Aristocratic women exerted unprecedented political and social influence in Florence throughout the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. During this period, female members of the powerful Medici family governed the city for the first and only time in its history. These women also helped shape the city’s artistic life, commissioning works of music, art, and theater that were inscribed with their own concerns and aspirations. Echoes of Women’s Voices examines the patronage of individuals and institutions, particularly convents, which have remained, until now, largely neglected by scholars.

Through commissions, patrons sought to promote a vision of the world and their place in it. The unique social norms, laws, educational backgrounds, and life experiences of female patrons meant the expression of a worldview that differed significantly from that of their male counterparts. Joining exceptional archival research with telling analysis of significant examples of music, art, and drama, Kelley Harness challenges the prevailing view that Florence saw a political and artistic decline during this period. She argues convincingly that the female domination of these years brought forth artistic patronage that was both continuous and well-conceived.

CONTENTS:

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Notes to the Reader
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Modes of Artistic Communication and Perception in Early Modern Florence
2. “A more than virile prudence”: Archduchess Maria Magdalena
3. Amazons of God: Virgin Martyrs Spectacles, 1621–25
4. “Una forte, magnanima, e generosa vedova”: Judith
5. “She hoped to see in the triumphs of religion the triumphs of her house”: Epic-Chivalric Poems and the Equestrian Ballets
6. “Now it suits me to beseech”: End of the Regency, End of a Decade (1628–30)
7. “One of the most Perfect Unions of the Spiritual and the Temporal imaginable”: The Monastero di Santa Croce
8. “Queens of the Arno”: Medici Princesses and the Crocetta
Appendix A. Female Worthies Depicted in Lunette Frescoes in the Audience Room, Villa Poggio Imperiale
Appendix B. Summary of Book 3 of the Acts of Paul
Select Bibliography
Index 

AUTHOR:

Kelley Harness is associate professor of music at the University of Minnesota.