The Renaissance: Different Perspectives Women and The renaissance

History How do we know history? Sources There are many problems- can we “think like they did” or “try to imagine being in their shoes” Can/should we judge the past/actors of the past?

Marco Polo’s Unicorn Marco Polo- 13th century Italian explorer- recorded his travels across Asia to China and back Came across numerous animals and sights he had never seen before and didn’t understand. His recordings show us how we think of things within our own known perspectives

Marco Polo’s Unicorn “unicorns are scarcely smaller than elephants. They have hair of a buffalo and a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead. They are very ugly brutes to look at…not at all as we describe them to be…” What was he looking at, that he thought was a unicorn?

The Point is… Marco Polo used what he knew to understand what he didn’t know As historians we cannot put our present ideas into the events and minds of the past How to do this: EVIDENCE….but what if there isn’t any evidence…

Perspective A perspective is a viewpoint from which a person sees an event Bias A perspective is biased if it unfairly prejudices the result in favour of one person or group

Bonaparte Crossing the St. Bernard Pass, Jacques-Louis David (1801)

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, Paul Delaroche (1850)

Women in the Renaissance Education Little or no Education Upper class women Literate Castiglione’s The Courtier recommends a Humanist education for both genders Medieval ideal was chivalry- women were on a pedestal- new idea was woman for man’s comfort contentment and for family lines

**Generally, women did not work, and were not allowed in Politics** Women as a reflection of family Appearance, Chastity, Charm Under male authority In the House New “nuclear family” = more power in house, but less outside (Domestic vs. Public) Taught to manage the house and serve men Managed family finances and children **Generally, women did not work, and were not allowed in Politics**

Did Women have a Renaissance? Joan Kelly-Gadol Feminist insight Events in History that further development of men have opposite effect on women Argues women did NOT have a Renaissance Women ‘imprisoned in their own homes’ during the Renaissance Art and literature of the Renaissance emphasizes female dependence, male domination; Women as evil beings

Excerpt “Renaissance ideas on love and manners… expressed this new subordination of women to the interests of husbands and male-dominated [family] groups and served to justify the removal of women from an “unladylike” position of power and… independence. All the Advances of Renaissance Italy… worked to mold the noblewoman into an aesthetic object: decorous, chaste and doubly dependent on her husband as well as the prince.” Haberman, Arthur, and Adrian Shubert. The West and The World. Toronto: Gage Learning Corporation, 2002, 17.