subsequent entrance into the

Convertite. In both cases, Borromeo and Colonna are credited with the conversions of these courtesans, which can be linked to their dedication to the

Magdalene as a role model for penitent prostitutes.

In this chapter, I assert that the devotional images of the Penitent

Magdalene by Titian can be viewed as the stimulus for the reforming activities of

Borromeo and Colonna. I prove that both patrons were devotees of Saint Ignatius

Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, and the author of the Spiritual Exercises, a contemplative prayer guide that was arguably practiced by both Borromeo and

Colonna. In this chapter, I outline the devotional guide of the Exercises, and delineate the role of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene in conjunction with the employment of meditative prayer. It is my assertion that these images functioned as devotional empathetic models of the Magdalene as a penitent prostitute, which then acted as a spiritual aide in Borromeoʼs and Colonnaʼs participations in prostitution reforms.

This dissertation addresses the role of images of the penitent Magdalene as a catalyst for prostitution reform in early modern Venice and Rome through the varying patronage of all classes of society. As prostitution was a cultural

this scene, life imitates art, as painted popular depictions of conversion of the Magdalene often include her alleged sister Martha leading the Magdalene up the steps to Christ, such as Giulio Romanoʼs and Gianfrancesco Penniʼs fresco at SS. Trinità dei Monti.

18 phenomenon that was not exclusive to the elite cortigiana, the proliferation of

Magdalene imagery across the social stratum proves that prostitution reform, through the guise of the Penitent Magdalene, was a preoccupation by all people.

The preoccupation with the conversion of prostitutes, and subsequent images of the Penitent Magdalene, can be inextricably linked to the reputations of Venice and Rome as holy cities tarnished by their moral excesses and material luxuries, as manifested by the high visibility of prostitutes. It is my estimation that, in the spirit of reform, people from all social classes were invested in regaining honor for their respective cities, and the public image of women often served as a metaphor for the scorning of Venice and Rome. The novelty of this dissertation lies in my in-depth analysis of the patronage and functions of one particular type of Magdalene imagery in social history and, subsequently, the major roles of history, popular culture, and the power of images in situating the Magdalene as the repentant whore in the cultural milieu of the Renaissance. It is my supposition that the images of the Magdalene presented in this study are closely intertwined with the campaign to diminish prostitution in the early modern era in Venice and

Rome.

19 Chapter II. Sex and the Cities:

Prostitution History and Reform

The prostitute is a complex figure in social history, and the role and presence of prostitution in various cultures helps to illuminate the individuality of their respective civilizations. In the Italian Renaissance, the prostitute is reflective of a range of social classes, from the elite cortigiana, or courtesan, and her intermingling with noble court culture, to the growing poor, evidenced in the common street whore, the meretrice. During the early modern era, women were often presented as metaphors for the city, and as a result, prostitutes were publicly celebrated as beautiful treasures, similar to a tourist attraction; alternately, their blameworthy lives became synonymous with communal sins such as lust, vanity, greed, and gluttony. In this chapter, I examine the waning reputation associated with the Renaissance courtesan in an attempt to clarify the significance of the prostitute and what she came to represent in early modern

Venice and Rome, particularly when she was cast in the guise of the penitent

Magdalene.

The adage often given to prostitution is that of the “worldʼs oldest profession,”19 which can be verified by the fact that every recorded classification of positive law has commented about the prostitute, the pimp, the procurer, and

19 See Vern L. Bullough, The History of Prostitution (New York: University Books,

1964), 4.

20 the manner of their industry.20 Culturally prostitution is invariably linked to the religious beliefs and philosophical assumptions about sexual intercourse, female virginity, and female adultery – concepts that were not new to Renaissance Italy.

It has been particularly related to those societies, both ancient and modern, in which marriage was difficult and virginity was highly prized among women.21

During the early modern era, the acceptance and, often, celebration of prostitution, stemming from Greco-Roman precedence, widened exponentially until the pervasiveness of poverty, sexually transmitted disease, and moral concerns compelled its reform.

Governing policies concerning prostitution can be summarized by three basic approaches: toleration, institutionalization, and repression, the lack of which designates prostitution as a punishable offense.22 From the medieval period to the late Renaissance, all three modi operandi were employed in

Venetian and Roman prostitution policies, and it is evident that inconsistencies abound. Although some religious reformers never ceased attacking the legality of prostitution, ultimately toleration and institutionalization were found to be the most effective ways of dealing with this socio-economic and moral crisis. As repeated attempts toward sanctions on prostitution proved to futile, Catholic societies of

20 James Brundage, Sex, Law, and Marriage in the Middle Ages (Aldershot:

Ashgate 1993), 827. 21 Vern and Bonnie Bullough, Prostitution: An Illustrated Social History (New

York: Crown Publishers, 1978), 15.

22 Leah Lydia Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1985), 9.

21 Venice and Rome shifted their focus from corporeal repression to spiritual conversion.

The Middle Ages mark an amalgamation of pagan and Christian attitudes regarding prostitution in Western society, and as such, the medieval period is the most important age for understanding the basis of Renaissance conceptions of the prostitute.23 The medieval era marks a blend of medical and theological knowledge characteristic of the Western discourse on sexuality, from which the legacy of Greece and Rome is paramount.24 The “renaissance of the twelfth century” was marked by a great demographic surge, expansion and technological improvement of agriculture, growth of industry and commerce, a religious and intellectual ferment as a result of the renewed papacy, and a spread of schools and universities. The keystone of this renaissance was the rediscovery and renewal of Roman law, which accepted prostitution without question, along with its stigma.25

In medieval times, canonists treated prostitution as a moral category, in which sexual promiscuity was of chief concern. In legislative practice, medieval writers relied heavily upon Roman law, which defined prostitution as the offering of oneʼs body for sexual intercourse in return for money or other recompense, as

23 Vern and Bonnie Bullough, Women and Prostitution (New York: Prometheus

Books, 1987), 110.

24 Robert A. Nye, ed., Sexuality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 40.

25 Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society, 15-16.

22 long as the woman made herself available to more than one or two lovers.26

Despite the moral offense caused to theologians and canon lawyers, prostitution policy adopted was that of “practical toleration,” which originated in the writings of

Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.).27 Augustineʼs theories on prostitution and sexuality are based largely on his own salacious past, and his Confessions provided a powerful example of conversion.

Augustine observed that established patterns of sexual relationship would be endangered if prostitutes were not available, and therefore it was better to tolerate prostitution than suffer the consequences. This notion of the “necessary evil” of prostitution was even argued by some theologians and state officials: In the Venetian state, legislators claimed that prostitution was essential for the public good.28 One particular trend that re-emerged during the end of the fourteenth century was the establishment of municipal brothels and official “red- light districts,” which is evidence of institutionalization as the predominant prostitution policy. In France, common whores were obliged to live in a certain

26 Brundage, Sex, Law, and Marriage, 828. For more on Roman Law and its methods and explanations, see Javier Ochoa Sanz and Aloisio Diez, Indices titulorum et legum coporis iuris civilis, Universa Bibliotheca Iuris, Subsidia, Vol. 2

(Rome: Commentarium pro Religiosius, 1965), x-xi. 27 See Augustine, De ordine, 2.4 in J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus…series Latina, 221 Vols. (Paris: Garnier, 1844-64), 32:1000. 28 Brundage, Sex, Law, and Marriage, 830. For more on these views in the sixteenth century, see Joost de Damhouder, Subhaustationum compendiosa exegesis, c. 5, in Benvenuto Staccha, De mercatura decisions et tractatus varii

(Lyons, 1610; reprint, Turin: Bottega dʼErasmo, 1971), 763.

23 district, although they were under the protection of the king and his court, free from harassment.29

Prior to the mid-sixteenth century, Roman and Venetian governments exercised little control over the activities of prostitutes. In Rome, the Curia Savelli, one of the cityʼs tribunals, collected a yearly tax from registered whores. In 1559, a Jewish courtesan named Porzia was arrested for keeping company with the

Bishop of Polignano. The public was shocked when the courtesan was publicly whipped, her goods were confiscated, and she was exiled. In her defense, her fellow Romans protested that, because she “paid her tribute every year,” she was therefore “guilty of nothing.”30 The status of the prostitute, albeit legal, was thus vulnerable to waves of moralizing, which often occurred with little warning.

Prostitutes served as scapegoats for a multitude of problems, including plague, war, or even poor harvests; in 1476, after a shortage of grain, prostitutes were expelled from Ferrara.31 Despite the precarious livelihood of the prostitute, the

29 Otis 1985, 26-31. 30 Storey, Carnal Commerce,1-3. For an overview of prostitution in Italian cities, see Romano Canosa and Isabella Colonello, Storia della prostituzione in Italia

(Rome: Sapere 2000, 1989).

31 Diane Yvonne Ghirdaio, “The Topography of Prostitution in Renaissance Ferrara,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 60/4 (December 2001):

402.

24 rejection of “official prostitution” did not begin until public brothels were shut down throughout Europe.32

Private brothels existed alongside city brothels, and in smaller cities, traveling prostitutes were allowed to stay in towns for one night a week, which avoided the scandal and expense of a municipal brothel.33 Brothels were designed for one particular group of men, journeymen and apprentices not yet married, and the brothels charged prices that the average man could afford.

Official sanction of these institutions celebrated youthful male virility, while simultaneously encouraging a delay in marriage until a manʼs vocational training was complete and he was able to support a wife and children. Brothels, however, became the natural stage for male bravado, despite the double penalty often incurred for causing a disturbance in the brothel.34 One sixteenth-century critic of sanctioned brothels, Johannes Brenz, succinctly summarized the growing dissatisfaction with the official toleration: “Some say one must have public

32 Protestant cities were among the first European centers to shut down public brothels, beginning with Zwickau in 1526, Augsburg in 1532, London in 1546, Languedoc in the 1550s, and Amsterdam in 1578. One of the last European countries to close its brothels was Catholic Spain in 1626. 33 Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society, 34-35. In 1383, the Bishop of Albi suggested the idea of a double brothel -- one outside the city walls for working hours and one inside for housing the prostitutes at night. However, the expense proved too costly, and the project was never undertaken. 34 Lyndal Roper, The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation

Augsburg (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 93.

25 brothels to prevent greater evil- but what if these brothels are schools in which one learns more wickedness than before?”35

Italian Renaissance society saw the emergence of cultured, princely courts in regions throughout Italy such as Mantua, Ferrara, and Florence, and with these courts several new types of individuals materialized, including the prince, the courtier, and the courtesan. The courtesan was a social creation indebted to Greco-Roman prototypes, and her figure rose out of the neoplatonic ideal that a woman was “heaven on earth.” Rome, a city of celibates in the capital of Christianity, quickly became a city of prostitution as men, including those in religious vocations who vowed celibacy, greatly outnumbered women. In Venice, the courtesan became yet another luxury item available in a city of merchants.

The courtesan was a female “deity” in a male metropolis, and while an army of

“mercenaries of love” fell into place behind her, the aristocratic cortigiana gradually distinguished her from the common meretrice, and the majority of studies dedicated to prostitution in the sixteenth century are limited to an examination of the cortigiana. 36

In Rome, prostitution had flourished in the fifteenth century as the papacy was re-established there following its brief sojourn in Avignon (1309-78) and the disorder of the Great Schism (1378-1417). Three types of prostitutes were classified in a census during the reign of Pope Leo X (r. 1513-21): cortesana puttana, cortesana da lume (da candela), and cortesana honesta. The Medici

35 As quoted in Roper, The Holy Household, 107.

36 Lynne Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans (New York: Rizzoli, 1987), 4-5.

26 court of Leo X, with its love of all things Greek, bestowed particular honor and extraordinary social position on courtesans, who were viewed as the reincarnation of hetairai.37 As a social category, however, the mistress and the courtesan were interchangeable. The famous Fiammetta, Masina, and Imperia, for example, were all courtesans who later became the mistresses of notorious

Roman men.38

Literary and artistic conventions demonstrate clear patterns surrounding the courtesan and her milieu, painting a multifaceted portrait of the fabled women. One of the most important literary sources for both Roman and Venetian

37 The most famous contribution of the Grecian civilization to prostitution was the hetaerae, or high-class courtesans, literally translated as “companions to men.” Prominent Greek statesmen and orator Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.) aptly summarized the role of hetaerae to Greek men when he stated that the Greeks had “hetaerae for delight, concubines for the daily needs of the body, and wives in order to beget legitimate children and have faithful housekeepers.” For more on hetairai, see Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (New York: Schocken Books, 1995), 57. For more on the identification of Roman courtesans with ancient hetairai, see Ludwig von Pastor, Vol. 5 (1923), 129-130. For a modern commentary, see Ingrid Rowland, The Culture of the High Renaissance: Ancient and Moderns in Sixteenth-Century Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 29. 38 Witcombe, “The Quarrel of the Magdalens,” 274 – 275. Fiammetta was a courtesan and lover of nobleman and cardinal Cesare Borgia (1475-1507), Masina was a favorite of Pope Julius II prior to his pontificate in 1503, and Imperia was a companion to Pope Leo X (1475-1521). For more on these courtesansʼ biographies, see Masson and Lawyner.

27 courtesans is Pietro Aretino (1492- 1556), the famous satirist. His play La

Cortigiana (1525) paints a humorous view of courtesans, although the figure of the courtesan never actually appears onstage.39 Other writers range in their treatment from praise to denigration, and the courtesanʼs voice herself in literature describes her lifestyle as anything from exalted to imprisoned. Roman courtesan Camilla of Pisaʼs personal letters reveal the courtesan as a faithless and tormented lover, even threatening to turn away her powerful client for his mistreatment of her feelings:

You men play so many deceitful games with us that we are going to stop caring about you. I hardly know how to convince myself that what you are saying is the truth. I called out to you so many times, ʻhey, hey, hey,ʼ that I feel weak. Next time you can bleat like lambs, and I wonʼt even give you the time of day. Tell Giovanni [Bandini] his pranks worked again, but I intend to get even with all of you some day.40

Despite the candor of these letters, the prevailing conception of courtesans in Renaissance society, particularly in the eyes of men, was that of opulence with a complicated mix of allure and aloofness. The elaborate efforts of

39 Aretino appropriates a Platonic dialogue to discuss the erotic service of the courtesan, as opposed to the elevated and ideal service of a courtier to his prince. Aretino, through the voice of the courtesan, writes about themes of power: the courtesan is depicted as a powerfully corrupt woman who subjugates men through sex. For more on the politics and themes of female corruption in Aretino, see Ian Frederick Moulton, “ ʻCourtesan Politicʼ: The Erotic Writing and the Cultural Significance of Pietro Aretino,” in Before Pornography: Erotic Writing in

Early Modern England (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 119-157.

40 Camilla of Pisa, Lettere di cortigiane, No. 10, cited in Lawner 1987, 49.

28 the courtesans to appear as manifestations of Venus, the goddess of love, included an intricate web of furnishings, the most important of which was her fashionable and noble appearance. In a lengthy commentary that accompanies his engravings of Venetian costumes (Fig. 9), Cesare Vecellio explains:

Courtesans who wish to get ahead in the world by feigning respectability go around dressed as widows or married women. Most courtesans dress up as young virgins anyway. In fact, they button themselves up even more than virgins do. But a compromise must eventually be reached between the wearing of a mantle that hides their bodies and their need to be seen, at least to some extent. Finally, courtesans are forced to open up at the neck, and one recognizes at once who they are, for the lack of pearls speaks loud and clear…Aside from this limitation, however, they dress in the most lavish manner, their underwear including embroidered hosiery, petticoats, and undershirts, and garments of silk brocade. Inside their high clogs they wear Roman-style shoes. I am speaking, of course, of the high-class courtesans. Those, on the other hand who exercise their wicked profession in public places wear waistcoats of silk with gold braid or embroidery and skirts covered with overskirts or silk aprons. Light scarves on their heads, they go around the city flirting, their gestures and speak easily giving away their identity.41

Vecellio goes on to describe the elite courtesans and their diligence in disguising themselves as ladies in order to create a noble illusion for their privileged clientele. One of the main beauty practices utilized by both courtesans and noblewomen was dyeing their hair blond. According to Vecellio, the majority of women in Venice would spend the hottest part of the day atop their altane, open loggias on top of houses, wearing a thin gown called a schiavonetto and a solana, a lightweight, wide-brimmed straw hat with a hole on top. Following the guidelines outlined for them in such beauty manuals as Giovanni Marinelloʼs Gli

41 Cesare Vecellio, Habiti antichi e moderni di tutto il mondo (Venice, 1590).

29 ornamenti delle donne (Ways for Women to Adorn Themselves, Venice, 1562), women endured “great discomfort” in the heat as they applied wet sponges of various formulas to their locks. The rampant use of beauty recipes and formulas was so pervasive, it also attracted ridicule: In Andrea Calmoʼs fictional letters to courtesans, a courtesan is given a ridiculous concoction of such ingredients as assʼs milk, sugared alum, and the yolks of twenty eggs to ensure soft skin.42 In order to keep up appearances, courtesans indulged in an array of cosmetics, which was a prosperous market in Venice, and often rented clothing and furnishings in order to create an illusion of wealth and opulence.43

In addition to the ideal appearance of courtesans, with their silky gold hair in elaborate coiffures, soft and sweet-smelling skin, graceful movements, and opulent and fashionably lavish costumes, the courtesan required a convincing habitat. In a famous short story by Matteo Bandello, the writer offers a detailed description of the palace of Imperia, a famous Roman courtesan in the early part of the sixteenth century. Velvet and brocade are draped in the living room and boudoir, embroidered cloth of gold adorns the walls of the bedchamber, and ornate carpets cover the floors. The center of the sitting room features a precious table covered in green velvet, and atop the table are books of music, volumes of literature in Latin and Italian, and various musical instruments. A crass anecdote

42 Lawner, Lives, 19. See Andrea Calmo, Le lettere di Andrea Calmo, edited by

Vittorio Rossi (Turin: Ermanno Loescher, 1888).

43 Popular cosmetics included bleaching aids for skin and hair, and makeup was often applied to breasts as well as the face.

30 in the story reveals the haughty moral: A Spanish ambassador who visited

Imperia was astonished by the sumptuous surroundings and, unable to find a humble spot to spit, he spat in the face of one of his servants.44

Bandello is also a provocative source for ascertaining the daily practices of courtesans, and although his description is based in Venice, it is quite probable that it was similar in Rome:

There is a custom in Venice…namely that a courtesan take six or seven lovers, assigning to each a certain night of the week when she dines and sleeps with them. During the day she is free to entertain whomever she wishes so that her mill never lies idle and does not rust from lack of the opportunity to grind grain. Once in awhile, a wealthy foreigner insists on having one of her nights, warning her that otherwise she will not get a cent from him. In this case, it is her duty to request permission from lover whose evening would be ordinarily be and to arrange to see him during the day instead. Each lover pays a monthly salary, and their agreement includes the provision that the courtesan is allowed to have foreigners as overnight guests.45

Afternoon salons hosted by courtesans in their palaces featured

“agreeable conversation” and visitors sat on special little cushions on the floor in homage. In these visits courtesans often showcased their unique talents, such as playing musical instruments, singing, and reciting poetry. In attendance at these soirées were writers, philosophers and artists, as well as the usual crowd of gentlemen and diplomats, all of who affirmed the courtesanʼs central role in

44 Matteo Bandello, Novelle III, 42. Summarized in Lawner, Lives, 6-8.

45 Bandello, Novelle II, 31.

31 Renaissance culture.46 Due to social mores protecting womenʼs chastity, it appears as if mixed-gender public conversation was limited. Virginia Cox has noted that women speakers typically contributed by reflecting upon the

“teachings” of their male interlocutors.47 In his commentary on Venice,

Frenchman Michel de Montaigne complained that conversation with a courtesan cost as much as the sexual transaction, thus emphasizing the elite and refined status of the courtesan.48

46 Courtesans such as Veronica Franco not only published poetry as proof of their contribution to the liberal arts, but also publicly engaged other male poets in battles of wits. In 1547 Tullia challenged author Sperone Speroni in a dialogue involving love, a subject that courtesans exerted themselves as experts. For more on this, see Janet L. Smarr, “A Dialogue of Dialogues: Tullia dʼAragona and

Sperone Speroni,” MLN 113/1 (1998): 204-212.

47 Virginia Cox, “Seen but not Heard: the Role of Women Speakers in Cinquecento Literary Dialogue,” in Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society, ed. Letizia Panizza (Oxford: European Humanities Research Centre, 2000), 391. For an analysis of a courtesan dialogue, see Janet Levarie Smarr, “Dialogue and Social Conversation,” in Joining the conversation: dialogues by

Renaissance women (University of Michigan Press, 2005), 98-129. 48 See Michel de Montaigne, Journal du voyage de M. de Montaigne en Italie par la Suisse et lʼAllemagne en 1580 et 1581 (Rome and Paris, 1774). The courtesan served to indulge the neoplatonic desires of gentlemen by presenting an image of feminine pleasure that provided relief for their worldly concerns. In the company of courtesans, noblemen and other figures of authority could engage in various acts of emotional and physical intimacy designed to help the participants escape their structured and demanding lives. As intimate companions in conversation, the courtesans were noted for their assistance in political matters; particularly in

32 Much attention has been paid to the elite courtesan; however, the more common prostitute, to whom the Roman word meretrice is often applied, also became an evident fixture in Venetian and Roman society. According to contemporaries, their appearance was varied, but as was the general rule in the

Renaissance, their clothes were the visible equivalence of their divergent economic levels. Fashion analyst Vecellio comments:

Nevertheless, most of them wear a somewhat masculine outfit: silk or cloth waistcoats adorned with conspicuous fringes and padded like young mensʼ vests, especially those of Frenchmen. Next to their bodies they wear a manʼs shirt, more or less delicate according to what they can spend, that arrives below the knees, and over it they wrap an overskirt or a silk or cloth apron reaching to their feet… Many of them wear menʼs breeches…usually they stand in doorways and on the streets in order to draw passersby into their web. They try to be entertaining by singing little love songs, but most of them sound hoarse and off-key, as women of that low condition well might.49

the field of espionage and to prevent sodomy, which was viewed as an act of defiance against the patriarchal state. 49 Vecellio, Habiti, 1590. Authorities rationalized the legality of prostitution to prevent sodomy and legislators considered it particularly dubious that some prostitutes cross-dressed to attract sodomites. As early as 1260 prostitutes were expelled from Florence for transvestism, since they were believed by authorities to be pleasing men by appearing as male, and thus open to acts of sodomy. For more on transvestism and prostitution in Florence, see Richard Trexler, “La prostitution al florentine au XVe siecle: Patronages e clienteles,” Annales ESC 36/985-1015 (1981): 995. In Venice, sexual intercourse between men was punishable by death. For more on sodomites and the law, see Patricia LaBalme,

“Sodomy and Venetian Justice,” The Legal History Review 52 (1984): 217-54.

33 The general characteristic of official attitudes toward prostitution in medieval and Renaissance legislation was marked by acceptance, even by religious authorities, due to its prevalent use by these pillars of Roman society.

Prostitutes were a frequent topic of discussion in ecclesiastical circles, however, and English theologian and subdean of Salisbury Thomas of Chobham (1160-

1233?) devoted several passages in Summa Confessorum, a manual of instruction for confessors, to defining prostitution and defending prostitutesʼ rights to keep earnings, give alms, and go to church (but not to commune).50 English cardinal Robert of Coursson (d. 1219) disagreed, stating that prostitutes “should be set apart, as is the custom with lepers.”51 Waves of moralizing attacks directed at prostitutes were typically related to the impassioned sermons of reformers such as Fra Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498). Savonarola, who influenced the legislative restrictions of prostitutes in Ferrara through Duke Ercole I, also inspired prostitution reforms in Florence and accused Pope Sixtus IV of legalizing prostitution to increase the revenues of his papal court.52 Other reformers such

50 For an overview of the Summa Confessorum and its significance, see Ray C. Petry, “Review: Thomae De Chobham Summa Confessorum by Thomas

Chobham; F. Broomfield,” Church History 39/1 (Mar 1970): 113-114.

51 Roper, The Holy Household, 22-23.

52 Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) was the first pope to license brothels. In a 2010 online business editorial for MSNBC.com, Phillip Harper listed Sixtus IV as number two in a list of historyʼs top ten entrepreneurs, citing the popeʼs insight into the benefits of profiting from the “wages of sin.” See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5519861.

34 as Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444) kept silent on the issue of legalization, as the

Church officially sanctioned prostitution, and the subject of converting prostitutes and preventing women from falling into the profession was the focus of his numerous sermons dedicated to the Magdalene.53

Prostitution gained a stronghold in Roman society not only due to Romeʼs high ratio of men to women but also in relationship to Roman tourism. One of

Pietro Aretinoʼs prostitutes notices that pilgrims and other foreigners in Rome often came for only eight or ten days, and when they grew weary of the “old stuff”

(le anticaglie), they wanted to see “bits of skirt” or the “new stuff.”54 English diarists such as John Evelyn were struck by prostitutesʼ boldness, and the tawdry splendors of rich prostitutes impressed tourists, especially during carnival, when prostitutes pelted men with perfumed eggs. In Medicean Rome, there were an estimated 750 to 1,000 prostitutes, which demonstrates that Rome was comparable to Venice in the sex economy.

A common joke about men visiting Rome was that they were likely to return home without money or beard, a reference to syphilis and its antidotes.55

53 Franco Mormando, The preacherʼs demons: Bernardino of Siena and the social underworld of early Renaissance Italy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1999), 126. 54 Peter Partner, Renaissance Rome 1500-1559 (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1976), 55-56. 55 Partner, Renaissance Rome, 99-100. One of the earliest remedies for syphilis included mercury, which gave rise to the expression “A night in the arms of Venus leads to a lifetime on Mercury.” Mercury was administered in a variety of

35 In Renaissance Venice, the rise of prostitution corresponded with the cityʼs reputation as a center for sensual pleasure. Paradoxically, authorities justified an economy of illicit sex as a means to sustain the Venetian culture of licit sex, marriage, which was considered the moral fabric of Venetian society. Although sexual transgressions were viewed as a threat to the stability and order of family and community, due to the increasing difficulty in garnering a proper Venetian marriage, a large part of the population found their sexuality outside the boundaries of accepted sexual behavior. At a time when dowry rates were inflated, available noble males were limited, and even admittance to religious life was financially challenging to the lower classes; the ideal of marriage as the required place for normal sexuality was thus undermined by the realities of the institution itself. 56

ways, but was adopted into a blue pill for Francis I, who famously suffered from the disease. Unfortunately mercury caused a loss of hair as well as teeth. For more on syphilis, see Bruce Thomas Boehrer, “Early Modern Syphilis,” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 1/2 (Oct 1990): 197-214. For more on syphilis and Francis I, see Margaret Healy, “Bronzinoʼs London Allegory and the Art of

Syphilis,” Oxford Art Journal 20/1 (1997): 3-11. 56 Guido Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 9-15. Similar to concubines, some prostitutes also served as part-time “semi-wives” to many men at once, offering sex and companionship but also washing, mending, storage, and hospitality to friends. Concubines were women who engaged in a close, sexual relationship with men they were not able to marry for reasons typically related to social class distinctions or because that man was

36 The need for prostitution in Venice was rationalized by the difficulty of marriage in the Renaissance, but the question remains how such women became part of this institution. In most cases, prostitutes came from the lower classes, although many of them appear not to have chosen the profession.

Prostitutes often began as domestic servants; for numerous women domestic service was merely a step on the way to prostitution because servant status left young women in an exposed position, unprotected by male relatives. In some instances, women were seduced into prostitution by a male lover, such as in the case of Pietro Rizo. Pietro lured a young woman named Giacobella to run off with him to Ferrara after a short affair, where he then put her out as a common prostitute. Other reported cases involved young girls and married women who were lured from Istria to Venice: Legislative cases reveal that such seductions were a common method of recruiting women.57

As was the case with most professions in the Renaissance, prostitution was often a family business. Famous sixteenth-century Venetian courtesan and poetess Veronica Franco writes in her memoirs of being raised by a courtesan and subsequently being trained as such (Fig. 10). In Rome, as a way to combat cycles of prostitution, the institution of San Caterina ai Funari was dedicated to the female children of prostitutes, for it was commonly believed that these children would also be raised as prostitutes. Aretino reported that prostitutes, already married to another woman. See Elizabeth and Thomas Cohen, Daily Life in Renaissance Italy (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), 261.

57 Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros, 41-42.

37 concerned as to who would care and provide for them in their old age and ill health, took female infants from orphanages and raised them as whores.58

The concerns in literature and legal discourse regarding the role of the mother in fomenting prostitution is substantiated by the finding that more than eleven percent of Roman prostitutes lived with their mothers, though not usually during their “apprenticeship.” Courtesans often described having “pupils,” ridiculed by contemporaries such as Aretino, and some of these pupils were remembered in courtesansʼ wills. Husbands were also known to have forced their wives into prostitution in order to settle debts, although it is evident only in a few cases where charges were brought. Wives accusing their husbands of such an act took a heavy risk, for suspicion was automatically directed at the wife.59

One of the inherent problems in the history of prostitution in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Rome and Venice was the speculation on the number of whores, and these suppositions formed a kind of literary topos in descriptions of

Venice and Rome. Historians are quick to reject the numbers as exaggerations, and the hyperbole was most likely aimed to censure female morality in general.

Due to growing poverty in the early sixteenth century, gross overestimations of prostitute populations were probably triggered by an alarmed perception that there was a large influx of prostitutes. Additionally, the introduction of the cortigiana onesta represented a new kind of prostitute who was not loyal to a single man, as was a concubine, or linked to a controlled network, such as a

58 Partner, Renaissance Rome, 110.

59 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 141-147.

38 brothel. The high visibility of the wealth and supposed freedom of courtesans made them a shocking threat to patriarchal order, and many commentators expressed apprehension at the courtesansʼ ability to appear as noblewomen, thus threatening the rigid social caste system.60

According to recent findings, poor meretrici constituted on average sixty percent of Roman prostitutes, while the remaining forty percent were cortigiane and were considered “comfortably-off.” An average meretrice claimed an estimated earning of two to three scudi per sexual transaction, and staying the night was more costly. The prostituteʼs income was far better than that of a skilled artisan or a woman with “honest” work, such as a domestic servant or a laundress. Due to the scarcity of coinage in Rome, it is difficult to properly measure a prostituteʼs earnings; she was often paid in the form of gifts, such as objects and foodstuffs. In order to protect themselves, prostitutes often sought to cultivate long-term relationship with clients, called an amico fermo (firm friend), who supported the women by providing them with rent, food, and other living necessities. It was socially favorable for a prostitute to receive gifts as opposed to cash; this type of relationship between prostitute and client reflected the gentility of courtship rituals, and as a result these customs were usually quite public.61

Despite its justified role in Renaissance society, the economy of illicit sex became threatened in the late fifteenth century when French soldiers in Naples recorded the first outbreak of syphilis, a deadly venereal disease, in 1495. That

60 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 65-66.

61 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 165-170.

39 same year Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian of Hapsburg issued a decree explaining the illness as a result of common immorality, and both the emperor and the populace considered prostitutes particularly responsible for syphilis and other venereal diseases.62 Girolamo Fracastoro of Verona published a poem titled “Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus” in 1530, about a shepherd afflicted by Apollo with a disease, but the name syphilis was attached to the disease a decade later.63

The infection is manifest in three distinctive stages, the first of which is marked by sores (chancres) that appear on the genitals and are small, round, and painless. These sores disappear within three to six weeks, and if no treatment occurs, the second stage of painful rashes and lesions develops.

62 Nils Johan Ringdal, Love for Sale: A World History of Prostitution, trans. Richard Daly (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 174. The French were greatly upset that this new disease was named the “French sickness,” and tried to divert blame to southern Italy, calling it the “Neapolitan disease.” The blame game was prevalent throughout the world: Turks called it the “Christian disease,” the Chinese called it the “Portuguese disease”, and so forth. See Vern Bullough, The

History of Prostitution, 133. 63 Prior to 1530, syphilis was known almost exclusively in Italy as the “French disease,” or in some cases as the “great pox” to distinguish it from smallpox. In the Fracastoroʼs poem, the protagonist “Syphilus” is a shepherd who contracts a disease as a punishment by Apollo for insulting the sun god. See Vern and Bonnie Bullough, Sin, Sickness, and Sanity: A History of Sexual Attitudes (New

York: Signet Classics, 1977), 142.

40 These symptoms also wane after a period of time, and the latent stage of the disease does not often appear until ten to twenty years after the initial infection.

The appearance of syphilis was associated with the high population of prostitutes in Venice, but additional “signs” were interpreted as bad omens and divine punishment. On March 26, 1511, a short but violent earthquake shook the

Venetian Republic and was identified and described as a divine sign of evil. The following day, Antonio Contarini, the Patriarch of Venice, preached to the “sinful city,” and particularly noted the sexual excesses in Venetian convents, where he claimed nuns lived like “public whores.”64 Official concern over the moral fabric of

Venice related to women and prostitution also manifested itself in the rise of sumptuary legislation, as the degeneration of fashion was associated with the degeneration of moral behavior. Although sumptuary laws were not new to

Venice, sixteenth-century restrictions on dress focused on the moral rather than the economic aspects of clothing -- for example, one stipulation required the female breasts to be covered.65

64 Daniela Hacke, Women, Sex, and Marriage in Early Modern Venice (London:

Ashgate, 2004), 177. 65 Hacke, Women, Sex, and Marriage, 178. Women were not the only targets: A great concern was expressed over the Venetian male patrician youths losing their “distinctive maleness.” See Stanley Chojnacki, Women and Men in Renaissance Venice (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 71. The loss of this maleness was seen as a contributor to sodomy, which was fiercely dealt with by Venetian courts. See Patricia LaBalme, “Sodomy and Venetian Justice,” 242. For

41 Costume historians and anthropologists have concluded that the purpose of fashion is to demonstrate the status of an individual; the earliest civilizations developed in temperate climates, where dressing for protection or warmth was not a chief concern.66 Paralleling the quarantine of street prostitutes, throughout the early modern era the Senate passed regulations restricting the dress of elite courtesans, not only to punish the women but also to prevent their influence over, or misidentification with, Venetian noblewomen. In a 1543 decree, the Senate forbade cortigiane to wear any silk, silver, gold, pearls, or rings, and their homes were also not allowed to be furnished with any luxury goods, such as leather or decadent brocaded upholstery.67 At the same time that the government restricted the movement of the meretrice, ultimately striking at the very freedom that was necessary to her financial survival, sumptuary legislation aimed to repress the luxurious appeal of the cortigiana, who depended upon illusion for her success.

Interest in prostitution reform gained momentum in the sixteenth century not only from the rise of venereal disease and concern over public morality, but also in response to growing criticism from Protestant reformers. During the early years of the Reformation, the campaign against prostitution gained momentum, more on sumptuary legislation in Venice, see Barzaghi, Donne, 138, Hughes,

“Distinguishing Signs,” 69-99, and Fortini-Brown, Private Lives, 320-22. 66 For more on this, see Tortora and Eubanks, Survey of Historic Costume: A

History of Western Dress, Fifth Edition (New York: Farchild Books, 2010), 1-11.

67 Translated by Chambers, Fletcher, and Pullan, eds., Venice: A Documentary History 1450- 1630 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 127. The

Senate decree was passed on 21 February, 1542.

42 although at first the attacks by Martin Luther and his contemporaries were part of the anticlerical movement. These women were classed with Catholic priests, whom the Protestants fiercely opposed for their often-blameworthy lifestyles; but quickly the violence turned toward the prostitutes.68 After the Protestant

Reformation, prostitution was criminalized in Protestant areas, and the first step was the public closure of all brothels. Celibacy was denounced in Protestant nations, and as marriage became the focal point of Protestant Christian society, prostitution was regarded as a dangerous threat to the sacred institution.

