This project looks at two members of Florence’s Medici family, Cosimo il Vecchio (1389-1464) and Duke Cosimo I (1519-1574), in an attempt to assess how they used the patronage of art to facilitate their rule. By looking at their individual political representations through art, the specifics of their propagandist works and what form these pieces of art came, it is possible to analyze their respective rules. This analysis allows for a clearer understanding of how these two men, each in very different positions, found art as an ally for their political endeavors. While they were in power only one hundred years apart, they present uniquely different strategies for the purpose of creating and maintaining their power through the patronage of art.

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While scholarship often focuses on how early modern Italians used images in their devotions, particularly in the post-Tridentine era, little attention has been placed upon how laypeople engaged with devotional text during times of prayer and in their everyday lives. Studies of early modern devotional texts have explored their literary content, investigated their censorship by the Church, or concentrated upon an elite readership. This thesis, instead, investigates how ordinary devotees interacted with holy words in their material form, which I have termed ‘material prayers’. Since this thesis developed under the aegis of the interdisciplinary research project, Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Italian Renaissance Home, 1400-1600, it focuses primarily on engagement with these material prayers in domestic spaces. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing from material culture studies, literary history, social and cultural history, and art history, it brings together objects, images and archival sources to illuminate how devotees from across the socio-economic and literacy spectrums accessed and employed devotional text in their prayers and daily life. From holy words, Biblical excerpts, and prayers to textual symbols like the Sacred Monogram of the Name of Jesus, this thesis explores how and why these material prayers were employed for spiritual, apotropaic and intercessory purposes. It analyses material prayers not only in traditional textual formats (printed books and manuscripts), but also those that were printed on single-sheets of paper, inscribed on jewellery, or etched into the structure of the home. To convey how devotees engaged with and relied upon these material prayers, it considers a variety of inscribed objects, including those sanctioned by the Church as well as those which might be questioned or deemed ‘superstitious’ by ecclesiastical authorities. Sermons, Inquisition trial records, and other archival documents have been consulted to further illuminate the material evidence. The first part of the thesis, ‘On the Body’, considers the how devotees came into personal contact with texts by wearing prayers on their bodies. It examines a range of objects including prayers with protective properties, known as brevi, that were meant to be sealed in a pouch and worn around the neck, and more luxurious items of physical adornment inscribed with devotional and apotropaic text, such as necklaces and rings. The second part of the thesis enters the home to explore how the spaces people inhabited and the objects that populated their homes were decorated with material prayers. ‘In the Home’ begins with texts inscribed over the entryways of early modern Italian homes, and then considers how devotees decorated their walls with holy words and how the objects of devotion and household life were imbued with religious significance through the addition of pious inscriptions. By analysing these personal objects and the textual domestic sphere, this thesis argues that these material prayers cut across socio-economic classes, genders, and ages to embody quotidian moments of domestic devotion as well as moments of fear, anxiety and change.

This study investigates the representation of Saracens in Boiardo's Inamoramento de Orlando and Ariosto's Orlando furioso, a subject that has attracted growing scholarly interest in recent years. Chapter I assesses the degree of realism in Boiardo's and Ariosto's portrayal of Islam and Islamic culture and locates the two poems in their historical context. Bringing to light unpublished archival material and other little-known historical sources, I argue that Boiardo and Ariosto drew inspiration from contemporary courtly culture which was characterised by openness towards the figure of the foreign prince. Chapter II explores Boiardo's engagement with earlier chivalric literature. It examines Boiardo's use of names and characters from earlier texts and evaluates the Saracens' contribution to the ideology that underpins the poem. It is shown that Saracens play an important role in promoting the ‘Arthurian’ chivalric ideals. Chapters III and IV analyse Ariosto's indebtedness to and departures from his predecessor, suggesting that there is a much greater continuity between the two Orlandos than is allowed by Cavallo and other scholars who are anxious to stress Ariosto's 'conservatism'. While chapter III is devoted to a wide-ranging analysis of the Saracen world in Ariosto, chapter IV deals with a topic that has recently generated much heated debate, namely the climactic confrontation between Rodomonte and Ruggiero and the ending of the Orlando furioso and how it should be understood, and I propose a new interpretation of the final canto by highlighting the concept of honour, a fundamental value for both Boiardo and Ariosto as well as for their early readers and for many chivalric authors alike. In my view, Rodomonte is the true winner of the duel. The significance of his 'moral' victory is examined in the study's final conclusion, where it is argued that it undermines Ariosto’s encomiastic project.

