Women's Patronage and Gendered Cultural Networks in Early Modern Europe

This book examines the sociocultural networks between the courts of early modern Italy and Europe, focusing on the Florentine Medici court, and the cultural patronage and international gendered networks developed by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Vittoria della Rovere. Adelina Modesti uses Grand Duchess Vittoria as an exemplar of pan-European 'matronage' and proposes a new matrilineal model of patronage in the early modern period, one in which women become not only the mediators but also the architects of public taste and the transmitters of cultural capital. The book will be the first comprehensive monographic study of this important cultural figure. This study will be of interest to scholars working in art history, gender studies, Renaissance studies and seventeenth-century Italy.

Adelina Modesti is a Honorary Associate in Art History in the Department of Archaeology and History at La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Part 1 GENDERED NETWORKS 1. Vittoria della Rovere at the Medici Court: A Dynasty of Women. 2. "Le Signore Dame": Vittoria della Rovere and her female courtiers. 3. Gendered Social and Cultural Networks: Italy and Beyond. Part 2 SELF-FASHIONING and DISPLAY 4. Visual Splendour at the Court of Vittoria della Rovere; the Role of Portraiture. Chapter 5 Material Magnificence between the Courts of France and Florence: Vittoria della Rovere's French Luxury Imports 6. Sartorial Elegance at the Medici Court: Fashioning the Grand Ducal Family Part 3 CULTURAL PATRONAGE 7. A Discerning Eye: Vittoria della Rovere's Art Patronage 8. The female virtuosa at the Grand Duchess's court: Vittoria della Rovere's patronage of female artists and other creative women. 9. Architectural Patronage, Interior Design and Decoration Part 4 PIETY and SPIRITUAL PHILANTHROPY 10. Performing piety: Vittoria della Rovere and the theatre of religious devotion. 11."Sua infocata devotione": Vittoria della Rovere and the Reliquary Chapel of Santa Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi Nobile Fiorentina 12. Vittoria della Rovere's Spiritual Philanthropy