As one of the first books to treat portraits of early modern women as a discrete subject; this volume considers the possibilities and limits of agency and identity for women in history and; with particular attention to gender; as categories of analysis for womens images. Its nine original essays on Italy; the Low Countries; Germany; France; and England deepen the usefulness of these analytical tools for portraiture. Among the books broad contributions: it dispels false assumptions about agencys possibilities and limits; showing how agency can be located outside of conventional understanding; and; conversely; how it can be stretched too far. It demonstrates that agency is compatible with relational gender analysis; especially when alternative agencies such as spectatorship are taken into account. It also makes evident the importance of aesthetics for the study of identity and agency. The individual essays reveal; among other things; how portraits broadened the traditional parameters of portraiture; explored transvestism and same-sex eroticism; appropriated aspects of male portraiture to claim those values for their sitters; and; as sites for gender negotiation; resistance; and debate; invoked considerable relational anxiety. Richly layered in method; the book offers an array of provocative insights into its subject.
2016-12-02 2016-12-02File Name: B01N0NBUXD
Review