[pt] O sagrado refere-se ao que está relacionado ao divino, ao culto. As imagens também fazem parte do universo do sagrado. Durante a Idade Média e no movimento do Renascimento, o simbolismo que a religiosidade representa exerce significativa força no cotidiano. No movimento renascentista, a produção de imagens religiosas se intensificou, esse aumento indica uma intencionalidade da religião predominante no período. Esta dissertação se propõe a analisar as relações do mecenato da Igreja Católica em relação à duas pinturas produzidas pelo pintor Rafael Sanzio, do renascimento italiano. A força, a subjetividade, a potência de afetação são alguns dos elementos presentes nas imagens com a temática religiosa que precisam ser considerados como fundamentais para a compreensão da representação, funcionalidade e intenção das imagens. / [en] The sacred refers to what is related to the divine, to worship. The images are also part of the universe of the sacred. During the Middle Age and in the Renaissance movement, the symbolism that religiosity represents exerts significant force in everyday life. In the Renaissance movement, the production of religious images intensified and the increase indicates an intentionality of the predominant religion in that period. This work proposes to analyze the relations between the patronage of the Catholic Church and two paintings by the painter Rafael Sanzio, which was an artist of the Italian renaissance. The strength, subjectivity and power are some of the elements presented in the images with the religious theme, which must be considered as fundamental for the understanding of the representation, functionality and intention of the images.

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of posthumous portraits in the Tornabuoni family as a tool of positioning itself through visual rhetorics. The basis for the examination is three portraits of Francesca Pitti, Giovanna degli Albizzi and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, together with an altarpiece depicting the Visitation with Mary Jachobi and Mary Salome. The study uses iconography to analyse the images and using a rhetorical analysis to understand the visual rhetorics used by the family. The study finds that there are different hidden meanings in the portraits, Francesca is remembered by her husband by pure grief; Lucrezia is honoured as the bridge between the Tornabuoni and the Medici families, and Giovanna is remembered by her husband as the continuation of the dynasty in its time of crisis, as well as the pure loss and grief of his beloved wife and unborn child inside the walls of the palazzo. This study uses the theoretical framework of visual rhetorics, as developed by the historian Paul Zanker and adopted by art historian Johan Eriksson, to analyse the behaviour of commissioning posthumous portraits of deceased women and viewing them both in public and private spaces in churches and in the palazzo. As Alberti says: ''Through painting, the faces of the dead go on living for a very long time.''

