When we consider the role of women in the Florentine Renaissance there is a general consensus among historians that they were excluded from the public sphere. A predominant theme of confinement to the hearth and altar runs throughout the biographies of wealthy women in the period. We can find evidence to support this in the geography of the houses they were 'imprisoned' in. The Palazzo Davanzati is one of the last fully furnished houses of the period. The loggia, which creates a division through all four floors demarcates the space for both genders. The large and spacious rooms are complete with desks and was where business was conducted and was therefore a male only area. While at the back of the house are the bedrooms, cluttered and frescoed and where women and children would while away the day. Natalie Thomas in 'A Social History of Renaissance Florence' argues that in the case of patrician families it was a matter of protecting the virtuous chastity of the women as an asset essential to the securing of dowries and alliances through marriage. I would add to this that the violent factionalism and the desire to create communities of allied families was at least a contributing factor. However, when we read the literature or art of the trecento and the following centuries it is striking how prominent a role women play for a group as excluded as they are. Two extremely different celebrations of feminine attributes can be witnessed in both the Cult of Madonna and in Bocaccio's portrayal of women in the 'Decameron'.
The proliferation of images depicting the Virgin Mary is extraordinary; wrapped in her Lappis Lazuli mantle she gazes down on you from the walls of every church and gallery. The Queen of heaven appears in several traditional forms but the one that reveals most about Florentine attitudes to women is that of Madonna and Child. The Orthodox churches created the template of Madonna and Child. A tiny but fully developed Christ stands blessing on his mother's lap who looks more totem pole than human. The greater development of naturalism of Cimabue, Giotto and Duccio transformed this classic depiction. The most startling change is how they portrayed Christ. The transcendent majesty of Christ is morphed into the incarnate, a baby clutching at his mother. The serenity of the Orthodox image is turned into a vulnerable comment about the fragility of faith. It also elevates Mary from the foreground to a central protagonist. In so doing the relationship between a mother and her child is sacralised. It could be highlighted that Madonna represents the masculine Florentine's ideal, a virgin yet a provider of male heirs. Yet this does not successfully explain how in an age of very high infant mortality how essential the relationship between mothers and their children were. It might explain why women were encouraged to stay in the domestic realm. It does not excuse the Florentine attitude but equally it might give us an insight which from our contemporary standards might otherwise influence our perception.
On the other hand, others have emphasised the liberalism and promiscuity rampant between men and women during the period. In Bocaccio's 'Decameron' two of the ten days dedicated to story telling recount tales of the comedy of gender relations. P.Stewart introduces the concept of 'beffe' as a central theme of Bocaccio's novellas. 'Beffe' is the art of trickery and scandal, often the women and men are portrayed as wily Oddysseuses as they skillfuly manipulate their lovers and spouses. Reminiscent of the Wife of Bath women are shown at total intellectual parity with men by asserting their feminity.
The second story on day seven is told by Filostrate whose protagonist is a woman named Personella. She and her aristocratic lover are interrupted by her tradesman husband. After hiding her lover in the barrel she procedes to humiliate her husband who has come home early to sell a barrel. She then manipulates her husband into cleaning the barrel while she returns to the bedroom with her lover. She concludes by selling the barrel to her lover at a greater price thus utterly humiliating her simple husband! Though fiction, this story shows that women could be influential and far from the passive role commonly assigned to them by posterity. Bocaccio's humorous tales assert the role of women even in its structure, each day the story 'queen' dictates the theme and merits of each tale. He even satirises misogynistic attitudes one of the more stupid men proclaims that men have a "God-given superiority over women".
We should be cautious of these presentations of women; depicted and written by men and almost always paid for by men. Though we know that Bocaccio was a bestseller and Florentine women had some of the highest literacy rates in Europe. We also know that women attended church and in some cases were liberated by the church. Despite the many stories of women tragically sent to converts we also have stories of a more Boccaccio-esque tendency. For instance, Charles FitzRoy recounts how many women advertised their beauty by emphasising their piety such as praying loquaciously and seductively receiving mass. This paradox by subverting piety as exemplified by the Madonna demonstrates the methods in which women tried to create soft influence in Renaissance Florence.
It is difficult to capture the vast range of experience for women of the period. However, there is one custom which seems to symbolise the many aspects of the experience. In the Brancacci chapel in Masolino's fresco of the 'Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabitha' there is a mysterious shape on the yellow house in the centre foreground. On closer inspection it is a monkey walking along a bar directly under the windows in which women frequently gazed out from. Women kept monkeys, presumably procured by their husbands while trading abroad, who lived on bars where others used to hang bird cages. The monkey is such an interesting choice for a pet. It symbolises the exotic, beautiful and alien, the 'other' which women ultimately were in terms of political power. Mischievous and naughty it is an animal imbued with the spirit of beffe but like all pets fiercely loyal to its owner. The combination of both virtues women were expected to display. The monkey seems to encapsulate women of the Renaissance. Ultimately the monkey was chained, stuck to its home and its obligations to dutifully serve and entertain.
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