Subsequently, the criminalization and repression of prostitution meant that these women now rarely worked independently and surrendered their freedom to male brothel keepers, pimps, and landlords. Prostitutes became increasingly vulnerable to harassment and were stripped of their status, and the intensified policing resulted in nine hundred arrests per year on average in Rome.69

During these pivotal years of struggle, prostitution and wealthy courtesans tarnished the reputation of Rome, a major point of contention for the Protestants, who widely circulated propaganda portraying Rome as Babylon and the Pope as a whore (Fig. 11). Although the visibility of wealthy courtesans was viewed as emblematic of female “disorderliness,” the sociability around common prostitutes was associated with general lack of discipline and a range of other crimes and

68 Roper, Holy Household, 104-107. During the Wars of Religion, Protestant troops who seized Gaillac beat the prostitutes in that town and cut off their ears.

See Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society, 44.

69 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 236-237.

43 vices, including drinking, gambling, dancing, vanity, and greed.70 Catholic reformers, however, were milder in their repression of prostitution than

Protestants. In 1566, when Pope Pius V attempted to abolish prostitution in

Rome, the urban merchant class inflamed the city with hysteria, frantic that the great exodus of women would be detrimental to the cityʼs economy. The Popolo

Romano, the civic authority, challenged Pius, who had begun his campaign against prostitution early in his papacy, and refused to enforce his edicts.

Angered by the Popolo Romanoʼs obstinacy, Pius took matters into his own hands and ordered the immediate expulsion of the Borgo, the area surrounding the Vatican, over which the Pope had complete jurisdiction. Giving the women only six days to marry or leave Rome, and twelve days to be out of the Papal States, Pius commanded all others to go live in Trastevere, adding that he did not want this city to be “a copy of Babylon when it should be the head and an example to others.”71 After an outpouring of protests from the residents of

Trastevere, who refused to share their streets with whores, the Pope relented and instead relocated the women to Campo Marzio. Despite months of negotiations with various authorities, Pius again demanded, in September 1566, that the prostitutes be expelled from Rome.72

70 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 4.

71 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 72.

72 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 70- 75.

44 While censuses taken only two months later reveal that many prostitutes refused to leave, those who did flee met catastrophic ends. In one of his dispatches to the Venetian Senate, a Venetian ambassador reported:

In the flight of the courtesans from the city a great many unpleasant things have happened to them, because some of them have been killed in the roads, others drowned in the Tiber by people moved by selfishness and greed for the money they were carrying with them, and we are still hearing about the woundings and other disorders which have been going on.73

In an anonymous letter written to the Pope explaining the Popolo Romanoʼs appeal for the toleration and segregation of prostitutes, the author begins by appealing to tradition and reiterating the historical motivations for official toleration, such as the protection of honest women. In addition to the fear of illegal activities becoming harder to police if they are done in secret, the letter also urges a fiscal motivation, namely that the economy would suffer greatly if the prostitutes were forced out.74 Because the misfortunes of those who had already left were arguably common knowledge, the author appeals to the popeʼs charity, stating that the prostitutes need time to settle their affairs in order to avoid becoming prey for thieves. Contemporary reformers were forced to be satisfied with the stricter controls and urban confinement of prostitutes, as the illegalization or exile of these women proved implausible in Catholic Italy.

73 As cited in A. Bertolotti, Repressioni Straordinarie, 54. 74 Thomas Coryat also mentions that the Venetian state tolerated prostitution in

Venice due to the profits these women provided the Republic. See Crudities, 403.

45 In Venice, the Signori di Notte (Lords of the Night) was the specially appointed magistrate designated to control lesser violent crimes and nocturnal disturbances, including the criminal acts of prostitution and sodomy. The Signori di Notte, of which few records survive, was formed as early as the twelfth century, and after 1260 one noble represented each district of Venice.75 After determining the importance of prostitution to the Republic, the Lords of the

Sestieri, or Minor Council, was charged with the significant task of isolating the prostitute by means of living quarters. In a 1460 proposed regulation, the Sestieri determined that the Rialto was the “suitable and proper place where the whores must abide,” and the women were restricted to a fortified brothel, to which guards were appointed to protect the women inside.76 In the sixteenth century, however, the Council of Ten imposed greater sanctions on the meretrice, undoubtedly galvanized by the spread of disease and the gross influx of the numbers of visible poor. In a 1539 decree, the Council stipulated that the prostitutes who had moved to Venice in the past two years were to be expelled, and all prostitutes were

75 Information regarding the Signori di Notte al criminal, not to be confused with the Signori di Notte al civil, can be found at the Archivio di Stato Venezia, located at the Frari. All magistrates are listed with a description of general activities in the series Capitolari. For more on prosecution of sodomy and the Signori di Notte, see Louis Compton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Boston: Harvard University

Press, 2006), 246-248.

76 Cited in Chambers, Fletcher, and Pullan, Venice, 120-121. The original document is dated 4 September, 1460, and printed in Orford 1872, 56-9.

46 forbidden to frequent churches alongside women of reputable standing, lest the good women be mistaken for whores.77

The segregation of prostitutes in Venice and Rome represented the consolidation of attitudes regarding this social epidemic and corresponded with the spatial confinement of a similar “pollutant”: Jews. The Jewish communities in

Rome and Venice were among the oldest in European history, although the

Jewsʼ predilection to racial self-inclusion was repeatedly countered by waves of

Christian persecution. Jews were tolerated in large northern Italian cities due to the fact that Jews were necessary to Christians for their money-lending practices, but they were simultaneously expelled from southern Italian communities to purify

Spanish regions of Moorish influence and establish Catholic supremacy and orthodoxy.78 Although the Jews had a long tradition of tolerant popes, in the mid- sixteenth century Pope Pius V quarantined the Jews in a ghetto. The papal edict successfully assigned the Jews to a sharply secluded quarter of the city, which contained only a few narrow streets.79

77 Chambers et al., Venice, 126-7. 78 For example, Ferdinand and Isabella drove the Jews out of Sicily in 1492. For more on the history of Jews in Sicily, see Gaetano Cipolla, “The Jews in Sicily,” in Siciliana: Studies on the Sicilian Ethos, (New York: Legas, 2005), 81-98. For more on the history of Jews in Venice, see Cecil Roth, History of the Jews in

Venice (Philadelphia, 1930; repr. New York, 1975), 1-17. 79 Ferdinand Gregorovius, The Ghetto and the Jews of Rome, translation and introduction by Moses Hadas (New York: Schocken Books, 1966), 68-69.

47 Physical indicators were assigned to Jews and prostitutes in order to separate them from Christians and noblewomen; red and yellow were the colors often assigned to both communities.80 The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 had required the physical demarcation of the Jews, as it was believed to be an offense to God that they were indistinguishable from Christians. Despite the decree, few Italian cities enforced the edict until the fifteenth century, when

Venetian Jews were forced to wear an “O” made of yellow cord in 1430.81 The

Franciscans, led by San Bernardino of Siena and his Observant followers, preached of the relationship between the Jewish vainglory and concupiscence and the excesses of womenʼs dress, which he related to the costume of harlotry.82 The Florentine requirement of prostitutes to don bells, the sign of lepers, either to their hoods or shawls, was significant in that the prostitutes were set apart visually and audibly.83

Urban spaces in early modern Venice and Rome were politically charged arenas in which the Cinquecento drama often played out. Legally mandated areas for Jews and prostitutes represented the escalation of the growing

Gregorovius wrote his seminal study in 1853, moved by the “identity of spirit and uninterrupted life of ancient people.” See Hadas, “Introduction”, 1. 80 Many cities assigned prostitutes a range of garments from yellow bands around the head in Pisa in the fourteenth century to coarse shawls in Milan in the fifteenth century. See Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 25.

81 Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 17.

82 A harlot is a prostitute or a woman accused of promiscuity.

83 Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 24-25.

48 popularity of the groupsʼ persecution, manifested in the Middle Ages by pre-

Lenten games. The institution of races for Jews in anticipation of Carnival began in Rome in 1466, and the first satirical plays ridiculing Jews, called giudate, were recorded in Rome as early as the fifteenth century. Passion plays, often performed in the Colosseum, however, were banned after 1539 as a result of the violence they incited against Jews.84 In addition to the public humiliation of races, which in the case of Jews were often run in the nude, or with prostitutes pelted with rotten fruit by bystanders, both groups were required to attend conversion sermons.85

Perhaps the most effective and convincing appeal to the papacy regarding the judicial acceptance of prostitutes involved a clever argument by the anonymous author who cited spiritual gain that was to be had from the prostitutes and the Jews. According to the author, God Himself tolerated such beings, yet the official toleration of these pollutants provided a valuable opportunity for conversion. Since conversion was ideally obtained “through delight rather than violence, which is not lasting,” it was implied that the conversion of prostitutes would ultimately bring greater glory to Catholicism than if the women were merely

84 See Laurie Nussdorfer, “The Politics of Space in Early Modern Rome,”

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 42 (1997): 161-186. 85 As early as 1572, Gregory XIII issued an ordinance requiring Jewish attendance to a minimum of one conversion sermon per week, and demanded an audience of one hundred men and fifty women. The number was later raised to a total audience of three hundred Jews. See Gregorovius, 76.

49 expelled.86 The Catholic legislative toleration of prostitutes provided an opportunity not only for the spiritual gain of the individuals through the act of conversion, but also for the demonstration of the efficacy of Catholicism to

Catholics and Protestants alike.87

As a result, along with the violent acts and harsh words used against prostitution, the sixteenth century marked a new era of compassion for the prostitute. In addition to the existing convents for repentant prostitutes, most of which were constructed in the medieval period, in 1559 a group of Venetian noblewomen founded the Casa delle Zitelle (Home for Unmarried Women), a charitable house to shelter and educate needy young women who were considered at high risk for prostitution. Other charitable houses included the

Casa delle Convertite, which offered a life of seclusion and contemplation to reformed prostitutes, and the Casa del Soccorso, which was designed to shelter adult prostitutes and other fallen women for a shorter period. The combination of spiritual conviction and societal anxiety over the evils of prostitution led to the foundation of these charitable institutions, which would ultimately create new personal and professional opportunities for the lower-class women in their care.88

86 Lettera a Papa Pio Quinto, C3V. As quoted in Storey, Carnal Commerce, 85.

87 Storey, Carnal Commerce, 85. 88 Monica Chojnacka, “Women, Charity and Community in Early Modern Venice: The Casa delle Zitelle,” Renaissance Quarterly 51 (1998): 68-73. For a detailed analysis of womenʼs institutions during this period, see Sherrill Cohen, The Evolution of Womenʼs Asylums Since 1500 (New York: Oxford University Press,

1992).

50 Despite the official toleration that prevailed as public policy for prostitution, the sequestering of these repentant women, regardless of the nature of the institution being charitable or punitive, paved the way for later systems of secular carceral punishment after the Napoleonic invasion of Italy. In Michel Foucaultʼs seminal study Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison, the author states that, from a legal perspective, detention may be only a deprivation of liberty, but the transition from the ritual of sentencing to that of imprisonment always involved a public spectacle.89 As prostitutes were forced into separate living spaces or behind cloistered walls in convents, the festival of punishment began to diminish.

Instead, Foucault notes that punishment will become the most hidden part of the penal process: “It is ugly to be punishable, but there is no glory in punishing.”90

The nature of the prostituteʼs life as spectacle, however, will prevail in the redemption of these women, played out in a public sphere under the guise of their patron, Saint Mary Magdalene.

As a result of the Catholic Churchʼs promotion of the saint as an exemplary repentant prostitute, the image of Mary Magdalene played an important role in the new religious and legislative zeal for reforming prostitution.

The role of the Magdalene as the model for the fallen woman who was to be converted and saved rather than persecuted provided the communities of Venice and Rome with social and moral discipline and offered the public an opportunity

89 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison, trans. Alan

Sheridan (New York: Random House, 1995), 257.

90 Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 9.

51 to perform good works for their own spiritual gain and that of the community. In the following chapters, I delineate the role of the female saint in the post-

Tridentine campaign against prostitution in early modern Venice and Rome. An analysis of printed chapbooks, official decorations in the convertite convents, and private devotional paintings before and after the Council of Trent will illuminate the function of the Magdalene as an inspiration for private and public prostitution reform in Venice and Rome.

52 Chapter III:

Magdalene Iconography and Relationship to Prostitution

Following the advent of Christianity, the literary figure of Saint Mary

Magdalene was transformed in a variety of powerfully emotional images throughout culture. The Magdalene is typically characterized by long, flowing, beautiful hair, and her symbol is the unguent jar, which dually signifies her penitence and her redemption. The Magdaleneʼs iconography is divided into two initial categories, scriptural and apocryphal, the latter compiled during the Middle

Ages. Although she is ultimately revered for being the first disciple to whom the

Risen Christ appeared, the sensual aspect of her character remains an essential component in her iconography, and she is irrevocably bound to her putative reputation as a former prostitute. As a premise for understanding the visual traditions upon which the Renaissance images of Mary Magdalene were founded, in this chapter I survey the various iconographic traditions of the

Magdalene from early Christian art to the Renaissance.

The earliest examples of Christian art in Rome date from the third and fourth centuries and are found in catacombs, vast subterranean chambers designed for Christian burial. Scenes depicting the life of Christ and Old

Testament stories that prefigured his sacrifice dominate the narratives found in painted murals along these walls. The image of the Magdalene in early Christian art was not a major independent subject. She served primarily as a witness to the

53 Resurrection, and apocryphal traditions of her life were not manifest in art until the Middle Ages. The lack of individual emphasis on the Magdaleneʼs life and character in art was in accord with the narrow range of female images in Early

Christian pictorial tradition, in which even important figures such as the Virgin

Mary appeared nameless and expressionless. In one of his sermons, Peter

Chrysologus (406-c. 450) explained this phenomenon, stating that at this time they were not merely women but, rather, the personification of the Church.91 In a

Munich ivory panel from the fourth or fifth century, the gestures of the women, including the Magdalene, identically clad in tunics and mantles, appear stylized and meditative (Fig. 12).92

A rare example of the Magdalene as a special witness, superior to the other women at the tomb, can be found in the Christian community house located at Dura-Europos, an outpost of the Roman Empire (Fig. 13). Dura-Europos, located along the Euphrates in present-day Syria, is an important religious capital that was preserved after a political siege in 256, leaving its structures largely intact. Often referred to as the “Pompeii of the desert,” Dura-Europos dates from

232, a mere two centuries after Christʼs crucifixion, and houses one of the

91 As quoted in Nurith Kenann-Kedar, “The New Images of Women in Early

Christian Art,” Assaph 2 (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 1996): 84.

92 Kennan-Kedar, “The New Images,” 85.

54 earliest surviving depictions of the Magdalene in painting, now preserved in the

Yale University Art Gallery.93

The Magdalene appears in the Dura-Europos house in the baptistery, located in the main scene along the north wall as one of the three women approaching Christʼs tomb. Due to its excellence, the painting is believed to be the most important of the series in the chapel, and the upright torch that the

Magdalene carries in her right hand singles her out. The presence of the torch is meant to illustrate the Scriptural account of the Resurrection happening at dawn; the women also carry spice bowls, which identify them as myrrhophores, or anointment bearers. The women at the tomb, led by the Magdalene, bear witness to the Resurrection, and their appearance at the empty tomb will become one of the most frequently depicted images of Early Christian art. 94

The story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection as an essential base of

Christian worship and as a result, images of the Magdalene appear on numerous liturgical objects such as ivory book covers and caskets, embroidered church vestments, censers, and ampullae. Ampullae, flasks used to carry holy water or holy oil, were popular souvenirs for pilgrims visiting Jerusalem. In the Dumbarton

Oaks Collection in Washington, D.C., an ampulla depicting a Crucifixion and

Women at the Tomb (Fig. 14), with its high quality and fine casting, is an

93 The figure is believed to be the Magdalene due to her singular depiction, as she is given special status among the Three Marys in that she is the only woman of the three to witness the Resurrected Christ.

94 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 56-58.

55 excellent example of such souvenirs. In addition to the personal mementos of ampullae and the public view of worship places such as Dura-Europos,

Christians who were too ill or elderly to attend services may have been familiar with such liturgical objects as a pyxis. An ivory Pyxis Depicting the Women at the

Tomb (Syria-Palestine, sixth century) in the collection of the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York features the two Marys approaching an altar with censers, flanked by female orants (Fig. 15).95

During the Byzantine era, images of the Magdalene as set apart from the other female witnesses at the tomb began as early as the Dura-Europos baptistery wall, and the singularity of the Magdalene may relate to the sixth- century interest in prostitute saints. The life of Pelagia of Antioch, written as early as the fifth century, became a popular telling of a prostitute “making good,” and may have been particularly relevant to Empress Theodora (r. 527-48), whose dubious past was associated with prostitution. In the famous mosaics at

Ravenna, the choir of female saints in the church of SantʼApollinare Nuovo (c.

550) includes an extravagantly dressed Saint Pelagia second in line. Additionally, the earliest surviving literary accounts of Saint Mary of Egypt, with whom the

95 Pyxis Depicting Women at the Tomb of Christ [Byzantine] (17.190.57). In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

2000. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/litu/ho_17.190.57.htm (October 2007).

56 Magdaleneʼs identity as a penitent prostitute was at times conflated, dated from the mid-sixth century.96

Outside the realm of Byzantium, images of the Magdalene as one of the women at the tomb were also a staple feature in art of other cultures and regions.

During the Carolingian empire and in the art of the British Isles, depictions of the

Three Marys at the Tomb can be found in the Crucifixion scene on the ivory cover of Pericope of Henry II, Reims (c. 870), and on the Benedictional of Saint

Ethelwold, Winchester (c. 980). On the latter work, the Magdalene stands apart from the other Marys in front of the two other women, and she bears a censer in addition to the myrrh that the other women also carry. At the Cathedral of

Hildesheim, the doors of Saint Michaelʼs Church feature the scene of the Three

Marys at the Tomb as well as a Noli me tangere, which is juxtaposed to the

Creation of Eve.97 The interpretation of Mary Magdalene as a link between Eve and Mary was promoted in the sixth century by Pope Gregory the Great and continued throughout the Carolingian empire due in part to the writings of

Pseudo-Ono of Cluny (d. 982).98

96 Carolyn L. Connor, Women of Byzantium (New Haven: Yale University Press,

2004), 80-88. 97 Mark 16:1 indicates the three Marys at the tomb were Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleopas, and Mary, also called Salome, the mother of James and John. All three women were companions to Mary, the mother of Jesus. 98 Pseudo-Ono of Cluny is the anonymous Lombard monk whose writings were originally attributed to Abott Ono of Cluny (d. 942). Pseudo-Onoʼs In veneratione de sanctae Mariae Magdalene was written between the ninth and eleventh

57 Specific interest in the life of the Magdalene in art, apart from the

Crucifixion and Resurrection narratives, dates from 1050, when the Benedictine monks at Vézelay in France claimed to possess the relics of the saint. That same year, Pope Leo IX confirmed the existence of the relics, and pilgrimages to the shrine began. Soon the abbey church became the most important pilgrimage center in France and the fourth in all of Christendom.99 The throng of pilgrims overpopulated the holy site, necessitating a new abbey church and porch, which were inaugurated by Pope Innocent II in 1132. The church and its relics maintained prominence until 1279, when the highly publicized discovery of the

Magdaleneʼs body at Saint-Maximin-la-Saint-Baume in Provence greatly undermined Vézelayʼs role as a major pilgrimage site for the cult of the

Magdalene.100 Although the discovery shifted focus from the abbey church,

Vézelay remained an important site until the seventeenth century, when angry

Huguenots torched the supposed relics of Mary Magdalene.

century and extols the Magdalene as an example of faith. See Elizabeth Sears, Thelma K. Thomas, and Ilene H. Forsyth, Reading Medieval Images: the Art Historian and the Object (University of Michigan Press, 2002), p. 175, n. 32. See also Marie Madeleine dans la mystique, les arts et les lettres, Actes du colloque international (Avignon 20-21-22 juillet 1988), ed. Eve Dupperay (Paris 1989), 21-

31. 99 Daniel Faure and Véronique Rouchon-Mouilleron, Vézelay: the great

Romanesque church (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999), 9.

100 Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), 236.

58 In the central portal of the west façade, the tympanum depicts the subject of the Last Judgment, and the underlying lintel portrays scenes from the life of

Saint Mary Magdalene (Fig. 16). The narratives feature the Gospel accounts of the Magdalene in accordance with the Latin tradition, including the Raising of

Lazarus, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, Christ Appearing to Mary

Magdalene, and Christ in the House of the Pharisee. However, the existing relief was re-created by Michel François Pascal (1810-62) in 1856-57, after the original was severely damaged by French revolutionaries in 1793.

The basilica at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence was rededicated to Saint Mary Magdalene in 1279, when a recovered sarcophagus was proclaimed to be the tomb of the female saint. Charles II of Anjou, king of

Naples, the ruler of Provence who founded the site, diligently promoted the cult of the Magdalene, and in 1295 Pope Boniface VIII blessed the basilica and placed it under the newly established Dominican order. The emphasis on authenticity and the resulting veneration of the Magdaleneʼs relics were in keeping with the tradition of honoring Christian relics, which had begun as early as the second century. However, the obsession with relics reached a climax during the Middle

Ages, particularly those relics associated with the Holy Crusades.101 By the end of the thirteenth century, the list of the Magdaleneʼs relics included five corpses in addition to whole arms and other miscellaneous and unidentifiable parts. Several

101 The earliest and most noteworthy holy relics are associated with Christ, such as the True Cross, which was “discovered” by Empress Helena (c. 250-330) on a trip to Jerusalem after the legalization of Christianity, sometime after 312 A.D.

59 holy sites claimed to have bodily parts of particular note: The Parisian church of

La Madeleine on the Ile-de-la-Cité supposedly possessed the forehead that

Christ touched when he spoke his famous “Noli me tangere.” 102

France was not alone in its dedication to the Magdalene and its claim on her body: As early as the tenth century, the Exeter Cathedral claimed to have one of her relics. The English cult of the Magdalene began in Anglo-Saxon times, as evidenced by the presence of her feast day in Bedeʼs martyrology, circa 720.

An entry in the Old English Marytrology (c. 900) describes her as a hermit saint whose love for Christ caused her to flee to the desert for thirty years. The description of the Magdalene in English texts as a vita eremetica attests to the wide proliferation of the saintʼs nonscriptural identities as well as to the possible influence of the ascetic Irish Church.103

By 1100, two or three churches had been dedicated to her; a century later, thirty-five churches were added to the list. The Magdalen College in Oxford was established under that name in the fifteenth century, which was rare for an all-

102 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 99. Vézelay was not the first to claim possession of the Magdaleneʼs relics; in the West the earliest references to Magdalene cults included the German monastery of Saint Stephen at Halberstadt in 974, Exeter in England in the second half of the tenth century, Echternach of Saint Willibroud in 1039, and in Spain at Orviedo in the eleventh century. For a full list of sanctuaries dedicated to the Magdalene, including those claiming her relics, see Haskins,

109-110. 103 Theresa Coletti, Mary Magdalene and the Drama of the Saints (University of

Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 54-55.

60 male school. Margery Kempe (c. 1373-1478), an important English author and mystic whose devotion to the Magdalene was well known, was undoubtedly the cause of the numerous Magdalene dramas that were performed in Lynn, Norfolk.

Kempeʼs hometown was also the location for a hospital placed under the

Magdaleneʼs patronage in 1432.104

Patronage of Magdalene imagery from the thirteenth to the late fifteenth century was largely dominated by newly formed mendicant orders. At the Second

Council of Lyons in 1274, Pope Gregory X defended young Franciscans and

Dominicans from attacks from the secular clergy, invoking the Magdalene as one of their special role models:

If you lived as they live and studied as they study, you would have the same success. They perform at the same time the roles of Mary and Martha. Like Mary they sit at the feet of the Lord, and like Martha they do everything to serve him.105

In addition to the understanding of the Magdalene as exemplifying the vita contemplativa, particularly in correlation with Marthaʼs vita activa, as early as the eleventh century, the legend of the Magdalene as the vita apolostica had also emerged. This new element to the Magdaleneʼs nonscriptural identities is most

104 Sherry L. Reames, Middle English Legends of Women Saints [Kalamazoo, MI: Published for TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages) in association with the University of Rochester by Medieval Institute Publications,

Western Michigan University, 2003]. 105 As cited in Jacobus Heerinckx, O.F.M., “Vita activa et vita contemplative secundum S. Antoniun Patavinum,” Apostolicum 1 (1932): 7.

61 likely associated with the Magdaleneʼs cult at Vézelay and almost certainly served as the source for Voragineʼs Golden Legend.106

According to Voragineʼs compilation of hagiographies, Saint Mary

Magdalene was born of noble lineage, and her name derived from the family castle, Magdalo, where she lived with her brother Lazarus and sister Martha.

Abundant in treasures and beauty, the Magdalene lost herself in bodily delight, until she was persuaded by her sister to visit Jesus, after which Mary was converted from her life of sin. Voragine additionally notes that alternate legends tell of the Magdalene as the fiancée of Saint John the Evangelist, whom Christ called away from the wedding. Devastated, the Magdalene abandoned herself to sin in indignation, but later was proselytized after washing the feet of Christ with her tears, an atonement for her sins. Following the Crucifixion and Ascension of

Christ, the Magdalene rejoined her siblings, united by Christ.

According to legend, the Magdalene, Martha, Lazarus, their servant

Marcella, and Maximin, one of the seventy-two disciples, all fled from Palestine as a result of early persecution of Christians in the Holy Land. Adrift in a small, rudderless boat, by divine providence they washed ashore in Provence, where they disbanded in order to preach the new Christian faith. Martha evangelized in

Tarascon, Lazarus remained in Marseilles, and the Magdalene and Saint

Maximin preached in Marseilles and then in Aix-en-Provence. The fabled

106 Katherine Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press: 2000),

52-53.

62 description of the Magdalene as an early missionary and converter of the pagan

Gauls became a new motif for the eloquence of preaching and was particularly appealing to these new mendicant orders.107

The legendary events of the Magdalene in France are supported by a single and important biblical reference: in John 20:17 Christ confers upon the

Magdalene the singular honor of bearing the news of his Resurrection to the other disciples. In a miniature from the Saint Albans Psalter, an English illuminated manuscript created in the Albans Abbey in the twelfth century, a lavishly decorated illustration features the Magdalene announcing the

Resurrection to the apostles (Fig. 17). Narrowly separated by a column in the architectural structure in which they stand, the saint raises her right index finger, pointing upward in a traditional preaching gesture.

Despite the serious contemporary debate barring women from preaching in the Middle Ages, a rare example of Magdalene iconography includes pulpit imagery in which the saint is seen preaching to the pagan Gauls from a pulpit.

Francesco Lauranaʼs altar from 1481, made for La Ville Major in Marseilles, features the Magdalene standing at a pulpit before a crowd that includes a seated ruler, most likely the Burgundian king. The saintʼs hands are posed in computio digitorium, a preaching gesture that specifies the oratorʼs enumeration

107 Voragine remarks that the residents of Marseilles marveled at the Magdaleneʼs beauty and reason, and the author asserts that it is no wonder that the mouth that had kissed the feet of the Lord should be inspired with the word of God more than others. See Voragine, Golden Legend, 357.

63 of arguments presented (Fig. 18). A well-preserved German fifteenth-century ecclesiastical vestment, presumably worn by a priest or prelate on the feast of the Magdalene, features ten embroidered scenes from the life of the saint (Figs.

19, 20). Three of the scenes are devoted to her preaching to crowds, one of which also includes a ruler; one interesting mixed group depicts women and

Jews, the latter identifiable by their beards and funnel hats.108

Like other early Christian missionaries, the Magdalene allegedly confronted pagan idolatry: In a miniature from the Leggendario Ungherese, an illustrated catalogue of saintsʼ lives made for an Angevin prince, a “caped- crusader” Magdalene is shown destroying idols in a pagan temple (Fig. 21).109

108 Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 67-68. For a description of the vestment, see W. Mannowsky, Der Danziger Paramentenschatz: Kirchliche Gewänder und Stickereien aus der Marienkirche, 5 vols. (Berlin: Brandussche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1932), Vol. 1, pp. 18-19. Jansen notes that a stained glass sequence of the Magdaleneʼs life at Auxerre dating from the second quarter of the thirteenth century is the earliest reported representation of the pulpit iconography. 109 Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 77. According to Jansen, more common than pulpit imagery was the image of the Magdalene as a newly arrived missionary in Provence who spontaneously begins to preach from a portico of an ancient temple. In a fresco from the Cappella della Maddalene, Church of S. Domenico in Spoleto, circa 1400, the Magdaleneʼs rudderless boat and her sister Martha, identifiable by her halo, are visible in the far left as a very tall Magdalene blesses the pagans of Marseilles. In the background, a pagan statue sits on a pedestal, although the crowd has turned from the idol to the Magdalene as the people kneel before her.

64 Steadying herself on the temple altar, a stoic Magdalene is shown bashing the idols with a stick or club, the demonic heads and body parts frozen midair. In a damaged fresco in the Palazzo della Ragione in Bergamo, late fourteenth century, previously the Disciplinati Church of S. Maria Maddalena, the pagans themselves violently destroy the idols as the Magdalene performs the rite of baptism on a new convert, believed to be one of the ancient rulers of Provence

(Fig. 22).110

The primary visual correlation of the Magdalene as a reformed prostitute culminated in the thirteenth century with the manuscript The Golden Legend (c.

1260), a compilation of saintsʼ lives that became a medieval bestseller. From the thirteenth century until the Reformation, more than 700 manuscripts and 173 printed editions were produced, adding to the popularity of the Magdalene, to whom 190 shrines were dedicated and of whom more than 600 relics were venerated.111 Now a heroine of her own story, the legendary Magdalene appeared in stained-glass windows, frescoes, altarpieces, miniatures, and goldsmithsʼ works. By the thirteenth century, theologians and popular folklorists had completely transformed the Magdalene into a distinctive character separate from her scriptural origins. A characteristic example is a dossal panel by the

110 Hagiographer Pietro dei Natali (d. 1400) described how after destroying pagan temples, the Magdalene performed the rite of baptism. The church of S. Maurice in Angiers preserves a font in which the Magdalene was believed to have baptized the ancient rulers of Provence. Angevin king René (d. 1480) donated the font. See Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, p. 79, fn. 74.

111 Schaberg and Johnson-Debaufre, Mary Magdalene Understood, 50.

65 Magdalene Master in which scenes of her legendary life flank a large figure of the

Magdalene after Christʼs Ascension (Fig. 23). After the Protestant Reformation, her role as a disciple all but disappeared, and she became almost exclusively a figure of penitence and contemplation for Catholics.

Interest in the Magdalene as a penitential figure rose steadily in Italy after

1260, when the act of penance became more public. The open practice of individual penitents scourging themselves became more and more common, as did joined sodalities of flagellants making public recompense for their sins. As these penitential communities grew in popularity, the Magdalene became the patron of several of the sodalities and lay confraternities in northern and central

Italy. 112 In a late-fourteenth-century banner painted for the Flagellants of the

Confraternity of Saint Mary Magdalene in Borgo San Sepolcro (New York,

Metropolitan Museum of Art), an enthroned Magdalene holds a crucifix and her unguent jar while the members of the confraternity kneel at her sides and a choir of angels serenades the group (Fig. 24). The penitents are cloaked in hooded robes, their faces completely disguised so that their deeds should be done anonymously, in compliance with Christʼs command that good works should not be done for vain praise. Their uniform robes are marked only with an emblem of

112 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 142.

66 the unguent jar on their upper armsʼ sleeves, the Magdaleneʼs iconographic attribute.113

The penitential mood was also strongly expressed by the mendicant orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, for whom the Magdalene was a multifaceted and powerful symbol. These orders, in their desire to possess spiritual rather than temporal power, a negative aspect associated with the

Church in the latter part of the twelfth century, adopted the Magdalene as their patron and exemplar for perfect penitence. Similar to the fabled aristocratic origins of the Magdalene and the surrender of her possession upon her conversion, Francis of Assisi had rejected his wealthy background to become a hermit who devoted his life to caring for the poor and preaching the word of

Christ.

In a Crucifixion scene at the Vatican Pinacoteca, dated from the first half of the fourteenth century, Saint Francis is depicted at the foot of the cross alongside the Magdalene (Fig. 25). Both saints are portrayed in extreme grief, exemplifying the practice of imitatio Magdalenae, a new spiritual devotion in which the devotee, rather than taking on the wounds of Christ, shared the compassion and anguish of the Magdalene. This motif in Italian religious art appealed to a wide variety of the populace and corresponded to devotional treatises, which instructed the faithful to become martyrs of compassion.

113 For more on this work, see Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. "A Processional Banner by Spinello Aretino," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 9 (February 1914): 43–

46, ill. (recto).

67 Numerous versions of the Magdalene at the foot of the cross, accompanied by beati and patrons, both religious and lay, date from the late Middle Ages, such as a panel painting by Jacopo di Paolo at the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery,

Nashville (Fig. 26).114 In the scene, a composed Magdalene outstretches her hand to a beata, presumably gesturing for her to join the saint in emotional suffering.

The image of the Magdalene served not only as an exemplar for penance to the Franciscans and Dominicans but also as a radical shift from the masculine characterization that pervaded the early medieval Church. The choice of the

Magdalene as their patron enabled the friars to distance themselves from the hierarchy while remaining obedient to the masculine authority of the Church.115

One of the most noteworthy examples of Magdalene life cycles for mendicant orders was the lower church fresco cycle dedicated to the life of the Magdalene

114 Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 92.

115 According to Jansen, Dominican and Franciscan friars “...found a way to incorporate themselves and their charismatic (read: female) brand of authority into the body of the Church while simultaneously remaining separate and apart: the solution was an oath of obedience to the Church hierarchy.” The wealthy and patriarchal Church was embodied in the example of Saint Peter, who had abandoned and denied Christ during the Crucifixion; however, the Magdalene represented the fidelity of the mendicants, as the female saint remained at Christʼs side and stood alone weeping at his tomb. The Dominican and Franciscan symbolic adoption of the Magdalene was in and of itself a challenge to the established patriarchy. See Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 85.

68 in San Francesco at Assisi.116 Commissioned in the early fourteenth century by

Teobaldo Pontano, bishop of Assisi and member of the Friars Minor, the frescoes feature several nonscriptural scenes from the life of the Magdalene as well as a donor portrait with the Magdalene (Figs. 27- 28). In the portrait, the cardinal is portrayed in his humble brown friarʼs robes, looking up to the Magdalene as he lightly holds her hand. In the scenes, the theme of penitence and contemplation is celebrated, and the Magdaleneʼs conversion and retreat into wilderness highlighted. In the lunette, a young Magdalene is lifted from her cave dwelling into communion with the angels, a lyrical evocation of the contemplative life juxtaposed with the active life of the Magdaleneʼs landing and subsequent preaching in Marseilles. In the frescoes, the narrative emphasis on the

Magdaleneʼs active life reflects the concerns of the orderʼs founder, Saint

Francis, who desired his monks to be homeless and adventurous rather than cloistered and monastic.117

116 Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 86. 117 Rosalind B. Brooke, The Image of Saint Francis: responses to sainthood in the thirteenth century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 436. For more on the frescoes at Assisi, see Lorraine Schwartz, “Patronage and Franciscan Iconography in the Magdalen Chapel at Assisi,” The Burlington Magazine 133/1054 (Jan 1991): 33. Schwartz adds that the French iconography that was included in the chapel was most likely related to political alliances that Pontano formed with the Angevins, for whom the Magdalene served as a dynastic symbol.

