Renaissance Society

Renaissance Society Chapter 13 Part 6

Women • Noble women: • Greater access to higher education • More responsibilities • BUT lost status since the Middle ages • Sexual double standard • Rape…once a serious crime but now a minor crime against property • Castiglione: a woman’s job is to make herself pleasing to men

Noteworthy Women Isabella d’ Este: ruled Mantua on husband’s death Patroness of the Arts Established a school for girls

Noteworthy Women • Christine de Pisan: wrote • City of the Ladies • Book of the 3 Virtues • Were survival manuals for Renaissance noble women

Noteworthy Women • Artemesia Gentilleschi: Baroque painter • First female artist to gain recognition in post-Renaissance era • Was raped by her mentor • Painted Judith series

Artemesia Gentilleschi • Born in Rome in 1593, she received her early training from her father, but after art academies rejected her, she continued study under a friend of her father, Agostino Tassi. In 1612, her father brought suit against Tassi for raping Artemisia. There followed a highly publicized seven-month trial. The trauma of the rape and trial impacted on Artemisia's painting. Her graphic depictions were cathartic and symbolic attempts to deal with the physical and psychic pain. The heroines of her art, especially Judith, are powerful women exacting revenge on such male evildoers as the Assyrian general Holofernes.

Judith Slaying Holofernes • Judith was a Jewish widow of noble rank in Bethulia, a town besieged by the army of the Assyrian general Holofernes. She approached his tent as an emissary and captivated him with her beauty. He ordered a feast with much wine. After he passed out in his tent, Judith and her maid Abra saw their opportunity. Judith decapitated Holofernes with his sword and smuggled his head back to Bethulia. On seeing her trophy, the townsfolk routed the leaderless Assyrians. The story is an allegory picturing Judith as Judaism in triumph over its pagan enemy.

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Renaissance Society • Peasants: Not much change since Middle Ages • The Nuclear Family was most common • Only the rich could afford to have extended families

Marriage • Economics still important • Dowries • Marriage age earlier than Middle Ages due to better economic times • Men late 20’s, Women under 20 • EXCEPT in Italy…Men married when much older to very young girls

Low illegitimate birth rate • BUT increased infanticide • Especially girl babies • Increased abandonment (especially girls) • Increased #’s of Foundling hospitals • St. Vincent de Paul began as a foundling hospital

Renaissance Society • Divorce limited but available in reformed countries (Protestant countries) • Prostitution way up…especially in Italy (men married later) • Many women in the North worked

Homosexuality • The word was first used in 1892

Prior to 1892 was called: • Sodomy: All sexual acts among the same sex • Or • Sexual Acts Against Nature: Any act not leading to conception • Both above referred to males • Scientific thought: Women cannot have erotic pleasure without men

Homosexual MUST have been prevalent during the Renaissance • Because there were an increased number of sermons against it • And an increased number of laws against it.

Homosexuality • 1432 in Florence: The Office of the Night to root out sodomy • 1432-1502 17,000 arrests • Homosexuality was common to ALL classes • BUT very rare to have two ADULT males in a relationship…

Age determined the roles in a homosexual relationship • Boys had the passive role • Men had the dominant role • Age determined role and stages of life • NOTE: in adult men masculinity was NOT compromised due to the role. • Boys’ families often ENCOURAGED the relationship…gifts, money, etc.

Why so common? • Women were expected to be chaste, secluded, respectable • 30% of men NEVER married • Many men married later in life • Those men who did marry were expected to give up the homosexual relationship

Slavery • During the Middle Ages in Eastern and Western Europe, enslavement of pagans was okay • THEN…expansion and migration • Germans enslaved Poles and Bohemians • “Slavery” = unfree person of Slavic origin

Slavery • Labor shortage caused by plague, war = rising prices for slaves • Used as agricultural workers, domestic servants, concubines • Genoa and Venice were the centers of the slave trade

Slavery • Generally Eastern Europeans were enslaved by Western Europeans: Russians, Tartars, Serbs, Albanians, Greeks, Hungarians • Gradually intermarriage between Italians and above groups • Slaves were absorbed into the Italian society

African Slavery • Began long before the Renaissance but not many Africans in Europe and not the same kind of slavery as the American form • BUT huge increase with 15th century demand for sugar (required plantation labor) • Portugal first into the African slave trade as we know it

African Slavery • By 1550 Africans were 3% of Portugal’s population • 1558 England’s Queen Elizabeth decried the rising numbers of Blacks in England due to the competition for jobs with poor whites

African Slaves • Were in big demand in Renaissance courts • Sign of wealth • Exotic, curiosities, entertaining • In Europe slavery was benign • Rare for a freed African slave to return home • Slavery was NOT a racial matter until the 17th century

Slavery • In Europe very little was known about African culture • Our knowledge came from Biblical accounts • Theology: God is light, Devil is Dark • Belief by Christians AND Muslims: Contact could only “improve” the Africans

The Pope and Slavery • The Pope threatened excommunication for owning Black slaves but he was ignored and defied

Renaissance Society