After the Counter-Reformation, the Papal State of Bologna became a hub for the flourishing of female artistic talent. The eighteenth-century biographer Luigi Crespi recorded over twenty-eight women artists working in the city, although many of these, until recently, were ignored by modern art criticism, despite the fame they attained during their lifetimes. What were the factors that contributed to Bologna's unique confluence of women with art, science, and religion? The Devout Hand explores the work of two generations of Italian women artists in Bologna, from Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), whose career emerged during the aftermath of the Counter Reformation, to her brilliant successor, Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665), who organized the first school for women artists. Patricia Rocco further sheds light on Sirani's students and colleagues, including the little-known engraver Veronica Fontana and the innovative but understudied etcher Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. Combining analysis of iconography, patronage, gender, and reception studies, Rocco integrates painting, popular prints, book illustration, and embroidery to open a wider lens onto the relationship between women, virtue, and the visual arts during a period of religious crisis and reform. A reminder of the lasting power of images, The Devout Hand highlights women's active role in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Christian reform and artistic production.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-272) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 709.454/110903
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- e-it---
- ISBN
- 9780773551381 9780773552197
- LCCN
- N6921.B7
- LCCN Item number
- R63 2017eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (ix, 278 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00975253 (OCoLC)992558850 (CaOOCEL)453322
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Title proper/short title
- Women, virtue, and visual culture in early modern Italy
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- THE DEVOUT HAND 2
- Title 4
- Copyright 5
- CONTENTS 6
- Figures 8
- Acknowledgments 12
- Colour section 138
- Introduction 16
- 1 Bologna as Exemplary Counter-Reformation City: An Intellectual History of the City and Its Scholars 31
- 2 Tridentine Visual Reform in Paleotti’s Discorso: The Modes of the Artefice Cristiano in Theory and Practice 57
- 3 Stitching for Virtue: Women’s Work in Embroidery for the Conservatori of Bologna 105
- 4 Felsina Pittrice: Elisabetta Sirani, Her Students and Circle, and the Maniera Devota 132
- 5 Veronica Fontana and Giuseppe Maria Mitelli: Prints, Piety, and Science in the Work of Sirani’s Students and Colleagues 184
- Conclusion 227
- Appendices 233
- Notes 242
- Bibliography 280
- Index 302