69 The exclusively male Franciscans and Dominicans were not the only penitential communities to adopt the Magdalene as their patron; in Italy uncloistered communities of women commonly placed themselves under the direction of the saint. Hospitals dedicated to the Magdalene were erected, as the

Golden Legend had mentioned the Magdaleneʼs charity. Many of these hospitals were dedicated to treating leprosy, and since her brother Lazarus had been conflated with the leprous beggar in Luke 16:20, the Magdalene became the namesake of many leper hospitals. Women and leprosy hospitals were often closely aligned because many female penitents engaged in acts of charity such as working in leper hospitals. Female penitents of the later medieval period,

Margaret of Cortona (d. 1297) and Catherine of Siena (d. 1380), were some of the most famous women to express their piety by tending to the sick and dying in

Tuscan hospitals.118

Magdalene iconography in the late Middle Ages also includes a rare example of the rite of exorcism, as seen in a French Book of Hours, circa 1460-

70, which depicts the courtly Magdalene and Christ (Fig. 29). In this scene, Mary

Magdalene Healed by Christ, a luxuriously dressed and bare-breasted

Magdalene is shown with black demons being expelled from her mouth by Christ and, most curiously, climbing out from under her skirt. The depiction is a literal translation of the demon-possessed Magdalene, who is identified in Scriptures as the woman out of whom Christ expelled seven demons. According to Gregory the

118 Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 113.

70 Great, these demons represented the seven deadly sins, and the expulsion of the demons from underneath her skirt symbolizes the pervading sin associated with the Magdalene: lust.119

The Magdalene exorcism imagery is contemporary to the formalization of the rite of exorcism into a scripted liturgy, which was designed to compensate for the lack of authority and confused period in the Church after the Great Schism.

Demonic possession was understood in the West since the gospel accounts, and exorcism was among Jesusʼ favorite miracles, as witnessed in Mark, Matthew, and Luke. In most cases, women dominate the tales of possession, and identification with women was so strong that when an exorcistʼs manual first appeared in the late fourteenth century, the grammar of the texts presumed that the demoniac would be female. It was believed that women were more prone to possessions because of their weaker and more malleable states as well as to their greater carnality, so their faculties were more easily overwhelmed.120 In the

Magdalene illustration, the bare-breasted depiction of the saint, in conjunction with the demons expelled from below her skirts, symbolizes both the use of the

119 Exorcists in the Middle Ages noted the specific need for a body opening for demons to both enter and successfully exit the victim. In most cases, the demon exits the mouth; however, in the case of defiled women, such as an extended case recounted by Hildegard of Bingen, an exorcised demon exits through his victims “shameful parts.” See Nancy Caciola, Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003),

41.

120 Caciola, Discerning Spirits, pp. 130-133, 225.

71 Magdalene as a promotion of the rite of exorcism as well as the pervasive understanding of the Magdaleneʼs sexual transgressions.

Entire cycles of the life of the Magdalene became prominent in the Middle

Ages in France due to the popularity of her cult. The saint also figured in the culture and court of the Valois Burgundian dukes and their successors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.121 The Burgundian court was one of the most significant and influential in Europe in the fifteenth century, and its patronage of the arts is widely known. The dynastic ambitions of the Burgundian dukes are closely related to their benefactions, and they used the arts to demonstrate their ancestry and noble claims. The identity of the Burgundian state was created by a variety of manipulations incorporating historical fact and myth, grounded in local legend, particularly that of the Magdalene.122

The duchy of Burgundy included Vézelay and struggles over control of the land resulted in a revived interest in genealogy linking the Magdalene to the

Burgundian nobles. In the Grande Chroniques de France, an illuminated manuscript compiling the royal history of France from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, aspects of the Magdalene legend are fused with Burgundian history. According to the Provençal legend of the Magdalene, the saint converted the governor of Marseilles and his wife to Christianity. In the Chroniques, the

121 Brian Michael Cohen, “Saint Mary Magdalen as a Cultural Symbol in the Low Countries c. 1450-1530,” (Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at

Binghamton, 2001): 46.

122 Cohen, “Saint Mary Magdalen,” 56-57.

72 locals are reconfigured as the first king and queen of Burgundy, Trophimus and his wife. The illumination that accompanies the manuscript depicts the

Magdalene, wearing the blue and gold of Burgundy, anointing the couple, serving both as a metaphor for the saintʼs conversion and as the bestower of Burgundian power.123

A significant fact in the appropriation of the Magdalene for Burgundian political motivations is the supposed noble lineage of the saint. The privileged background of the Magdalene made her an attractive role model for the aristocracy, and she did not lose her social identity when she gave up her worldly possessions. Her aristocratic status can be seen in such rare iconography as the

Magdalene on Horseback, part of the now-dismantled Altarpiece of the

Magdalene in Berlin, Kaiser-Freiderich, c. 1515-20. Her post-conversion distinctiveness as an “apostle to the apostles” made her a unique symbol of female authority, which reinforced Philip the Fairʼs position as heir, through his mother, to the Burgundian land. The association of the Magdalene with the

Burgundian lands helped to legitimize the claims over the territories; in essence, whoever could successfully lay claim to her legend could claim power over the land she represented.124

Female rulers such as Margaret of York, known as Margaret of Burgundy after her marriage to Charles the Bold in 1468, perpetuated a strong devotion to the Magdalene in the Burgundian court in the fifteenth century. The English

123 Cohen, “Saint Mary Magdalen,” 64.

124 Cohen, “Saint Mary Magdalen,” 66-67.

73 princess most likely had already acquired her religious observance of the saint in

England, where the Magdalenʼs legend and cult were flourishing. Margaret of

Yorkʼs devotion to the Magdalene can be seen in a Flemish Deposition, circa

1500, in the Getty Museum, which is modeled after Rogier van der Weydenʼs more famous version, now in the Prado. In the Getty version, the Magdalene wears an ornate belt, which features the white rose of York, and three daisies, or

“marguerites,” which were the personal emblem of Margaret (Fig. 30). In a commemorative medal commissioned by her step-grandson, Philip the Fair, the figures of death and two serpents are seen trampling on the marguerites. It is probable that the Gettyʼs Deposition was a gift from the duchess to a home for

“rescued” prostitutes that Margaret founded in Mons, Hainult, in 1485.125 The community, named Les Filles des Madeleine, was traditionally named for Mary

Magdalene, a custom that would be continued well into the twentieth century.126

Medieval images of the aged, emaciated, and penitent Magdalene coincided with the popularity of penitential rituals in the fifteenth century with such versions as Donatelloʼs wooden Magdalene and Botticelliʼs altarpiece of Trinity with predella panels of the Life of the Magdalene (Figs. 31, 32). Donatelloʼs masterful Magdalene was described by Giorgio Vasari as “washed away by her fastings,” and is universally understood as weakened and ravaged by her years

125 Cohen, “Saint Mary Magdalen,” 71-72. 126 In the United Kingdom, the last Magdalene Asylum, often referred to as

Magdalene Laundries, was closed in Ireland on September 25, 1996.

74 of penance.127 However, the physical emaciation of the saint in both Donatelloʼs and Botticelliʼs works arguably shares a psychological resolve and quiet strength, which in the case of Botticelli was specifically intended for the eyes of prostitutes in “rehabilitation.” The Trinity, along with its predella panels, known as the Pala delle Convertite, was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Santʼ

Elisabetta delle Convertite, an Augustinian convent for repentant prostitutes in

Florence.

Beginning in the sixteenth century, images of the penitent Magdalene were commonly set in a grotto, which related to the legend that she lived the remainder of her life as a hermit in France, atoning for her sins. The naked, penitential image of the Magdalene was thus commonly paired with images of

Saint Jerome on pendants. However, unlike Jeromeʼs nuditas naturalis (natural nudity), the Magdaleneʼs nudity, similar to that of Saint Mary of Egypt, always related to her sexuality.128

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mark the period in which the

Magdalene was the most visible and malleable symbol of religious, social, and political struggles. The great surge of Magdalene imagery is due in part to the religious tensions brewing in the late fifteenth century, which culminated in the

Protestant Reformation. In 1518 French humanist Jacques Lefèvre dʼÈtaples penned De Maria Magdalena, which questioned the longstanding theological

127 Martha Levine Dunkelman, “Donatelloʼs Mary Magdalen: A Model of Courage and Survival,” Womenʼs Art Journal 26/2 (Autumn 2005- Winter 2006): 10.

128 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 226-227.

75 assessment of Mary Magdalene with the unnamed sinner of Luke, and was particularly adamant in his attack on her previous stigmatization as a reformed prostitute. The book caused considerable debate into the 1520s, known as the

Quarrel of the Magdalenes, and although Lefèvre later abandoned his claim upon official pressure from ecclesiastical authorities,129 the effects of his inquiry resounded in the Protestant Reformation. Swiss reformer Zwingli called for the

Magdaleneʼs image to be destroyed, and Calvin criticized the ignorance of the

Catholic clergy.130

The Church responded quickly to the controversy, and in 1518 and 1519

Catholic theologians produced more than twelve tracts in defense of the one-

Magdalene theory; in 1520, four more were published.131 The debate raised several issues that threatened the authority of the Church, namely the questioning of the holy traditions of the Church and its “universal rite.” It was the collective belief that any criticism of this creed would result in the ultimate breakdown of the Church as well as eliminate a powerful preaching tool. The

129 The Paris faculty of theology officially censured Lefèvre on November 9, 1521. See Anselm Hufstader, “Lefèvre dʼÈtaples and the Magdalene,” Studies in the Renaissance 16 (1969): 31-60. 130 Haskin, Mary Magdalen, 245. Martin Luther assumed that Jesus and the Magdalene had a sexual relationship, and as late as the nineteenth century, Latter Day Saints leader Brigham Young suggested in a sermon that Christ was a polygamist with Mary of Salome, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. See Schaberg and Johnson-Debaufre, Mary Magdalen Understood, 60.

131 Hufstader, “Lefèvre dʼÈtaples and the Magdalene,” 31.

76 legend of the Magdalene provided preachers and theologians with numerous examples of positive Catholic dogmas as an exemplar of the contemplative life, the necessary role of penance, and a relevant model for women. One of the most effective and important uses of Magdalene in preaching concerned her connection with prostitution.

The Magdaleneʼs role as a penitent prostitute was further emphasized in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the founding of charitable institutions for the reform of prostitutes, dedicated to their patron, the Magdalene.

Given their namesake, these institutions often featured many works of art dedicated to the subject of the Magdalene, such as Carlo Caliariʼs Madonna and

Child, Saint Mary Magdalene, and Convertite, once the high altarpiece at the

Venetian Casa del Soccorso (Fig. 4).132 Throughout the entire Italian peninsula, these convents were dedicated to the convertite, or the converted, understood as repentant prostitutes. The Convertite della Maddalena in Rome was established

May 19, 1520, in a papal bull by Leo X, and shortly afterward the founding of the

Convertite in Venice in 1525 echoed its Roman predecessor. Convents such as

Santa Elizabetta delle Convertite in Florence were founded as early as the fourteenth century for the receipt of certain courtesans moved to follow the example of Mary Magdalene. However, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a wide expansion of charitable institutions dedicated to repentant prostitutes

132 Bernard Aikema has identified the artist as Benedetto Caliari, Carloʼs uncle. In this dissertation, I have maintained the identity of the artist as Carlo, which is the official stance of the Venice Accademia.

77 motivated by various reasons, including the devastating impact of syphilis in

Europe at the end of the fifteenth century.

The most common image of Mary Magdalene in the sixteenth century is that of the half-length Magdalene, a new type of devotional image, which had its origins in Northern art. The first dated example of the half-length Magdalene is

Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanenʼs Mary Magdalene from 1519, now in the St.

Louis Art Museum, in Missouri (Fig. 33). Other Northern masters were quick to follow: Versions exist by Quentin Massys, Jan Gossaert, Bernard van Orley, and

Jan Massys, as well as several other painters. Friedländer lists twenty-four versions by the Master of the Female Half-Lengths alone.133 The most striking characteristic shared by these artistsʼ works is the depiction of the Magdalene as a courtly lady. Her fine attire and costly jewels allude to her sinful life as a courtesan, while her ointment jar relates to her penitent conversion. In this sense, the half-length image of the Magdalene offers a choice between virtue and vice, departing from the medieval conception of the Magdalene as a meditative ideal.

The courtly appearance of the Magdalene coincides with the growing numbers of courtesans in Italy and the rise of the cultured courts, which appeared in the late fifteenth century. Elevating the status of the prostitute, the

133 Craig Harbison, “Lucas van Leyden, the Magdalen and the Problem of Secularization in Early Sixteenth Century Northern Art,” Oud Holland 98 (1984):

122-123.

78 cortigiana suggested a woman of breeding and virtue.134 Renaissance courtesans acquired an assured social prominence and often a celebrity status, with which came a measure of admiration and tolerance.135 The Northern half-length

Magdalene tradition was absorbed in Northern Italy through the pupils of

Leonardo da Vinci, Giampetrino, and Bernardo Luini (Fig. 34), and in Venice by

Giorgione, Titian, and Palma Vecchio. It has been hypothesized by Wilhelm von

Bode that the “feminine half-length” (weibliche Halbfigurenbild) was expressive of an ideal of femininity invented by Leonardo and taken up by his students in

Milan.136 In Venetian and Roman culture, the interchangeable roles of courtesans and gentlewomen made possible a wider and more diverse audience for the popular image of the courtly Magdalene.137 This appeal is exemplified by the numerous private devotional versions of the half-length Magdalene for elite patrons by Titian (1485-1576).

The figure of Saint Mary Magdalene in the Western tradition began in early

Christian art as an almost anonymous witness to the Crucifixion and

134 For a detailed account, mostly anecdotal, of courtesans in the Italian

Renaissance, see Masson.

135 Witcombe, “Quarrel of the Magdalens,” 274-275. 136 As quoted in Anne Christine Junkerman, “Bellissima donna: an interdisciplinary study of Venetian sensuous half-length images of the early sixteenth century,” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1988) 62. For the original German article, see Wilhelm Bode, “Leonardo und das weibliche Halbfigurenbild des italienischen Renaissance,” Jahrbuch der köinglich preussischen Kunstsammlungen 35 (1919): 61-74.

137 Junkerman, “Belllissima donna,” 295.

79 Resurrection, yet by the early Renaissance, she was a figure of great and varied significance. Her image promoted a range of Catholic rites from exorcism to penance, and her story grew and was embellished into a tangled web of half- truths, assumptions, and pure legend. The Renaissance marks the golden age of the Magdalene, when she appealed to a diverse audience that included penitents

(both chaste and unchaste), reformers, widows, and whores. In the following chapter, I introduce the proliferation of printed works and their central role in prostitution reform among all classes in early modern Italian society.

80 Chapter IV. Popolani:

Printed Chapbooks for the Populace

In Europe, peasants formed eighty to ninety percent of the population of

Europe, and their popular culture is perceived as a reflection of the larger society, particularly since printed works were shared in public and conceivably witnessed by all levels of the social classes. As the literacy rate increased, the rise of the production of chapbooks, particularly those of a religious nature, was linked to the growing belief in literacy as a step toward salvation.138 In this chapter, I examine the most popular print type, narrative chapbooks, which were quickly produced novellas used to educate a mass audience. 139 Particular attention will be paid to Marco Rossiglioʼs La conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, from

1611 (See Fig. 1) and Francesco Zucchettiʼs work of the same title, of 1620 (See

Fig. 2), in order to demonstrate the role of the Magdalene as religious propaganda for the reform of prostitutes among the masses. I analyze these chapbooks dedicated to the legendary conversion of the Magdalene in context with the Magdalene chapbooksʼ secular counterpart, moralizing broadsheets dedicated to the lives and “miserable ends” of prostitutes.

138 Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (Burlington, VT:

Ashgate, 1999), 50, 252. 139 Lorenzo Baldacchini, Bibliografia della stampe popolari religiose del XVI-XVII

Secolo (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1980).

81 Scholarly interest in secular and religious printed works and their impact on early modern European culture has slowly developed over the past thirty-five years. In 1973, David Kunzleʼs pioneering monograph on chapbooks and broadsheets traced the origins of the “early comic strip,” and his study was followed by a wave of scholarship with a concentrated and collective interest in the definition of “popular culture,” such as Peter Burkeʼs Popular Culture in Early

Modern Europe from 1978. Cultural historians Burke and Elizabeth L. Eisenstein became leaders in the expanding awareness of the sociological relevance of printed works in European society and influenced a new group of scholars to expand the field of research.140

Scholarship centered on chapbooks and broadsheets largely focused on

England, France, and Germany, with little attention paid to Italy, despite its

140 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as Agent of Social Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979). In 1982, Margaret Spufford explored the role of chapbooks in rural England from the late seventeenth century, and in 1991 Tessa Watt explicated Spuffordʼs research into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in urban England. Roger Chartierʼs 1987 Cultural Uses of Print classified the role of chapbooks, particularly the bibliothèque bleue, in early modern France. Chartierʼs main concern was to determine the role of printed works in the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Restoration. The theme of religious propaganda and the role of chapbooks and broadsheets in the Protestant Reformation were advanced by Keith Moxey (1989) and Bob Scribner (1994) in their studies of German propaganda. In 1992, Joy Wiltenburgʼs research combined the street literature of England and Germany.

82 pervasive popularity in the early modern period.141 One of the pivotal studies in

Italian printed works is Lorenzo Baldacchiniʼs innovative 1980 categorization of

Italian religious chapbooks, also called stampe popolari religiose. However,

Baldacchiniʼs research was principally overlooked in art historical scholarship until Sara F. Matthews Griecoʼs 1997 essay on Italian moralizing broadsheets. In

1999 and 2002, Pamela M. Jones also contributed to the understanding of Italian religious chapbooks of female saints when she surveyed a new group of Italian chapbooks of Northern Italian collections.

An in-depth study of Italian chapbooks and moralizing broadsheets related to Saint Mary Magdalene and prostitution is a necessary step in understanding the growing interrelationships between religious culture and popular culture in early modern Italy. The cities of Venice and Rome serve as exemplars in their domination as Italian printmaking centers, as well as nexuses of economical and political prestige in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The early modern period represents a distinctive era in which the role of printed works began to substantially influence public opinion and societal values. Printmaking, particularly the popular form of narrative chapbooks, emerged as the foremost

141 Various social historians have mined specific interests in popular culture. For example, Carlo Ginzburg has dedicated much of his research to witchcraft. For an overview, see John Martin, “Journeys to the World of the Dead: The Work of

Carlo Ginzburg,” Journal of Social History 25/3 (Spring 1992): 613-626.

83 method of self-fashioning and self-representation and enabled a collective recognition of poverty and a need for large-scale charitable institutions.142

Printing developments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ranged from the chiaroscuro woodcut to further refinements in etching and engraving; however, the majority of chapbooks were made with the woodcut medium.143 The woodcut, which was developed in the fifteenth century, has been claimed as one of the earliest forms of folk art.144 In the fifteenth century, woodcuts were almost

142 For more on this, see Sara F. Matthews Grieco, “Pedagogical Prints: Moralizing Broadsheets and Wayward Women in Counter Reformation Italy,” in Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, edited by G.A. Johnson and

S.F.M. Grieco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 61-87. 143 The chiaroscuro woodcut print is created with colored woodblocks and printing with a series of several different blocks. Giorgio Vasari claimed it was the invention of Ugo da Carpi; however, the true innovator of the chiaroscuro woodcut was German artist Hans Burgkmair, in 1509. For more on Burgkmair, see Hans Burgkmair, 1475-1973: das graphische Werk: Graphische Sammlung, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 10 August- 14 Oktober 1973, with contributions by Isolde

Hausberger and Rolf Bierdermann (Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, 1973). 144 The term “folk art” can be understood to encompass works of art created by members of the lower class or artisan culture, often working anonymously, and often contrasted to art created by “fine artists” or artists of considerable repute. The aesthetic quality of folk art is often crude; many artisans who created these works lacked formal artistic training. In folk art, the purpose of the art is largely decorative or utilitarian, such as the propagation of current events, religious ideas, and social concerns in popular prints. For more on popular culture and the role of chapbooks as folk art, see Burke, Popular Culture, 335-386. For more on

84 exclusively related to devotional prints and were commonly produced or commissioned by monastic communities and convents. Magical powers were often associated with early woodcuts; in the case of Saint Christopher, the mere sight of his image was thought to protect one from sudden death.145

Inexpensive devotional woodcuts, particularly images of Christ, the Virgin and Child, and the saints, called santini, were designed, cut, and printed in these small religious communities by independent craftsmen (Fig. 35).146 During the second half of the fifteenth century, the woodblock became closely associated with book printing and was quickly adopted as the most effective means of illustrating texts being printed with movable type.147 In books printed before 1500,

the traditions of folk art throughout art history, see Arnold Hauser, The

Philosophy of Art History (New York: Knopf, 1959), 351. 145 Keith Moxey, Peasants, Warriors, and Wives (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1989), 19-20. 146 Rare devotional prints, such as the Nelson-Atkinsʼs Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, have maintained their remarkably fresh appearance by perhaps being pasted on the inside cover of a book or inner lid of a box. See George L. McKenna, Prints 1460-1995: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996), 11. For more on santini, see L. Pon, “Alla Insegna del Giesú: Publishing Books and Pictures in Renaissance

Venice,” Bibliographcial Society of America 92/4 (1998): 460-1. 147 Narrative chapbooks share an interesting relationship with the tradition of blockbooks, which were religious instructive texts carved into wooden blocks combining image and text. The Speculum Humanae Salvationis (Mirror of Salvation), produced in Holland in 1470, juxtaposes 58 woodcut illustrations from the Old Testament next to the New Testament. Similar to religious chapbooks,

85 nearly one-third of these were illustrated; the first book to be illustrated was a

German edition of Jacobus de Voragineʼs Lives of the Saints, from 1488.148

Woodblock printing remained the primary medium employed by chapbook publishers far into the seventeenth centuries, as it complemented the process of printing text with movable type.

At a time when printmaking techniques were becoming increasingly sophisticated and the appreciation of draftsmanship came to be the measure of artistic brilliance in European art,149 the chapbook emerged as the most widely accessible print form. The chapbook was a popular pamphlet, which was available on city streets, in piazzas, and in the countryside, sold by ballad singers and the itinerant vendors called storiari.150 Easily portable, printed in octavo format or smaller, chapbooks were inexpensive, brief, and usually contained only

the blockbook is didactic in nature, was likely created to aid religious instruction for clergymen, and represents a highly organized theological approach to biblical history. For more on the tradition of blockbooks, see George McLean and John White, eds., Imagination in Religion and Social Life (Washington, D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2003), 32-34. For more on the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, see Speculum Humanae Salvationis, translation and commentary by Albert C. Labriola and John W. Smeltz (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2002). 148 David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print 1470-1550 (New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 33-34.

149 Landau and Parshall, Renaissance Print, 1. 150 For a discussion of chapbook vendors, see Barberi 1985, p. 16 and 1965, p.

19.

86 a few illustrations. These small novellas were often written in ottava rima, the

Italian rhyming stanza that was developed for long poems on heroic themes as well as for parodies or popular mock-heroic works. The secular- and religious- themed chapbooks originated in oral culture and were created in the favored octavo format, a book size created by using three standard sheets of paper folded to three leaves or sixteen pages for a total of forty-eight pages.151

The evidence for a verbal tradition associated with this print form is derived from the opening text printed in many chapbooks: “Listen and you shall hear.”152 In addition to the literate consumer, the chapbook itself implies an audience the reader will address. A further unknown number of audience members constitute a greater public for the chapbook beyond its singular use, which is supported by the marketing strategy of the chapbooksʼ peddlers. As a part of their advertising methods, vendors and ballad singers in taverns and

151 Pamela Jones, “Female Saints in Early Modern Italian Chapbooks, ca. 1570- 1670: Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Catherine of Siena,” in From Rome to Eternity, edited by Pamela Jones and Thomas Worcester (Leiden: Brill Press, 2002), 89-90. Venetian printmaker Aldus Manutius invented the octavo format, considered to be the early paperback, in 1501 when he produced Virgilʼs Opera in order to create portable reading for his upper-class clientele. For more on Manutius and his Aldine Press, see Martin Davies, Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of the Venetian Renaissance (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and

Renaissance Studies, 1999). 152 Tomasso Filippiniʼs 1618 La Historia Di Susanna Et De Due Vecchi begins, “Chi si diletta nuove cose udire stia con la mente al mio parlarʼ attento...” See

Baldacchini, Bibliographia, cat. no. 169.

87 markets, and minstrels in the households of nobility sang ballads and verses associated with the chapbooks. Memorization of the songs and verses performed helped educate the illiterate audience members to the didactic nature of the printed chapbooks, which were designed with a moral.153 Often sold at fairs, chapbooks averaged one to two sous apiece, about the price of a pound of bread, making them affordable for the average buyer.154

Given the chapbooksʼ mass popularity and consumption by the Italian early modern public, it initially appears to be a paradox that such a small number of chapbooks survive as a result of accessibility of this print form. Early modern chapbooks were generally composed of low quality paper and inks, which made them particularly susceptible to deterioration due to the fragility of the paper, damage from sunlight, and the speed with which their topical significance lost the interest of the intended audience.155 The existing examples of chapbooks, which in many cases made their way accidentally into private collections due to curiosity on the part of the collectors, can be seen as a microcosm of the overall subject matter printed. 156 In the case of broadsheets, of the dozen or so

153 Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety 1550-1640 (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1991), 1-5.

154 Burke, Popular Culture, 50.

155 Moxey, Peasants, Warriors, and Wives, 22. 156 Robert W. Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk (Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1994), 8.

88 pamphlets known, all are different editions, which is supporting evidence of the popularity they enjoyed.157

In Lorenzo Baldacchiniʼs groundbreaking categorization of Italian chapbooks, the author grouped 412 religious chapbooks, the majority of which are located at the Biblioteca Vaticano. These chapbooks can be divided into several categories: ninety-six prayers in verse (mainly dedicated to saints); sixty- seven spiritual exercises and instructions in prose and verse; fifty-two hagiographical legends in verse; twenty-four works on the life of Christ; twenty- three on the Virgin Mary; nineteen prayers in prose (such as the prayers of Carlo

Borromeo); seventeen hagiographical legends in prose; thirteen miracles or prophesies; ten works on relics; nine on death; and five on miscellaneous topics such as the Mass.158 The trend that becomes apparent in these categories is that the subject of saints dominates the overall religious theme, and because chapbooks derive from oral tradition, an emphasis on saints is logical.

157 Hilde Kurz, “Italian Models of Hogarthʼs Picture Stories,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 15/3 (1952): 141. The largest collection of Italian moralizing broadsheets, particularly those dedicated to the theme of prostitution, are located in the Bertarelli Collection in Milan at the Castello Sforzesco. In American collections, the University of Texas Academic Center in Austin and the New York Public Library possess a small but choice collection of European broadsheets. See Kunzleʼs Appendix and Achille Bertarelli, Lʼimagerie populaire italienne (Paris: Editions Duchartre & Van Buggenhoudt, 1929).

158 Baldacchini, Bibliographia.

89 During the early modern period, a Paleo-Christian revival arose from the research of cardinal and ecclesiastical historian Cesare Baronius (1538-1607) and others, as well as the excavation of catacombs and relics. In a grouping of chapbooks between 1570 and 1670, Pamela Jones has discovered two categories of female saints: biblical and early Christian saints. Of the 103 chapbooks surveyed in Jonesʼ study, twenty of these were dedicated to the

Magdalene, making her the number-one subject among the female saints.159 The

Magdalene chapbooks are devoted to the theme of the Conversion of the

Magdalene, known in multiple editions published in various cities between 1570 and 1620 by rival authors Marco Rossiglio and Francesco Zucchetti.160

Unfortunately, little is known about the authors aside from their names, and other chapbooks on female saints are anonymous and lack places and dates of publication. The majority of chapbooks from the Italian early modern period are

159 See Jones, “Female Saints,” 94-96. Jones has commented that few of these female saints depicted in her grouping of chapbooks were from the medieval period, and none derived from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. 160 Baldacchini Bibliographia. For an overview of chapbooks, see Anne Schutte, Printed Italian Vernacular Religious Books, 1465-1550: A Finding List (Geneva: Droz, 1983) and my appendix for a listing of selected chapbooks in this study, p. 259. Jonesʼ groupings of Italian chapbooks derive from the Biblioteca Trivulziana (Milan), with additional works located in the Biblioteca Vaticano, Biblioteca Alessandrina (Rome), and Biblioteca Estense (Modena). Unfortunately, additional archival studies are necessary to determine the survival rates of chapbooks, as many are bound in volumes and not catalogued. I am grateful to Dr. Pamela

Jones for her assistance in this matter.

90 not yet catalogued. In the majority of cases, the questions of authorship, publication, and distribution are unanswered; however, since prints were a market commodity, it is expected that printmakers must have responded to the laws of supply and demand. Chapbooks thus represent a novel democratic invention that allowed the public to fashion and be fashioned by its own collective self-representation in the goods bought or consequently disregarded in the markets.161

Printed pictures, broadsheets, and chapbooks were all mass-consumed images and texts that have been noted by scholars as effective means of expressing and influencing public opinion. The didactic nature of prints was particularly valuable in imposing religious orthodoxy, encouraging political insurgencies, and reinforcing expected social conduct. The instructive intentions of chapbooks dedicated to gender roles and the concern regarding female morality and societal conformity constitute some of the most omnipresent and commercially marketable themes in these printed works. Both normative

“positive” examples and satirical “negative” examples exist, which correlate to the growing fear of female nonconformity and the resulting deterioration of Italian society.162

The medium of printmaking as a holy means for the propagation of religious instruction was widely asserted from its conception. French humanist writer Francois Rabelais (1494-1553) attributed the invention of printing to divine

161 Matthews Grieco, “Pedagogical Prints,” 62.

162 Matthews Grieco, “Pedagogical Prints,” 61-64.

91 inspiration, and Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), reported in 1468 that he was pleased to see haec sancta ars (this divine art), which had been born in his native Germany, was now being introduced into Italy.163 In Germany, the role of printmaking was the primary instrument in the Protestant Reformation; even while attacking greedy printers, Luther explicated printing as a God-given means, which he stated made his ideological mission successful, unlike that of his predecessors. Although Catholic authorities became more ambivalent about printing after the Lutheran revolt, printing was still considered divine because it was recognized as the art that preserved all other arts.164 Printing was described by prelates and the patrician elite as both a “divine art” and a “poor manʼs friend,”165 and served to all strata of society, particularly in the case of chapbooks and broadsheets.

Chapbooks dedicated to the conversion of the Magdalene represent the positive role model for the wayward woman, and Italian broadsheets devoted to the lives of courtesans or prostitutes epitomize its secular, negative example (Fig.

36). The multi-image broadsheet, referred to as the “early comic strip” by David

Kunzle, developed and flourished in Venice and Rome from the 1560s into the seventeenth century. These broadsheets were sold and posted in taverns for the

163 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, Printing as Divine Art: Celebrating Western Technology in the Age of the Hand Press (Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1996),

1-2.

164 Eisenstein, Printing as Divine Art, 9. 165 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 31.

92 amusement of clientele to serve as edifying entertainment, or pinned up in workshops or homes as a means of instruction for the young. The most popular themes repeating in various broadsheets include: Mondo alla riversa (Topsy-

Turvy or Upside-Down World), Proverbi: il Mondo gabbia dei matti (The World Is a Cage of Fools), and various titles dedicated to the lives of courtesans, prostitutes, and those who frequent prostitutes166

The title page to Marco Rossiglioʼs La conversione di Santa Maria

Maddalena features a small woodcut of the female saint in full length, nude, with the modest covering of her knee-length hair and her left hand to her breast. The saint is young and idealized, and with her right hand she holds the ointment jar, the symbol of her former life of sin. This depiction is in keeping with the sixteenth- century trend of fashioning the Magdalene as new to her hermit life, unlike the emaciated and haggard versions such as Donatelloʼs fifteenth-century sculpture.

As the title implies, Rossiglioʼs chapbook on the conversion of the

Magdalene was a popular retelling of the female saintʼs conversion from a life of sin, namely prostitution, and included several aspects of her life from legend.

Rossiglio states that the Magdalene was a member of a royal family from

Jerusalem, and that when her parents died, she and her siblings, Martha and

Lazarus, inherited a fortune. The Magdalene is characterized as lascivious and proud, valuing beauty above all, and causing men to lust after her. The

Magdaleneʼs virtuous sister Martha, however, scolds her sister for her blindness,

166 Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip, 258-293.

93 and takes Mary Magdalene to hear Christ preach, at which point she is finally converted.167 Although Christ is the ultimate savior, the story stresses the significant role of Martha in the conversion of the Magdalene, which had great popular appeal for its common audience. As mentioned in Chapter IV, the populace concurred with patricans such as Vittoria Colonna in their identification with the figure of Martha and their participation in the conversion of prostitutes.

Rossiglioʼs chapbook was printed in Treviso in 1611, and most likely circulated for a wide audience in Venice and Rome, as well as the smaller surrounding cities. The title page of Rossiglioʼs 1611 chapbook indicates that it had appeared earlier in Foligno and another undated version was printed in

Viterbo, which attests to its enormous popularity. The writing in the chapbooks seems to be aimed at men and women with little more than basic literacy, and sociologists agree that the message of these prints was to convert readers to

“new values.” This was largely successful, particularly to people willing to accept change, which is representative of this new Italian modernity.168

In the Renaissance publishing industry, the combination of size, type, and page layout offered visual signs informing the reader of the content before she/he began to read. As any customer in the twenty-first century could attest, books that look different are different, signifying their varying subject matters, purposes,

167 Summarized in English by Franco Mormando, “Teaching the Faithful to Fly,” in Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image, ed. F. Mormando,

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 38.

168 Burke, Popular Culture, 253-256.

94 and readerships. Cover illustrations provide the most obvious clue to identifying the subject matter and purpose of a book; for example, a large, folio-sized Latin volume printed in two columns in gothic type clearly distinguished a work of theology or law.169 Chapbooks share a similar quality with popular Renaissance books, in that both were directed toward a common readership and designed with a simple woodcut as a cover illustration. The joint form and characteristic of chapbooks and popular Renaissance books pointed most often to either a semi- liturgical devotional work, such as a prayer book, or a popular secular genre of printing: chivalric romances (Fig. 37).170

Rossiglioʼs frontispiece features an unusual depiction of the Magdalene, who stands nude in front of a low horizon holding her ointment jar with her right hand and keeping her left hand to her breast. Although portrayals of the

Magdalene in her hermetic life became popular in the sixteenth century, these works commonly featured the saint sitting or reclining, such as Titianʼs multiple versions, or etchings and engravings such as Annibale Carracciʼs from 1591 (Fig.

38). However, standing poses were naturally reserved for sculptures, such as

Gregor Erhartʼs 1510 polychromed wood figure (Fig. 39). In another anonymous chapbook printed in Viterbo in 1611, the title illustration features a kneeling

169 Paul F. Grendler, “Form and Function in Italian Renaissance Popular Books,” Renaissance Quarterly 46/3 (Autumn 1993): 451-52. The major difference between a chapbook and a popular book was length: chapbooks averaged eight to ten pages.

170 Grendler, “Form and Function,” 470.

95 Magdalene, penitent and nude, covered by her long, wavy hair (Fig. 40). Her hands in prayerful gesture, she meditates on the crucifix and Scriptures while a skull and her wilderness setting attest to her hermetic life. In this scene, unlike

Rossiglioʼs illustration, the artist has perpetuated the iconographical tradition of contemporary Post-Tridentine imagery of the Penitent Magdalene.

