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Proquest Dissertations Constructing social identity in Renaissance Florence: Botticelli's "Portrait of a Lady (Smeralda Brandini)" Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Frady, Lisa Y. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 05/10/2021 06:45:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291426 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overiaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an addit'onai charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 CONSTRUCTING SOCIAL IDENTITY IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE: BOTTICELLI'S PORTRAIT OF A LADY (SMERADLA BRANDINI) by Lisa Y. Frady Copyright © Lisa Y. Frady 2001 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ART In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN ART HISTORY In the Graduate College THE UNTvcRSITY OF ARIZONA 200 1 UMI Number 1406089 Copyright 2001 by Frady, Lisa Y. All rights reserved. UMI* UMi Microform 1406089 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Mf 48106-1346 7 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial flilfillnient of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: Pia F. Cuneo, Ph.D. Professor of Art History 3 ACBCNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the professors, family members, and friends who have supported me over the last several years. I am honored to have studied at the University of Arizona; our department boasts an outstanding group of art history professors who are always willing to go above and beyond the call of duty. In particular I would like to thank Dr. Pia Cuneo and Dr. Julie Plax. Dr. Cuneo's guidance has assisted me in developing mere ideas into well researched and focused studies; she has taught me to see a host of exciting possibilities within the discipline of art history in general, as well as within my own contributions to it. Dr. Plax, too, has assisted me tremendously, providing opportunities for professional growth and development. Additionally, I would like to thank my family - my Igor, Barb, Jim, Davm, Des, Kim, and Josh - for their support and encouragement; and Bob and Melissa for their friendship - as well as much needed coffee. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 5 CHAPTER 1 6 Introducing the Portrait, the Problem, and the Painter CHAPTER II 26 Examining the Current State of Scholarship - Theoretical Foundations for Interpreting Renaissance Portraits, Including Botticelli's Smeralda Brandini CHAPTER in 42 Examining the Historical Record - The Portrait, The Identity of Its Sitter, Her Status, and the Circumstances Surrounding the Production of Her image CHAPTER IV 55 Smeralda's Attire - Elegant or Extravagant? CHAPTER V 70 Smeralda's Setting - Stately or Grandiose? CHAPTER VI 82 Smeralda's Audience - The Portrait's Location within the Renaissance Home and this Location's Relevance to the Construction of Social Identity REFERENCES 100 5 ABSTRACT Botticelli's Portrait of a Lcuiy (Smeralda Brandini) (c. 1471) is representative of a largely uninvestigated tendency in Italian Renaissance portraiture to depia female sitters without sumptuous clothing, jewelry, and heraldic devices. Traditionally, these visual cues had been used to construct the elevated social identity of portrait sitters. This study scrutinizes a work within a neglected portion of Botticelli's oeuvre, examining the ways in which its modest, and somewhat ambiguous, visual cues also construct its sitter's elevated social identity, while simultaneously protecting it. This analysis seriously considers a portrait of a woman who is not famous, nor an idealized beauty, nor an allegorical figure. It explores her image, its functions, and its multiple layers of meaning within the confines of late-fifteenth century social relationships, gender roles, and the original domestic viewing context of Renaissance portraits (considering their public display, as well as their relationship to Marian imagery, within the home). 6 CHAPTER I Introducing the Portrait, the Problem, and the Painter Arguably, the figure portrayed in Portrait of a Lady (Smeralda Brandini) (c. 1471; 65.7 X 41 centimeters; tempera on wood), by Sandro Botticelli (1444/5-1510), leaves no overwhelming impression on her modem viewers.' The space in which she is depicted consists of a rather stark domestic interior; her attire, of simple garments - no sumptuous baubles or precious gems adorn her form. It appears as if she has little to say, particularly to the art historian looking for overt visual cues that might imbue her with art historical, let alone social, significance. As a result, this portrait is rarely addressed within the confines of Botticellian scholarship. Perhaps Botticelli's most well-known female portrait is Portrait of a Young Woman' (c. 1475).^ The sitter has traditionally,"* and almost certainly erroneously, been ' It should be noted that the attribution of this work to Botticelli himself is overwhelming within current scholarship: it is contested by only three individuals (Yukio Yashiro, Adolfo Venturi. and Bemhard Berenson) who deem it a product of Botticelli's school or of his friends/imitators. The specific date of this piece is a bit more problematic. A few scholars have suggested it was executed as early as 1470. while a few others have suggested it was not produced until 1482. However, the vast majority of Botticelli experts suggest a date of 1471 for this particular portrait For more information regarding the attribution of this work to Botticelli, see Roberto Salvini, All the Paintings of Botticelli: Part 1 (1445- 1484"). trans. John Grillenzoni (New York: Hawthorn Books. Inc., 1965) 44. For more information regarding the debated date of this piece, see Salvini 44: and Michael Levev' and Gabriele Mandel. The Complete Paintings of Botticelli. 1967 (New York; Harry N. Abrams. 1970) 88. For illustrations, see either Levey and Mandel 88 (black and white reproduction) or Patricia Lee Rubin and Alison Wright Renaissance Rorence: The Art of the 1470s (London; National Gallery Publications Limited, 1999) 326 (color reproduction). ' Ironically, this famed work is attributed by nearly all Botticelli scholars to the artist's school and not to his own hand. For illustration, see Levey and Mandel, Plate XII. ^ As the artist neither signed nor dated any of his works, with the lone exception of his Mystic Nativity (1501), dating remains a debate among connoisseurs. Thus, all dates listed for Botticelli's artistic productions within the confines of this paper are derived from Levey and Mandel, unless otherwise 7 identified as the famous Simonetta Vespucci,^ much admired by Giuliano de' Medici. Giuliano's assassination in the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478, coupled with literary interpretations of Agnolo (or Angelo) Poliziano's contemporaneous Stanze per la Giostra noted. Levey and Mandel were chosen for several reasons - not only docs their text illustrate each of the works that have, at one time or another, been attributed to Botticelli, but it provides concise information in regard to various scholarly assertions toward both attribution and dating. The term 'sitter' is used within this paper to denote portrait subjects, whether or not they physically posed for a portrait. ' This portrait has also been identified as Clarice Orsini. the wife of Lorenzo 'the Magnificent' de' Medici; although, not surprisingly, this secondary identification has received
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