How to be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity
Jill Burke is a historian of the body and its visual representation, also noted for her Royal-Society funded project, ‘Renaissance Goo’, to remake skincare recipes and cosmetics from manuscript and published sources. Among other activities, she co-curated the 2018-19 exhibition on ‘The Renaissance Nude’ at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Royal Academy, London. Her new book will, as Maggie O’Farrell writes, ensure ‘You’ll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way.’
Burke overturns many preconceptions about women from all social classes in Renaissance Italy: ranging from the few women to wield power, like Caterina Sforza and Isabella d’Este, to peasant women and those in immigrant urban communities. With sections on ‘Beauty Ideals’, ‘Renaissance Bodywork’, ‘Power (Un)Dressing’ and ‘Communities of Knowledge’, Burke reevaluates women’s attitudes to beauty, education and creativity – and men’s attitudes to women – based on a wealth of largely overlooked sources.
Although the topics she covers all raise very serious underlying questions, the book is lively and engaging. Among countless other examples, we learn about Anna Ebrea (or Jewish Anna) and the wonderful Moderata Fonte (pen name of Modesta Pozzo), author of the ‘remarkable dialogue’, The Worth of Women: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men; and about the apothecary nuns and female pharmacists recorded in Venice, Florence, and Padua – like Camilla Erculiani, one of the few women to publish on scientific subjects in this period – whose activities sometimes attracted the attention of the Inquisition or accusations of witchcraft.
So many women played an active role in their communities, even though the historical record has tended to overlook them. Highly recommended for everyone interested in women’s history, whether you’re writing about it or simply want to try your hand at making the cosmetics!