Rossiglioʼs illustration of the Magdalene in a contrapposto stance and long, flowing hair echoes that of the Venus pudica from classical depictions of

Venus, which was first transformed into paint by Botticelli in 1484-86 (Fig. 41).

Transmutation of the Magdalene into a Venus figure was initiated in Italy in the first decades of the sixteenth century and related to theories of love and beauty discussed by humanist Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) at the villa of Careggi outside of

Florence. Ficino, who famously coined the expression “Platonic love,” was patronized by Cosimo I deʼ Medici, and the definition of divine love was the cornerstone of Ficinoʼs philosophy. The Magdaleneʼs nakedness and beauty were attributes she shared with Venus, and the growing cult of the Magdaleneʼs penitential nudity coincided with the Renaissance rebirth of the classical female nude, which was dominated by statues of Venus.171

Praxitelesʼ Knidian Aphrodite (Fig. 62), c. 350 B.C., is the first claimed monumental cult statue of nude Venus, and according to ancient legends, the famous courtesan Phyrne posed for the artist. The Venus pudica type derives etymologically from the word pudenda, a word that means both shame and

171 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 232-239.

96 genitalia, and the meaning was transferred easily into medieval Christian art when the Venus pudica was used as model for Eve (Fig. 42). Botticelliʼs Birth of

Venus was the first known Renaissance artwork to depict the Venus in the pose of Venus pudica since Roman times. In any reading, the hand that points also covers, and that which covers also points, and thus the female is reduced to her sexuality.172

Rossiglioʼs title illustration of the penitent Magdalene is a nearly identical reverse of Botticelliʼs Venus, save for her right hand, which holds the unguent jar.

The scarcity of identifying iconography of the Magdalene attributes in the woodcut explains the artistʼs need to identify the saint by an inscription above her head, blocked slightly by her halo. Although the artist places the standing

Magdalene between two crudely rendered columns, as if to imply a sculptural niche, he has illustrated an organic base with uneven terrain and small tufts of grass. The rudimentary depiction of the wilderness places the Magdalene in her hermetic penitential surroundings, although her wavy hair and the rounded mounds of earth mimic the birth of Venus in the sea standing upon the cockleshell. In the most comprehensive treatise on womenʼs beauty in the sixteenth century, Agnolo Firenzuola comments that a womanʼs hair should be similar to gold or honey, wavy, thick, and long, noting that Venus was born in the

172 Nanette Salomon, “The Venus Pudica: uncovering art historyʼs ʻhidden agendasʼ and pernicious pedigrees,” in Generations and Geographies in the Visual Arts: Feminist Readings, ed. Griselda Pollock (London and New York:

Routledge, 1996), 70-77.

97 sea and “raised in the waves.” Firenzuola, in the guise of one of his male characters, defers to the classical author Apuleius (c. 123-180), who spoke of

Venusʼs perfect golden hair. 173

The role of the Magdalene as a celestial Venus arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when a wealth of literature was devoted to her. Rossiglioʼs adaptation of the pose of the classical Venus pudica can be related to the

Platonic interpretation of the modest Venus, who was described as expressing the dual nature of love both sensuous and chaste. The literary association with the Magdalene and Venus was further exemplified in art with the interchangeability of the two women. A Dutch Catholic writer praised a painting by Govert Flinck, who altered a Venus to a Magdalene, commending the artist who could “convert the unchaste by means of their brush.” In his defense of womenʼs ability to achieve divine love, Pope Clement VII provides the specific example of the Magdalene, stating, “You must remember also that [she] was forgiven many sins because she loved much, and that she, perhaps in no less grace than Saint Paul, was many time rapt to the third heaven by angelic love.”174

Naturally, the association of the Magdalene with the heavenly Venus is paralleled by the link of the courtesan to Venus, who as the goddess of love was the deity conferred with the power of all sexual desire. When the famous

173 Agnolo Firenzuola, On the Beauty of Women, translated and edited by Konrad Eisenbichler and Jacqueline Murray (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania

Press, 1992), 45-46.

174 Haskins, Mary Magdalen, 234-235.

98 courtesan Imperia (c.1480/5-1512) was painted by Raphael as Venus on the façade of her home, she defined herself as the icon of love, capable of bestowing pleasure and splendor as a deity among mortals.175 In 1608, Englishman Thomas

Coryat, upon entering Venice, famed for possessing the most fabled courtesans, wrote of entering the “Paradise of Venus.”176 In Venice, the image of Venus was often used as an allegory for the city, such as in Veroneseʼs Apotheosis of

Venice (1579) in the Ducal Palace (Fig. 43). Critics and admirers of the city employed this mythical characterization of the city, as well as that of Venetian courtesans, who came to represent the city as both a powerful divine deity and a licentious and profane being.177

The anonymous artist of Rossiglioʼs 1611 chapbook depicts the

Magdalene in a contrapposto stance, alluding to her role as the celestial Venus.

The correlation of the Magdalene with Venus demonstrated the dual role of the saint as both carnal and divine, and her conversion from a life of prostitution, which is discussed in the text, marked her triumph over the flesh. For the popular audience of the chapbook, the use of Venus iconography would have provided

175 Pio Pecchai, Donne del Rinascimento in Roma: Imperia (Padua: CEDAM,

1958), 23. 176 From Thomas Coryatʼs Crudities, as cited in Fernando Henrique, “The Century of the Courtesan,” from Prostitution in Europe and the Americas (New York:

Citadel Press, 1965), 77-82. 177 For more on Venice and courtesans representing the city, see David Rosand, Myths of Venice: the figuration of a state (Chapel Hill, University of North

Carolina, 2001).

99 an important link to the courtesans, who represented a carnal Venus. Devotees of the Magdalene and proponents of courtesans alike employed the literary trope of Venus symbolism, and the message reinforced by the title illustration was that of positive reinforcement for penitence. The audience of the chapbook, which included all levels of Venetian and Roman culture, was reminded that ideal and divine beauty, which symbolized Truth, was the reward for a contrite and penitent prostitute if she followed the example of the Magdalene.

Francesco Zucchettiʼs La conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, from

1620, differs greatly from Rossiglioʼs work not in its content but in its title illustration (see Fig. 2). Zucchettiʼs frontispiece features a small, crude woodcut depicting the theme of Noli me tangere, in which the Resurrected Christ appears to the already converted Magdalene outside his tomb. The theme of Noli me tangere stems from John 20:11-18, in which Christ, first appearing in his

Resurrected state, is recognized by the Magdalene, who has come to the tomb to anoint his body. According to the translation of the Latin Vulgate, after she cries out for her “Ra-boʼni” (“Master”), the Magdalene reaches for Christ, who recoils at her touch, stating, “Noli me tangere” (“Do not touch me”).

Zucchettiʼs illustration corresponds on a rudimentary level with the iconographical tradition of printed works dedicated to the Magdalene, which typically feature the scene at the tomb, such as Martin Schongauerʼs engraving, circa 1490 (Fig. 44). However, the Zucchetti woodcut differs in its depiction of the

Magdalene with her hands folded across her chest in deference, which is unusual

100 in that she makes no attempt to touch Christ. Her physical gesture of adoration and obedience marks a significant change in the perception of the Magdalene, whose rejected grasp for Christ in most works was often interpreted as a denunciation of women. The rebuff of physical interaction on the part of Christ was further expounded by the mistranslation of the original Greek, “me mou haptou,” to the Latin “Noli me tangere.” In this interpretation, Christʼs later insistence in goading male disciple Thomas to touch his crucifixion wounds (John

20: 24-31) further advances a possible misogynistic reading.178

In Johnʼs original Greek, the Resurrected Christ says, “me mou haptou,” which translates “to hold on to.” Modern biblical scholarship has reinterpreted this passage to mean “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the

Father.”179 In this new reading of the Scripture, Christʼs warning does not serve to slight one of his followers because of her gender, but rather to gently remind one of his favored disciples that he is not to remain on earth. However, in

Renaissance depictions, Christʼs denial of the Magdaleneʼs touch was established and accepted by its audience due to social conventions prohibiting physical contact between unrelated members of the opposite sex. Additionally,

Saint Ambrose had explained that the inappropriateness of her touch further

178 For more on Thomas and Christ, see Glenn W. Most, Doubting Thomas (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005) and Edward J. Olszewski, “The Sexuality of Mary Magdalene in Renaissance Oblivion and Modern Recollection,”

SOURCE: Notes in Art History 27/1 (Fall 2007): 14-21.

179 Olszewski, “The Sexuality of Mary Magdalene,” 18.

101 confirmed the corporeality of Christ, as envisioned by such artists as Correggio

(Fig. 45).180 At the time of Zucchettiʼs publication, it would have been an unusual variation for the artist to stray from the established iconography of the reaching grasp of the Magdalene.

The Magdalene is set a crudely depicted enclosed garden in Zucchettiʼs frontispiece, which signifies renewed purity as per her recent conversion. This understanding is further expounded by her crossed arms, a posture that reflects humble obedience and inwardness, as contrasted with the traditional iconography of the Noli me tangere, in which the Magdalene is depicted as grasping for Christ or reaching with open arms. The anonymous artist of

Zucchettiʼs title illustration woodcut introduces an exceptional variation of the Noli me tangere, which could be read as an embellishment on the interpretation of the

Bride from the Song of Songs. In a late-fifteenth-century Flemish woodcut, a

Hoofkijn van devotien (Garden of devotion) depicts the individual soul in the guise of kneeling female devotee looking up to Christ in an enclosed garden with a sealed fountain (Fig. 46). In Zucchettiʼs frontispiece, the artist has signified the

Magdalene as the Bride from Song of Songs by setting her in an enclosed garden. Numerous preachers had previously identified the interpretation of the

Magdalene as the Bride from the Song of Songs and her feast day (July 22) featured readings from the Song of Songs.181

180 Olszewski, “The Sexuality of Mary Magdalene,” 14. 181 Margaret Miles, A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast 1350-

1750 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 56.

102 The significance of the enclosed garden is ever present in Christian visual tradition, although it particularly related to images of the Virgin. The motif of the hortus conclusus derives from the Song of Songs, one of the most frequently discussed books of the Bible in the Middle Ages.182 In the Song of Songs 4:12, the Bridegroom likens his undefiled bride to an enclosed garden: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” In the earliest commentaries, theologians interpreted the Bridegroom as representing

Christ and the Bride as His Church or an individual soul, as depicted in an early woodcut (Fig. 47). In the twelfth century, church doctors extended their understanding of the bride to include the Virgin Mary, who also symbolized a type of the Church. Popular devotional images of the Virgin Mary in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were often set in a walled rose garden, usually enthroned, and the garden of incarnation was traditionally contrasted with the garden of earthly paradise.

Secular pleasure gardens and the motif of the “garden of love” were often enclosed with a hedge or fences of roses, signifying Venus, the goddess of love.

Love gardens were the ideal locus amoenus (pleasant place) for romantic encounters, and in medieval Europe, the expression “picking a rose” came to signify the modern “deflowering” in English – the taking of a young womanʼs virginity. In the thirteenth century, the French medieval allegorical poem Roman

182 Anne Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press,

1997), 89.

103 de la Rose (Romance of the Rose) caused widespread controversy in its profane literary usage of the popular religious motif of the locus amoenus in courtship.183

The exceptional deviation of iconography of the Noli me tangere in Zucchettiʼs

1620 La conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena title illustration demonstrates the emphasis on the Magdaleneʼs exalted status. Unlike his predecessors, the artist of the crude woodcut demonstrates a theological clarity not found in the most sophisticated seventeenth-century painted or printed works. The reverent and inward gesture of the Magdalene juxtaposed to the hortus conclusus elucidates the renewed purity of the Magdalene with her recent conversion. As expounded by Medieval and Renaissance theologians, the Magdaleneʼs dramatic conversion from a life of prostitution to the first witness of the Resurrection demonstrates the power of Godʼs mercy and the great rewards possible from true penitence. This promise was not lost on the prostitutes who were converted; institutions such as the Soccorso and Convertite, the refuges for repentant prostitutes, offered an honor that could be regained in such a place of purification.184

183 Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 82-88. The poem elicited such moralist rebuffs by famed authors Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson, who believed that the vulgar language denigrated the nature of sexuality and the female characters. For more on the Roman de la Rose, see Rethinking the Romance of the Rose: Text, Image, Reception, edited by Kevin Brownlee and Sylvia Huot (Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992). 184 Lucia Ferrante, “Honor Regained: Women in the Casa del Soccorso di San Paolo in Sixteenth-Century Bologna,” in Sex and Gender in Historical

104 The popularity of chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the

Magdalene, which were propagated as a positive exemplar for active and repentant prostitutes, is matched by the popularity of moralizing broadsheets depicting the lives and “miserable ends” of unrepentant prostitutes. This fashionable print form was circulated widely in Venice and Rome and can be interpreted as visual testimony to the growing backlash against Renaissance courtesans in early modern Italy. In the vein of chapbooks, broadsheets were narrative in form and due to their moralizing nature, have been construed as early folk tales. Similar to the convention of folk tales, moralizing broadsheets dedicated to the lives of prostitutes operate not with individuals but with types, propelling them relentlessly toward their obvious end in order to point to an equally obvious moral end.185

One of the earliest moralizing prints depicting a negative view of prostitutes is the title page of Maestro Andreaʼs 1525 Purgatory and Lament of the Roman Courtesans (see Fig. 3). The print relates to an event that took place for the Carnival in Rome, which was documented by an unknown Roman correspondent on February 11, 1525:

Yesterday maestro Andrea made a cart with paper effigies on it of all the old courtesans of Rome, each inscribed with her name, and he threw them all into the river before the Popeʼs eyes; I have dispatched to Orsolina the sonnet and the poem recited on this occasion. On the morrow, to avenge themselves, the courtesans beat the aforesaid

Perspective, eds. Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1990), 63.

185 Kurz, “Italian Models,” 136.

105 maestro right across the town.186

The event, which precedes the Sack of Rome by two years, was reportedly a source of typical Carnival entertainment, which was abounding in its interrelationships with public prostitution187. However, the growing hysteria over the spread of syphilis and the presence of the new hospital in Rome dedicated to the incurabili created a looming shadow over such merriment.188 In the Purgatory, the male author writes in first person and requests prayers and charity for the sick prostitutes suffering in the hospital; in the Lament, the ailing courtesan moans over her premature descent into hell on earth. Although the male protagonist and anti-heroine of the pamphlet reveal the tragedy of the dying incurabili, continual allusion is made to the dark fate awaiting the courtesans who have not yet succumbed to the so-called “French disease.”189

186 As quoted in Kurz, “Italian Models,” 136-137. Maesto Andrea hailed from Venice and was a close friend of Pietro Aretino, who also contributed a verse to the Lamento. See Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip, 270. 187 On Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, there were often reports of attacks on prostitutes. For more on Carnival entertainment, see Arthur F. Kinney, A

Companion to Renaissance Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002). 188 The Roman Incurabili was built in 1521 at S. Giacomo, but was initially suggested in 1515 by Leo X in his famous Bull Salvatoris nostri. For more on this, see John Henderson, The Renaissance Hospital (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 2006), 97-100.

189 Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip, 270.

106 The frontispiece of the pamphlet is similar to the simple and crude woodcut illustrations of the chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the

Magdalene. In the Purgatory, a poor male servant pushes a cart holding the ailing prostitute, whose exposed arms and legs showcase her large boils, obvious clues that she is suffering from syphilis. Although the servant is viewed in profile, with his gaze fixed forward, the suffering courtesan meets our eyes, and in her right hand she carries leafed branches, which she is presumably using to swat away the large insects that swarm her open sores. Despite its crudeness, the illustrationʼs tragic tone elicits sympathy from its viewers, who are forced to meditate on the public sight of the diseased prostituteʼs body in the city.

Purgatory appears thus to have been singular in its appearance, but later moralizing broadsheets expounded on the issues dealt with in this initial pamphlet. In Venetian Bartolomeo Bonfanteʼs “Lament of a Famous Courtesan,” circa 1600 (Fig. 48), the broadsheetʼs title page features a continuous narrative of the courtesanʼs life and times, marking her naïve beginning into prostitution and ultimate sorrowful ending in a hospital: poor, diseased, and alone. The broadsheet, which contained stanzas from a poem by Bonfante, utilizes the familiar trope of the young country girl drawn into prostitution by often dubious means or tragic circumstances; in this instance, the courtesan was abandoned by a young lover and turned to prostitution in despair over her lost honor.

The top portion of the woodcut depicts four separate scenes; the two young lovers, the woman alone and crippled; the woman along a roadside with a

107 man; and, in the top right corner, the woman lying in a hospital bed at the end of her life. The bottom portion of the broadsheet constitutes the foreground and focus for the viewer, illustrating the courtesan at the height of her glory, opulently dressed and beautiful, flanked by her gentlemen suitors and an attending servant. Although the subject is a “Lament,” the foreground imagery distracts from its moralizing message of the ultimate fate of these courtesans and instead draws in the viewer with its appealing sensual, opulent figures. Similar to the

High Renaissance tradition of the young and sensuous penitent Magdalene, the youthful beauty of the courtesan (repentant or unrepentant) serves as the focal point. In the text accompanying the image, the courtesan bemoans her glory days, when her suitors adored her and showered her with compliments, gifts, and other gestures of courtship. In the text flanking the resplendent courtesan, she recalls, “i balli, i canti” (the dances, the songs), and she is tortured by memories of her former life.

Unlike depictions of the agonizing courtesan of secular broadsheets, the youth and beauty of the Magdalene in religious chapbooks serve to remind the audience of the vanities the saint abandoned and the honor that was bestowed upon her as a result. The courtesan, who is not repentant but rather remorseful only over the loss of her fame, beauty, and riches, serves as a warning for practicing courtesans still in their prime, as well as revenge by their scorned lovers. A popular contemporary poem titled La carretta contained a list of Roman courtesans subject to the punishment of the cart, which indicated their

108 contraction of syphilis and public disgrace as they were transported to the syphilitic hospital (Fig. 49). The theme of la carretta was a common trope in literary criticism of the courtesan, used by male detractors to subjugate the courtesans and to perhaps exact revenge on the women who had rejected them.

The ephemeral art of chapbooks makes it difficult to outline the scope and efficacy of the message they contained; however, in addition to the popularity of the objects, attributable by their multiple editions, there is evidence for the positive propagation, as well as the danger, of their content. In order to explain the spread of ideas and the phenomena of cultural transmission, chapbooks can be related to the study and evolution of the oral wonder tale and the literary fairy tale, which first appeared as a genre in fourteenth-century Italy. Elements of folk or fairy-tale motifs can be found in Renaissance literature such as Boccaccioʼs

Decameron, and in Venice, Gianfrancesco Straparola (1480-1557) is considered to be the originator of the literary form of the fairy tale in Europe.190 The similarity of folk tales to early modern Italian chapbooks is striking in that they both serve to stabilize, conserve, or challenge the common beliefs, laws, values, and norms of a group. In the case of moralizing broadsheets, which mimic the visual and literary storytelling of folk tales, the pamphlets utilize stock types that serve as positive and negative exemplars, such as the proud courtesan or the reckless rake. In regard to the audience of chapbooks, similar to the folk tale, the term

“folk” is inclusive, since everyone participated, and the notion of the “common

190 For more on Straparola, see Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: from

Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001).

109 people” was not recognized until the nineteenth century, when it was romanticized and idealized by the Grimms and other such folklorists.191

As mentioned previously, the positive influence of the chapbooksʼ message and other such tales has been discussed as particularly effective to an early modern Italian audience that was receptive to change. However, there were certainly concerns that a sustained impact of immoral and bawdy chapbooks and tales would have a negative effect on its audience. Religious authorities in such convents as the Roman Convertite explicitly warned its sisters, who were reformed prostitutes, against remembering secular songs, such as the ones associated with the verbal tradition of chapbooks. Superiors at the Roman

Convertite, despite their insistence that the sisters obtain a literary proficiency, which was considered an imperative in their spiritual formation, warned their novices to “avoid things past,” stating that, “the devil will force you to take delight and morose pleasure.”192

The relationship of Magdalene chapbooks and moralizing broadsheets dedicated to the lives and miserable ends of prostitutes is one of natural

191 One of the common goals of the German Brothers Grimm shared by their colleagues was an attempt to define a “pure” national folk tale; however, it is the opinion of Zipes that such a pure tale does not exist. See Jack Zipes, Why Fairy

Tales Stick (New York and London: Routledge, 2006), 52-54. 192 Pamela M. Jones, “From sin to salvation: Guercinoʼs Penitent Magdalene (ca. 1622) for the church of Santa Maria Maddalena delle Convertite al Corso and the fight against prostitution,” in Altarpieces and Their Viewers in the Churches of

Rome from Caravaggio to Guido Reni (London: Ashgate, 2008), 213-216.

110 pendants that reflect basic elements of Christian dualism: rising versus falling, salvation versus damnation, hope versus despair. Despite the fact that the two printed works were not joined as a physical pair, the complementary nature of their messages and formats sought to present their common audience with the positive consequences of abandoning the trade of prostitution for a holy life, as well as the negative consequences for persisting in the evil trade. It is interesting to note that in the broadsheets, the accompanying text increasingly shifts from addressing the women as cortigiane to meretrix, a change that takes place from the early sixteenth century to the late seventeenth century. On the most basic level, this modification in language could reflect the declining status of elite courtesans as well as publishers altering the subject matter to be more fitting to their audience. Although early prints such as Maestro Andreaʼs Purgatory and

Lament of Roman Courtesans (1530) contained the names of the most elite practitioners, the ultimate fate for elite cortigiane remained the same for meretrix: they ended their lives alone, impoverished, disgraced, and diseased.

For sex workers in the sixteenth century, much was communicated in the name given to their professional status. The term cortigiana onesta implied a higher social ranking and government rights, as opposed to the meretrice, who was regulated with growing strictness. The first known official acknowledgment of hierarchical distinctions with prostitution had been recorded in Venetian law in

111 1524, when legislators differentiated between a meretrice and a courtesane.193 In

1543, Venetian Lucieta Padovana was exonerated from charges of being found in a church, forbidden by Council of Ten, as she claimed she was a “cortesana” and not a “meretrice,” and thus exempt from laws regarding common prostitutes.194 The words “meretrice,” and “puttana,” which were both understood as synonymous with “whore, ” was a powerful stigma: Veronica Franco, who also maintained her status as a cortigiana onesta, was denounced as a “ver unica

193 This is recorded in Sanudoʼs Diaries and a document in the Venetian archives. See ASV, Provveditori alla Sanitá, Capitolare, I., C. 33. This document and Sanudoʼs comments are discussed at length in Cathy Santore, “Julia Lombardo, “Somtuosa Meretrize”: A Portrait by Property,” Renaissance Quarterly

41/1 (Spring 1988): p. 45, n. 5. 194 Lucretia also stated that she had a husband, which gave her additional protection from these laws. See Santore, “Julia Lombardo,” p. 45, n. 5. (Notatorio 5, Provveditori alla Sanitá, 1542-1554, 22 Maggio 1543, fol. 30v, Absolution de M. Lucieta Padovana.) Veronica Franco, who also claimed exemption by marriage, was mocked by Redolfo Vannitelli, who claimed that Franco falsified her marital status to maintain luxury items in her possession that were outlawed to prostitutes: “Dice di piú esser maritata hora, hora essere vedova, hora volersi maritare, et fingere tra lʼaltri un matrimonio falsamente fatto qui un con uno Romano, et ció ha fatto solo per ricuperare li perli, le manigle dʼoro, et altre gioie, chʼella portava contro la dispositione della parte fatta del Serenissimo Principe.” Ridolfo Vannitelli, denuncia, located in the Archivio Patriarcale di Venezia (Registri Actorum et Mandatorum 1579 et 1580, n. 16). As cited by Rosenthal,

Honest Courtesan, 166.

112 puttana” (veritably unique whore) in 1575 by poetic adversary Maffio Venier, and a “meretrice” in 1579 by her disgruntled former employee Ridolfo Vannitelli.195

It is my estimation that the linguistic shift in broadsheets in the late

Renaissance primarily suggests the growing awareness of the growing disdain of public prostitution and the realistic account of the womenʼs daily lives, contrary to the High Renaissance exalted perception of courtesans in literature and art.

Artists, writers, and publishers of broadsheets thus produced images and texts that were easily understood by the early modern public, for whom the meretrice was a highly visible element of society. As the tone of the broadsheets became progressively darker, dramatic, and more explicit in the trials and tribulations of meretrix, the message of the works aggressively dissuaded its audience from a life of prostitution and served as a powerful instrument for reformers.

As mentioned in Chapter II, the majorities of prostitutes came from the popolani class and were mostly visible to the average folk. There is no doubt that these chapbooks on the Magdalene, understood to symbolize the prostitute, would be most potent for the people who would interact with prostitutes in everyday affairs. Elizabeth Cohen has noted that prostitutes in Rome plied their

195 Venier employed a particularly nasty pun on Veronicaʼs name. See Rosenthal, “Denouncing the Courtesan,” The Honest Courtesan, 153-203. Venetian law, however, made no distinction between a meretrice and cortigiana except in marital status, as per a 1542 law. In statutes passed in 1571, 1582, and 1613, reading courtesane over meretrice, meretrice over cortesane, the hierarchical distinctions within the profession were disregarded. See Sanudo, “Julia

Lombardo,” p. 45, n. 4.

113 trade with considerable independence in mixed neighborhoods as tenants, customers, brokers, witnesses, neighbors, friends, and kinfolk. Just as these prostitutes were considered blights on the image of their great cities, however, they also often invited scorn from their reluctant neighbors. In January 1557, the cortegiana Spinetta visited with a married friend and, upon noticing Spinetta, the maid from next door, holding a child on her arm, turned the little oneʼs head aside and rebuked, “Donʼt look at that whore, that slut Spinetta.”196

Attempts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to isolate the prostituteʼs living quarters and freedom to move in the city, such as keeping the women away from churches, may be viewed as a way of protecting the common people from these donne di mala vita (women of bad living). In addition to hurling contemptuous insults, the neighbors of prostitutes often took a more aggressive approach by rejecting the relocation of prostitutes in concentrated areas. When

Pope Pius Vʼs program of containment proposed Trastevere for the residence of prostitutes, locals there threatened to burn down their own houses rather than share their streets with whores.197

The lower classes, however, also took a more polite and perhaps charitable tactic. In a case in Florence, a certain Angela, the wife of Nofri di

Francesco, was approached by her neighbor, Bartolo Gadini, in the name of many of her neighbors, with an offer to supply her with a basket of bread per

196 Cohen, “Seen and Known,” 394, 400. 197 Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes, Vol. 17 (Saint Louis: Herder, 1951),

396.

114 week if she would abandon her prostituteʼs career and live decently.198 No doubt the constant traffic to the home of the prostitute would have given great scandal to the womenʼs neighbors, but examination of Rossiglioʼs chapbook also emphasizes the religious appeal to converting the prostitute. Special public missions, such as the one conducted in Rome by the famous preacher Egidio da

Viterbo during Lent in 1508, additionally stressed the allure of attempting to convert prostitutes by the common populace.199

The graphic mediums of chapbooks and broadsheets, which have been largely overlooked, are important sociological tools for ascertaining the popular audience of Magdalene imagery. In contrast to painted works, which catered to an elite and wealthy patron, a larger public of both men and women viewed chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the Magdalene; they also saw moralizing broadsheets depicting the lives and miserable ends of the courtesan.

The accessibility and messages of the prints were aimed at a widely diverse audience of the early modern period as well as all levels of society, including the common prostitute and the elite courtesan. The literate consumer of the chapbooks and the illiterate audience, whom the consumer is often instructed to address, demonstrate the pervasive propaganda of prostitution reform that is modeled after on life of the legendary Magdalene.

198 Gene Brucker, The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study

(New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 191-201. 199 Witcombe, “Quarrel of the Magdalens,” 280. For more on Egidio da Viterbo, see John OʼMalley, Giles of Viterbo on Church and Reform (Leiden: Brill, 1968).

115 Chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the Magdalene and moralizing broadsheets depicting the lives and miserable ends of the courtesan serve as positive and negative examples for the prostituteʼs life. Both printed works devote a majority of their text to the embellishment of the depths of the sinnerʼs debauchery, with emphasis on her vanity; her decadence in dress and lifestyle; and the sins of pride, gluttony, lust, and greed. In these stories, the life choices made by the Magdalene, as a putative former courtesan, and by the anonymous courtesan of the broadsheet, perform as emphatic models for which their sins are contrasted with the holy penitence, or seen as justification for their miserable sorrows, untimely death, and eternal damnation. The climactic end for the penitent and unrepentant is thus made profoundly clear and appropriate when viewed in conjunction with their lives of sin. These chapbooks and broadsheets thus represent the ubiquitous effort of prostitution reform in widely available printed works throughout all strata of early modern Venice and Rome through the paradigm of the Magdalene.

116 Chapter V. “Get Thee to a Nunnery”:

Transitional Homes for Repentant Prostitutes in Venice and Rome

The creation of various types of womenʼs asylums in the sixteenth century, such as Le Zitelle and Le Convertite, were intended to shelter and to aid in the reformation of both potential and active prostitutes.200 These shelters housed the common prostitute, the meretrice, or common whore, and the most frequent fallen woman, the concubine, as opposed to the renowned courtesans of

Venetian and Roman legends. Not all former prostitutes and other women were able or willing to enter the Convertite because of financial difficulties and lifestyle restrictions, and prostitution reformers such as Ignatius Loyola anticipated the need for additional institutions that were designed to serve as a transitional refuge. The Casa di Santa Marta in Rome and the Casa del Soccorso in Venice, were founded to address the urgent need for fallen women to find a safe haven and aid in their spiritual conversion (Figs. 50, 51). As a result, the creation of the

Casa di Santa Marta in Rome and its sister institution, the Venetian Casa del

Soccorso, were established to facilitate a temporary refuge for indigent fallen women.

Although the founding principles were similar for both the Casa del

Soccorso in Venice and the Casa di Santa Marta in Rome, further analysis

200 For an overview of charitable institutions in Venice, see Bernard Aikema and Dulcia Meijers, Nel regno dei poveri (Milan: Arsenale, 1989) and Cohen, The

Evolution of Womenʼs Asylums, 1992.

117 reveals diverging interests on the part of each respective city in regard to the future of its refugees. In this chapter I investigate the iconographic programs for both institutions in an attempt to provide evidence that the administrators of the

Roman Santa Marta promoted marriage as the favored transition for its penitents, while the Venetian Soccorso advocated for its refugees to take final vows at the

Venetian Convertite. In the case of the Casa di Santa Marta, it is apparent that the administrators emphasized the penitentʼs transition into married life, in keeping with the apostolate set forth by the institutionʼs founder, Ignatius Loyola.

In Venice, however, the strained relationship between La Serenissima and the

Holy See enabled the administrators at the Soccorso to dissent from its Jesuit founders and promote the veil.

The foundation of charitable institutions in early modern Italy is distinctive of the acute awareness of the growing poverty, particularly among women in a developing capitalist economy. Although the spiritual dowry required for entrance into the Convertite was meager compared to the rich convents whose fee averaged 1,000 ducats, the dowry was still largely out of reach for the common

Venetian or Roman concubine or prostitute. The original model institution in

Rome, the Casa di Santa Marta, founded in 1546 by the Jesuits, was conceived as a refuge for penitent women who were not called to be nuns or were already married.201 The Casa del Soccorso in Venice – founded in 1577, thirty years after the Convertite and roughly translated into “help” or “first aid” – offered a

201 Marilyn Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons: The Decoration of S. Marta al Collegio

Romano,” The Art Bulletin 70/3 (Sept 1988): 451-477.

118 temporary solution and an entrance fee of merely one ducat to estranged wives, concubines, and repentant prostitutes. In short, the Soccorso, like its Roman predecessor, became a halfway house for prostitutes, adulteresses, abused wives, and in many cases, victims of rape, but was not designed as a permanent living situation for these women.202

Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Society of Jesus, was one of the most influential ecclesiastics in aiding the practical reformation of prostitutes in Venice and Rome during the Renaissance. A typical zealous

Christian fixated on converting prostitutes, Loyola was shocked by their presence in his hometown of Azpeitia as well as Rome, the heart of Christendom. Loyola arrived in Rome in the fall of 1537, intent on receiving Pope Paul IIIʼs blessing;

Loyola and two of his original companions were about to embark on a mission to the Holy Land. However, the pope instead suggested that the reformers make

Rome their Holy Land, and Loyola began his ministry in Rome working with the poor. During his initial years in Rome, Loyola quickly turned his attention to prostitution reform and recognized that the austere life of the convertite was clearly not for every woman, nor for married prostitutes, who constituted a large number of the known meretrice. After gathering pious and noble matrons interested in giving these meretrice a new start, Loyola successfully won the

202 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 68.

119 support of the pope, who in 1541 and 1542 approved the foundation of the Casa di Santa Marta.203

The Jesuits contributed significantly to architectural patronage in the late sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth century, and additional religious institutions became major patrons of art in late Baroque Rome.204

Francis Haskell commented on the significant architectural and decorative contributions at the Gesù in his Patrons and Painters; the Casa di Santa Marta was an earlier project, and helped to shape the artistic character of the later

Gesù. Although it has not attracted much scholarly attention aside from Jesuit historians, the Casa di Santa Marta was a source of special pride for Loyola, who viewed the institution as a model for his later efforts.205

203 Lance Gabriel Lazar, Working in the Vineyard of the Lord: Jesuit Confraternities in Early Modern Italy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), 49-51. The papal bull is reproduced in English in John C. Olin, The Catholic

Reformation: Savonarola to Ignatius Loyola (New York, 1969), 203-208. 204 For more on this, see Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-

1750 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999). 205 See Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 455. For more on Santa Marta and its influence on Gaulliʼs work at il Gesú, see Robert Enggass, The Paintings of Baciccio: Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 1639-1709 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1964), 18-19, 21- 22; Maria Vittoria Brugnoli, “Contributi a Giovanni Battista Gaulli,” Bolletino dʼarte 34 (1949) 225-39; M. Rivosecchi, “S. Marta al Collegio Romano,” Studi romani I (1953) 574; R. Soprani and C.G. Ratti,

Vitte deʼpittori, scultori e architetti genovesi, 2 vols. (Genoa, 1768-69), II, p. 78.

120 Loyolaʼs desire for the speedy establishment of the houseʼs foundation is revealed in his letters as he grew impatient with fundraising results: “If no one wants to be the first, then I will be, and let them follow me.”206 Failing to find a patron willing to finance the project, Loyola sold some of the marble fragments discovered near the Gesù in order to raise the necessary funds.207 After acquiring

Cardinal Rodolfo Pio de Carpi (1500-64) as the cardinal protector for the Casa

Marta, Loyola formed the confraternity that would oversee the house, wrote statutes, created rules, and gave the orders by which to govern. In his early letters, Loyola stressed the transitory nature of the house, and the projected stay of the penitents -- six months to a year -- ensured a comparatively high turnover rate. One of the remarkable characteristics of the house was Loyolaʼs emphasis on the short-term residency and the free will of the inmate, particularly at a time when “free choice” was not commonly applied to women.208 In the preamble, the

206 See Ribadeneiraʼs Vita, book 3, chap. 9, MHSI, FN IV, p. 411. For an English translation, see The Life of Father Ignatius Loyola, 1616 (Menston, England:

Scolar Press, 1976). 207 Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 453. Loyola diverted the 100 scudi from the construction of the Gesú to the Santa Marta, although the funds were sorely needed for the Jesuit mother church. See Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, 61. 208 Among Loyolaʼs early followers and companions was French Jesuit Paschase Broët (1500-1562), who also founded a Society of Charity in Faenza, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna. Polanco reports that in 1545 Father Paschase was preaching to a church of converted prostitutes and providing written rules and a formula for spiritual living. Despite observing no vows, the women lived like those in a religious vocation, similar to the inhabitants of Casa Marta in Rome, which

121 statutes delineated the vital need in Christian society for stable home life and honesty between spouses, but explicitly stressed that the path of the womenʼs return should not be one of coercion.209

Loyola understood the difficulty of this charity was largely related to the fact that many prostitutes returned to their professions when times got hard. In

Juan Alphonso de Polancoʼs Chronicon Societatis Jesu, transcribed in1573-74 and chronicling the early years of the Jesuits, Polanco reported the success and failures of the early ministries. Polanco (1517- 1576), a native of Burgos, Spain, was ordained in Padua in 1546, and a year later Loyola appointed Polanco as the secretary to the Society.210 Although Jesuit historian John W. OʼMalley has commented on Polancoʼs tendency to favor victories over defeats in his recounting of the initial Jesuit missions, Polanco records Loyolaʼs frank comments about the difficult initial efforts at the Casa Marta. In 1546, number 68,

Loyola laconically remarks that even if, through all his pains and efforts, he can

included the abandonment of personal property. See Juan de Polancoʼs

Chronicon Societatis Jesu, Vol. I, selections from 1545, n. 90.

