Women, Art, and Spirituality
Women, Art, and Spirituality
Looking for an examination copy?
This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
$45.00
USDOriginally published in 1996, Women, Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy situates the art made between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries for the Franciscan nuns in its historical and religious contexts. Evaluating its production from sociological and intellectual perspectives, this study also addresses the discourse between spirituality, devotional practices, and aesthetic attitudes as formalised in the construction and decoration of the women's convents and in their didactic literature. Based on a range of sources, it integrates important primary texts, such as Saint Clare's rule, poetry composed by the nuns, financial records, and family history in the analysis of paintings, sculpture, and architecture commissioned by the order. The text also synthesises theories from anthropology, women's studies, history, and literature with traditional iconographical and social approaches from art history.
- Was the first book-length study of a female monastic order and art in early modern Italy
- A comprehensive exploration of gender issues
- Interdisciplinary approach that draws from history, religious studies, women's studies, literature, art history
Reviews & endorsements
"Wood's carefully crafted volume makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the art and architecture of the nuns of early modern Italy....Wood's book does much to expand our knowledge of convent life." Andrea Pearson, The Sixteenth Century Journal
"Wood's Women, Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy is a slight, elegant treatise on nuns in late medieval and Renaissance Italy who were very much agents of their own religious milieu. Wood's graceful explication of texts, art, and architecture is a model for historians and art historians alike. Her literate style...should be copied by dissertation-writers everywhere." Lisa M. Bitel, Journal of Women's History
Product details
June 2011Paperback
9780521294898
290 pages
254 × 178 × 15 mm
0.51kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Clara, Claris, Praeclara
- 2. Within the walls
- 3. Piccarda's convent
- 4. A network of nuns
- 5. Vision and ecstasy
- Epilogue.