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Longtemps figé dans l'immobilité, le portrait peint de la Renaissance va s'animer grâce à une gestuelle qui fit l'objet d'une construction progressive. Très précoce, l'idée du geste: est présente dès 1440 chez Filippo Lippi dans les portraits féminins, à partir de 1450 chez Andrea del Castagno pour une effigie masculine et, en 1470, chez Antonello da Messina pour les mimiques. Mais la norme est au portrait en buste et d'autres freins, imposés par les commanditaires, perdureront jusqu'à la fin du XVIe siècle. En dépit des tentatives dissidentes d'Antonello da Messina, de Léonard de Vinci, ou, plus tard, de Bartolomeo Passerotti, c’est le modèle princier qui va s'imposer.Trois types d'écrits de l'Antiquité se préoccupent de l'apparence du corps et de la civilisation des mœurs : les préceptes éducatifs, souvent intégrés à des thèmes plus vastes, les traités de physiognomonie qui tentent de lire sur le visage les intentions ou la destinée de l'autre, et la rhétorique, qui s'intéresse plus particulièrement à l'ethos, au pathos mais aussi à la gestuelle de l'orateur. Ces textes seront reçus à la Renaissance dans divers domaines qui traitent tous, à un moment ou un autre, du geste. Les traités des éducateurs du Quattrocento, qui jalonnent la mise en œuvre d’une véritable réforme, cèderont la place aux manuels de savoir-vivre du XVIe siècle. A partir de 1455, les maîtres à danser lombards posèrent par écrit les premiers éléments d'une théorie de la danse. Les traités artistiques s'intéressèrent au decorum dans lequel s'inscrit le geste. Au tout début du XVIIe siècle, un certain nombre de conventions furent enregistrées dans des recueils illustrés de chironomie. Loin de considérer le doigt, la main ou les membres comme des détails sémantiques, cette thèse montre que la gestuelle est un signal social à replacer dans son environnement. Elle s’est ouverte sur l’histoire de l’éducation, centrale dans celle du geste, ainsi que sur celle du genre, ou encore de la place de l’enfant et de la parentalité. Une place importante a été consacrée à l’histoire du costume, celui que l’on a choisi pour ces images. Au terme de ce travail, il devient évident que le Moyen Âge n’est pas la seule période à avoir vu se développer une "civilisation du geste". L'analyse des textes, de l’Antiquité comme de la Renaissance, révèle une remarquable continuité dans la conception et les théories relatives à la gestuelle, sous-tendue par l'Institution Oratoire, particulièrement la partie traitant de l'actio. Quintilien eut une réception de longue durée dans les arts de la prédication et, de manière plus subtile, ses qualités d’éducateur et d’observateur de l'enfance ont également favorisé sa transmission dans le cadre pédagogique. Cet auteur enseignait l’utilisation programmée du geste pour appuyer le discours, pointant comme un défaut la négligence dans "la toge, la chaussure et le cheveu". Déjà pour lui, ce soin devait être imperceptible, l’éducation et l’apprêt physique devenant comme une seconde nature, la sprezzatura avant l'heure. Parcourant nos images, la référence à l'actio qui s'est imposée depuis l'Antiquité dans l'éducation, l'expression, la représentation imagée ou théâtrale, rend compte de la précocité de cette civilisation et de sa pérennité dans le temps. Le geste s’impose comme un patrimoine vivant, transmis le plus souvent de manière inconsciente de siècle en siècle, par le biais d’une multitude de canaux et de disciplines, parmi lesquels on compte le portrait, à la fois récepteur et vecteur. / The portrait, long considered as a rigid pictorial genre, became increasingly lively through the progressive introduction of gestural expression. This idea appeared as early as 1440 in Filippo Lippi’s female portraits, in 1450 in Andrea del Castagno’s painting of a man and in 1470, in Antonello da Messina’s mimes. But the standard surrounding is bust-length portraiture and other restrictions on movement, imposed by the commissions, lasted until the 16th century. Despite various dissenting works, such as those of Antonello da Messina, Leonardo Da Vinci, or later, Bartolomeo Passerotti, the Princely model held sway.In Antiquity, three literary categories, each with a different approach, addressed the appearance of the body and civilization of the customs : educational precepts often contained within vaster literary works, physiognomic treatises — which attempt to read from faces an individual’s intentions and destiny — and rhetorical studies which, in particular, concern the ethos and the pathos, but equally the orator’s gestures. During the Renaissance these three disciplines all influenced various domains, which are interested, at one point or another, in the gesture. The Quattocento’s didactic treatises, which paved the way for a true reform, were replaced by manuals of etiquette in the 16th century. From 1455, the Lombard dancing masters wrote the initial elements of a theory of dance. Artistic treatises on painting and sculpture insist on the decorum which