209 Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, 53. 210 Polanco had early troubles with officials in Florence in 1546, but later met with great success in Rome under Loyola. Polanco governed the society as vicar- general after the death of Borgia in 1572, but was not elected to the position of the fourth general of the Jesuits. For more on Polancoʼs biography, see Richard

Dowling, “Juan Polanco, S. J., 1517-76,” Woodstock Letters 69 (1940): 1-20.

122 only save these women from one night of sin before returning to this “ancient vice,” he will have no regrets.211

Ignatius personally selected Saint Martha as the titular saint, as Martha was commonly believed by Catholic theologians to be the sister of Mary

Magdalene and was associated with prostitutes, but Marthaʼs image specifically evoked the active life over the contemplative life. Martha is mentioned three times in the Gospel, and her decisive iconography is drawn from Luke 10:38-42 when Jesus visits Martha and Mary in their home. Martha sets herself to the task of preparing a meal for Jesus, while Mary sits at the feet of Christ, listening to him speak. When approached by Martha, who is frustrated that her sister does not help her, Jesus replies that Mary has “chosen the better part.”

Theologians interpret Christʼs words not as an admonition but as a reminder that, while good works are necessary, the interior life of contemplation and prayer trump. Martha is visually codified in art by a set of keys at her waist, a broom, or a spoon, which signify her role as domestic caregiver. Due to her hospitable role toward Christ, Martha is the patron saint of housewives and others whose work is associated with hospitality or domesticity, such as

211 For more on Loyolaʼs thoughts and the “Crisis of 1546”, see Charles Chauvin, “La maison Sainte-Marthe,” Christus 149 (Jan 1991): 123. For more on the Chronicon, see John W. OʼMalley, The First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), 11; and Juan de Polanco, Year by Year with the Early Jesuits, trans. John Patrick Donnelly, S.J. (Saint Louis: Institute of Jesuit

Sources, 2004).

123 innkeepers, restaurant owners, domestic servants, and even laundresses.212

Loyolaʼs choice of Martha as the titular saint reflects his specific intention of emphasizing the active life in order to anticipate the reinsertion of the penitents into society.213 Although Martha was believed to be the sister of the Magdalene, the Casaʼs dedication to Martha may have helped to remove the stigma associated with other Conversae.214 Loyola also spoke on the merits of both women as an example of obedience to the penitent women and to his Jesuits:

The busy occupation of Martha was excellent and so was the contemplation of Magdalen and her compunction and tears as she washed the feet of Christ Our Lord. But all this had to take place in Bethany, which is to mean ʻthe house of obedience.ʼ215

Martha also represents the distinctive characteristic of women aiding in the spiritual conversion of their fellow women, as previously discussed in the identification of Vittoria Colonna as Martha in Chapter III. Early in Loyolaʼs

212 Fernando Lanzi and Gioa Lanzi, Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and Popular Images, trans. Michael J. OʼConnell (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 48-49. It is interesting that Martha is identified as the patron saint of laundresses, who were associated with prostitution in Europe, particularly since it was a lowly profession that many reformed prostitutes entered into when they left prostitution. For more on laundresses and prostitution, see

Karras, Common Women, 54-55.

213 Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, 56.

214 OʼMalley, The First Jesuits, 184. 215 Ignatius Loyola, Letter 31, 1553. Cited in Ignatius Loyola, Personal Writings, trans. Jospeh A. Munitz and Philip Endean (New York: Penguin Books, 1996).

124 ministry, the Jesuit founder recognized the special benefit of the enormous financial support and influence that women could provide. Loyolaʼs earliest supporters in Spain included noblewomen Inez Pascual and Isabella Roser, and once he was in Rome, he gathered pious and noble matrons interested in giving prostitutes a new start.216 It was reported that Ignatius would walk with repentant prostitutes on public streets to convents or the house of a noblewomen in order ask to that the penitents be allowed to serve as domestic servants. Vittoria

Colonna was recorded as taking a dominant role on numerous occasions, including taking into her own home a noblewomenʼs daughter who had been tempted by sex and then entrusting her to Loyola to escort to Casa di S. Marta.

217

The initial years of Casa Marta showed considerable success, which is evidenced by the large numbers of women entering the house from 1546 to

1547.218 Leonoria Osconio, wife of Juan de Vega, imperial ambassador and future viceroy in Palermo, was credited with bringing five to six women to the house by 1545, and even employed a female employee specifically to visit prostitutesʼ homes and persuade them to convert. One year later, Leonora saw

216 Leonor Osorio, a prominent Spanish noblewoman, took sixteen of these women into her household, but only a few stayed on as domestic servants. See

OʼMalley, The First Jesuits, 180.

217 Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, 50-51.

218 On the feast days of the Magdalene, the Nativity, and the Immaculate Conception, large crowds lined the coffers of Santa Marta through the purchase of sanctioned indulgences. See Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, 62-63.

125 that the house was too full and boldly approached Pope Paul III to request that he expand the property.219 By 1546, carpenters were already working on the expansion. 220

The painted decoration of Santa Marta did not begin until 1671, when concerns over the safety of the building called for renovations and, consequently, ornamentation. Sister Maria Scholastica Colleoni, a wealthy nun who possessed a private income, offered to pay for the decoration of the vault with paintings and gilded stuccoes.221 A contract in the Vatican archives discloses that the artist of the vault was Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709), the exceptional student of

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Architects involved in the renovations include

Giovanʼ Antonio De Rossi, and by 1671, Carlo Fontana joined the project.

Fontana shared a close connection to Gaulli through Bernini, who employed both

Gaulli and Fontana for long periods. The two men also worked alongside each other again at SS. Apostoli from 1702 to Gaulliʼs death in 1709.222

219 The expansion included “Per una finestrela murata nela camera sopa parlatorio,” and “una porta murata che andava in strada soto alla camera dela signoria luiola.” ASV, Monastero di S. Marta, vol. 1 (of 233 unindexed vols), Filza di Giustificazioni Diverese dalli 9 agosto 1546 a li 17 aprile 1590, fols 2r-5v.

Quoted in Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, p. 206, fn. 164.

220 Lazar, Working in the Vineyard, 59. 221 The dilapidated vault prompted the renovations and resulting decorations. A collapse of the vault appeared to be inevitable, and as a result the priests were afraid to celebrate Mass in the church. See Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 454. 222 For more on Carlo Fontanaʼs work at the Casa Marta, see Helmut Hager, “Lʼintervento di Carlo Fontana per le chiese dei monasteri di Santa Marta e Santa

126 The vault frescoes at Santa Marta indicate an important hallmark for the thirty-one-year-old Gaulli, who had returned from a trip to Parma, where he had encountered Correggioʼs work at the Cathedral of Parma. Inspired by the painterly style and di sotto in su (from below looking up) illusionism of the

Cathedral frescoes, the vault frescoes at Santa Marta demonstrate the High

Baroque style of Gaulliʼs mature works (See Fig. 5). According to eighteenth- century biographer Lione Pascoli, Gaulliʼs frescoes at S. Marta greatly impressed

Jesuit general Gian Paolo Olivia (1600-81), who later selected the artist for the commissioned frescoes of the Gesù.223 The Casa di Santa Marta served as a role model for Loyolaʼs later charitable institutions in the sixteenth century, and its schematic organization and overall aesthetic in the seventeenth century served as an exemplar for the Jesuitʼs mother church and its numerous imitations in

Europe and the Americas.

The prominent features of the churchʼs decorative scheme include

Corteseʼs Christ in the House of Martha and Mary and the vault frescoes by

Margherita in Trastevere,” Commentari 25 (1974): 225-42. Marilyn Dunn notes that a misura e stima dated 28 April 1671 and signed by Fontana lists the architect as engaged in the convent renovations (ASV, S. Marta, n. 15, 64), six months prior to Hagerʼs date of the architectʼs involvement with the project. See Dunn 1988, 453, fn. 29. The primary source for Santa Marta is located in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, which includes over two hundred volumes of documents pertaining to the church and convent, listed as ASV, Fondo S. Marta. 223 Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 454-455. Gaulliʼs work at Il Gesù was unveiled in

1679. After meeting with approval, he continued to fresco the ceiling until 1685.

127 Gaulli, which depict three scenes from the legend of Martha, including the mistakenly identified Saint Martha ʻPreaching,ʼ Saint Martha Conquering the

Dragon, and The Assumption of Saint Martha (Figs. 52- 54). Gaulliʼs frescoes are taken from accounts in the Golden Legend in which Martha, along with her sister

Mary Magdalene, traveled to France to preach the Good Word. The first scene, closest to the church entrance, a tondo that has been misread as Saint Martha

Preaching, in fact depicts a miracle of resurrection attributed to Saint Martha.

According to Voragine, when Martha was preaching near the river of Rhone, a young man who wished to hear her attempted to swim across the river and drowned. Recovering the body the following day, the townspeople presented the body to Saint Martha, who, upon invoking the name of Christ, raised the young man back to life, an episode that purposely recalls that of the Resurrection of

Lazarus, her brother.

In the farthest scene, Saint Martha Conquering the Dragon, the saint performs another miracle that also finds its origins in the Golden Legend. The legendary dragon, who was “bright as glass” and turned everything it touched to fire, lurked in the woods between Arles and Avignon, drowning ships and killing those who passed by him. At the request of the townspeople, Martha went to the woods and approached the creature, which she found eating a man. The saint cast holy water upon the serpent, presented him with the cross, and, as he stood

“still as a sheep,” she bound him with her girdle so as to allow the townspeople to kill the creature. Afterward Saint Martha allegedly founded a convent of sisters

128 dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and there she remained in her hermetic life, a theme appropriate for the cloistered Augustinian nuns at Santa Marta.224

The central tondo depicts a scene from the life of Saint Martha that does not have literary derivations but rather reveals the Baroque fascination with saints in glory. In an early drawing for the ceiling design, Gaulli envisioned Martha as kneeling on a cloud, hands joined in prayer, and her face upturned toward heaven (Fig. 55). In a preparatory bozzetto for the central tondo, the artist opens the saintsʼ arms in a wide orant pose, palms facing upward, her right hand holding a cross (Fig. 56). In the final tondo, Martha levitates freely, the cloud is eliminated, and the cherubs surrounding her are now mere onlookers and not supporters.

The evolution of the central tondo of Saint Martha is significant in that the female saint is depicted in great illusionistic perspective, while the two other tondi are envisaged in quadri riportati, both of which demonstrate the influence of

Correggio. Particularly noteworthy is the similarity between the figure of Saint

Martha and the pose of Saint Ignatius in Glory, from the vault fresco on the left transept of the Gesù (Fig. 57). The decoration at Santa Marta is thus an essential work in understanding the evolution of Gaulliʼs style, for he returned to motifs which originated in Santa Marta for other similar subjects in later ceiling decorations.225 Gaulliʼs mature style, which is undoubtedly revealed in totality in

224 Voragine, ʻThe Life of Saint Martha,ʼ The Golden Legend.

225 Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 467-468.

129 his opus at the Gesù, is inextricably linked to his work at the undervalued Casa

Marta for wayward transitional prostitutes and other fallen women.

Despite the stylistic significance of the work, the overall importance of the

Martha vault frescoes is primarily related to the theme of its subject matter. In the three scenes from her life, all of which are apocryphal, Martha is celebrated for the miracles associated with her holy life of active preaching through her travels in southern France. The frescoes, which were created more than one hundred and twenty-five years after the first stone of the refuge was laid, perpetuate the original conception of its founder, Ignatius Loyola, who desired the inhabitants of

Casa Marta to be active spiritual members of the Roman community. By honoring the active life of Martha, the women at Santa Marta were reinforced in their fundamental and initial apostolate, albeit in an altogether different direction than its founder intended.

The superior life of Martha is reiterated by the Casaʼs administrators in the choice of the high altarpiece, which depicts the subject of Christ in the House of

Mary and Martha by Giugliemo Cortese (See Fig. 6). The altarpiece is the focal point of the tribune, which was likely completed by August 1673 and replaced the

Resurrection of Lazarus by Girolamo Muziano. In the renovation of the church, the tribune was altered and Muzianoʼs rectangular multifigure Resurrection would no longer fit. The painting would not fit any lateral altars and was thus sold to

Queen Christina of Sweden for one hundred dobble, which was applied to the expense of the redecorations. In Corteseʼs altarpiece, the active figure of Martha

130 is contrasted with the tranquility of the Magdalene, and the subject was regarded as evocative of the active and contemplative life. While the nuns at S. Marta, who lived as cloistered nuns but also served as educators to young women, embraced both the active and the contemplative life, the active role of Martha is emphasized.226 Dynamically posed, Martha encroaches upon Christʼs space, and his reaching arm and direct eye contact with Martha relegate the Magdalene to the periphery. Despite the actual cloistering of the nuns at Santa Marta, the iconography of the altarpiece, much like that of the ceiling frescoes, emphasizes the active life and mission of Martha.

At the time of Gaulliʼs commission in 1672 Santa Marta had long been converted to an Augustinian community of nuns, deviating from the original intentions of the house, as they were professed and cloistered. In 1547, only a few years after its foundation, the original space of S. Marta was divided, and an

Augustinian convent was founded in order to accommodate the women who wanted to take the veil. Loyolaʼs hopes for the residents to be reinserted into active community began to dissipate as early as 1561, four years before his death, when the penitents were transferred to S. Chiara, and Santa Marta became exclusively a convent for Augustinian nuns. After the change, the convent did maintain its ties to the Jesuits, as evidenced in the Jesuit iconographic program by Gaulli in 1672, and the convent remained under Jesuit

226 Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 459-460. It is interesting to note that Muziano was a follower of Titian and provides a unique link of the Casa Marta to Vittoria

Colonna, for whom Muziano was commissioned to paint a portrait.

131 government, with a Jesuit cardinal protector, and with Jesuits as confessors to the nuns.227

Although the cloistered convent of Santa Marta could not fulfill Loyolaʼs desires for active reinsertion, preferably in the form of married life, the nuns did meet its founderʼs objective to be energetic missionaries and examples of penitence. Much like the Jesuits themselves and their missionary preaching, the apostolate of the Augustinian nuns was the education of young women, a vocation observed by the nuns at Santa Marta. As demonstrated by the choice of subject matter for the vault decorations commissioned of Gaulli, Sister Maria

Scholastica Colleoni reiterated the spiritual blessings and miracles associated with female preaching and spiritual education as witnessed through the life of

Saint Martha. While the nuns could not be visible members of the community, they still clearly envisioned themselves as spiritually active members and an essential component in Roman society.

The Augustinian nuns, despite their encloisterment, likely believed themselves to be the spiritual sisters of the Jesuits, with whom they shared a unique relationship. Because they were the only Augustinian convent in Rome founded by the Jesuits and they maintained ties to the order after an early shift in their institutional statutes, the nuns at Santa Marta demonstrated in their overall

227 Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” 453. The choice of a Jesuit cardinal protector is significant in that Dunn notes that other Augustinian convents were subject to the cardinal vicar, while Santa Marta was exempted from jurisdiction in a bull of

Gregory XIV in 1591. See Dunn, “Nuns as Art Patrons,” p. 453, fn. 21.

132 iconography a continued interest in the active life. Through the education of the young women who came to the convent, the nuns were indirectly capable for properly educating and “reinserting” young women into society, the majority of whom would be prepared for the holy rite of matrimony.

And what of the actual repentant prostitutes who entered the Casa Marta with the righteous goal of rehabilitation and reinsertion into Roman society? In

1559, a new institution was required to house the malmaritate (badly married), who could not take the veil due to marital restrictions but also did not desire to leave the safety and security that S. Marta provided. In 1563, Carlo Borromeo, newly arrived from Milan, took on the responsibility of founding the Casa Pia, and in a grand procession, the single unprofessed women were marched from S.

Marta in the Collegio Romano to their new house near the Pantheon in the S.

Eustachio quarter of Rome. Casa Marta was then left to only nuns, since it was considered improper to have virgins mixed with former prostitutes, in 1573 Pope

Gregory XIII removed the original convertite from the house. By 1578 the Casa

Marta belonged exclusively to virgin nuns who followed the Augustinian rule, and their apostolate became the education of young girls, an activity not permitted for ex-prostitutes.228

228 The convent had a sad subsequent history. Between 1870 and 1873 the convent was suppressed and the church deconsecrated. As a result, many of the works of art were removed. During the Napoleonic occupation in Italy the convent became a Masonic Lodge, and during the Risorgimento it served as a military barracks and warehouse. In the twentieth century Santa Marta held the archives

133 Following the example of its predecessor, the Casa Santa Marta in Rome, the Casa del Soccorso was established in Venice at the bequest of famous local courtesan and poet Veronica Franco (1546-91). The founding documents clarifying the establishment of the Soccorso have yet to be discovered, but a letter from Franco to the Venetian Senate indicates that she was instrumental in the houseʼs conception.229 In her supplica to the senate, Franco entreated La

Serenissima to create a new institution to house the poor fallen women for whom she believed cloistered life at the Convertite would be too harsh. The casa, which was likely founded in 1577, was first located in a rented house next to the Church of San Nicolò da Tolentino and run by Theatine fathers in 1580. The penitents were likely relocated to the Casa del Soccorso around 1594, located in

Dorsoduro along the Fondamenta del Soccorso (See Fig. 51), and after the decoration of the church was completed from 1598 to 1601, the site was consecrated in 1609.230 of the Central Police (Questura) and later became a storehouse for the Ministry of the Treasury. After two centuries of misuse and neglect, the majority of the stucco and architectonic decorations were damaged or destroyed until the convent was restored. The restoration process lasted from 1961 to 1965, during which time the orginal façade from the sixteenth century was altered, and is now known as the “Sala di Marta.” In the late 1980s, Santa Marta was closed to the public. See Dunn, 453. In 2003, the Ministry of Culture commissioned an architectural study on the church. See Roberto Luciani, Santa Marta al Collegio

Romano (Rome: Outlook, 2003).

229 ASV, SOC, G1, t. primo, c. 2: supplica di Veronica Franco, 1580.

230 Aikema and Meijers, Nel regno dei poveri, 241-247.

134 The Casa del Soccorso, serving as an urban refuge, is conveniently located in the central heart of the Venetian mainland. However, similar to the relegation of active prostitutes in the urban fabric, the Convertite is appropriately situated on the sleepy island of nearby Giudecca (Fig. 58). Giudecca was originally called Spinalunga (long spine) due to the shape of the island, but the mysterious renaming of Giudecca possibly relates to the Jews (Giudei) who settled the island in the Middle Ages, or after the nobles who were banished

(giudati) there in the ninth century.231 The policy of isolation for prostitutes, both active and reformed, would be affirmed by the prevalent iconography of the

Magdalene in the wilderness, which was popularized in the sixteenth century by

Titian. In these scenes, the saintʼs segregation is viewed as the necessary catalyst that further solidifies her spiritual conversion, supports her commitment to a life dedicated to Christ, and enables the mourning of her past sins.

In Venice the prominent decoration at the Casa Soccorso was a large painting by Carlo Caliari (1570-1596), titled Madonna and Child, Saint Mary

Magdalene and Convertite (see Fig. 4), which once graced the high altar and is

231 The issue of Jewish dwelling on Giudecca is contested, and although it is tradition in southern Italy for Jewish communities to be referred to as “La Giudecca,” Venetian historians have argued that the Venetian dialect does not support this claim. For more on Jewish communities in Venice, see Robert Charles Davis and Benjamin C.I. Ravid, The Jews of Early Modern Venice

(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 3.

135 now in the Galleria dellʼAccademia in Venice.232 Carlo was the youngest son of

Paolo Caliari, or Veronese (1528-88), and inherited his fatherʼs studio where he worked alongside his uncle, Benedetto, and both men adapted the style of

Veronese. The altarpiece at the Soccorso is dated about 1593.

In Saint Mary Magdalene and Convertite, with the exception of the Christ

Child, the painting is dominated by numerous female figures divided into three groups. On the far right, three richly dressed women kneel beside one austerely clad elder woman. Her dominant orant pose and one of the splendidly dressed womenʼs act of removing her jewels together signify conversion. The top left of the scene contains the Madonna and Child and a richly dressed but barefoot

Mary Magdalene, slightly below the two, who is motioning to the group on the right, demonstrating the Magdaleneʼs role as an intercessor for the Convertite.

232 For a description of the decoration of the Soccorso and the Convertite in Venice, see A.M. Zanetti, Descrizione di tutte le pubbliche pitture della città di Venewia e isole circonvicine (Venice 1733), 375. For more on Caliariʼs altarpiece, see Gallerie dellʼAccademia di Venezia, curated by Sandra Moschini Marconi (Rome: Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, Libreria della Stato, 1962), pp. 80-81, n. 134. See also Ridolfi, Maraviglie, 1648, I (1914), p. 356; Martinioni, Aggiunti al Sansovino, 1663, p. 265; Boshini, Minere, 1664, p. 375; Zanetti, Descrizione, 1733, p. 354; Zanetti, Pittura, 1771, p. 269; Guida, 1835, p. 15; Cicogna, Inscrizioni, V, 1842, pp. 409, 412, 421, n. 573; Cat., 1887, p. 243; Caliari, P.V. , 1888, p. 346, Della Rovere, Cat., 1888 c., p. 99s; Conti, Cat., 1895, p. 80, n. 259; Paoletti, Cat., 1903, p. 83; Molmenti, La Storia di Venezia nella vita privata, II, 1906, p. 610 ss.; Hadeln, Note al Ridolfi, I, 1914, p. 356, nota 2; Lorenzetti, Guida di Venezia, 1956, p. 794; Mariacher, in Boll. Musei Civici Venez., 1960, p.

13.

136 On the far bottom left, a larger group of converts is situated under a portico, modestly dressed and engaged in various tasks to escape idleness.233

In the painting, the foreground figures are divided into two groups, which serve as a “before and after” scene for the reformed prostitutes and their transition into the convent. One noteworthy similarity is the youthfulness of the female figures on either side of the canvas, which relates to the institutionʼs stipulations regarding the nature of the house. Since it was a transitory home, repentance, not retirement, was the sole purpose of entry into the Convertite. Of the 104 women who entered the Convertite from the Soccorso between 1656 and

1675, sixty percent of professed nuns were between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.234 According to Rossiaudʼs investigation of French brothels, the average age for prostitutes was between twenty-four and twenty-eight years, and retirement often happened in the womanʼs thirties.235 In the canvas, the artist thus conveys the appropriate age at which the desired conversion would take place.

The women depicted in the right of the scene are worldly courtesans, the most prominent of whom showcases her jewels as she actively removes her headpiece. The courtesnʼs earthly intercessor is presumably one of the conventʼs

233 Aikema has commented on the classical ruins in the background as a motif that was often adapted by Paolo Veronese to stress the idleness of earthly things. See Bernard Aikema, “Lʼimmagine devozionale nellʼopera di Paolo Veronese,” Nuovi studi su Paolo Veronese, ed. Massimo Gevin (Milan: Arsenale,

1990), 191-203.

234 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 68-69.

235 Rossiaud, Medieval Prostitution, 36.

137 administrators, judging by her modest attire of somber black cloth, and she motions to the jewels that have already been cast aside on the ground. In this scene, the audience associates the entering convertite exclusively with infamous

Venetian courtesans of popular imagination and legend. Prostitutes, particularly those of upper status, did not, however, make up the majority of the nuns at the

Convertite or the fallen women at the Soccorso. According to record books kept in order to maintain the honor of entering nuns, a large percentage of Convertite nuns were in fact virgins. In the so-called “virginity scandal” of 1677, convent administrators claimed that virgin nuns had lied about their virginity in order to gain entry to the convent.236

Prior to the Council of Trent, European convents typically supported themselves through running a printing press or spinning thread. However, concerns of the secular influence necessary in marketing their wares, Church authorities banned all business enterprises in the mid-sixteenth century. As a result of Counter Reformation restrictions on cloistered convents, spiritual dowries increased, and convents became less and less affordable. As a result, the admittance of virgins became a regular practice, with the Convertite serving as an reasonably priced convent for the daughters of artisans, merchants, and,

236 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 80. A large majority of these women derived from the Arsenal as an alternative to marriage, which was particularly difficult in this part of Venice. In 1624, a surplus of women in the Arsenal accounted for a heavy imbalance in the male to female ratio; women outnumbered men 128 to 100. See McGough, 87-88.

138 particularly, arsenal workers.237 Although the founding apostolate of the Soccorso and the Convertite was to cater to fallen women, the population of ex-prostitutes diminished with the rise of the virgin “penitents.”

Caliariʼs altarpiece communicates the original intentions both of the

Soccorso and of its penitents desired transition to the Convertite. Although the administrators were vigilant against admitting ageing prostitutes, as witnessed by the youthfulness of all of the figures in the painting, the truth was that money was always an issue. In actuality the prostitutes were essentially the “scholarship students,” while many young girls, often illegitimate, were sent to the Convertite for an education and to avoid danger.238 However, the act of removing jewels and casting aside finery would also have had a powerful impact on the Convertiteʼs virgin “penitents”: For virgins, conversion still meant a renunciation of worldly vanity, luxury, and sociability.239 The figure of the Madgalene as the heavenly intercessor additionally affected the virgins: Her legendary noble status made a significant impression on the women, who otherwise felt a loss of honor upon entering the Convertite.240

237 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 80-82. 238 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 73-78. McGough notes that these girls would not have been accepted at other Venetian convents due to the status of their birth.

239 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 102. 240 For more on the loss of female honor and convertite institutions, see Lucia Ferrante, “Honor Regained: Women in the Casa del Soccorso di San Paolo in Sixteenth-Century Bologna,” translated by Mary M. Gallucci, in Sex and Gender

139 The young sisters on the left of Caliariʼs painting are depicted in modest dress and engaging in activities deemed proper for the penitents. The two women paired in the far left corner gaze upward as they witness the miraculous appearance of their heavenly intercessor, the Magdalene, and the Virgin and

Child. As one sister clasps her hands in prayer, her partner rests her hand on her breast in deference, and both sisters personify the most important task of the sisters: to pray for all Venetian souls. These prayers were greatly valued in the early modern era: Richard Trexler notes a tax declaration from a Florentine convent in 1478 in which the sisters claimed tax exemption on the grounds that they continually prayed for the city.241

The second grouping of sisters is situated in the middle of the portico on the left, illustrating two seated women and one standing woman who observes their activities over their shoulders. Both seated women hold sewing projects in their laps, and the middle woman leans over her sister, presumably to comment or instruct on a particular sewing technique. The act of sewing and embroidery was a long-standing tradition in Christian convents and a significant artistic tradition of Renaissance nuns. The figurative sewn material from nuns rivaled painting as a decorative art form; it was much less expensive. However, the in Historical Perspective (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 46-

72. 241 Richard Trexler, “Celibacy in the Renaissance: the Nuns of Florence,” in Richard Trexler, Power and Dependence in Renaissance Florence, Vol. II, The Women of Renaissance Florence (Binghampton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance

Texts & Studies 1993), 6.

140 ephemeral nature of the fabric and thread meant that it was also less durable.

Time spent doing embroidery would have accounted for a good part of a sisterʼs day, and during a papal visit to a Florentine convent in February 1516, Suor

Giustina Niccolini reported that it was important for the pope to see the nuns spinning because it was considered their most characteristic and appropriate occupation.242

In the sixteenth century the enterprise of sewing was a tricky issue; it was seen as a “gift to God,” but there was a distinctive difference in sewing for God and sewing for profit. As mentioned previously, many convents supported their livelihoods through sewing, but the Council of Trentʼs strict enforcement of clausura prohibited nuns from marketing their wares to secular society. Despite these restrictions, professed nuns continued in their efforts, although they often limited their sewing and embroidery projects to priestly vestments, clothes for their families or altar cloths. As celestial brides, nuns naturally would have created articles for their “house”: their convent church. Additionally, attributed to their professed vows of poverty, the nuns often sent embroidery as gifts: In 1501 the nuns from Le Murate in Florence sent Queen Leonor of Portugal a gift package that included embroidered figurative scenes for private devotion.243

242 Kate Lowe, Nunsʼ Chronicles and Convent Culture in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 321-

323. 243 Lowe, Nunsʼ Chronicles, 323. A rare survival of an altar cloth, circa 1449, is located in the Museo dʼarte sacra in San Gimignano. In the case of the figurative

141 The domestic nature of textiles and the desire to prevent idleness certainly contributed to an emphasis on needlework for these penitent nuns. However, the noble act of sewing would have been appealing to its sisters; for example, in thirteenth century Genoa noblewomen were heavily involved in gold thread manufacturing.244 Embroidery was considered to be a necessary art for noble ladies, but even more so for princesses and queens free from the domestic duties of caring for their families and households. The art of lacemaking was particular to noblewomen, and in the 1520s the first lacemaking and embroidery pattern books were printed in Venice.245 Even during periods of intense criticism

scenes, the subject matter was modeled after paintings, therefore reaffirming its nature as an art form. An excellent example in American collections is an embroidered altar frontal depicting the Coronation of the Virgin, Florentine, 1459,

Cleveland Museum of Art, 1953.129. 244 William N. Bonds, “Genoese noblewomen and gold thread manufacturing,” Medievalia et Humanistica 17 (1966): 79-81. Sumptuary laws increased during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Venice and Rome in order to restrain courtesans and control the ostentation of the upper class, and paradoxically created an economic downturn that led many women to less respectable work. The textile industry was one of the few reputable vocational choices for lower class women, and as the manufacture of hand sewn luxury garments was restricted, an economic depression grossly affected the textile industry and its female work force. Many of the unemployed female workers were subsequently driven into prostitution by poverty. For more on the luxury items, particularly silk clothing, see Luca Molà, The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice (Baltimore:

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).

245 Fortini-Brown, Private Lives, 113.

142 for their laxity, Venetian noble Girolamo Priuli (1476-1547) conceded that these nuns were skilled in the art of needlework and that their creations “were truly things that painters with their brushes did not know how to depict.”246

In addition to the role of sewing both as a noble art and an exemplary pastime for the sisters, needle trade was an important skill that many nuns cultivated as a practical task in order to supply themselves and their families with everyday linens. The sisters devoted the greater part of their day to the hypnotic exercise of needlework, producing a range of items including lace handkerchiefs and camicie (underclothing). In the case of the Soccorso and other transitional homes, young girls needed to learn a trade in order to accumulate dowry funds if they were ever to leave the house to marry. Maria Elena Vasaio had noted that the female superiors taught the girls to read, write, weave, sew, and embroider, particularly their own garments.247 As a part of their spiritual dowry, the nunsʼ trousseaux included woolen and linen basic cloth, usually in gray, black, or white, and it was expected that the sisters would sew their own garments in the convent. The nunsʼ families not only saved an enormous amount of money on

246 Lowe, Nunsʼ Chronicles, 325. 247 Maria Elena Vasaio, “Il tessuto della virtù: Le zitelle di S. Eufemia e di S. Caterina dei Funari nella Controriforma,” Memoria 11-12/ 2-3 (1984): 55-56, 59,

63.

143 their dowries in comparison to a marital dowry but also, most considerably, saved on their trousseaux.248

Caliariʼs altarpiece at the Soccorso illuminates the religious propaganda that encouraged women to choose cloistered life over marriage as well as discouraging temporal struggles encountered in the institutions. An examination of the dress and hair in the painting demonstrates one of the most common problems for women in the convents. After a visit to the Convertite in 1635, the

Patriarch made a list of twenty-one concerns about the nunsʼ decorum and routines. At the top of the list the Patriarch mentioned hair, which he adamantly ruled was not to be long or exposed. In an earlier visit in 1625, the Patriarchʼs second recommendation was that of modest dress; He explicitly banned silk items and jewelry.249

The penitents at the bottom left of Caliariʼs painting are depicted in the desired humble dress, with hair that was of great concern to Venetian government officials. Venetian diarist Marino Sanudo reported an inspection of

Santa Maria della Celestina by Patriarch Gerolamo Querini in 1525, “because those very immodest nuns wear long hair and other things…and when they saw a certain daughter Taiapiera with braids, the patriarch took hold of her and cut

248 Carole Collier Frick, Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 40-43, 140-

142.

249 Collier Frick, Dressing Renaissance Florence, 118-119.

144 her hair off with his own hands.”250 The worldly hairstyles and clothing of nuns preoccupied patriarchs for generations; in 1578 Patriarch Giovanni Trevisan outlawed Venetian nuns from wearing “blond and curled hair,” “shoes of the

Roman type”(platform shoes), and Patriarch Lorenzo Priuli admonished nuns at

Santʼ Andrea de Zirada from wearing clothes that exposed their breasts and showing their hair in 1592. However, the authorities found it difficult to separate the nuns from their vanities: Seventeen years later, it was still a problem.251

The modesty of nunsʼ dress – their compulsory refusal of the vain delights of fancy hairstyles, barely veiled décolletage, and high-heeled shoes – was believed by authorities to preserve the nunsʼ fragile state of spiritual perfection.

The lack of resistance to even minor sensual pleasures was supposed to trigger a chain reaction of desires that could jeopardize the nunsʼ chastity. Because their virginity signified the lost but soon-to-be-recovered unity and integrity of the church and the Venetian Republic, the violation of nunsʼ purity was considered to be a danger to social order. In fact, next to prostitutes and sodomites, sexually active nuns were seen as the most noticeable indication of increasing social disorder.252

In Caliariʼs altarpiece, the artist encloses the sisters in their portico, which may represent the strict enforcement of clausura that resulted from the Council of

250 As quoted in Jutta Gisela Sperling, Convents and the Body Politic in late

Renaissance Venice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 120.

251 Sperling, Convents and the Body Politic, 120-122.

252 Sperling, Convents and the Body Politic, 124-125.

145 Trent in 1563 and was reconfirmed again in 1566 and 1572. In the scene, the dark outline of the portico acts as a frame for the women, although they are poorly lit, and due to the thin application of paint, years of deterioration, and perhaps poor storage, seem to disappear into the black background. Caliariʼs symbolic adherence to the policy of encloisterment and his slight treatment of the sisters are in keeping with the physical walling of the nunsʼ interiors: The inside space of convents was greatly altered during the Counter Reformation, including locking all doors to the convent except one leading to the sea and one to land.

