| This qualifying paper examines the ways in which concepts of women's chastity and virtue influenced their ability to commission architectural spaces and artworks within the courts of Renaissance Italy. It synthesizes recent theories concerning the gendering of space, as well as scholarship concerning women's patronage to argue that women formed networks with their friends and relatives in order to navigate patriarchal patronage structures.; This paper is divided into two chapters, covering the general history of feminine space and then moving on to specific cases of women's patronage of personal spaces. Chapter One argues that while women were active in creating spaces, which could speak publicly about their accomplishments and ambitions, they were also confined within those spaces. Chapter Two discusses the network created by five Renaissance noblewomen: Eleonora d'Aragona, Isabella d'Este, Veronica Gambara, Paola Gonzaga and Silvia Sanvitale, and asserts that the spaces created by and for these women were products of their relationships with each other. |
