Francesco Petrarch Research Paper

The Early Renaissance Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, or more commonly recognized Petrarch, composed Canzoniere. It includes two sonnets highly praising a now lost portrait of a woman named Laura, who Petrarch deeply loved but could never attain. The sonnets later then became the most important source for depicting women in art as well as literature. Broadly speaking, in both art and literature, the ideal female figures should possess physical beauties that signify their inner beauties.1 However, as beautiful and idealized as all those females are painted in their portraits, one interesting fact I found is that there is a huge difference between the degrees to which the sitters are dressed. In other words, some of them are dressed extremely

It is reasonable for us to first assume the reasons to be the different statues of the women depicted or the different occasions the paintings were commentated for. However, the truth is that portraiture during Renaissance was strictly class-specific, which means only those socially and economically privileged could be portrayed, and the more ordinary people would not even have the access or thoughts of doing so. As a matter of fact, Ginevra de' Benci was an aristocrat and daughter of a wealthy banker back in 15th Florence. And this portrait was probably commissioned around the time for her marriage at the age of 16. So the statuses of both women and the occasions of both paintings tend to be the same. Why Ginevra de' Benci differs from Woman with a Man at a Window could be better explained if we take the relationship between virtue and beauty into our considerations. It was believed by art historians that the plain, everyday dress of Ginevra de' Benci could convey her modesty, an important virtue for women to have in 15th century Italy. Even the choice of the cinnamon color of her dress shows a sense of demureness.12 This “muted” color subtly and elegantly emphasizes on the fine light-wool material but does not over-flaunt it.12 Yet still, the exquisite details of her dress after closer inspection indicates her aristocrat status that could not be mistaken.12 Due to this reason, Leonard is praised as “paints every detail of the dress with