Date of Award
Spring 2024
Thesis Type
Open Access
Degree Name
Honors Bachelor of Arts
Department
Art History
Sponsor
Dr. Kimberly Dennis
Committee Member
Dr. MacKenzie Moon Ryan
Committee Member
Dr. Margaret McLaren
Abstract
This thesis explores works of art made in pre-modern Italy. Chapter One examines portraits of ‘Female Courtiers’ which display women’s adaptation of the ideal male courtier’s characteristics. These characteristics surpass that of the ideal woman who lack independence and who are confined by man-made definitions of the ideal. Chapter Two discusses a progression of the female courtier concept in which heroines are shown physically dominating men in art. The female artists of these paintings participated in the paragone at the time in which they competed against their male counterparts. Whereas non-transgressive portraits of women remained stable over time, men had greater freedom in regards to their portrayal. As a result of this freedom and Neoplatonic ideals, definitions of masculinity were much more fluid. Chapter Three investigates ‘Beautiful Boys’ in art, and this thesis views these portraits from a variety of gazes: male, female, and homoerotic. Paintings of Female Courtiers, “Women-On-Top,” and Beautiful Boys display gender transgressions in art thereby representing a variance in the otherwise strict gendered expectations of the pre-modern period, showing a desire for social change (particularly from women) or an attempt at reaffirming fabricated male superiority, and more generally the patriarchy. Women and male supporters specifically wanted to abandon the heteronormative, patriarchal, and misogynistic social structures in which they lived.
Recommended Citation
Tassent, Belle, "Gender Transgressions in Pre-Modern Italian Painting" (2024). Honors Program Theses. 239.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/honors/239
Rights Holder
Belle Tassent
Included in
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons