Indecent Exposure and Honourable Uncovering in Renaissance Portraits of Women

Abstract

Commissioning portraits of Renaissance women was a more common practice than is generally imagined. An impressive corpus was produced in Venice, although the sitters’ names are lost. Their identity is further clouded by the repetition of similar features, including elaborately dressed blond hair, and similar luxurious attire. Rather than reading these elements as an erasure of identity, they can be understood as markers of wealth and beauty of individual women within highly restrictive codes. Another device introduces partial nudity, which has been interpreted as portrayals of courtesans. Evidence, however, shows that in many cases the unveiling of a breast functions in the context of betrothal and marriage imagery; so far from creating a category of ‘Courtesan Portraits’ the nudity, along with other symbols, establishes iconography pertaining to the chaste sexuality of virtuous wives.