TY - BOOK AU - Gislon Dopfel,Costanza TI - Women, fertility, and maternal art in Renaissance Florence T2 - Subversive histories, feminist futures SN - 9781003371960 U1 - 757/.4094551109031 23/eng/20240918 PY - 2025/// KW - Mary, KW - Motherhood in art KW - Art, Italian KW - Italy KW - Florence KW - 15th century KW - Themes, motives KW - Art, Renaissance KW - Fertility, Human KW - Social aspects KW - Art and society KW - History KW - Florence (Italy) KW - Social conditions N1 - Maternal art. Mary as Queen -- Mary as Mother -- The Nativity of Jesus -- St Bridget's vision -- The Nativity of Mary -- Society and art. Florence and the fight for survival -- Marriage -- Female visual epic -- Children -- Widows, nuns, and patrons N2 - "Women, Fertility and Maternal Art in Renaissance Florence examines maternity-centered art to reveal women's crucial function in saving Florence from a depopulation catastrophe. Nativity and Madonna and Child images that graced many households and chapels in Florentine society formed a program of visual indoctrination, championing a "birth epic" that glorified the social duty of reproduction but dismissed its high risk. As images emphasizing women's reproductive value multiplied throughout the century, the accounts of their deaths in childbirth and the records of their elaborate public funerals present these mothers as new examples of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. This book re-centers the history of the Renaissance around women and their bodies - both as subjects of artistic representation and as critical but ignored contributors to Florentine society. It proposes a more inclusive vision of an era that is still too often addressed exclusively via the history of its male artists, bankers and merchants. Women, Fertility and Maternal Art in Renaissance Florence appeals to both students and scholars in field of Art History, Renaissance Art and Gender Studies, but is also suitable for the general reader with interest in these areas"-- UR - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003371960 ER -