| I argue that the Palazzo del Te (1525-1535) functioned as a space in which courtly masculinity was constructed and performed. Giulio Romano's playful approach to architectural proportion and structural integrity, described by contemporaneous sources as disorienting and even frightening, was nevertheless thought to enhance Federico II Gonzaga's princely authority. Through court festivities and ceremonial processions the palace served as a stage on which Federico II and his heirs performed before foreigners and locals alike. The architecture and decoration of the palace depict an idealized masculinity, in which Federico II and his heirs are depicted as godlike rulers, loyal subjects, virile lovers, prudent leaders, and good Christians. Moreover, through dynamic interactions with the Palazzo del Te the Gonzaga princes produced gendered and sexual identities that reverberated beyond the building's confines.;I investigate the ways in which the palace was used to perform gender roles from the Palazzo del Te's inauguration in 1530 until the Sack of Mantua in 1630, and examine the role of the palace in constructing an ideally masculine image of the Gonzaga dynasty during the visits of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1530 and 1532), King Henry III (1574), and a series of newly-wedded brides (1584-1617). While the way in which the palace was employed changed over time, its role as a space wherein the Gonzaga princes performed an active, virile, and witty masculinity remained constant. This study unites archival evidence concerning the palace's ceremonial use with Judith Butler's theory of gender performance and Henri Lefebvre's conception of social space to reveal the intersections between social discourse on gender and personal agency at the Palazzo del Te. Not only did the palace play an instrumental role in the construction and reception of masculinity at the Gonzaga court, it also allowed individuals to negotiate their gender identities. By investigating the ways in which the Gonzaga family and their guests experienced the palace, my dissertation argues that gender was constituted in dynamic relation to space and that the Palazzo del Te was ideally suited to the performance of Renaissance gender roles. |