included gesture. At the very beginning of the 17th century, a certain number of modern conventions were recorded in illustrated collections of chironomy.Far from considering the finger, the hand or the members as semantic details, this thesis shows that body movement is a social signal to be placed back in its environment. It open on the history of education, central in that of gesture, as well as on that of the genre, or still the place of children and the parenthood. An important place was dedicated to the history of the garment, the one that was chose for these pictures.Through this work, it becomes obvious that the Middle Ages are not the only period to have seen developing a "civilization of the gesture". The analysis of texts, of Antiquity as of Renaissance, reveals a remarkable continuity in the conception and the theories relative to the body movements, underlain by the Oratorical Institution, particularly the part dealing with the actio. Quintilien had a long-term reception in the arts of preaching and, in a more subtle way, his qualities of educator and observer of the childhood also favoured his transmission in the educational frame. This author taught the use scheduled of the gesture to support the speech, considering a defect the carelessness in "the toga, the shoe and the hair". Already for him, this care was to be imperceptible, the education and the body care becoming as a second nature, the sprezzatura before time. Browsing our images, the reference to the actio that got established since Antiquity in education, expression, and both pictorial and theatrical imagery, acknowledges how precocious that civilization was and how perennial it has been.The gesture is asserted as a living heritage, transmitted more or less consciously through time, through a myriad of conduits and disciplines, including the portrait, both as recipient and vector.

La thèse est consacrée à l’œuvre de portraitiste de Parmigianino au cours des deux périodes parmesanes de sa carrière, depuis sa naissance en 1503 jusqu’à son départ pour Rome en 1524, puis de 1531 à 1540, date de son décès. L’objet de la recherche est d’élucider les significations propres à chacune des effigies du corpus et d’analyser les processus plastiques et sémantiques par lesquels le peintre a élaboré les discours figuratifs que constituent ses portraits, dans le contexte de leur commande, production et réception. A cette fin, on a opté pour une approche pluridisciplinaire. La thèse débute par une étude de l’histoire artistique de Parme de 1500 à 1540 et une analyse des pratiques du portrait dans cette ville, au regard de ses nombreuses relations avec d’autres centres culturels et artistiques (Milan, Venise, Bologne, Florence et Rome). L’histoire sociale et politique de Parme pendant la première moitié du Cinquecento est un autre sujet de la recherche. Son objet est l’articulation des transformations institutionnelles au sein de la comune, les conquêtes par plusieurs pouvoirs étrangers entre 1499 et 1520 jusqu’à la création du duché de Parme et Piacenza par Paul III en 1545 avec le marché et les pratiques du portrait. Après cette étude du contexte, chacun des portraits de Parmigianino est examiné de façon approfondie, à travers une approche trans-disciplinaire qui associe histoire de l’art, histoire culturelle (littérature, du livre et de l’édition, emblématique, traditions de la rhétorique, débats linguistiques), histoire sociale et politique. / The dissertation deals with Parmigianino’s activity as a portraitist during the two periods of time he spent in his native Parma, between 1503 and 1524 and then between 1531 and 1540. Its aim is to analyze the painter’s male portraits in particular, that is to to clarify their specific significances and, at the same time, to elucidate the visual and semantic processes through which Parmigianino elaborated the figurative discourses that his portraits convey, in the artistic, cultural, social and political context of their creation. To reach this goal, several methodological approaches are used. The disseration begins with a close study of the artistic history of Parma between 1500 and 1540 and an analysis of the traditions related to portraiture in the city, with regard to its many cultural and political relations to other regions and states (Milan, Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome). The political history of Parma during the first half of the Cinquencento is an other field of research. Its purpose is to articulate the many institutionnal transformations of the comune, the conquest of Parma by several foreign powers between 1499 and 1520, until the creation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza by Pope Paul III, with the market and practices of portraiture. After this close examination of the context, Parmigianino’s portraits are analyzed through a trans-disciplinary approach that deals with art history, cultural history (literature, history of the book, emblems, traditions of rethoric, linguistic debates), social and political history).