Additionally, locks were removed from the nunsʼ cells so that any private interior to which the convent authorities did not have immediate access was eradicated.253

The clausura present in Caliariʼs altarpiece, however, does not represent the difficulty required for the securing of encloisterment in Venice. In a city famous for its anticlerical and antipapal policies, reform in Venice mandated an intimate partnership of secular and ecclesiastic authorities. Resistance to clausura was strong, particularly from those religious who had taken their vows before the Council of Trent and did not feel compelled to abide by such severe and seemingly subjective regulations. In 1594, the abbesses and vicars of two

Franciscan convents were imprisoned after going on “clausura strike,” during which they tore down the wall of the cloister and entered the exterior church.254

Incidents such as these are understandable; Venice was the only city where

253 Sperling, Convents and the Body Politic, 128.

254 Sperling, Convents and the Body Politic, 129.

146 Boniface VIIIʼs strict enclosure of 1298 was never implemented, and during this period only a minute percentage of Venetian women voluntarily chose to be nuns.255

The quarantined space of the sisters in Caliariʼs altarpiece not only keeps the sisters enclosed, but also prevents the viewersʼ intrusion into the sistersʼ realm, which echoes the concerns of contemporary church authorities. The downward pressure of the Magdaleneʼs right hand and foot, encompassed by clouds, the harsh outline of the portico, and the path trailing the end of the grounds carefully delineates the boundaries of propriety between the viewer and the penitents. Although the dominant force of the Magdalene can be alternatively viewed as the inclusive bodily gesture of their patron, much like the iconography of the Madonna della Misericordia, ultimately the Magdaleneʼs downward hand gesture forcibly isolates the women.

In Venice, the forcible isolation of nuns was the task of a specially appointed government magistrate: the provveditori sopra monasteri. This special task force prosecuted any outsider, lay or clerical, who violated the sacred borders of an enclosed nunnery:

All kinds of people found themselves on the wrong side of the laws which regulated access to convents: nunsʼ friends and relatives were prosecuted for visiting outside the permitted hours, of for illicit conduct in the parlatorio (most commonly, eating); convent employees, such as doctors, business managers, builders, or cleaners, were brought to trial for the merest infringement of enclosure; the rules were interpreted particularly strict against prostitutes and Jews.256

255 Lowe, Nunsʼ Chronicles, 185-186.

147

As trial records attest, by the end of the sixteenth century the authoritiesʼ concern lay not in how to keep the nuns in but how to keep others out. One of the measures taken in order to limit contact with nuns was to shield the penitents in their obligatory confessional, which provided an erotically charged space between celibates, as the sisters were rarely alone with the opposite sex, particularly in such close and private quarters.257 In 1609 Patriarch Vendramin

256 Mary Laven, “Sex and Celibacy in Early Modern Venice,” The Historical Journal 44/4 (Dec 2001): 872. In an eighteenth-century painting by Francesco Guardi, Parlour at the San Zaccaria Convent (CaʼRezzonica, Venice), a gridiron separates the nuns from their visitors. For more on changes in convent architecture in relationship to clausura, see Marilyn Dunn, “Spaces Shaped for Spiritual Perfection: Convent Architecture in Early Modern Rome,” in Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe, edited by Helen Hills

(Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003), 151-176. 257 As the desire for daily communion increased in the Renaissance, the need for the sacrament of reconciliation increased in order to prepare the communicant for the Eucharist. Given the number of attractive young nuns in convents, it was often too tempting for confessor priests to resist sexual temptation. Authorities were wary of the emotional dependencies and physical closeness the confessional created, and sexual transgressions between confessors and penitents were tried in the Spanish Inquisition as early as 1530. For more on sexual indiscretions committed in the confessional, particularly in regards to Inquisition trials, see Stephen Halicizer, Sexuality in the Confessional (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1996).

148 instructed nuns at San Girolamo to affix an immoveable iron net with small holes to the window of the confessional so that the nuns could be heard but not seen.258

The delicate issue of the invisibility of the nuns would certainly account for the thin and dark treatment of the penitent sisters in Caliariʼs altarpiece. Unlike the bejeweled courtesans on the right, behind whom the dark foliage serves as a striking contrast to their satin gowns and fair skin, the penitent sisters are encompassed by their black space. In the space between them, the terra ferma serves as a physical barrier between the two groups. This purposeful corporeality would serve not only as a way of illustrating the time and space of conversion, but also to literally represent the isolation and relocation of the convertite to the island of Giudecca.

The iconography of the altarpiece also differs greatly from its earlier

Florentine counterparts, such as Botticelliʼs famous altarpiece and predella panel in the Pala delle Convertite, circa 1465-67, and Donatelloʼs Saint Mary

Magdalene (see Figs. 31, 32), both of which have been linked to convents for prostitutes in Florence.259 In these fifteenth-century precedents, the Magdalene is

258 Laven, “Sex and Celibacy,” 872. 259 Botticelliʼs altarpiece and predella panels were commissioned for the monastery of Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite. For more on this, see Ronald Lightbrown, Sandro Botticelli, 2 vols. (Berkeley: University of California, 1978), 75-78. The patronage of Donatelloʼs famous Magdalene has recently been reassigned from that of the Florence Baptistery to the same Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite in Florence. For more on this, see Martha Levine Dunkelman,

149 depicted late in life, ascetic and haggard, the model of a hermetic life of abstinence. In Caliariʼs altarpiece, however, the Magdalene is depicted as young and courtly, still dressed in her finery and jewels, new to conversion and penitence, an anomaly of the sixteenth century and drawn from Venetian painting traditions. Caliariʼs depiction of the women as youthful and beautiful would thus have been more relevant to its contemporary viewers, and also reaffirmed the founding principles for the Convertite, which was designated not as a retirement for aging prostitutes but for the general reform of active prostitutes in Venice.

It is my belief that Caliariʼs altarpiece can be viewed as religious propaganda to encourage fallen women to live as true nuns at the Convertite for the spiritual gain of Venice, versus the Roman institutionʼs emphasis on marriage. Although fallen women were allowed to leave the Soccorso in order to get married or reconcile with their husbands, Caliariʼs altarpiece expressly encouraged the women to choose a religious monastic life. The Casaʼs promotion of the veil was reaffirmed by outside donors in the Venetian community: the stipulation of seven wills between 1652 and 1683 expressly stated that money donated to these women could be used only for spiritual rather than marital dowries.260

Laura McGough has proposed, that despite the reputation of the

Convertite as a convent for prostitutes, Venetians entrusted the care of their

“Donatelloʼs Mary Magdalen: A Model of Courage and Survival,” Womanʼs Art

Journal, 26/2 (Autumn 2005 -- Winter 2006): 10-13.

260 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 113.

150 souls to these nuns. In their wills, Venetian donors bequeathed generous sums of money paired with the traditional request for prayers. Although charity to convents was one means of enhancing prestige and building networks, by 1581 the majority of nuns at the Convertite came almost entirely from the ranks of the popolani; most were in fact virgins. This suggests that the convent became a sort of “bargain basement” convent for lower class families who could not afford marriages, or in some cases, chose religious life over marriage.261

It is clear that the image of the Magdalene was a dominant visual force in the Convertite and the Soccorso, both as a role model and intercessor for these fallen women. In addition to Caliariʼs altarpiece and the formal dedication of both institutions to Saint Mary Magdalene, wills of former inhabitants testify to the private patronage of their wealthier inhabitants. In the case of Cattarina Conti, a former resident at the Convertite, the nun bequeathed her private painting of the

Magdalene to the convent. Her will stipulated that the painting was to be placed in the choir for the other nuns to universally view, while her other depictions of female saints were given to individual nuns, presumably for their private use.262

261 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 133-151. McGoughʼs study is an excellent resource on the demographics and practical workings of the Convertite and the Soccorso. However, McGoughʼs focus is purely historical, and only peripherally discusses any architectural or art history. In this dissertation, I reconcile her archival study of the convents with an iconographical analysis of the churchʼs decoration in order to determine a larger context of the nature of the institution and its goals.

262 McGough, “Raised from the Devilʼs Jaws,” 128. See ASV Convertite 1636.

151 In the transitional homes of Casa di Santa Marta in Rome and Casa del

Soccorso in Venice, administrators were ever cognizant of the temporary dwelling of their residents as well as their fragile state of penitence. In order to aid in the successful and full conversion of these misplaced fallen women, church officials employed religious imagery of the Magdalene in an attempt to guide the women into an ultimate path.

152 Chapter VI. Private Devotion and Public Lives:

The Magdalene as Devotional Aid in Elite Patronage

As the role of private devotional paintings increased in the early modern era, the half-length saint in particular emerged as an aid to spiritual contemplation, and Magdalene paintings helped to assist religious devotees in their acts of prostitution reform. Magdalene imagery flourished in the early sixteenth century, paralleling the desire for prostitution reform in the Italian public, led by elite art patrons and religious figures. In this chapter, I investigate two private commissions of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene by Roman religious figures and discuss the supplemental role of the theme of the half-length Magdalene in relationship to the actions of two patrons that played out in the public sphere

(See Figs. 7,8). The sensuality of the Magdalene imagery was admired and requested by the patrons in these paintings, and it is my thesis that these images were coupled with the meditative prayer guide of the Spiritual Exercises. In this chapter I propose that the combination of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene and the

Exercises helped to provide a spiritual grounding for the patrons in their efforts in prostitution reform.

The subjects of my analysis will be Vittoria Colonna and Federico

Borromeo, who serve as representatives of prostitution reform among the Italian elite from the Protestant Reformation to the Post-Tridentine periods. These two important individuals not only patronized the same painter, but also a shared spiritual interest in the Jesuits, and both Colonna and Borromeo likely observed

153 the Spiritual Exercises, a meditative prayer guide that encouraged the contemplative viewer to use religious artworks as a catalyst for spiritual reform. It is my assertion that Titianʼs Penitent Magdalenes were devotional aids used by patrons Colonna and Borromeo to assist in their efforts to reform prostitutes in

Rome.

Titianʼs enduring, sensuous images have graced nearly every major exhibition and literary work dedicated to Mary Magdalene, particularly in the last fifty years. During his lifetime, Titian painted approximately forty versions of the

Magdalene, and the provenance for these paintings reads like the social register of sixteenth-century European society.263 Due to its seemingly blatant eroticism,

Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene type has puzzled art historians, who have taken numerous approaches to reconcile the religious content of the image with its overt sensuality. The issue of the sacred versus the profane is further problematic because some of Titianʼs most select patrons of the Magdalene were fervent Catholic reformers, such as Vittoria Colonna, Federico Borromeo, Isabella dʼEste, and Philip II, king of Spain. In this chapter, it is my intention to establish that a particular group of Italian elite members of society commissioned paintings of the Penitent Magdalene by Titian to aid in their spiritual devotion and particularly in regard to their participation in the conversion of prostitutes.

263 Rona Goffen, Titianʼs Women (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 186.

154 The commission of private devotional paintings for personal piety is distinguished from public art of ecclesiastical function, and its key distinction is one of purpose and size:

The devotional image belongs to the domain of private piety where it is used as a recipient of prayer and benediction, or as an incentive and aid to meditation which is a preparatory stage for a higher level of contemplation, and image-less state of mind where external aids should no longer be needed.264

Devotional paintings were introduced by “holy portraits” such as the Man of

Sorrows and the audience was expected to engage the image from three ideological approaches: didactic, theological, and empathetic. The desired result of interaction with devotional images was that of a certain psychological state of mind, through which the beholder was to expect a deeply emotional experience.265 Prior to the late medieval period, cult images had been a source of contention in the Church, but from the sixth century onward there were reports of numerous saints owning private images. Devotional images as sources of empathetic meditation in Christian religious contemplative practice were nonetheless common until the late Middle Ages. However, the abundance of miracle legends saw the escalation of appeal in images in the late medieval

264 Sixten Ringbom, Icon to Narrative: The rise of the dramatic close-up fifteenth- century devotional painting (Åbo: Åbo akademi, 1965), 53.

265 Ringbom, Icon to Narrative, 12.

155 period, and the commission of private devotional aids was made possible by the growing wealth and prosperity in the early Renaissance.266

Titianʼs Pitti Magdalene (see Fig. 7) appears to be the first of numerous variants and fortunately the details of the commission, now attributed to the patronage of Vittoria Colonna, are well documented. In a series of letters from

March through July of 1531 between Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and his agent in Venice, Benedetto Agnello, the duke declares his interest in commissioning a Magdalene as a gift. According to the interpretation by Marjorie

Och, however, additional correspondence between Gonzaga and Vittoria

Colonna suggest that it was Colonnaʼs interest in the painting that prompted the commission. The indirect manner through which Colonna acquired the

Magdalene with the assistance of her extended family marks an alternative method in which female patronage in the Renaissance often may have operated.267

Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, the

Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples, and the wife of Francesco Ferrante dʼÀvalos, the son of the marquis of Pescara. Betrothed at age four, Vittoria married dʼÀvalos, despite numerous marital offers, in 1509, when both were

266 Ringbom, Icon to Narrative, 12-14. 267 For a succinct summary of the letters and documentation attributing Colonna with the commission, see Marjorie Och, “Vittoria Colonna and the Commission for a Mary Magdalene by Titian,” in Beyond Isabella, edited by Sheryl E. Reiss and

David G. Wilkins (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University, 2001), 193-224.

156 nineteen years of age. After the first two years of marriage the couple was rarely together due to dʼÀvalosʼs military campaigns, and when he died of war injuries in

1525, Vittoria vowed to remain a widow for the rest of her life. As a member of the wealthy and powerful Colonna family, Vittoria was given an excellent education, and at an early age she developed a great love for letters. In addition to her surviving correspondence, including passionate love letters between her and her husband, Vittoria was an accomplished poet who gained fame for her rime as well as for her ardent evangelism in the years proceeding the Council of

Trent.

Colonna belonged to an elite circle of Italian reformers called “spirituali,” which were a select group of educated nobles who met in various towns and cities and who nourished a devotion to the doctrine of justification and sought an armistice between the Protestants in the north and the Roman Church.268

Colonna belonged to the Viterbo circle, and between 1530 and 1550, her circle, and like-minded groups in cities such as Naples, Ferrara, Bologna, Modena, and

Venice, all won popular support. Despite the fear that doctrines of Protestantism were being promoted in Italy, Colonnaʼs Viterbo circle prevailed under the direction of Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500-1558). Pole, who was elected papal governor in August 1541, took his seat in Viterbo, where he also acted as a

268 Dermot Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), 21.

157 spiritual director for Colonna.269 Poleʼs presence in Viterbo was a final locus for the Viterbo spirituali. Colonnaʼs death ended the circle, and the Spirituali throughout Italy yielded to the “spirit of militant authority…a revived scholasticism of Loyola and the Council of Trent.”270

Colonna was also associated with the Society or Oratory of Divine Love

(Compagnia ovvero Oratorio del Divino Amore), which formed in 1517 during the reign of Leo X. Considered the first reformers, this was a small group of clergyman and laity who, gathered under the protection of Saint Jerome, were disturbed by the corruption of the papal court. The main principles of the organization were centered on an inward renewal of their own lives through religious exercises, common prayer and preaching, frequent celebration of the sacraments, and works of neighborly love.271 The Oratoryʼs foundation was followed shortly by the Confraternità della Carità (Confraternity of Charity) in

1519, which also encouraged practical charity, particularly the support of poor

269 Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 46. Fenlon notes that Pole and Colonna had a special relationship, suggesting that Pole viewed Colonna as a second mother, as his own mother had been brutally executed in England in retaliation for Poleʼs defiance of Henry VIII.

270 Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 22-23. 271 Von Pastor, The History of the Popes, Vol. 10, 389-391. Although the author admits there is no concrete evidence linking the artist to the organization, von Pastor relates the work of Raphael in the Sistine Chapel to the principles of the

Oratory of Divine Love. See von Pastor, History, 393.

158 persons, visiting prisoners, and the burial of the destitute.272 The foundation of these organizations, which was largely populated by laypeople such as Colonna, also inspired genuine sentiment in religious art of the reformers.

Colonnaʼs interest in religious reform was manifested in her patronage of art, and her choice of a Venetian painter may be tied to a series of circumstances, including her close friendship with Pietro Bembo, who was also a friend of Titian. Colonna was aware of the praise given to Venetian art, and of the significance of Giorgione, Titianʼs master, who was mentioned by Castiglione in Il

Cortegiano, which Colonna had read by 1520, prior to its official publication.

According to Vasari, Colonna possessed and admired an idealized portrait of her painted by Sebastiano del Piombo from 1530 (Fig. 59). Additionally, Colonna was certainly aware that the Sack of Rome in 1527 had generated a great exodus of artists from Rome to Venice.

Colonnaʼs Magdalene varies from later versions in its depiction of the exposed breasts of the Magdalene, its blatant eroticism a noteworthy feature that has confounded art historians. The bare-breasted depiction of the Magdalene may in fact relate to Vittoria, specifically in her role as a learned woman. In the

Renaissance, bare-breasted women were represented as Amazons, the race of female warriors of ancient times.273 Representative of women who lived apart

272 Von Pastor, History, 393. The Confraternity of Charity was founded by

Cardinal Giulio deʼMedici, later Pope Clement VII (r. 1523-34). 273 Edward Olszewski, “The Amazon in Rosso Fiorentinoʼs Uffizi Moses,” SOURCE: Notes in the History of Art, 28/1 (Fall 2008) 25-26. I am very grateful to

159 from men on the legendary island of Lesbos, Amazons were chaste fighters who united virility and virginity; according to Renaissance humanists, learning was also associated with chastity in women and a general tendency to equate learning with goodness.274

Dr. Olszewski for pointing this out to me. Amazon imagery appeared in Renaissance art as a result of the renewed popularity in medieval texts of Hellenistic geographer Strabo, who recorded a history of the Amazons in 7 BC. The most prominent examples of Amazons emerged in the decoration of cassoni (wedding chests), which were given to brides on the occasion of their marriage. Father of brides often commissioned cassoni and the subject of Amazons served as an exemplar to future wives, advised to observe vigilant chastity and abhor sexual contact with men other than their husbands. Amazons related to Renaissance brides in that they were considered aliens to their new conjugal families, and the 1468 wedding festivities of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York included a staged combat between Hercules and the Amazons, suggesting a parallel between the conquest and kidnapping of warrior women and royal marriage. See Alison Taufer, “The Only Good Amazon Is a Converted Amazon: The Woman Warrior and Christianity in Amadís Cycle,” in Playing with Gender: A Renaissance Pursuit, edited by Jean R. Brink, Maryanne C. Horowitz, and Allison

P. Coudert (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1991), 35-38. 274 In addition to cassoni decoration, images of Amazons were closely related to Spanish exploration of the New World, and in Spanish literature as in antiquity the Amazon became a metaphor for the barbarian. Spanish conquistador Hérnan Cortés (1485-1547) and Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) both described having seen islands of women warriors, whom they identified as “Amazons.” To the Spanish, these “Amazons” were antithetical to their ways of life but represented the hopeful potential for conversion to Christianity. In English Renaissance literature, similar to Italian cassoni and Spanish New World lore,

160 Precedence for Vittoriaʼs desire for Amazonian imagery in her Magdalene can be seen in portrait medals as early as 1510, when Colonna commissioned medals depicting herself allʼantica and bare-breasted (Fig. 60). Learned women such as Colonna found this art form particularly appealing because it was relatively inexpensive and, similar to printed books, letters, and poems, shared a common humanist audience. Marjorie Ochʼs analysis of Vittoriaʼs medal commissions reveal that she identified with fellow male humanists, and though the medals may not show a verifiable likeness, they show a self-declaration and self-fashioning. In these early medals, Vittoria is shown opposite her husband in classical dress, one breast exposed, and hair styled allʼantica, eliciting the image of an Amazon and a poet.275

Vittoria Colonnaʼs devotion to Saint Mary Magdalene and her specification of the saint to be depicted as bare-breasted also correlates to the religious association of the Magdalene and Amazons. On the feast day of the Magdalene in the thirteenth century, French cardinal Eudes de Châteauroux (1190-1273) preached on the fortitude of women, particularly Cistercian nuns, citing the example of the female saint:

So today as men are withdrawing from the Lord through sin, women stand manfully with the Lord against the Devil. They are spiritual Amazons…

Amazons represented conquest but were applied specifically to English queens, such as Shakespeareʼs description of Margaret of Anjou in Henry IV. See Kathryn Schwartz, Tough Love: Amazon Encounters in the English Renaissance

(Durham: Duke University Press, 2000) 24, 37-38.

275 Och, “Vittoria Colonna,” 154-156.

161 We see many men who have left the Cistercian Order, but women rarely seem to leave the order. Accordingly [we can say] women are more upstanding and stronger than men, just like this blessed saint.276

The literary trope of relating holy women to virile Amazons was a mode of representation that male writers of the Middle Ages often devised to praise holy women. These writers venerated nuns and other spiritually honored women through the language of gender inversion as a means of illustrating female spirituality.277 The Magdalene, with her isolation in the wilderness, her rejection of earthly male lovers, her spiritual fortitude, and her divine love for Christ, made the saint an exemplary model for Colonna, who herself chose a chaste life of near seclusion after her beloved husbandʼs death.

Similar to Vittoria Colonna, courtesansʼ desire to be linked to the figure of the Amazon can be illustrated by their attempt to be viewed as learned women.

Several courtesans in Venice and Rome, such as Veronica Franco, Tullia dʼAragona, and Gaspara Stampa were published authors. The perception, and often reality, of courtesans as literary contributors illustrates the womensʼ desires to be deemed legitimate members of the upper class, and thus an association with Amazons would be advantageous. Veronica Franco serves as perhaps the

276 As cited in Jansen, Making of the Magdalen, 83-84. 277 For more on this and the use of gender inversion to describe the interior lives of male religious, see Caroline Walker Bynum, “Jesus as Mother and Abbot as Mother: Some Themes in Twelfth Century Cistercian Writing,” in Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 110-69.

162 most vocal of courtesans who coveted an honorable status, as seen in her insistence on the title of cortigiana onesta. The understanding of the

Renaissance courtesan and her contribution to contemporary society in a social and intellectual role is essential, and her sexual activity should be regarded as secondary.278 By aligning themselves with Amazons, courtesans were able to evoke a multifaceted reputation: desirable women to be conquered and intellectual forces.279 Similar to the figure of Venus, the rendering of Titianʼs

Magdalene as an Amazon provides another link among the courtesan, the

Magdalene, and Vittoria Colonna.

Vittoriaʼs specification for a bare-breasted Magdalene may also be indicative of the association of nudity as symbolic of Truth or Celestial Love. The allegory of Truth as a nude woman stems from Greek and Roman mythology, which was codified into late Renaissance culture in 1593 with the first edition of

Cesare Ripaʼs Iconologia. In Ripaʼs Iconologia, the author offers allegorical figures for various concepts of virtue, vice, passions, arts, and sciences to give

278 Rosenthal, Honest Courtesan, 4. 279 The use of Amazon imagery in association with the Magdalene may additionally be viewed as a direct link between the saint and the courtesan, whom the Magdalene represented. Courtesans in the Renaissance often associated themselves with classical culture. In the 1652 Venetian broadsheet Mirror of the Harlotʼs Fate, one scene depicts the courtesanʼs lover praising a painting of the courtesan as a bare-breasted Amazon. Although it may have served the authorʼs intention of humbling the courtesan by mocking her classical allusions, it nonetheless also reveals the contemporary association of courtesans and Amazons.

163 substance to the intangible theories. In order to clarify each allegory, Ripa includes types and colors of clothing and various iconographic signifiers as well as a description of the qualities embodied. In a revised edition, the author explains the personification of Truth: “Truthʼs nudity indicates that truth is a natural state, and like a nude person, exists without need for artificial embellishment.”280

Although Ripaʼs Iconologia was not published until the late sixteenth century, it is understood that his emblems were based upon established traditions in Greek and Roman mythology and were likely known to many artists before their compilation by Ripa. Greek art depicted the nude as early as the eighth century B.C., and Pheidias (c. 490-30 B.C.) is credited with the development of ideal proportions based upon fixed numbers that resulted in perfect symmetry and spiritual beauty. Despite the feminine gender of aletheia

(truth), Greek artists did not envision truth in nudity as feminine but masculine. In

280 Edward A. Maser, ed., Baroque and Rococo pictorial imagery: the 1758-60 Hertel edition of Ripa's 'Iconologia,ʼ (New York: Dover Publications, 1991), 50. Vittoria Colonna was no doubt familiar with Ripaʼs immeasurable impact on sixteenth-century art, as she was actively engaged with Michelangeloʼs art. Michelangelo made reference to Ripa in his interpretation of Lorenzo deʼ Medici, Duke of Urbino, in the Medici Chapel, c. 1525. In his rendering of Lorenzo as melancholic, Michelangelo depicts the duke as clasping a moneybag. See Maria

Ruvoldt, “Michelangeloʼs Dream,” The Art Bulletin 85/1 (Mar 2003): 90.

164 Classical Greek art, “truth” represented an openness to the world and its knowledge and was personified by the proportions of the perfect man, Apollo.281

The nude as a representation of virtue and truth was rejected by the early

Christian Church, which associated nudity with the dangerous delights of the earthly world and instead related nudity to a sinful, sexual context. The interpretation of the Latina veritas (truth) as nude was developed in the Middle

Ages. In the twelfth-century guidebook Mirabilia Urbis Romae (Marvels of Rome), the anonymous author relates the nudity of the figures of Dioscuri horses as young philosophers who are open to the worldʼs knowledge.282 Influential texts such as Danteʼs Purgatorio XXXXIII.102 (early fourteenth century) describes truth as “unveiled,” and Petrus Bechoriusʼ Moralized Ovid (c. 1340) states: “nudity – that is truth.” 283

Panofsky interpreted Giovanni Pisanoʼs famous Pulpit in the Cathedral of

Pisa as incorporating a figure of Veritas (Fig. 61). A female figure of Prudence is depicted nude, without her traditional attributes of the serpent and the mirror,

281 Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 1953), 29. 282 Mirabilia Urbis Romae, 2nd English edition (New York: Ithaca Press, 1986), 18-

19. 283 Edward Olszewski, “Expanding the Litany for Susanna and the Elders,” SOURCE: Notes in the History of Art 26/3 (Spring 2007): 42-48. For more on Berchorius, see William Reynolds, “The ʻOvidius Moralizatusʼ of Petrus Berchorius: An Introduction and Translation,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois,

1971) 99, 184.

165 which Panofsky believed connects her with the personification of nuda veritas, a popular concept in the Middle Ages.284 The revival of the nude in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was closely connected with neoplatonism and the interpretation of nudity as a reflection of the divine and as a symbol of moral and physical beauty once again prevailed. According to Panofsky, the re-emergence of female nudity seems to have started with renderings of Truth, which were early examples of the revival of classical antiquity.285

In the early sixteenth century, for an erudite artist such as Titian, the symbolic significance of nudity as an emblem for Truth and Divine or Celestial

Love can be seen in his so-called Sacred and Profane Love (Fig. 62), that predates his Penitent Magdalene by nearly twenty years. In Sacred and Profane

Love, the two women represent allegorical figures of earthly and heavenly love, and the painting was commissioned in celebration of the marriage of Venetians

Nicolò Aurelio and Laura Bagarotto. The nude figure of Celestial Love lifts a flaming vase upward, which corresponds to Ripaʼs Felicità Eterna: The similarities between Titianʼs figure and Ripaʼs description are too close to be coincidental.286 The characterization of the saint in Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene as

284 Erwin Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences (New York: Harper & Row,

1972), 150. 285 For more on the neoplatonic female nude, see Erwin Panofsky, Studies in

Iconology, Fig. 114. 286 It has been proposed that Ripa based his description off Titianʼs picture. For more on this, see G. de Tervarent, “Les deux Amours; A propos dʼun tableau du

166 a personification of Celestial Love represents a desire for beauty that surpasses earthly reality and longs for the divine, as opposed to a terrestrial love that yearns for beauty found in the flesh and the material world. Titianʼs embodiment of the female saint as Celestial Love or Truth would thus appeal to his patron Colonna both as a positive reinforcement of her choice to reject a traditionally encouraged second marriage and reinsertion into domestic life, as well as represent the spiritual aims of the courtesans she sought to convert.287

Colonna, a native Florentine, lived for two significant periods of her life in

Rome and used her money and influence to aid in the assistance of women. In

1536, Colonna famously sponsored Angela Greca, who repented her life as a courtesan and became a nun in the convent of the Roman Convertite in a ceremony performed at SS. Trinità dei Monti. In a letter dated August 19, 1536, witness Carlo Gualteruzzi described Colonna as holding Angela Grecaʼs hand

Titien à la Galerie Borghèse à Rome,” Bulletin de lʼInstitut Historique Belge de

Rome 35 (1963): 121ff. 287 Colonnaʼs understanding of the artistic approach and interpretation of the revival of the classicizing nude can be derived from her close friendship and correspondence with Michelangelo. In 1536, paralleling her sponsorship of Angela Greca, Vittoria Colonna was the recipient of letters, poems, and drawings, through which she and Michelangelo exchanged many ideas about art and faith. For more on this, see Alexander Nagel, “Gifts for Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna,” The Art Bulletin 79/4 (Dec 1997): 647-668, and Ravoldt, “Michelangeloʼs Dream,” 86-113. A major theme in Michelangeloʼs work is the celebration of the nude as a metaphor for the Christian soul.

167 and leading her up the steps of the chancel.288 In this scene, life imitates art, as painted popular depictions of conversion of the Magdalene often include her alleged sister Martha leading the Magdalene up the steps to Christ, such as

Giulio Romanoʼs and Penniʼs fresco at SS. Trinità dei Monti (Fig. 63).289 As the works of art attest, and historic events mimic, the pious intervention of Martha was instrumental in the conversion of the Magdalene.

Colonnaʼs personal association with the figure of Martha is echoed in her many letters to fellow patrician ladies, such as her cousin Costanza dʼAvalos

Piccolomini, the duchessa dʼAmalfi. In these letters, Colonna discusses the

Magdalene at length and encourages her cousin to undertake a Martha-like “big sister” role toward prostitutes.290 Through these letters, it is evident that Colonnaʼs devotion to the Magdalene was directly related to prostitution reform, and not simply as a female exemplar of penitence. Vittoriaʼs encouragement of her female relatives and contemporaries to serve as moral and behavioral guides for

288 The letter is located in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Carte Strozziane, s. I, fol 136, fols. 117r-118v, and transcribed in Ornella Maroni, Carlo Gualteruzzi (1500-1577) e i correspondenti (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,

1984), 225-27, no. 124. 289 Unfortunately Romano and Penniʼs work does not survive, but is known from engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi. See Witcombe, “Quarrel of the

Magdalens,” 277. 290 Witcombe, “Quarrel of the Magdalens,” 291. The letters are cited in Carteggio di Vittoria Colonna, ed. E. Ferrero and G. Miller (Florence: Ermanno Loescher, 1889), 299-302. See also F. Jerrold, Vittoria Colonna with some Accounts of Her

Friends and Her Times (London: J.M. Dent, 1906), 308-309.

168 prostitutes and other women in need of spiritual direction is reflected in one of her letters to Marguerite de Navarre:

Havendo noi bisogno in questa lunga e difficil via della vita di guida, che ne mostri il camino con la dottrina, et con lʼopre insieme ne inviti a superar la fatica; et parendomi che gli essempii del suo proprio sesso a ciascuno sian più proportionati, et il seguir lʼun altro più lecito; mi rivoltano alle donne grandi dʼItalia, per imparare da loro et imitarle: et benchè ne vedessi molte vertuose, non però giudacava che giustamente lʼaltre tutte quasi per norma se la proponesseno, in una sola fuor dʼItalia sʼintendeva esser congrioncte le perfettioni della volontà insieme con quelle de lʼintelletto.291

In Letter 170, 299-302, Colonna celebrates the Magdalene in her devotion to Christ at the Cross, her vision of the Resurrection, and the apocryphal stories of her preaching and exile in France. Identifying the Magdalene as the most perfect preacher for the Divine Word (301), Colonna recommends to her correspondent, her cousin Costanza, that they both imitate the Magdalene.292

291 Colonna, Carteggio, 187. “In this long and difficult path through life we have need of guides, who can show us the way through their teachings and through their example can help us to overcome difficulties. I believe that examples chosen from our own sex are always more fitting and following them is always more appropriate, so I turned to the great women of Italy in order to learn from them and imitate them. But although I found many virtuous women, it did not seem to me right that other women followed such examples simply through the force of habit, and in only one example from outside Italy I found the combination of perfection of the will conjoined with a perfect intellect.” Translation by Abigail Brundin, Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation

(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008),103.

292 Vittoria Colonna, Carteggio di Vittoria Colonna, 299-302.

169 Colonna herself may have been devoted to the Magdalene upon the advice of

Saint Catherine of Siena, whose letters were frequently read in sixteenth-century

“evangelical” circles.293 Saint Catherine, who had written to a courtesan in

Perugia, had also recommended the Magdalene as an example of devotion:

“Accompangnati & impara da quella dolce...Maddalena.”294

The identity of the courtesan that Colonna helped convert is a mystery for historians, and according to her contemporaries, her role in Renaissance culture is mostly symbolic. Her name, Angela Greca, was not her real name but, as with so many of her contemporaries, a name that identifies her foreign Greek origin, as it was customary for prostitutes to work outside their native homes. According to courtesan “chronicler” Zoppino, Angela Greca was born in the early 1500s and came to Rome at the time of Leo X and took for herself the classicizing name of

“Hortensia.” She had allegedly been robbed in Lanciano by certain pimps and upon arriving, full of mange, she was taken to a tavern in Campo di Fiore. After attracting the attention of a Spainard, de Alborensis, she was supported by her lover in a small house in Calabraga (Take Your Pants Down Street). Angela

293 Aikema, “Titianʼs Mary Magdalen,” 51. For more on the accessibility of the works of Saint Catherine of Siena in the vernacular and its role in evangelism, see Alison Weber, Teresa of Avila and the Rhetoric of Femininity (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1999), 21-22. 294 Saint Catherine of Siena, Epistole devotissme, Venice 1500, fol. ccclxx. For more on Saint Catherineʼs letters, see Catherine Benincasa, Saint Catherine of Siena As Seen in Her Letters, translation and commentary by Vida D. Scudder

(New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1905).

170 Greca was reportedly loyal and attractive, and after she captured the favor of a courtier in Leoʼs court, she was elevated in society. In the 1520s, her notoriety increased as she became entangled in a famous love affair with Ercole Rangone, a member of the illustrious Modena family. 295

Angela Greca is rarely mentioned in Renaissance writings, save for two noteworthy accounts: one infamous fiction, I Modi, and one major nonfiction report, Gualteruzziʼs letter. In 1524, Pietro Aretino contributed sonnets to the scandalous I Modi (The Positions), a serious of erotic engravings by Raimondi, to which Aretino added the names of contemporaries to narrate the images (Fig.

64). In the action of Position 12, Aretino places Angela Greca in the role of

Venus, the goddess of love often correlated with Renaissance courtesans, and

Ercole Rangone was cast as her lover Mars. According to Aretino, Angela Greca supposedly married Rangone, and the lovers were seen making love “frog-style” in I Modi. 296

Aretinoʼs practice of casting his protagonists as contemporary figures in

Roman society is connected with an established mode of sexual insult, and, according to Bette Talvacchia, the scurrilous offense does not necessarily connote an actual affair between the two. The authorʼs principal objective in his bawdy sonnets was to scandalize by publicly venerating the pleasure of carnality.

His choice of naming Roman courtesans such as Angela Greca was purposeful:

295 Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans, 51.

296 Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans, 51.

