The Lost Tapestries of the City of Ladies: Christine de Pizan’s Renaissance LegacyUniversity of California Press, 29 nov. 2004 - 254 pages Like a particularly good detective story, this richly textured book follows tantalizing clues in its hunt for a group of missing artistic masterpieces. Susan Bell recounts both her long search for a series of sixteenth-century tapestries that celebrated women and her efforts to understand their meaning for Queen Elizabeth I of England and the other powerful women who owned them. Opening a new window on the lives of noblewomen in the Renaissance, the brilliantly colored tapestries that were the ultimate artistic luxury of the day, and the popular and influential fourteenth-century writer Christine de Pizan, Bell pursues a compelling tale that moves from centuries past to today. The tapestries around which this story revolves are linked to Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies (1405), orginally published six hundred years ago in 1405. The book is a tribute to women that honors two hundred female warriors, scientists, queens, philosophers, and builders of cities. Though twenty-five manuscripts of the City of Ladies still exist, references to tapestries based on the book are elusive. Bell takes us along as she tracks down records of six sets of tapestries whose owners included Elizabeth I of England; Margaret of Austria; and Anne of Brittany, Queen of France. Bell examines the intriguing details of these women's lives—their arranged marriages, their power, their affairs of state—asking what interest they had in owning these particular tapestries. Could the tapestries have represented their thinking? As she reveals the historical, linguistic, and cultural aspects of this unique story, Bell also gives a fascinating account of medieval and early-Renaissance tapestry production and of Christine de Pizan's remarkable life and legacy. |
Table des matières
Queen Elizabeths Tapestries | 3 |
Tapestry Production in the Early Renaissance | 43 |
Margaret of Austria and the Tournai Tapestries | 72 |
Anne of Brittanys Cité des dames | 111 |
The Cietie of Dammys in Scotland | 124 |
The Citie of Ladies at the English Court | 139 |
Christine de Pizans Legacy to the Renaissance | 149 |
241 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
Amboise Anne of Brittany Anne of France Anne's arras aulnes Bibliothèque Book Bretagne British Library Brittany's brother Brussels Burgundy Catherine of Aragon Charles VIII Charlotte of Savoy château Chris Christine de Pizan Christine's cietie of Dammys cité des dames City of Ladies daughter death depicting duke Earl Jeffrey Richards Elizabeth England English estries father fifteenth Flemish French court garderobe Grenier hangings Henry VIII History of Tapestry husband illustrations Inventaire inventory James Jean king Ladies tapestries later livre des trois Louis XII Louise of Savoy manuscript Margaret of Austria Marguerite marriage married Mary of Guise Maximilian medieval meters mother Museum palaces Paris patrons pece Philip Pisan Poissy political prince Princess Queen of Scots regent Renaissance Scotland set of City set of tapestries six panels sixteenth century story tapestry historians tapisseries tapissier throne Tournai trans translation treasures trois vertus Tudor VIII's weavers weaving widow wife woman women woven young