Courtesans of Venice: Social Fluidity in the Time of the Renaissance
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Bocchi, Matthew
Date Issued
April 17, 2013
Abstract
Though prostitution frequently finds itself to be a degraded profession, women who were located within the upper strata of prostitutes, courtesans, during the Italian Renaissance experienced a different kind of social role outside of that usually encountered by their gender. In a time where the construction of gender and class interacted to form an ironclad latticework of identity, courtesans were able to transcend these bounds in regards to laws, self-fashioning, and education. By scrutinizing the information of the treatment of courtesans, and the specific case of Veronica Franco, it is possible to assess whether these women really did have more “freedom.” This close examination of Franco’s life will include her own literary works, as well as extant portraiture, as examples of her self-fashioning.
Honors
History, 2013
Women's Studies, 2013
First Reader(s)
Carr, Amelia
Other Reader(s)
Treckel, Paula
Shaw, Barbara L.
Department
Art
History
Women's Studies
Type of Publication
Senior Project Paper
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Name
2012_13_Bocchi_Courtesans_.pdf
Description
Bocchi Comp
Size
7.82 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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