171 These individuals did not have enough power to do him harm.297 In Aretinoʼs imagination, Angela places herself in the guise of Venus, and as she calls to her lover, Rangone corrects her mythological disguise:

The sonnet starts in the voice of a woman, ostensibly Venus, who impugns the lovemaking skills of the god of war: ʻMars, most damned sluggard, a woman canʼt bear up underneath like this. And you canʼt make love to Venus blindly, with a lot of haste and little discernment.ʼ The mythological scenario, however, is quickly abrogated as the man rudely proclaims both the loversʼ true identities and his desires: ʻI am not Mars, I am Ercole Rangone, and I am screwing you, who are Angela Greca. And if I had my lute here I would play you, fucking, a song. And you, madam, my sweet consort, you would make my prick dance on your mound, shaking your rump and pushing it hard.ʼ298

Aretinoʼs vulgar sonnets, which caused such indignation that the poet fled from Rome in 1524, mock the courtesan as she identifies herself as the goddess of love, corrected by her lover Rangone in the moment of intimacy. In

Renaissance literature, courtesans such as Angela Greca thus elicited only three emotions: praise, scorn, and pity.

Similar to her literary defilement by Aretino, Angela Greca also operates primarily as a symbol in her redemption tale with the assistance of Vittoria

Colonna. In testimony, Colonna is the protagonist acting as Martha in a contemporary Cinquecento drama, playing out the Magdalene legend for a

297 Bette Talvacchia, Taking Positions: On the Erotic in Renaissance Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 91-92. Talvacchia notes the particular humorous casting of Rangone as Mars, the god of war, as Rangone was a man of arms.

298 Talvacchia, Taking Positions, 191-92.

172 Roman audience. Angela Greca, the symbolic Magdalene, is merely led up the stairs by the active force of Colonna. Although the testimony was given by an outside source, it is clear that Colonna is the heroine, and Angela Greca is the malleable force that has been converted from darkness to light.

Colonnaʼs comely Magdalene relates to the potency of the courtesanʼs conversion and the necessary elements of her youth and beauty to justify true contrition. Colonnaʼs Magdalene, which most critics agree should, on stylistic grounds, be dated between 1530 and 1535,299 was created within a few short years of Colonnaʼs friendship with Angela Greca. At the time of her conversion, in

1536, Angela Greca was estimated to be in her mid-thirties and still in the prime of her career as an elite Roman courtesan. In Colonnaʼs and other reformersʼ opinions, true conversion could occur only when the sinner was still capable of sinning, not at a point when the conversion was merely a retirement from prostitution because they were no longer desirable to the opposite sex.300

Angelaʼs conversion caused a great sensation in Rome, as commentator

Gualteruzzi remarked that he had never seen the church so full in his life, and he

299 Aikema, “Titianʼs Mary Magdalen,” 49. 300 In 1541, preacher Cornelio Musso addressed the prostitutes in his congregation: “My dear ladies, courtesans, if there are any of you here, do not wait until you are getting old, when your lust is satiated, when your lovers turn their backs on you: now, right now, as I am speaking, you should decide to go to the Convertite and spend your whole life in that holy prison to do penance for your sins.” C. Musso, Delle prediche quadragesimali, Venice 1603, ii, p. 471. Translated into English by Aikema, “Titianʼs Mary Magdalen,” 51.

173 was convinced that her decision was a great mistake.301 According to

Gualteruzzi, others present shared the same opinion, and her conversion was met with “universal sorrow by sensible people.”302

The public scene of Vittoria Colonna and Angela Greca ascending the steps of SS. Trinità dei Monti also reflects the longstanding tradition and highly influential nature of spectacles in Roman tradition. In the late Roman Empire, spectacles and violent games of wealthy pagans were viewed as dangerous diversions by early Christian authors such as Tertullian (160-220). These events were criticized not only for their lewdness and inhumanity, but also the unruly behavior of the spectators. Public theater was believed to promote sin among its audience, as the subjects depicted were often idolatrous, such as the honoring of pagan gods, and believed to undermine civic decency because they roused violent passions.303

Despite admonitions, Christian drama arose first as an attempt to offset the lasciviousness of pagan theater, but even the Mass lent itself to dramatic heightening. The theatrical interpretation of the Last Supper by the priest and his

301 Maroni, Carlo Gualteruzzi, 225-27, no. 124.

302 Masson, Courtesans, 132-133. 303 Jack Watson and Grant McKernie, A Cultural History of Theatre (NY: Longman, 1993), 42. Despite preaching against the dangers of theater, performances continued, although actors were banned from Church membership. See Watson and McKernie, 43. For more on Tertullianʼs views on the theater, see Victor Power, “Tertullian: Father of Clerical Animosity toward the theatre,”

Educational Theatre Journal 23/1 (Mar 1971): 36-50.

174 officiates, correlated with sacred choral music, the “scenery” of painted altarpieces, a sculptural “cast” of holy characters, and narrative stained glass, was a natural catalyst for medieval dramas. Beginning with Christmas plays such as the staged re-enactments of the Slaughter of the Innocents, theatre quickly moved outside the sanctuary, and outdoor plays were reported as early as the tenth century. The longest standing Christian drama, the “Passion Play,” with its

Easter performance in early April, was often performed outside due to the mild weather in spring.304

The nature of Renaissance outdoor theatre, or street plays, was characterized by the tradition of moving platforms, or wagons, and stationary platforms, both known as “stations.” Due to the nature of the street audience, the dialogue and content of street performances often appealed to the common folk and is noteworthy in its reflection of mundane concerns and social unrest.305 In the case of Colonna and Greca, the public conversion of a prostitute, women who were considered a stain on Rome, the cause of syphilis, and perhaps one of the sins that had “prompted” the Sack of Rome, would certainly placate such social anxiety. Coincidentally, the two womenʼs ascent onto the steps of SS. Trinità dei

Monti echoes street plays, as outdoor theatre not only used the façade of a church as a background, often incorporating the church into the action.306

304 Philip Freund, Stage by Stage: Dramatis Personae, The Rise of Medieval and

Renaissance Theatre (London: Peter Owen, 2006), 23-27, 37-38.

305 Freund, Stage by Stage, 37-39.

306 Freund, Stage by Stage, 40.

175 For a Roman audience in 1536, the figure of the Magdalene, personified by the repentant courtesan Angela Greca, was long established in their cultural milieu. Many medieval and Renaissance dramas were dedicated to the

Magdalene, and the most famous of which was the English Digby play from circa

1515-1525, a long episodic play featuring elements of the Magdaleneʼs life from the Golden Legend. By 1536, the Magdalene was a principal subject in drama, although she had already played a host of starring and supporting roles for five hundred years.307 The Magdaleneʼs appeal was so prevalent that despite the

Protestant rebuking of saintsʼ images and cults, Magdalene dramas persisted in

Protestant theater until Queen Elizabeth I abolished all saint plays in 1559.308

Colonnaʼs version is believed to be the first of numerous versions of the penitent Magdalene, and its closest variant, attributed to Titianʼs workshop,

307 Theresa Coletti, Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints: Theater, Gender and Religion in Late Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 24. Coletti states that the expansion of the Magdaleneʼs cult “virtually paralleled the growth of European drama itself.” See also, The Saint Play in Medieval Europe, edited by Clifford Davidson (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval

Institute Publications, 1986). 308 Davidson, The Saint Play, 75. After the Reformation, the Digby play had been reworked to fit Protestant ideals. Interestingly, one new element featured the figure of “Infidelity,” who shows the Magdalene how to avoid marriage and use her sexual charms on men. See Peter Happé, “The Protestant Adaptation of the Saint Play,” in Davidson, The Saint Play, 230; and Lewis Wager, The Life and

Repentance of Mary Magdalene, 1566.

176 belonged to Cardinal Federico Borromeo of Milan (See Fig. 8).309 Federico, who bequeathed his Magdalene to the Ambrosiana upon his death in 1637, defended the nude by stating that Titian knew how to maintain its honesty, and his words on the paintingʼs sensual character are instrumental in understanding the work.310

Federicoʼs possession of one of Titianʼs Magdalenes is particularly important not only because its owner was a devout Catholic but also because a theologian who wrote extensively on the reform of revered the painting art.311 Although the

309 For the entire listings of Titianʼs Magdalenes, see Wethey 1969, vol. 1, cat. nos. 120-129, pp. 143-151. See also Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 1877, II, p. 315; Gronau, Titian, 1904, p. 196; Rinaldis, 1911, pp. 154-66; Tietze, 1936 and 1950; Luzio, 1940, pp. 591-98; Berenson, 1957, p. 189; Causa, 1960, II, p. 72; Rosand, 1978, p. 106; Wethey 1978-9, pp. 106-10, no. 26, etc. Of the known patrons of Titianʼs many Magdalenes, several owners include rulers (Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II of Austria, Philip II of Spain), religious officials (Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle), artists (Giulio Clovio, Rubens, Philippe de Champaigne), noble collectors (Venetian Silvio Badoaro, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm), and noblewomen and female rulers (Queen Christina of Sweden, Bianca Cappello). Wethey suggests it is worth considering that Vittoria Colonna later gave her version of the Magdalene to Eleanora Gonzaga. See

Wethey, Titian, 150.

310 Wethey, Titian, 144. 311 The placement of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene in the Escorial monastery by notoriously devout patron Philip II of Spain supports the interpretation of the painting as a statement of orthodoxy. Philipʼs Magdalene was shipped in 1561 and recorded by Cornelius Cortʼs engraving from 1566. The kingʼs secretary and librarian Padre Sigüenza in 1599 states that the Magdalene was in the Sacristy,

177 cardinal did not begin his writing career until 1610, at the age of forty-six, in the following twenty-one years he produced more than 100 literary works that are instrumental in understanding Post-Tridentine theology.

Federico Borromeo (1564-1631) was born in Milan of a noble family, and he was prepared for an ecclesiastical life from an early age, greatly influenced by his elder and more famous cousin, Carlo Borromeo (1538-84). After his fatherʼs death in 1572, Federico became the ward of Carlo, and the effect of his cousin on Federicoʼs spiritual formation cannot be overstated.312 Carlo was engaged in negotiating the third and final period of the Council of Trent, and he ultimately became a member of the committee designed to carry out its decrees. One of his main concerns was the reform of art, and in his own diocese he took a personal investment in removing excessive ornament, resulting in an austerity that is particular to Milanese churches.

Neither Carlo nor Federico Borromeo appears to have had a large collection of art, despite their extensive writings on the matter. Of the few rare known paintings in Carloʼs art collection, Titianʼs Adoration of the Magi

(Ambrosiana) was a favorite, the original of which was commissioned for presentation to Henry II of France. Upon his death in 1584, Carlo bequeathed the

as well as many prints and copies of the composition. See Fray José de

Sigüenza, La fundaciòn del monasterio de el Escorial (Madrid: Aguillar, 1963). 312 Pamela Jones, Federico Borromeo and the Ambrosiana: Art Patronage and Reform in Seventeenth-Century Milan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1993), 20.

17 8 painting to the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, but Federico so admired the work that he purchased it back and then donated the work to his new Ambrosiana in

1618.313 Aside from his predilection for Titian, Federico, in keeping with his northern Italian roots, preferred Flemish art, and his interest in contemporary

Roman painting was limited to Caravaggioʼs Basket of Fruit (Ambrosiana). The hallmarks of Federicoʼs collection were ten works by Titian, but after returning to

Milan in 1601, his agents focused on collecting books and manuscripts for the future Ambrosiana library.314

Concern for the reform of art was not the only shared preoccupation between Carlo and Federico Borromeo; both men were ardent participants in prostitution reform. As clergy, both men spent a significant amount of time in

Rome, where they became intimate with the problem of prostitution and the beginnings of reform -- reform that they would take back to Milan. In 1563, Carlo founded the Casa Pia of San Girolamo alla Lungara in Rome, which was a house for former Roman prostitutes that, like so many of its kind, eventually became a

313 Peter Cannon-Brookes, Lombard Paintings c. 1595-1630: The Age of Federico Borromeo (Birmingham: City Museums and Art Gallery, 1974), 6-7. Titianʼs Adoration of the Magi was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito dʼEste for presentation of Henry II of France and the original frame bears the emblem of

Henry II and his mistress Diane de Poitiers.

314 Cannon-Brookes, Lombard Paintings, 15-16.

179 cloistered Augustinian convent. During the early seventeenth century, Federico witnessed the rebuilding of the project.315

Saint Mary Magdalene was one of Federicoʼs favorite saints, and he owned several paintings that featured the saint, such as two half-lengths and several narratives in which she was prominently highlighted. The most rudimentary understanding of Federicoʼs devotion to the Magdalene has been related to the post-Tridentine concern for penitence, which corresponds to the popularity of her cult, particularly among clergy. However, rather than the typical pairing of Saint Peter and Mary Magdalene, Federico stated in Musaeum that he displayed his two half-length Magdalenes, one by Luini and one by Titian, as pendants (see Figs. 8, 34). The two Magdalenes represent the nude and clothed types of the saint, but, more important, the spiritual states of the saint differ. It has been suggested by Pamela Jones that Federico would have interpreted the two paintings as two distinct stages of meditative prayer.

In Titianʼs and Luiniʼs Magdalenes, the true divide between the works is not their state of dress but rather the stages of spiritual transcendence. In Titianʼs

Magdalene, the saint is surrounded by wilderness, eyes gazing heavenward with welling tears, distressed, clasping the flesh that has been the source of her sins.

In this moment, the Magdalene represents a purgative stage, the penitent cleansing herself in contrite prayer, although she is still earthbound. In Luiniʼs

315 Peter Black, Italian Confraternities in the sixteenth century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). For more on the rebuilding of Casa Pia, see

G. Crispolti, “Il Ritiro Ozpizio,” in Studi di Storia Ospitaliera 2 (1964): 77-82.

180 Magdalene, however, the saint is situated in a non-descriptive location, emotions veiled, eyes in level contact with the viewer. She presents the unguent jar, which represents the numerous occasions in which the Magdalene offered to anoint

Christʼs Body, a sign of her “pure love.” The conclusion of Borromeoʼs homily “On the Magdalene” strongly suggests that the cardinal would have interpreted Luiniʼs

Magdalene as representing a complete and tranquil state of union.316 Titianʼs

Magdalene, however, with its naked vulnerability -- physical, spiritual, and emotional\ -- would have represented a soul in distress, a likely model for women such as Caterina Vannini, the repentant courtesan with whom Borromeo shared a lengthy correspondence.

In describing the Magdalenes in his Musaeum of 1624, Borromeo describes the room exhibiting the works as a “sanctuary” with a “confrontation” between the two paintings.317 While Borromeo praised the emotional efficacy of

Titianʼs Magdalene, the cardinal admired the invenzione of Luiniʼs version,

316 Jones, Federico Borromeo, 74-75. Borromeo also owned a now lost painting of the Magdalene in Ecstasy by Mariani, which Jones suggests may have represented an intermediate state of spiritual development.

317 Borromeo, Musaeum, 47. “In eadem aula sive Sacello parvuloque Templo duae ingentes pugnae spectantur, altera quidem inter duas Magdalenas, altera vero, quam Brugueli flores ex vasculo emitttunt. De priore Magdalena, quam Titian fecit, iam dictum est Alteram hanc fecit Luinus Senior, sed Leonardi penicillum praefert, a quo fortasse Luinus lineamenta decriptionemque sumpsit...” Original Latin and English translation in Federico Borromeo, Sacred Painting and Museum, edited and translated by Kenneth S. Rothwell, Jr. with introduction and notes by Pamela Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), 180-183.

181 derived from Leonardo da Vinciʼs original sketches (Fig. 65).318 Borromeoʼs two

Magdalenes were in the cardinalʼs possession until his death in 1637, upon which they entered the Ambrosiana. In various writings, the cardinal stated that he founded the institution in order to guide young artists in how to create effective religious art in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent. Borromeo donated his private drawings and paintings, such as his prized Magdalenes, in order to form the core of the academyʼs teaching collection. The document of his official endowment of the works is dated from 1618 and divides the works into categories of hierarchic subject matter, placing the Magdalenes in the highest classification.

In Federicoʼs “On the Magdalene,” in I Ragionamenti spirituali, the cardinal explains the prominence of the female saint, stating that, unlike any other disciple, the Magdalene achieved a pure love. In sermons delivered at Santa

Marta in Milan, Federico deliberately selected the Magdalene as a female exemplar for Augustinian nuns. The selection of a female saint as a paradigm was not unusual in the sixteenth century; male and female reformers alike believed that same-sex role models were distinctly appropriate for women, and they increasingly departed from the traditional choice of the Virgin Mary.319

Borromeoʼs affiliation with prostitution reform functioned on a personal level with his special relationship with courtesan Caterina Vannini (1562-1606).

Borromeo is credited with the conversion of Vannini, and the cardinal not only

318 Borromeo, Musaeum, 47.

319 Jones, Federico Borromeo, 74-75.

182 exchanged gifts and letters with the former courtesan but also penned her biography in 1618, more than a decade after her death. Vannini was born in

Siena to a family that fell on hard times; at the age of eleven, Caterina was dressing in sumptuous clothes and accepting gifts under the pretext of “Christian charity.” Drawn by promises of fame and riches, Vannini moved to Rome, where she became an independently successful courtesan who created scandal.

Imprisoned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1574, Vannini was given the choice of marriage or the convent. She vehemently resisted the latter, stating that she might repent only in her native city. She was subsequently banished from Rome by the pope, but despite a special dedication to the Magdalene, Vannini returned to her life of sin in Siena.320

Vanniniʼs defiance was short-lived; During Advent in 1575 she heard a sermon about the Magdalene, and by Christmas her conversion was complete.

At the age of thirteen, having had more experiences than a woman twice her age,

Vannini gave away her sumptuous clothes, cut off her hair, went barefoot, and dressed in sackcloth. Despite her ascetic life, Vanniniʼs request to join the

Sienese Convertite was first rebuffed. After three years of waiting, the former courtesan finally gained entrance to the convent.321 In his biography of Vannini,

320 Colleen Reardon, Holy Concord within Sacred Walls (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2002), 105. 321 Despite two serious attempts in Siena to beatify Vannini she was never officially recognized as blessed. See Agostino Saba, Federico Borromeo e i Mistici del suo tempo con la vita e la correspondenza inedita di Caterina Vannini

183 Borromeo recounts a “day in the life” of the converted nun, detailing her self- flagellation, dedication to the Mass and Eucharist, recitations of the Divine Office, and the many ecstasies that were given to her as a spiritual reward. As late as the 1620s, Borromeo continued to extol Vannini in sermons to nuns; she personified a real life example of the Magdalene, the role model he deigned the most appropriate exemplar for nuns.322 In his Vita, Borromeo commented on

Vanniniʼs preoccupation with the Magdalene, whom Vannini often referred to as

“la mia maestra”:

Imperoché per ispatio di due mesi continui Santa Maria Maddalena, mentre ella faceva le sue orationi, le appariva, stando avanti di lei diretta in piedi, piena di splendore, e con una celeste bellezza.323

The central question in ascertaining the role of Titianʼs Penitent

Magdalenes and the prostitution reform efforts of Vittoria Colonna and Federico

Borromeo is how the images functioned in assisting the respective individuals in their reforms. This uncertainty can perhaps be addressed largely by the understanding of the nature of meditative and contemplative practices of Colonna and Borromeo and their practical relationship with religious devotional images.

Both Colonna and Borromeo had strong relationships with the Jesuits, who were not only ardent prostitution reformers but also strong proponents of the Spiritual da Siena (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1933). For more on Vanniniʼs impact on Sienese art, see Susan Wegner, “Francesco Vanni: The Emergence of a

Counter-Reformation Painter,” (Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1980).

322 Reardon, Holy Concord, 105-106.

323 As cited in Saba, Federico Borromeo, 136.

184 Exercises, brief sets of meditative prayers created by Ignatius Loyola. At the root of these prayers was the desire to discern Godʼs will in the individualʼs life and a personal commitment to follow that path. Pope Paul III formally approved these mental exercises in 1542. They had been composed as early as 1522 and likely circulated in Colonnaʼs close group of religious friends. She was a strong supporter of the early Jesuits and friend of Ignatius Loyola.

The practical application of Ignatiusʼ Spiritual Exercises mandates a composition of place and an application of the senses, which aim to make

Christian mysteries tangible through the use of imagination in order to become active in the Gospel scene. The Exercises enjoyed enormous popularity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although the tradition of imaginative meditations can be found in the medieval writings of Saint Bernard, Saint

Bonaventure, and Ludolph of Saxonyʼs Vita Christi (1474), from which Ignatiusʼs work derives. A wave of similar devotional guides followed the Spiritual

Exercises: Luis de Granadaʼs Book of Prayer and Meditation (1554), Lorenzo

Scupoliʼs Spiritual Combat (1589), and Saint Francis de Sales Introduction to the

Devout Life (1609). Similarities of the application of senses expressed in these works thus exemplify the widespread Catholic pedagogy of contemplative prayer techniques related to the renewed piety of the Counter-Reformation. 324

324 For more on contemplative prayer and painting in the early seventeenth century, see Joseph F. Chorpenning, “Another Look at Caravaggio and Religion” in Artibus et historiae 8/16 (1987): 149-150. For more on the exercises, see The

185 In the Spiritual Exercises, the devotee is instructed to imagine the religious scene as if it were taking place in the present, and so the individual is meant to participate in the historical moment vis-à-vis her senses and imagination. A key element in the inspired process was the aid of devotional paintings, and Ignatius himself was reliant on images. After composing the prayers, he subsequently solicited Jesuit Jerome Nadal to compose an illustrated book of gospel meditations to assist Jesuit novitiates. Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) also employed pictorial aids in her prayer, and she commissioned paintings of the favorite saints of her convents because they assisted in worship and awakened the love of God. Depositions given at her canonization in 1622 verify that Teresa, a famous Counter Reformation saint and contemporary of Colonna, also experienced ecstasies while meditating before a religious image.325

As previously mentioned, both Vittoria Colonna and Federico Borromeo were strong supporters of the Jesuits and represent exemplary figures of the devotees who would have practiced the Exercises. In his initial conception of the

Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola, translated by L.J. Puhl (Westminster,

MD, 1951). 325 Chorpenning, “Another Look,” 154. Saint Philip Neri intended for the altarpieces of the Chiesa Nuova to be used for religious meditative practices, and he himself would “all unconsciously be rapt into a sweet ecstasy” as he sat contemplating Federico Barrocciʼs altarpiece in the Chapel of the Visitation. For more on this, see M.A. Graeve, “The Stone of Unction in Caravaggioʼs Painting for the Chiesa Nuova,” Art Bulletin 40 (1958): 223-38, and Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1980), 69.

186 Exercises, Loyola desired to create an inner renewal of religious observance that relied upon prayer and penance and led to spiritual and corporal works of mercy, such as prostitution reform. Loyolaʼs objective was to embrace the ascetical, the subjective, and the personal, as opposed to liturgical piety, the objective, and the communal. His reform was that of the individual more than the institution, a propensity that was in harmony with the spirit of Trent.326

Despite its subsequent popularity, Loyola never intended the Spiritual

Exercises to become a devotion practiced by the populace. The Exercises were explicitly given to a select number of individuals whose influence, sanctity, education, and capability of obedience to the text could create a group of talented leaders. Led by the zealous aspiration for noble principals and saints, a primary concern of the Catholic Reformation, Loyola and the Jesuits sought out a group of men and women whose leadership and good works could have a resounding effect on the masses.327 The ideology of the Exercises, like the apostolate of the

Jesuits themselves, was designed explicitly lead to accomplishment and meaningful service.

In his initial sketch of the formal organization that was to become the

Jesuits and their supporters, Loyola declared his vision:

Whoever wishes to be a soldier of God under the standard of the cross and serve the Lord alone and His vicar on earth in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the name of Jesus,

326 Robert E. McNally, S.J., The Council of Trent, the ʻSpiritual Exercises,ʼ and the

Catholic Reform (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970), 3.

327 McNally, The Council of Trent, 18-19.

187 should, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, bear in mind that he is part of a community founded principally for the advancement of souls in Christian life and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith by the ministry of the word, by spiritual exercises, by works of charity, and expressly by the instruction in Christianity of children and the uneducated.328

The Jesuits, whose missions took them all over the world to evangelize, also kept busy in Rome with the conversion of souls and the assistance to the poor. For lay supporters such as Borromeo and Colonna, their work in the home of the Mother Church helped to strengthen the Jesuitsʼ foundation.

As supporters of the Jesuits and practitioners of the Exercises, Colonna and Borromeo would have pondered Titianʼs Penitent Magdalenes day by day for thirty days, the proscribed duration of the Exercises, meditating and contemplating the image in the silence and seclusion:

Repetitions and reflections are specified to clarify and solidify the great lessons which have been learned. The exercitant is saturated with prayer. Under the guidance of a skilled director, thoroughly grounded in ascetical theology and human psychology, but especially in Holy Scripture, he is led to the election of a state of life. In light of the great, saving truths of the gospel the will of Godis to be found, Godʼs law is discovered ultimately to be the law of love. The Exercises terminate in personal reformation, reducible to personal commitment to Christ and to his Church.329

328 Ignatius Loyola, Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu, Monumentia Ignatia, Constitutiones, 1539. The English translation of the text may be found in The Autobiography of Saint Ignatius Loyola, with related documents, edited with introduction and notes by John C. Olin, translated by Joseph F. OʼCallaghan

(New York: Harper and Row, 1974), Appendix III, 106-109.

329 McNally, The Council of Trent, 6.

188 In the many versions of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalenes, the saint is placed in a grotto or a wilderness setting, and her seclusion and contemplative state of prayer echoes that of the exercitant. It is particularly appropriate considering that

Loyola himself initially conceived of the Exercises in the months between March

1522 and February 1523 in the cave of Manresa, located in Catalonia, Spain.

The sensuality of the Magdalene in Titianʼs works recalls the quintessential components of the Spiritual Exercises, as Loyola has been described as, first and foremost, acutely sensory. In Loyolaʼs “Meditation on Hell”

(nos. 65-71), the author urges the exercitant use the full capacity of his or her senses to heighten the mental image, instructing:

to see with the sight of the imagination of great fires, and the souls as in bodies of fire. to hear with the ears wailings, howlings, cries, blasphemies against Christ and against all His Saints. to smell with the smell smoke, sulphur, dregs, and putrid things. to taste with the taste bitter things, like tears, sadness and the worm of conscience. to touch with the touch; that is to say, how the fires touch and burn the souls.330

In sermons and popular religious tracts, Catholic preachers often extolled the Magdaleneʼs physicality as the conduit of both her sin and her salvation. In a sermon delivered to an audience of prostitutes during Lent in the mid-1580s,

Francesco Panigarola (1548-1594) emphasized how the Magdalene made

330 As cited in Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Sensuous Worship: Jesuits and the Art of the Early Catholic Reformation in Germany (Princeton: Princeton University

Press, 2002), 35.

189 penance with the same parts of her body that had caused such mortal sin, describing an image that recalls Titianʼs Penitent Magdalenes:

See a little, my dear Listeners, how this woman [Mary Magdalene] made penitence by using precisely those things from which her sins principally depended: With her looks she stretched for the Devil thousands of nets, & thousands of ties around thousands of souls. With her eyes she made thousands of dishonest signs; here, she castigates her eyes, making hot tears flow from them. With her flowing, golden [artfully] arranged tresses, she bound thousands of souls; here she castigates them, using them as a towel. Then, with her lips - God Immortal! - what sins did she not commit? What dishonest words did she not utter? What dirtiness did she not carry out? And here, she castigates them, at last kissing Christʼs feet. O sweet chastisement, or dear chastisement! And here profane love is converted into the most saintly love toward Christ.331

In Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene, the rendering of the saint as sensual and voluptuous is thus in keeping with the sin that made her penance necessary.332

The sensuality of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene can be likened to the tactile experience of the penitent at Mass: the rise and fall of the communicantʼs body throughout the ritual, the dialogue of speech and song between the priest and the laity during the Liturgy, the smell of aromatic incense, and the touch and taste of the Body and Blood during the Eucharist. The Magdaleneʼs experience of Christ, through His Words, washing His feet, anointing His Body, etc., is utterly defined as a sensual experience, much like the quintessential Catholic ritual of the Mass.

Every sacred activity of the Mass requires sensory perception, the ritual of bodily

331 Cited in Jones, Altarpieces and Their Viewers, 230. 332 Jones, Federico Borromeo, 129. Jones also points out that when commenting on Titianʼs Entombment, Federico praised the youth of the Magdalene, which he believes makes her emotional response more poignant. See Jones, Federico

Borromeo, 110.

190 participation, a ritual that is ultimately grounded in the Christ Himself. For viewers such as Colonna and Borromeo, the near tangibility of Titianʼs Magdalene, with her hot tears, artfully arranged thick golden tresses, and ripe, full flesh would awaken their senses in meditative prayer.

A significant function of the devotional image in the Spiritual Exercises was its ability to transfix the communicant through intense visual participation as set forth in the “Three Methods of Prayer” (nos. 238-60). When viewing the religious drawings given to her by Michelangelo in the mid-1530s, Colonna wrote:

"lo l'ho ben visto al lume et col vetro et col specchio, et non viddi mai la più finita cosa."333 Intense contemplation of devotional images was clearly a necessary goal of the exercitants, as contemplation turned into something useful: a complete state of empathy. In his compelling study on the history and response to images, David Freedberg comments that for exercitants in prayer, imitation cannot take place without empathy, and empathy can be roused by real images.

334 For example, when German mystic Heinrich Seuse (d. 1366) contemplated images of the Passion of Christ, he was roused to such empathy that he felt

333 Vittoria Colonna to Michelangelo, Carteggio, vol. 4, no. 968. 334 For more on the state of empathy and the function of devotional images, see David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of

Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 161-163.

191 compelled to carve Christʼs initials on his own breast and nail a cross onto his back.335

Upon completion, with the devotional aid of the Magdalene, Colonna and

Borromeo would have felt called to consequential action. Although they undoubtedly participated in a general form of charity, such as the giving of alms to such organizations as the various houses dedicated to converted prostitutes, as well as the financial support of organizations dedicated to prostitution reform, such as the Jesuits, these two devout individuals also took a personal approach to reform. When commenting on the role of reform and good works, Loyola reportedly said, “We should act as if everything depended on us, but pray as if everything depended on God.”336 In her Martha-like “big sister role” to Angela

Greca, Vittoria Colonna acted as a spiritual sponsor to the former courtesan, with whom she publicly walked up the steps of the church in front of a large Roman audience. Federico Borromeo is credited with the conversion of Caterina Vannini, with whom he exchanged gifts and letters in her last years. He also wrote her biography, and he continued to eulogize her pious conversion in sermons to other nuns.

Vittoria Colonna and Cardinal Federico Borromeo were not the only major reformers who sought out Titianʼs Magdalenes; Philip II of Spain (r. 1556-98) was

335 See James Marrow, Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the

Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance (Kortijk: Van Ghemmert, 1979), 14. 336 Cited by A. Lynn Martin, The Jesuit Mind: The Mentality of an Elite in Early

Modern France (Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 1988), 68.

192 also an enthusiastic patron. On November 20, 1561, the kingʼs agent in Venice,

García Hernández, wrote to Philip that Titian was still finishing the Magdalene he had commissioned, and reported emphatically that judges stated it would be his best work yet. On December 1, 1561, Hernández informed the king that the painting was finished and would be shipped promptly.337 A similar version of the

Magdalene by Titian was in the possession of the great female patron Isabella dʼEste, who also participated in prostitution reform, primarily in her role as a ruler in Mantua. Isabella issued regular edicts to contain prostitution within certain areas of the city, as well as intervening in dowries and other matters that concerned women.338 Although both Philip and Isabella did not question the legality of prostitution, which was in keeping with ancient Roman and contemporary Italian law, they both enacted aggressive legislative reforms to protect the prostitute and encourage her conversion, and their Penitent

Magdalenes may have served as devotional aids for their religious and secular authority.

It is indisputable that the number of cabinet paintings dedicated to the theme of the penitent Magdalene proliferated in the Italian early modern period.

At best, these images have been interpreted as mere exemplars for the Catholic

337 Wethey, Titian, 148. 338 Carolyn James, “ ʻMachiavelli in Skirtsʼ: Isabella dʼEste and Politics” in Virtue, Liberty and Toleration: Political Ideas of European Women, edited by J. Broad and K. Green (Springer Netherlands, 2007), 63. Isabella also promised in 1495 that young peasant girls who volunteered to run in the race for the festival of

Saint George would not be pelted with fruit as prostitutes had been in prior years.

193 rite of penance, which was threatened in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.

At worst, paintings of the sensual Magdalene in the wilderness have been dismissed as thinly veiled secular and erotic images of the female nude. The consideration of Titianʼs multiple Magdalenes, which were the most influential of this type, has thus been previously addressed in art historical scholarship as a swinging pendulum between the sacred and the profane. It is my endeavor therefore to strike a balance between the two interpretations and contextualize the Penitent Magdalene in terms of the necessity of penance for the Renaissance prostitute, who was personified by her patron, Saint Mary Magdalene.

In order to ascertain the role of Magdalene imagery in terms of prostitution reform, it is essential to discuss the paintings in relation to patronage. As previously mentioned, the numerous patrons of Titianʼs Penitent Magdalenes attest not only to the great desire and popularity of this particular image, but additionally to the elite social status of his patrons. Due to inadequate documentation, sadly it is not possible to determine the patronage of each of the forty paintings, and it is considerably more difficult to link each of these patrons to prostitution reform in any specific manner. How, then, are we to assume that this image functioned as a catalyst for the individual reformer of prostitution in the upper class?

As in any empirical pursuit of knowledge, we must be satisfied with the exemplary case studies of such important patrons as Vittoria Colonna and

Federico Borromeo. These prominent and influential individuals provide

194 evidentiary support that is indicative of the whole, although certainly exceptions must also exist. It is noteworthy that Colonnaʼs version is the prototype for

Titianʼs many versions and Borromeoʼs Magdalene represents one of the last copies of the subject matter by Titianʼs workshop, with small differences existing between the numerous versions. We must conclude that despite the addition of a garment, the overall sensuous appeal remained a prominent visual characteristic of the Penitent Magdalene, and that this factor was not an obstacle to spiritual contemplation, but rather an important element in the paintingʼs role as a devotional aid. The sensuality of the Magdalene, with her youthful beauty and tearful expression, would have inspired its viewer to contemplate the

Renaissance courtesan, inspiring their devotion and moving Colonna and

Borromeo to acts of piety and reform. 339

339 Borromeo also specifies tears as a necessary sign of a contrite heart. In his Veracis Paenitentiae Exemplum Prefertur, Cap. XVIII, Borromeo states: “ Quam pauci reperintur, qus uere poenitentes appellare possimus, quibuse id nomen uere conueniat? Fundunt enim ab oculis lacrymas illi quidem, sed corde, animoque non lacrymantur. Quod si tamen elicuerint aliquam ab corde lacrymulam non utique fons ibi perpetuaque scaturigo lacrymulam est, qualem sibi Jeremias optauerat cum lacrymantes aquas capiti suo, ac oculis suis praeterea fontem lacrymarum in exaustum scilicet atque perennem.”

195 Chapter VII:

Conclusion

The proliferation of images of Saint Mary Magdalene in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was an important issue for the early modern era in Italy as it connected larger iconological concerns of the saint with prostitution reform, a relationship that has mostly been overlooked in art-historical scholarship. In this dissertation, it has been my aim to survey various types of patronage related to

Magdalene imagery to elucidate the role of the saint in regard to the growing anxiety over prostitution and its correlation to poverty, female nonconformity, moral instability, and disease. The cities of Venice and Rome served as exemplars in this study of the respective status of each as the artistic, economic, political, and social leader in Catholic Europe during the Counter-Reformation and Post-Tridentine periods. It is my assertion that prostitution was a social evil experienced by all members of society, whether it involved interactions with the meretrice or cortigiana onesta; subsequently, the three classes of Italian society potentially benefited from and participated in prostitution reform through the medium of Magdalene imagery.

