Victoria H. Ehrlich
Book Review
Erin J. Campbell, Stephanie R.
Miller, and Elizabeth Carroll Consavari, eds., The Early Modern Italian Domestic Interior, 1400-1700: Objects, Spaces,
Domesticities. Ashgate (Surrey, UK, 2013), 282pp. ISBN: 978-1-4094-6811-0
1> In his De re aedificatoria, Leon Battista Alberti likens the architecture
of a house to a city in miniature. Just as a city must be painstakingly arranged
so as to anticipate the daily needs of its citizens, so too, should a house be
designed to ensure the health of those who dwell within and offer “every
facility and every convenience to contribute to a peaceful, tranquil, and
refined life.” The precise dimensions of
this daily life are left largely unexplored in his treatise, a lacuna which is
addressed in The Early Modern Italian Domestic Interior, 1400-1700: Objects,
Spaces, Domesticities. The carefully considered essays in this volume represent
an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship that has
foregrounded the role of objects and the function of domestic spaces as
critical to our understanding of early modern sensibilities.
2> In their introduction, Erin J.
Campbell, Stephanie R. Miller, and Elizabeth Carroll Consavari characterize
this collective inquiry into early modern domesticity as emerging from a
“desire to enter the Italian palazzo or casa”
(1) in order to bring into more comprehensive focus the various relationships
between objects, spaces, and people that together constituted the domestic
sphere. As defined by the editors, these
spaces are “multi-layered, fluid, and contingent environments” that eschew
fixity, and can be more productively mapped “over time and space” (3). To that end, these essays take into account
the shifting functions of spaces and objects within the home, as well as their
role in fostering sociability and preserving familial identities.
3> The geographic diversity of
the case studies in this volume serves to transport readers through domestic
spaces in Bologna, Ferrara, Urbino, and Rome, and provides additional stops in
the city-states of Florence and Venice. Although their studies employ
traditional art historical methods, these scholars frequently venture into an
interdisciplinary realm, traversing waters that have, in the not so distant past, been the purview of architectural, social, and economic historians. In so
doing, they emphasize the social valence of objects within the nexus of family,
patrons, friends, and servants that defined early modern domesticities.
4> The first of four sections, “Domesticities” contains
three essays that provide treatments of the domestic sphere and its various
iterations. The frequent reformulation of living spaces to accommodate the
changing needs of the family is a common theme that emerges from these chapters.
Catherine Fletcher’s analysis of the inventory drawn up after Francesco
Casali’s death provides insight into the various factors that enabled the
movement of occupants and household objects between the family palazzo in
Bologna and the country villa at Montevecchio. Just as both the palazzo and
villa could be transformed to host guests of the family, so too, could
individual rooms be repurposed when the situation required. In her chapter, Adelina
Modesti illuminates the multiple functions of Elisabetta Sirani’s family home
in Bologna, which simultaneously served as an artist studio and academy for
female students. Rooms were adapted to receive and entertain distinguished
guests, and contained a display case in which were arranged various gifts she
had received from admirers of her work. Sirani’s
“casa-studio” (48) shares elements in common with Cardinal Pietro Bembo’s
appropriation of a borrowed residence in Rome. From surviving letters, Susan
Nalezyty reconstructs the decoration and arrangement of the cardinal’s living quarters.
She argues that by selectively incorporating objects of value from his personal
collection into the environs of the Palazzo Baldassini, he successfully created
a personalized environment conducive for the “intellectual inquiry and
convivial happenings” (33) for which he was known.
5>
Part II of this volume highlights
the range of associations forged between people, spaces, and objects within
domestic interiors. Stephanie R. Miller examines the artifacts, works of art,
and spaces associated with raising children, and reads them in concert with
contemporary texts on parenting. Her
study presents a picture of growing up in an early modern home as one filled
with many passages—from natal home to wet nurse and back again, from infancy to
childhood and then adolescence, and from the domestic spaces of the interior to
the civic spaces of the city. Both
Margaret A. Morse and Erin J. Campbell focus on the nuanced ways paintings catalyzed
social ties. Morse contends that the portego, a central hall and
thoroughfare that provided access to adjacent rooms, was a space that held
considerable spiritual value for Venetian families. Here, paintings with
religious subjects could be displayed to aid and confirm a family’s religious
devotion within a semi-public space. Campbell provides a nuanced context for
the many unattributed paintings listed in Bolognese inventories that featured subjects
important for the moral and religious development of the family. She argues
that these works, deemed appropriate for family audiences, were chosen for
their educative value and served to mediate social processes within the home. Together
these essays indicate that paintings were important vehicles for the
transmission of values whether used in the process of raising children, as
Miller points out, for forging familial identity, as Morse argues, or for
serving as “multi-tasking tools for living” (117), as Campbell contends.
