The Ugly Renaissance (82 page)

White Company,
8.1
,
8.2

William of Rubruck

Wolof kingdom,
13.1
,
13.2

women and girls

as arts patrons

chauvinistic attitudes toward

dress of,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3

economic roles of

education of,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3

empowerment of

and extramarital sex

legal status of

love and,
4.1
,
4.2

marriage and,
4.1
,
4.2

violence against,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3

virginity of,
4.1
,
4.2

wool industry,
3.1
,
7.1

Zara Yaqob, emperor of Ethiopia

Zarco, João Gonçalves

Zenobius, Saint

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

A
LEXANDER
L
EE
is a stipendiary lecturer in early modern history at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. A specialist in the history of the Italian Renaissance, he completed his first two degrees at Trinity College, University of Cambridge—where he was a senior scholar and winner of the Earl of Derby Prize for Outstanding Performance in the Tripos Examinations, the James Webb Prize for the History of Ideas, and the Bowen Prize for History—before proceeding to undertake his doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of
Petrarch and St. Augustine: Classical Scholarship, Christian Theology, and the Origins of the Renaissance in Italy
, the co-editor of
Renaissance? Perceptions of Continuity and Discontinuity in Europe, c. 1300–c. 1550
, and the co-author of
The End of Politics: Triangulation, Realignment, and the Battle for the Centre Ground
. He has also published numerous scholarly articles on the Italian Renaissance and has written extensively on historical subjects and Italian culture for
History Today
, the
Daily
, the
Wall Street Journal
, the
Guardian
, the
New Statesman
, the
Times Literary Supplement
,
and Dissent
.

Fig. 1. Masaccio,
Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow
. A neat encapsulation of public life in Renaissance Florence that not only embodies the idealistic urban aspirations of a city grown wealthy on trade and commerce but also hints at a world in which disfigured beggars, filthy streets, open brothels, and ramshackle houses were very much the norm.
(illustration credit 1)

Fig. 2. Anonymous,
The Ideal City
. A utopian vision of city life that was inspired by Poggio Bracciolini’s rediscovery of Vitruvius’s
De architectura
in 1415 but that was lamentably far from urban realities.
(illustration credit 2)

Fig. 3. Francesco Rosselli,
The Map of the Chain
. This panoramic view of Florence reveals that beneath the massive structure of the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio lay a teeming, disorganized muddle of houses, workshops, hostelries, and shops that were the stage on which the drama of everyday life was set.
(illustration credit 3)

Fig. 4. Filippino Lippi,
Madonna del Carmine
(
Pala de’ Nerli
). Behind Mary is a typical Oltr’Arno scene.
(illustration credit 4)

Fig. 5. Sandro Botticelli,
Adoration of the Magi
. To show his “intimacy” with Florence’s de facto rulers, the ambitious Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama had himself depicted alongside the Medici and their circle in this fanciful scene.
(illustration credit 5)

Fig. 6. Giorgione,
The Old Woman
. The scroll reading “
col tempo
” (with time) is a warning of what awaited many Renaissance women.
(illustration credit 6)

Fig. 7. Piero di Cosimo,
Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
. Reputedly the most beautiful woman of the age, Simonetta Vespucci is depicted in the guise of a virtually naked and wildly titillating Cleopatra.
(illustration credit 7)

Fig. 8. Sandro Botticelli,
Portrait of a Young Woman
. The exotically dressed subject of this painting—possibly Simonetta Vespucci—testifies to the fact that women often acted as the pioneers of daring fashions and could be autonomous cultural agents in their own right.
(illustration credit 8)