Exploring the role of prostitution in the early modern Catholic period in Italy was vital to this study in order to comprehend the “oldest profession” and its relationship to Renaissance contemporaries. Reflected in the hierarchy of prostitutes, the meretrix and cortigiane mirrored the social strata of Renaissance society and the economics of the cultural courts in Venice and Rome. The

196 exponential growth in the numbers of these women reflected the development of a capitalist economy, particularly in the open market of Venice, whose government declared prostitution to be entirely necessary to the state as early as the fourteenth century. In Venice, this necessity correlated with the cityʼs economy of foreigners, while in Rome the unequal ratio of men to women helped to create the great need for female companionship.

Although the demand was high for these women, the growing number of prostitutes also correlated with the escalation of poverty in Renaissance Italy, a factor that is inextricably linked to prostitution. The poverty of women was connected to two major factors, the primary of which was the inflated dowry system that made marriage difficult for most women. As women belonged to a patriarchal system that dictated their dependence on men for their general well being, many women turned to prostitution to acquire dowry funds. The economy of illicit sex paradoxically funded the culture of licit, marital sex, which constituted the moral ideal of Italian Renaissance society.

Womenʼs poverty in the early modern era was also linked with the economic downturn in textiles, the field that offered the most profitable career choice for lower class women. In an attempt to curb spending and curtail moral abuses, the governing bodies of Venice and Rome repeatedly passed sumptuary laws that negatively affected the textile industry. As certain garments and accessories such as silks and pearls became limited to Venetian and Roman noblewomen, the production of costly garments greatly decreased, and the textile

197 industry and its female work force faced an economic depression. Ironically, the prohibition of these ornately embellished clothes, which was legislated in many cases to restrain courtesans and control the ostentation of the upper class, created an economic downturn that led many women to less respectable work.

The dawn of the sixteenth century marked several dark events for Catholic

Europe including the introduction of syphilis, periodic outbreaks of the Plague, the Protestant Reformation, and the Sack of Rome. First noted in Naples in the

French troops of Charles V, the catastrophic disease of syphilis was believed by many to be a divine punishment for their hedonistic lives. As syphilis is transmitted sexually, the prostitute was naturally the first to be blamed, and she was regarded as a pollutant in Italian society, now thought only to spread disease and death.

In response to the various detrimental events in the early part of the sixteenth century, Venetians and Romans began to reform prostitution and Mary

Magdalene served as the face for this campaign. This reform was manifested through legislation, charitable institutions, and religious zeal toward the conversion and rehabilitation of prostitutes. Believed to be a former courtesan, the Magdalene served as an innate role model in reform efforts, and her image was appealing for a great variety of reasons. After her conversion from a life of sin, Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the Resurrection, and her special elevated status and femininity made her a singular choice for repentant prostitutes. After multiple failed attempts to control prostitution through sheer

198 legislative process, the social and religious reformers endeavored to reform prostitutes through the widespread propagation of Magdalene imagery.

It is often the case that the choice of a historical subject and the manner of its depiction is revelatory of contemporary times. The earliest examples of

Magdalene imagery from early Christian art commonly illustrated the female saint in her primary Biblical role of witness to the Resurrection. Saint Mary Magdalene was most frequently depicted as one of the three Maries at the tomb, and it was only in later Christian art, such as the Saint Alban Psalter, that she was given prominence among these women.

The first significant increase of Magdalene imagery began in the medieval period and the mendicant orders adopted the saint in what proved to be a radical departure from the patriarchal structure of the medieval Catholic Church. After

1260 the Golden Legend, a medieval bestseller, offered an embellished apocryphal life of the Magdalene. Mendicant orders such as the Franciscans, frustrated by the institutional masculinity of the Church, venerated the Magdalene for both her humility and passion toward Christ, but also for her role of the

“apostle to the apostles.”340 In art commissioned by these orders, the Magdalene was revered as a preacher, for her compassion at the foot of the Cross, and for her legendary life in Marseilles.

340 For more on the mendicant orders of the Middle Ages in regard to patriarchy and the Magdalene as a model of preaching, see Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen, 265-77.

199 The medieval cult of the Magdalene highlighted the role of the saint as a model of penance, a trend that is reflected in the mendicant orderʼs fixation on the conversion of prostitutes. Images of the Magdalene in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries often depicted the saint as emaciated and set in a wilderness, as her depiction in a Marseilles wilderness was the location for miraculous apocryphal events, such as levitation by angels. Typically portrayed as nude, but modestly covered by her overgrown hair, the Magdalene was old, emaciated, her body ravaged by many years of penance, self-flagellation, and harsh fasting.

These penitential images, such as Botticelliʼs Trinity (see Fig. 31), were some of the first commissioned paintings to decorate the newly founded convertite, which were convents for repentant prostitutes promoted by the mendicant orders.

Developing changes in Magdalene imagery from the Middle Ages into the

Renaissance can additionally be related to radical changes in liturgical practice, a result of the decrees set by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The final years of the Council resulted in a spurt of activity, including the standardization of liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church. Aided by the advent of the printed book, liturgical changes in the Roman rite included the purgation of many saintʼs feast days; however, the Magdaleneʼs feast day remained an important event in the calendar.341 The feast of the Magdalene featured prominently in the liturgies of

341 Changes in Protestant worship, however, reflect a rejection of the Magdaleneʼs primary role: In the Anglican liturgical calendar between 1549 and 1552, the only change was the elimination of the Magdaleneʼs feast day. See

200 virtually every diocese and religious order.342 The Magdaleneʼs central place in liturgical practice remained steadfast throughout the early modern era, as she was a key character in John 20:1-18, the Gospel accounting the Resurrection of

Christ, read on the single most important Christian holiday of the year: Easter.

Famous Easter sermons on the Magdalene from early Church Doctors Pope

Gregory the Great343 and John Chrysostom were echoed by later medieval preacher Bernardino of Siena, and by Egidio da Viterbo, a reforming theologian and preacher connected to the Council of Trent.344

The depiction of the Magdalene as repentant corresponds with the official classification of the saint in Catholic liturgy as “penitent” in the 1570 revised

James F. White, Roman Catholic Worship: Trent to Today (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 10-11. 342 James Boyce, “The Carmelite Choir Books of Krakow: Carmelite Liturgy before and after the Council of Trent,” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae T. 45, Fasc. 1/2, 17th International Congress of the International Musicological Society IMS Study Group Cantus Planus (2004): 29. 343 Gregoryʼs homilies delivered in 590-92 and published in 593 are the first written testimonies of a list of readings systematically organized. See Eric Palazzo, A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, translated by Madeleine Beaumont (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), 86-87. 344 “For Bernardino Mary Magdalene is the prototype of the repentant sinner, and so in addressing her he is addressing the penitents in his congregation,” Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church: The Medieval Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999), 562.

201 Roman Missal. The 1570 Missal, promulgated by Pius V to implement the decrees of the Council, was intended to restore ancient traditions, not provide a new ceremonial guide, and was imposed upon the universal church.345 The

Magdaleneʼs portrayal as a penitent is significant as the Council of Trent emphasized the frequency of Communion, and the sacrament of Reconciliation was a necessary preparation to receive the Eucharist. The noble and revered status of the penitent Magdalene, who had been the first to witness the Risen

Christ, was an affirmation of the desired goal that all members of the community should make a regular confession. In acts reaffirmed in 1551, the Council maintained that confession was to be private, repeated, and intended for everyone, in opposition to the common habit of certain regions allowing confessions as public, once-in-a-lifetime, and reserved for notorious sinners.346

The frequent depiction of the penitent Magdalene in an isolated grotto in late sixteenth century art additionally relates to the change in confessional space mandated by Trent. In Carlo Borromeoʼs 1577 Instructiones fabricae et supellectillis ecclesiasticae, the only known written adaptation of Trentʼs approach to orthodox architecture, Borromeo outlines the design, dimension, and location of the proper “wooden furniture” necessary for the sacrament, and stresses the element of privacy. Prior to this mandate, confession often took place annually during Lent in preparation for the Easter Communion. In the

345 Marcel Metzger, History of the Liturgy: The Major Stages, translated by Madeleine Beaumont (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1970), 128. 346 White, Roman Catholic Worship, 18.

202 reforms authorized by Trent, the act of penance moved from the body of the church steps of the chancel to the confessional booth in the late sixteenth century in order to prevent scandal.347

Despite depicting the most prevalent representation of the saint in her guise as a repentant prostitute, Magdalene imagery illustrated in chapbooks and broadsheets is seldom discussed in art historical scholarship. The undervalued patronage of the common populace, representing eighty to ninety percent of the total population in the early modern era, is evidenced by their consumption of the mass production of chapbooks, known as stampe popolare religiosie. These chapbooks, primarily religious in nature, were inexpensive, widely marketed, and available to the average man or woman. The proliferation of these cheap images and texts is manifest in the numerous editions published, as well as the public nature of the market itself.

Of the existing copies currently available to art historians, the subject of the Conversion of the Magdalene is one the most popular titles represented in religious chapbooks. Established theories of a market economy support the premise that this singular aspect of the Magdalene narrative held particular value for its mass audience, which may have included the upper classes. Chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the Magdalene were widely appealing to a common audience who had the most day-to-day interaction with Renaissance

347 Borromeo warned against crowds of people, particularly the intermingling of men and women, which he considered to be a great hazard to penitence. See White, Roman Catholic Worship, 4.

203 prostitutes. The popolani witnessed the public spectacle of the elite cortigiana while sharing public space and open markets with the meretrice. The high visibility of prostitutes of all classes led to a growing concern over the dramatic rise of these women, which was echoed in the exaggeration of their numbers in numerous contemporary sources. Additionally, the mounting fear of disease, poverty, and dishonor associated with prostitutes was reflected in the popularity of conversion sermons, which was a prominent feature in Lenten preaching campaigns and aimed at the popolani classes from whom the highest numbers of prostitutes derived.

The rise of religious chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the

Magdalene coincides with the appearance of popular secular themes such as the

Lives and Miserable Ends of Prostitutes and the Lamenti. In these multi-image broadsheets, the lives of the cortigiana and meretrice in Venice and Rome are narrated in the guise of early folk tales, where character types are thrust toward an obvious moral end. Public concern surrounding the increase of prostitutes and the religious zeal for their conversion is represented in these religious and secular themes. Most interesting is the nature of the “patronage” of these prints, which derives from an emerging open art market, where the titles available for purchase demonstrate the role of self-fashioning by the early modern populace.

Religious chapbooks dedicated to the Conversion of the Magdalene and prostitution reform are linked to moralizing broadsheets, as these broadsheets mirror the negative consequences of prostitution without penitence. The images

204 and texts of these printed works are similar in their literary and visual emphasis on the young courtesan as indulging in the sins of the flesh, vanity, and greed. In the case of the Magdalene, her youthful beauty is stressed, along with her lascivious lifestyle and her debauchery as a prostitute, an apocryphal legend that was often embellished in these chapbooks. However, it is her sister Martha who serves as a primary catalyst for her penitence as she encourages her dramatic conversion, the focal point of the book. In this manner, the book would thus be aimed at both the common folk to confront the prostitute and provide support for their conversion, as well as to directly persuade the courtesan to repent vis-à-vis the trope of the Magdalene.

Venice and Rome were both important centers of information, and Venice was the hub of printmaking in Renaissance Europe. The ideas and images communicated in these early printed works represent a microcosm of the early modern concern regarding female nonconformity and the attempts made to reassert control over these wayward women. Printed works were widely viewed as a means of the propagation of faith as well as a powerful tool for manipulating the public opinions of religious and secular authorities. The images of these texts have perhaps been overlooked due to their relative crudity during an age of growing sophistication in printmaking techniques and the increasing value placed upon draftsmanship. These images, however, are invaluable sources of information for how the popolani were presented with the sensual image of the

Magdalene and her relationship to prostitution. As her image became

205 synonymous with the growing hysteria over prostitution, the Magdalene was inextricably visually linked to prostitution reform. The audiences of these chapbooks and broadsheets thus would have related the images to their religious zeal for the conversion of prostitutes, both in the encouragement of the prostitutes to follow the Magdaleneʼs example to repent, as well as the common folkʼs identification with the active role of her sister Martha.

Chapbooks and broadsheets were the most pervasive images of the

Magdalene in the public eye, but perhaps even more influential was the role of corporate patronage in shaping public opinion of the prostitutes themselves. The sixteenth century marked a new era for the compassionate care of the poor, which was manifested in the founding of various types of charitable institutions.

Most noteworthy was the attention paid to women, as they were not only more vulnerable to economic hardships than men, but also represented perceived dangers of female nonconformity and waywardness. Novel to the sixteenth century was the foundation of transitional homes for fallen women, particularly in

Venice and Rome, which served as forerunners to womenʼs refuges or asylums.

These refuges, which were primarily focused on the “fallen woman,” were one of the special missions of the Jesuits, whose founder Ignatius Loyola had been scandalized by the high number of prostitutes in Christendom.

The Casa di Santa Marta in Rome and the Casa del Soccorso in Venice served as exemplars for these transitional homes, as they were founded upon the precepts of Loyola and were designed to be a temporary refuge for a variety

206 of fallen women. As is the case with many churches and religious houses, the decoration of these homes clearly communicated the message of its administrators, a message that was not lost on its inhabitants. In Rome, the choice of Saint Marta, or Martha, by Loyola himself exemplified the founderʼs desire for the Casaʼs refugees to transition into a life of marriage or domestic service. At Casa Marta, the de-emphasis of the figure of the Magdalene in favor of the role of Martha as exemplar illustrates Loyolaʼs ultimate goal for his repentant women as domestic caregivers.

The decorations at Casa Marta and Casa Soccorso were both prominent visual features in the churches of these transitional homes. The women at these institutions, who included victims of rape, incest, marital abuse, prostitutes, adulterers, and other “wayward” women, would be joined in community at Mass to meditate on the images on the high altar and the vault of the nave. Knowing that their stay at these institutions would be short, it was a natural expectation for the decorative images to influence the opinion of transitory women to help them to decide their final change into the active or contemplative life. The administrators of the Casa Marta and Soccorso, as patrons of these decorations, clearly took advantage of the opportunity to sway public opinion and to encourage the preferred mode for salvation of the fallen women.

In Venice, the high altarpiece at the Soccorso delivered a clear message to its sisters to take final vows and be admitted into the Venetian Convertite. The

Magdalene, youthful and beautiful, crowned in jewels, handsomely dressed but

207 barefoot, indicates the exemplar for Venetian courtesans casting off their jewels in the foreground. Although the courtesans and their finery dominate the bottom half of the composition, the penitent sisters on the far left of the painting, clad in modest attire and busy working at appropriate tasks, demonstrate the true exemplars. Caliariʼs painting, although it is not extraordinary in its style or craft, is nonetheless significant in its iconological importance.

The sixteenth century witnessed a dramatic rise in the half-length devotional paintings of the Magdalene, which was popularized by Titian.

Important patrons such as Vittoria Colonna and Cardinal Federico Borromeo serve as exemplary cases of those pious celebrities of elite status associated with Titianʼs many patrons of the subject. Colonna and Borromeo lived for significant periods in Rome, remained intimately connected with Catholic reform for the entirety of their lives, and were drawn to the sensuousness of a Venetian painter such as Titian. Both Colonna and Borromeo were also educated reformers who had close ties to the Jesuits after 1546, and who would have interacted with their devotional images in conjunction with Loyolaʼs Spiritual

Exercises. These prayers, which were designated by Loyola himself for an erudite and elite audience of exemplary individuals, require their exercitants to meditate in private on religious images for an extended period of days. While contemplating their Magdalene, both Colonna and Borromeo would be immersed in prayer, meditating on the sinful sensuality of the figure, her deep love for

Christ, and her impassioned remorse for her past transgressions. According to

208 the proscribed goals of the Exercises, the devotee attempted to discern Godʼs

Will, and would be led by the Holy Spirit to action.

As a result of their religious devotion to the Penitent Magdalene, Colonna and Borromeo both manifested their meditative practice of the Exercises in their personal interactions with infamous Roman and Milanese courtesans. Angela

Greca and Caterina Vannini were the natural objects of Colonna and Borromeoʼs respective pious charity as the courtesansʼ notoriety in Rome made them high profile courtesans and a dramatic choice for conversion. Angela Greca, who was the lover of Ercole Rangone, was cast in Aretinoʼs vulgar sonnets that accompanied I Modi, the pornographic book of sexual positions that caused great dishonor in Rome in 1524, 1527, and was pirated again in Venice in 1550. In

1536 Angela Greca repented her sinful life and, being led by Colonna up the stairs of SS. Trinità dei Monti, she participated in an exceedingly public rite of penance and conversion.

Colonna, who was known for her chastity, religious fervor, and literary prowess, served as a sponsor for the young courtesan, and their act served as a

Martha and Magdalene drama for a Roman audience. Borromeo, as an important ecclesiastic, was in a position to greatly affect popular religious sentiment. It is evident in his writings, both in correspondence to Caterina Vannini and his comments on religious art, that Borromeo extolled the Magdalene as an exemplar of great love and renewed purity, specifically towards penitent prostitutes. For both Colonna and Borromeo, Titianʼs Penitent Magdalene served

209 as a devotional aid in correlationt to the Spiritual Exercises, which led to meaningful action in their personal dedication to prostitution reform.

The early- to mid-seventeenth century witnessed a variety of images dedicated to the theme of the Penitent Magdalene and the Conversion of the

Magdalene. Caravaggio painted several images of the Magdalene, including a

Penitent Magdalene, Magdalene in Ecstasy, and Conversion of the Magdalene.

Art historical discussion of the Detroit Conversion (Fig. 66) has been linked to prostitution reform, particularly in relation to the influence of chapbooks on painted images for the educated elite.348 Caravaggioʼs Magdalene from the Death of the Virgin has also been related to charitable institutions dedicated to prostitution reform such as the Casa Pia.349 Pamela Jones has recently examined altarpieces of Guercinoʼs Penitent Magdalene in regard to convents for prostitutes in the seventeenth century (Fig. 67).350 Although these are excellent contributions to the field of Magdalene research, particularly in relationship to

348 For more on this, see Franco Mormando, “Teaching the Faithful to Fly: Mary Magdalene and Peter in Baroque Italy,” in Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image, ed. Franco Mormando (Chicago: University of Chicago 1999), 107-135, and Pamela Jones, “The Power of Images: Paintings and Viewers in Caravaggioʼs Italy,” op. cit., 28-48. For the sixteenth-century precedent of Martha in these Conversion images, see Frederick Cummings, “The Meaning of Caravaggioʼs Conversion of the Magdalene,” The Burlington Magazine 116/859 (Oct 1974): 572- 591. 349 Pamela Askew, “Casa Pia: The Magdalen,” in Caravaggioʼs ʻDeath of the

Virgin,ʼ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 84-183. 350 Jones, Altarpieces and Their Viewers, 201-260.

210 prostitution reform, there is much research left unfinished. For example, an analysis of the sensual Magdalenes by Peter Paul Rubens, who was greatly influenced by Venetian painters, particularly Titian, might provide insight into the perpetuation of Venetian sensuality in the realm of seventeenth-century

Magdalene imagery (Fig. 68).

After the French and Austrian suppression of Venice and the decline of

Roman Catholic authority after the French Revolution, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed a decline in the images of the Magdalene as religious fervor cooled and toleration of prostitution became universal. Images of the sensual and penitent Magdalene became increasingly secular, as witnessed by patronage and circumstances, chiefly that of the decline of the artistic dominance of Rome and Venice. One of the exemplary works dedicated to the

Magdalene in this later period is by Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-

1822). Although he was a Catholic and a Venetian, Canova created fewer religious works than those of his Protestant rivals. Of the mere three religious statues he carved, it is significant that all three of these featured the Magdalene:

The Penitent Magdalene, The Dying Magdalene, and Pietà.

Canovaʼs most famous of these three was the Penitent Magdalene (Fig.

69), which was originally commissioned by a prelate; After its sensational reception at the Salon of 1808, however, it was quickly purchased by Count

Sommariva. The Magdalene, which demonstrated Canovaʼs reputation as a fine carver of delicate flesh, is youthful, beautiful, and typically erotically charged, with

211 her rough woven cloth barely concealing her breasts. The statue, highly valued by the Count, was displayed under special lighting and its appeal was significantly more secular than images during the height of the Counter-

Reformation. Walter Benjamin remarked on the lack of “cult value” from images such as these, and in Benjaminʼs estimation, modern art was drained of this “cult value” and replaced by “exhibition value,” encouraging the modern viewer to worship the genius of art, not Christian dogma.351

The appeal of Magdalene images for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was increasingly devoid of religious sentiment, and upon initial investigation would appear to be unrelated to prostitution reform. Two simultaneous events occurring at this time, however, indicate otherwise. Images of the Magdalene dramatically increased in Salon exhibitions following the July

Monarchy. Between 1831 and 1848, following the Concordat of 1817, 110 paintings dedicated to the Magdalene were hung at the Salon, the majority of which were displayed in 1848.352 Concurrently, a pan-European “Rescue

Movement” was launched in response to the growing numbers of urban prostitutes, which were a direct effect of industrialization. Rural women, displaced

351 Fred Licht, Canova (New York: Abbeville Press, 1983), 93- 95. For more on Benjaminʼs theories on the notion of “aura,” see Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Mechanical Age,” translated by Harry Zohn, in Film Theory and Criticism, ed. Gerald Mast & Marshall Cohen (London, New York, Toronto:

Oxford University Press, 1976), 612 - 634. 352 Janis Bergman-Carton, The Woman of Ideas in French Art, 1830-1848 (New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 134.

212 by the socioeconomic shift in the labor force, flooded into cities for work, but often turned to prostitution when other forms of employment failed. The exponential growth in urban prostitution combined with improper sanitation and mass overcrowding in the cities, resulted in the consequent rise of syphilis and gonorrhea. The revival of prostitution reform correlated with the Industrial

Revolution throughout Europe although Magdalene institutions were predominant in Great Britain, the first nation to effectively industrialize.

The eighteenth and nineteenth century “Rescue Movement” was primarily brought about by upper-class women. The notion of “women helping women,” primarily in relationship to prostitution reform, however, derives from the sixteenth century. In the United Kingdom, the first Magdalene refuge for fallen women was established in 1758 in Whitechapel. By 1898, more than 300 institutions dedicated to the Magdalene existed throughout England alone. Similar to their sixteenth century predecessors, the Casa Soccorso in Venice and the Casa

Marta in Rome, these houses were not funded by the state but existed through charitable donations, endowments, and the operation of laundries.353 Although the early British and Irish Magdalene house founders such as Lady Arbella Denny, who opened the first Irish Magdalene refuge in 1767, promised to shelter the fallen women from, “Shame, from Reproach, from Disease, from Want,” these refuges gradually evolved from rehabilitative to carceral.354 Considering the

353 James M. Smith, Magdalen Laundries and the Nationʼs Architecture of

Containment (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), 23-24.

354 Smith, Magdalen Laundries, 23-24.

213 prolific institutional dedication to the Magdalene in nineteenth-century Great

Britain, a study dedicated to Magdalene imagery in relationship to the Rescue

Movement would be fruitful.

The intention of this investigation has been to contextualize the dramatic rise of various images of Saint Mary Magdalene in the early modern era in

Venice and Rome in relationship to prostitution reform throughout Renaissance

Europe. My focus has been to emphasize the functionality of these images as catalysts for reform throughout the social stratum. It has been my assertion that the depictions of the Magdalene, which ranged from private devotional works, large corporate decorative altarpieces and vault frescoes, to inexpensive chapbooks and broadsheets, were characterized by intentionally appealing to the senses. The sensuality of Mary Magdalene, which has been identified by art historians as merely an excuse for an erotic female nude, was intended to purposely recall the youth and beauty of Renaissance courtesans. The proliferation of images of the Conversion of the Magdalene and the Penitent

Magdalene reflected the increasing visibility of prostitutes as well as the growing reform of prostitution, and additionally helped to drive reform efforts. The early modern public, upon viewing images of the Magdalene, would be reminded of the saintʼs lascivious past, inspired by her piety, and moved to convert prostitutes in order to regain spiritual honor for their city and all of Christendom.

214

(Fig. 1) Anonymous artist, titlepage to Marco Rossiglioʼs La Conversione di Santa Maria Madalena,1611, woodcut, Biblioteca Vaticano.

215

(Fig. 2) Anonymous artist, titlepage to Francesco Zucchetti, La Conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, 1620, woodcut, Biblioteca Vaticano.

216

(Fig. 3) Roman or Venetian, titlepage to Maestro Andreaʼs Purgatory and Lament of the Roman Courtesan, c. 1530, woodcut, British Museum.

217

(Fig. 4) Carlo Caliari, Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene and Convertite, c. 1598-1601, oil on canvas, Gallerie delʼ Accademia, Venice.

218

(Fig. 5) Bacciccio, Fresco vault, c. 1670s, Casa Marta, Rome.

219

(Fig. 6) Gugliemo Cortese, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, c. 1672, oil on canvas, Rome, SS. Quattro Coronati. (ex- Casa Marta).

220

(Fig. 7) Titian, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1530s, oil on canvas, Pitti Palace, Florence.

221

(Fig. 8) Titian, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1560s, oil on canvas, Ambrosiana, Milan.

222

(Fig. 9) Cortigiana Veneta, from Cesare Vecellioʼs De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del mondo, 1590.

223

(Fig. 10) Attributed to Tintoretto, Veronica Franco?, c. 1575, oil on canvas, Worcester Art Museum, Massachussetts.

224

(Fig. 11) German School, The Whore of Babylon, colored woodcut, 16th century, Bible Society of London.

225

(Fig. 12) Munich ivory panel, early 5th century, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

226

(Fig. 13) Two Marys at the Tomb. Detail of wall painting (c. 240 A.D.) from Dura-Europos. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery.

227

(Fig. 14) Two Marys finding the Angel at the Empty Tomb. Above: The Crucifixion. On a sixth-century ampulla. Monza Cathedral.

228

(Fig. 15) Pyxis Depicting Women at the Tomb of Christ, 500s, Ivory, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

229

(Fig. 16) The west front of abbey church Ste. Marie-Madeleine, Vézelay. Photographed in c. 1900.

230

(Fig. 17) Magdalene Preaches of the Risen Christ, Saint Albans Psalter. Illuminated manuscript. c. 1140, Hildesheim, Dombibliotek, Cathedral Library.

231

(Fig. 18) Mary Magdalene Preaches in a Pulpit, 1481. Relief by Francesco Laurana. Lazarus Altar, Church of La Vieille Major, Marseilles.

232

(Fig. 19) German Ecclesiastical Vestment, first half of 15th century. Cope embroidered with ten scenes from the life of Mary Magdalene. Saint Annen Museum, Lübeck. (Photo: Herziana)

233

(Fig. 20) Detail from Figure 19, Magdalene as Vanity with Animal-Headed suitors (top left).

234

(Fig. 21) Magdalene Destroying Pagan Idols in Marseilles, 1333-43. Miniature from the Leggendario Ungherese, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

235

(Fig. 22) Destruction of the Idols in Marseilles, late 14th c. Fresco by Lombard Master, Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo (ex Disciplinati Church of S. Maria Maddalena.) (Photo: Katherine Jansen)

236

(Fig. 23) Magdalen Master, Penitent Magdalene with scenes from her life, c. 1270, tempera and gold on panel, Florence, Galleria dellʼAccademia.

237

(Fig. 24) Spinello di Luca Spinelli, Processional Banner with Magdalene and Flagellants of San Sepolcro, c. 1395-1400, tempera and gold on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

238

(Fig. 25) School of Rimini, Saint Francis and Mary Magdalene beneath the Cross, first half of the fourteenth century, tempera and gold on panel, Vatican Museum, Pinacoteca.

239

(Fig. 26) Jacopo di Paolo, Crucifixion with Magdalene and Beata, 1400, panel painting. Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville.

240

(Fig. 27) Giotto, Friar Teobaldo Pontano and Mary Magdalene, ca. 1320s, fresco, Cappella della Maddalena, Lower Church of the Basilica of S. Francesco, Assisi.

241

(Fig. 28) Giotto, The Hermit Zosimus Gives His Cloak to Saint Mary Magdalene, c. 1309,fresco, Cappella della Maddalena, Lower Church of the Basilica of S. Francesco.

242

(Fig. 29) French Book of Hours featuring the Magdalene Exorcised by Christ, illuminated manuscript, c. 1460-70, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library.

243

(Fig. 30) Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition, c. 1490. Oil and gold leaf on panel, Getty Museum.

244

(Fig. 31) Donatello, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1453-55, wood with polychromy and gold, Museo dellʼ Opera del Duomo, Florence.

245

(Fig. 32) Sandro Botticelli, Holy Trinity (Crucifixion with Saints Magdalene and John the Baptist), and Noli Me Tangere, The Conversion of Magdalene and The Last Communion of the Magdalene, 1491-93, tempera on panel, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.

246

(Fig. 33) Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Saint Mary Magdalene, 1519, oil on panel, Saint Louis Art Museum.

247

(Fig. 34) Bernardino Luini, Saint Mary Magdalene, oil on panel, 1525, National Gallery, Washington D.C.

248

(Fig. 35) Unknown German artist, Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, c. 1480-90, hand colored woodcut, Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

249

(Fig. 36) Venetian, Lives and Miserable Ends of Prostitutes, ca. 1600, engraving, Francis Douce Collection, Ashmolean Museum.

250

(Fig. 37) Title page of Danese Ugieri. Colophon: In Venetia per Benedetto di Bendoni, 1532. VCi 200.

251

(Fig. 38) Annibale Carracci, Mary Magdalene in the Wilderness, etching and engraving, 1591.

252

(Fig. 39) Gregor Erhart, Penitent Magdalene, c. 1500. Polychromed limewood, Louvre.

253

(Fig. 40) Anonymous, La Conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena, ca. 1611, woodcut, Biblioteca Vaticano.

254

(Fig. 41) Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, tempera on canvas, c. 1485. Uffizi, Florence.

255

(Fig. 42) Ludovisi Cnidian Aphrodite, Roman marble copy of Praxiteles orginal of the 4th century B.C., Rome, Museo Nazionale.

256

(Fig. 43) Veronese, Apotheosis of Venice, 1585, oil on canvas, Venice, Ducal Palace.

257

(Fig. 44) Martin Schongauer, Noli me tangere, engraving, c. 1470-80, Art Institute of Chicago.

258

(Fig. 45) Correggio, Noli me tangere, oil on canvas, 1525, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

259

(Fig. 46) Anonymous Flemish print, Hoofkijn van devotien (Garden of devotion), late 15th century.

260

(Fig. 47) Illustrations from Of the innermost soul, how God chastises her and makes her suited to Him, c. 1500, woodcut. University Library, Breslau.

261

(Fig. 48) Venetian, Lament of the Famous Courtesan Signora Anzola (verses by Bartolommeo Bonfante) c. 1600, engraving, Milan, Bertarelli Collection.

262

(Fig. 49) Placard from San Giacomo featuring la caretta. 16th century.

263

(Fig. 50) Santa Marta, façade prior to 19th-century alteration, Rome. Photo: Gabinetto Fotographico Nazionale, Rome.

264

(Fig. 51) Casa del Soccorso, façade and map, Venice. Credit: Bernard Aikema.

265

(Fig. 52) Baciccio, Saint Martha Raising the Dead Man, fresco vault, Santa Marta.

266

(Fig. 53) Baciccio, detail from ceiling vault, Saint Martha Conquering the Dragon (top). (Fig. 54) Baciccio, detail from ceiling vault, Assumption of Saint Martha (bottom).

267

(Fig. 55) Baciccio, prepatory drawings for vault frescoes, formerly Vienna. O. Nirenstein Collection.

268

(Fig. 56) Baciccio, Saint Martha in Glory, bozzetto. Genoa, Accademia Ligustica.

269

(Fig. 57) Baciccio, Saint Ignatius in Glory, 1685, fresco, Rome, Il Gesu.

270

(Fig. 58) Istituti Penali Femminili (ex-Convertite), Giudecca, Venice. Photo: Author.

271

(Fig. 59) Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of Vittoria Colonna?, c. 1530, oil on canvas, National Museum of Catalonia.

272

(Fig. 60) Italian, (Top) Portrait medal of Vittoria Colonna (recto, left) and Ferrante dʼAvalos (verso,right); (Bottom) Portrait medal of Vittoria Colonna (recto, left) with classicizing military trophies (verso, right). 16th century.

273

(Fig. 61) Giovanni Pisano, Detail of Prudence (left) from Pulpit, marble, Pisa Cathedral.

274

(Fig. 62) Titian, Sacred and Profane Love, 1514, oil on canvas, Rome, Galleria Borghese.

275

(Fig. 63) Marcantonio Raimondi after Guilio Romano and Penni, Martha Leading Magdalene to Christ, engraving. London, British Museum.

276

(Fig. 64) Marcantonio Raimondi, lost fragments from i Modi, c. 1527, engraving, British Museum.

277

(Fig. 65) Leonardo da Vinci, sketches for a lost Penitent Magdalene, pen and ink on paper, c. 1498, London, Courtauld Gallery.

278

(Fig. 66) Caravaggio, Conversion of the Magdalene, c. 1598, oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of the Arts.

279

(Fig. 67) Guercino, Penitent Magdalene with Two Angels, ca. 1622, oil on canvas, Vatican Pinacoteca.

280

(Fig. 68) Peter Paul Rubens, Magdalene in Ecstasy with Two Angels, c. 1619-20, oil on canvas, Lille, Musée de Beaux-Arts.

281

(Fig. 69) Antonio Canova, Penitent Magdalene, marble, 1796. Palazzo Bianca, Genoa.

282

APPENDIX

Selected Chapbooks on the Conversion of the Magdalene by Location

BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA VATICANA, ROME

Rossiglio, Marco. La conversione di S. Maria Madalena; Del. Sig. Marco Rasiglia di Foligno. Di nuovo ristampata corretta, e di figure adornata; et aggiuntoui lʼesempio de I doi debitori, che nellʼaltre mancaua. Per Siluio Cagnani cieco. In Viterbo, appresso il Discepolo. Con licenza de Superiori. Ottave, 12°. Above the title: S. Maria Maddalena.

______. La conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena. Composta per Marco Rasilia da Foligno, opera devotissima. Ottave, 8°. Above the title: S. Maria Maddalena.

______. Della conversione di Santa Maria Maddalena. Del Sig. Marco Rossiglio da Foligno. Di nuovo ristampata, corretta, e di bellissime figure adornata. Per Siluio Cagnani Cieco. In Foligno and also in Treugi, Appresso Angelo Reghettini. 1611. Con licenza deʼSuperiori. Ottave, 12°.

Zuchetti, Francesco. La Conversione Di S. Maria Maddalena.Con la dichiaratione del Santa Euangelio. Composta da Francesco Zucchetti Da Genoua. In Macerata, Viterbo, and Ronciglione, 1620. Con licenza deʼSuperiori.

BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE

Tinassi, N.A. Il Trionfo della gratia, overo la Conversione di Madalena. Rome, 1685. 12 p., Gr. in-8º.

Selected broadsheets dedicated to the Lives and Miserable Ends of Prostitutes by Location

ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD

Anonymous, Vita Et Fine Meserabile Delle Meretrici, ca. 1600. Francis Douce Collection.

283

BRITISH MUSEUM LIBRARY, LONDON

Roman or Venetian. Titlepage to Maestro Andreaʼs Purgatory and Lament of the Roman Courtesan. c. 1530. 11427 b. 61.

BERTARELLI COLLECTION, CASTELLO SFORZESCO, MILAN

Venetian. Lament of the Famous Courtesan. Verses by Bartolommeo Bonfante. c. 1600.

Venetian. Lo specchio al Fin de la Putana. c. 1657. 12 engravings.

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