6> The penultimate section, “Domestic Objects and
Sociability,” is the most extensive. The five essays that fall within its
parameters bring to light a variety of social processes and rituals that fostered
relationships within and between families. Maria DePrano’s chapter fills a gap in
our knowledge of the types and forms of entertainment Florentine families enjoyed
at home. Her interpretation of the late
fifteenth-century inventory of the Tornabuoni reveals that the family strategically
used certain ground floor rooms, positioned near the entrance of the palazzo,
to entertain visitors and distinguished guests. Replete with objects that announced
the Tornobuoni’s distinguished status and wealth, she argues that this room positively
represented the family “as gracious, civic-minded, and cultured hosts” (136). The art collections amassed by Venetian
families in the sixteenth century share similar connotations. Elizabeth Carroll
Consavari augments what is known of how such collections could be deployed to foster
an atmosphere of culture and refinement within the home. She interprets the
growing presence of such “proto-art galleries” (153) in the homes of the urban elite
as their awareness and semi-public statement of “what it meant to live nobly”
(153).
7> Spaces dedicated to the preparation of food and its
consumption provided other opportunities for sociability. Katherine A. McIver investigates how, where,
and with whom people dined in the sixteenth century, drawing our attention to
the variety of experiences one might expect when sitting down at the early
modern table. Dinner with friends could
be enjoyed inside the sala or outdoors in the loggia, depending on the
season and occasion. McIver’s emphasis
on the performative aspects of preparing and consuming food resonates, too, in
Jennifer D. Webb’s essay, which examines the rituals that ordered daily life
within Federico da Montafeltro’s court at Urbino. From an instructional manual detailing the
proper management of the household, Webb presents a picture of the duke’s
household as a space designed to demonstrate his magnificence, intelligence,
and powerful status. While learned conversation and courtly entertainment were
important forms of sociability, Webb maintains that cleanliness and proper
etiquette were no less critical for conveying the magnitude of the duke’s
glory. Allyson Burgess Williams analyzes
the strategies Lucrezia Borgia used to articulate a public image within her
semi-private Ferrarese living quarters.
Because Borgia was acutely aware that her chambers would also
occasionally serve a public function, as they did during the ceremonial viewing
of her infant son, she chose fabrics, colors, and historiated tapestries that
associated her with the Este family and served to reflect her virtue.
8> Part IV, “Objectifying the Domestic Interior,”
concludes this volume, featuring two essays that evaluate the state of current
scholarship on early modern domesticities. Adriana Turpin’s essay chronicles
historical interpretations of domestic furnishings, focusing in particular on
nineteenth-century collections and their continuing influence on modern
scholarship of domestic interiors. Curators and collectors took various
approaches to recreating the early modern home. As her study reveals, different
notions of “authenticity” guided the formation of these assemblages, which
might include a combination of copies, restorations, and genuine objects. Susan
E. Wegner’s account of a more recent exhibition indicates that current museum
approaches to the period room have significant aspects in common with
exhibition practices of the nineteenth century.
Although the material artifacts that comprised the exhibition at Bowdoin
originated in different time periods and regions, she argues that the resulting
effort was nevertheless effective in providing modern viewers with a sense of
the “authentic” dynamism that characterized the early modern home.
9>
The self-described efforts of the editors to answer Richard Goldthwaite’s call
to “breathe a little social life into the Renaissance palace” (1) have resulted
here in a thoughtful contribution to the growing field of scholarship concerned
with the domestic sphere. As with any
truly good conversation, the essays in this volume articulate possible avenues
of inquiry that will continue to enhance our understanding of lived spaces in
the early modern period.
_____
Victoria H. Ehrlich is a Ph.D. candidate in the
History of Art at Cornell University. Her dissertation examines the role of
mythological heroes in the visual construction of the heroic ideal in
Quattrocento Florence. Her broader research interests in Italian Renaissance
art include classical mythology and its representation, the impact of humanism
on the visual arts, and early modern collecting practices.
_____
APPOSITIONS:
Studies in Renaissance / Early
Modern Literature and Culture,
http://appositions.blogspot.com/,
ISSN: 1946-1992,
Volume Eight (2015): Dialogues & Exchanges
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