Making the Renaissance Man

Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy

Timothy McCall

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781789147858
• eBook ISBN: 9781789148145
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Renaissance History
• Index: History

Looking beyond the marble elegance of Michelangelo's David, the pugnacious, passionate, and—crucially—important story of Renaissance manhood. Making the Renaissance Man explores the images, objects, and experiences that fashioned men and masculinity in the courts of fifteenth-century Italy. Across the peninsula, Italian princes fought each other in fierce battles and spectacular jousts, seduced mistresses, flaunted splendor in lavish rituals of knighting, and demonstrated prowess through the hunt—all ostentatious performances of masculinity and the drive to rule. Hardly frivolous pastimes, these activities were essential displays of privilege and virility; indeed, violence underlay the cultural veneer of the Italian Renaissance. Timothy McCall investigates representations and ideals of manhood in this time and provides a historically grounded and gorgeously illustrated account of how male identity and sexuality proclaimed power during a century crucial to the formation of Early Modern Europe.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction: Making Renaissance Men
• 1 Chivalry and Courtly Masculinity
• 2 Aristocratic Animals and Men at Court
• 3 Courtly Mistresses: Representation and Power
• 4 The Girl with an Ermine Between Men: Cecilia Gallerani, Leonardo da Vinci and Ludovico Sforza
• 5 Borso d’Este and the History of Lordly Sexuality
• REFERENCES
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• PHOTO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INDEX