Renaissance Women Patrons - Wives and Widows in Italy, c.1300-c.1550 (Paperback)

A study of the commissioning powers of a large group of Italian laywomen. In a sequence of case studies, the text surveys the kinds of art and architecture which these laywomen could commission, and by probing how far female patrons could express any non-conformist views or play unexpected roles in their art, it builds up a picture of the legal, social, financial and spiritual factors which made it possible for women to act as patrons in this society.