During the Renaissance marriage was a fundamental step for both women and men belonging to all social classes. Depicted in art, described in literature, ruled by law, marriage was the way to connect families, to forge coalitions, to define alliances. This panel seeks to explore how Renaissance marriage was seen, interpreted, used and understood.
We are looking for papers whose topics include but are not limited to:
the cultural approach of marriage and its description;
how the law helped define ‘good’ and ‘bad’ aspects of marriage, and how it controlled the economic and social aspects of marrying up or down;
how age was considered a fundamental element in the choice of brides;
how marriage was used as tool for connecting or separating people, for defining relationships or for setting boundaries;
the importance of visual definition of brides and grooms, and if this definition is possible through paintings, spalliere, cassoni (wedding chests);
marriage and misogyny;
the supposed difficulties of remarriage for women and, on the contrary, the supposed ease for men to remarry.
Please send a 150-word abstract, keywords, and a 300-word curriculum vitae to Brandon Essary (bessary@elon.edu) and Elena Brizio (ebrizio@medici.org) by June 5, 2015.