Aegis 2015
58
I’m a Princess Cut from Marble: Gender in the Renaissance >>> Emma van Hessalt Gender has played a vital role in thousands of years of history all over the world. Today most feminist scholars recognize gender as a social construct, and that allows them to analyze how gender has played a part in historical events and eras, as well as the changes that history has had on gender perception and roles, over time and location. Of the many historical eras and movements, the Italian Renaissance is one of the most famous, known for the strides made in humanism, art, philosophy, and science. However, with the rise of feminist scholars, a new question has arisen that asks what is the myth of how were women living during the Renaissance and how much freedom did they actually have? Examining the different scholarship on this topic can help construct a broader picture of the debate and the historical arguments. Some authors, like Joan Kelly, claim that women did not benefit from the Renaissance. Others, like Judith C. Brown and Monica Chojnacka, say that women had more freedom than previously thought. Each author has analyzed a different time period, taking into account different intersections and lenses by which to look at women’s history throughout Renaissance Italy. Together, they have created a broad range of analysis dedicated entirely to women and the freedom their gender afforded them throughout this historical period and geographical location. Taking the stance that women did not have freedom, Joan Kelly, in her article, Did Women have a Renaissance?, asserts that women did not have a renaissance, either at all- like was the case in the bourgeois- or not to the same extent- like in the nobility1, and through her explanations she asserts that women’s freedom in the Renaissance was a step back from the medieval ages. She prefaces her argument by outlining what she considered while making this thesis; regulations of female sexuality versus male sexuality, women’s political and economic power and opportunities, women’s cultural roles and access to education, and the prevailing ideology about women, both through the analysis of art and philosophy of the time as well as women’s activities during the time.2 Kelly begins her argument by setting the stage in the medieval age of feudalism and the beginning of the age of courtly love- which she claims was only able to prevail because of Europe’s political situation, which granted women an amount of power between the state and the men in power. Kelly begins to explain how Italy’s unique political landscape- full of city-states and shifting leaderships in which the state was above any individual man, which therefore lowered women down even more - did not allow for women to exercise the same power that the noble women in medieval Europe. In her second section, The Renaissance Lady: Politics and Culture, she brings up examples of two Renaissance women, Caterina Sforza and Elisabetta Gonzaga. Caterina come into her power by marrying into a powerful family, and further proved that power by acting as regent and quelling movements of unrest more than
