‘A fare bella’: the visual and material culture of cosmetics in Renaissance Italy (1450-1540)
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Date
27/06/2015Author
Spicer, Jacqueline Nicole
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Abstract
This thesis maps out the roles of cosmetic use in Renaissance Italy from the
period c.1450-1540, using books containing cosmetic recipes as the primary source
material. Their content, dissemination, and use is explored as a means of creating a new
understanding of a practice central to daily life and integral to ongoing arguments about
the body. Recent scholarship has seen a rise in interest in books of recipes and secrets
in the Renaissance and Early Modern periods, but there has yet to be a full-length study
exploring cosmetic recipes as a significant source of information, leaving a considerable
gap in the understanding of how ‘high’ cultural discussions of beauty ideals related to
popular culture and everyday practice. This thesis aims to fill that gap. Focusing on the
formative period of 1450-1540, when both the written and artistic interests in cosmetics
were developing, this thesis draws together a large body of previously unpublished
primary source material from printed and manuscript recipe books relating to the
making and use of cosmetics, and is the first in-depth analysis of the material and visual
culture of Italian cosmetic practice during this period.
A major component of this project was to establish what practices, materials and
products constituted Renaissance cosmetic practice. The way in which recipes for
beautification are identified within recipe books is carefully considered, and recipe
ingredients and methods are examined, with comparisons made to the representation of
cosmetics in non-recipe sources (written and visual). The goal was to describe
cosmetics as they were defined in Renaissance terms, so recipe ingredients have been
considered largely in context of Renaissance medicine rather than modern pharmacy, in
contrast to most extant studies on the topic. A further major aim of this study was to
create a detailed reconstruction of the social values attached to cosmetic use during the
Renaissance period. This has been investigated both through an examination of how
cosmetics are represented in written and visual sources, and also through a critical
investigation of the people involved in the making and use of cosmetics and cosmetic
recipe collections. Throughout, a range of material sources have been examined in
consideration with each other—recipe books, behavioural advice, moral arguments,
printed and painted image, inventories, and household objects such as mirrors and
combs—demonstrating that cosmetics had a wide ranging and significant presence in
daily Renaissance life.
The first chapter examines the moral discourses directed at cosmetic use,
establishing the place of these discourses within broader concerns about the control of
women’s behaviour. Chapter 2 begins to place the ideals of beauty in a social context,
examining how cosmetics are represented in recipe books, and discussing what
activities and practices Renaissance ‘cosmetics’ consisted of, with particular attention
given to their relationship with medicinal recipes. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the
people who made and used cosmetic recipes, broadly addressing themes of accessibility,
and the connections between a beautified appearance and social status. The authors of
recipe books, the books’ cost, audience literacy, markets for medicine, and cost and
effectiveness of cosmetic recipes are all taken into account to illustrate a lively economy
surrounding the use of makeup. Finally, Chapters 5 and 6 address cultural
representations of cosmetic use in art and literature, re-examining key examples within
the context of the material culture of cosmetics to demonstrate the significance of
makeup use in formulations of Renaissance femininity.