Belle Donne: Poets And Portraits
Guest Lectures
•
59m
Renaissance women were immortalized in poetry and painting as “belle donne” or “beautiful women.” The 14th century poet Petrarch’s Laura inspired not just written poetry, but painted works by 16th century artists such as Giorgione and Titian. “Belle donne” appeared on canvases, ceramic dishes, and prints. While some were named, others remain anonymous. In this talk we’ll examine how “belle donne” images functioned and compare them with Bronzino’s portrait of Laura Battiferri – a poet and the wife of sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati – to discover what happens when the subject of the painting is a poet herself.
Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning at Syracuse University London, where she has taught art history and history classes on Italian Art in London and the UK; Women and Art: London and UK; and Underground London.
She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the architectural patronage of the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.
Up Next in Guest Lectures
-
The Petrifying Effect: Beholding Cara...
In 1598, the Medusa by Caravaggio, today in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, was donated to the Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando de Medici by Cardinal del Monte. The cultivated Cardinal, true discoverer of Caravaggio’s talent and ambassador of the Medici family in Rome, knew that the Duke would have part...
-
Unoriginal Leonardo: Reimagining the ...
Join this video lecture to think outside the box about Leonardo da Vinci’s creativity. Open your mind to considering such unsettling questions as: What if Leonardo wasn’t as original as we usually think he was? What if he learned more from his predecessors and contemporaries than we thought? What...
-
"Stick With Me Baby, And You'll Be We...
Join Quentin Hardy for a spirited discussion of the great hidden force of the Renaissance: The arrival of the Merchant class after the Black Death and their battle for prestige amid the incumbent powers. With the Church condemning bankers to Hell (unless you’d like to buy this nice chapel) and th...