The Art of Death and Childbirth in Renaissance Italy: a Privileged Status in Motherhood

Elaine Hoysted
University College Cork
Faculty of Arts and Celtics Studies' Department of History of Art
2012
MPhil

Subject: Painting
Country: Italy
Period: 15th Century

40,000 words

The Art of Death and Childbirth in Renaissance Italy' explores the depiction of Italian women who died as a result of childbirth and lived in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The women who were commemorated through the medium of the visual arts were those who had borne a son and died attempting to produce more children for the patriarchal lineage. The main argument of this study is that through the successful delivery of a male heir for their husbands, women received a privileged posthumous position in their conjugal families. This thesis stems from an argument made by David Herlihy in which he states that due to motherhood, Renaissance Italian women were elevated in status. Another key argument in this thesis is that although the representation of these women did not usually reference the cause of their deaths, the commissioned art works promoted motherhood to contemporary viewers in a number of ways. The importance of the patriarchal line and its continuation therefore forms an integral part of the rationale for the commissioning and creation of the art associated with women who died in parturition. The thesis is broken down into a series of case studies, representing the female experience of this event in both the republican city-state of Florence as well as within the context of the court of Urbino. Each case study focuses upon the art works created to commemorate a specific woman and how these images were utilised to project the image of the ideal mother willing to sacrifice her own life to ensure the continuation of her husband's bloodline. The case studies examine the commemoration of two Florentine women from the Tornabuoni family, Giovanna degli Albizzi and Francesca Pitti and Battista Sforza, countess of Urbino. Their representation provides a visual model reinforcing the written discourse of the period which promoted motherhood as the key role of the Renaissance woman.

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The Art of Death and Childbirth in Renaissance Italy: a Privileged Status in Motherhood