Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:11:34.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Living Dolls”: François Ier Dresses His Women*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Yassana C. Croizat
Yassana C. Croizat*
Affiliation:
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In addition to portraits and diplomatic reports, Renaissance courts relied on fashion dolls to acquaint themselves with foreign dress. Unfortunately, literature on this subject is scarce and often disappointing. Overlooked by doll historians, a letter written by Federico Gonzaga (1500–40) in 1515 reveals that François Ier (1494–1547) requested a fashion doll from Isabella d’Este (1474–1539). After examining this document within the context of what is currently known about Renaissance fashion dolls, this essay explores what François I er’s interest in these objects suggests about his personality and his relationship to the women of his court.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , Spring 2007 , pp. 94 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Colin Eisler of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, for encouraging me to pursue this topic and for patiently commenting on the many versions of this essay. I am also deeply grateful to Dr. Ann Jones, to the anonymous RQ reader, and to Dr. Jeffrey Chipps Smith for their invaluable suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank Joshua E. Glazer for his advice and unwavering support. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

References

Anderson, Ruth Matilda. Hispanic Costume, 1480–1530. New York, 1979.Google Scholar
Anderson, Ruth Matilda. “Spanish Dress Worn by a Queen of France.” Gazette des Beaux Arts 98 (1981) : 215–22.Google Scholar
Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d: The Inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes Prepared in July 1600. Leeds, 1988.Google Scholar
Beatis, Antonio de. The Travel Journal of Antonio de Beatis: Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, France and Italy, 1517–1518. Ed. J. R. Hale. Trans. J. R. Hale and J. M. A. Lindon. London, 1979.Google Scholar
Bedos Rezak, Brigitte. Anne de Montmorency: seigneur de la Renaissance. Paris, 1990.Google Scholar
Berriot-Salvadore, Evelyne. Les femmes dans la société française de la Renaissance. Geneva, 1990.Google Scholar
Bonnaffé, Edmond. Inventaire des meubles de Catherine de Médcis en 1589: mobilier, tableaux, objets d’art, manuscrits. Paris, 1874.Google Scholar
Bouchot, Henri. Les femmes de Brantôme. Paris, 1890.Google Scholar
Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille,de, Abbé. Recueil des dames, poésies et tombeaux. Ed. Etienne Vaucheret. Paris, 1991.Google Scholar
Cartwright, Julia [Mrs. Ady, pseud.]. Isabelle d’Este: Marchioness of Mantua, 1474–1539. 2 vols. New York, 1907.Google Scholar
Chatenet, Monique. “Etiquette and Architecture at the Court of the Last Valois.” . In Court Festivals of the European Renaissance (2002a), 76–97.Google Scholar
Chatenet, Monique. La cour de France au XVI e siècle: vie sociale et architecture. Paris, 2002b.Google Scholar
Cosandey, Fanny. La reine de France: symbole et pouvoir, XV e– XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 2000.Google Scholar
Court Festivals of the European Renaissance: Art, Politics, Performance. Ed. J. R. Mulryne and Elizabeth Goldring. Aldershot, 2002.Google Scholar
Cox-Rearick, Janet. The Collection of Francis I: Royal Treasures. New York, 1996.Google Scholar
d’Allemagne, Henri René. Histoire des jouets. Paris, 1903.Google Scholar
Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France. Madison, 2000.Google Scholar
Delpierre, Madeleine. Se vêtir au XVIII e siècle. Paris, 1996.Google Scholar
Donaldson-Evans, Lance K.. “Fashioning Gargantua: Rabelais and the History of Costume.” Mots-Pluriels 10 (1999), http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP1099lde.html (accessed on 01/03/05).Google Scholar
Frasier, Antonia K. Dolls. New York, 1963.Google Scholar
Frieda, Leonie. Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France. New York, 2003.Google Scholar
Fritz, Michael P.. Giulio Romano et Raphaël: la vice-reine de Naples, ou la renaissance d’une beauté mythique. Trans. Claire Nydegger. Paris, 1997.Google Scholar
Heim, Maurice. François I er et les femmes. Paris, 1956.Google Scholar
Ilg, Ulrike. “The Cultural Significance of Costume Books in Sixteenth-Century Europe.” In Clothing Culture, 1350–1650, ed. Catherine Richardson, 29–48. Aldershot, 2004.Google Scholar
Les jeux de la Renaissance: actes du XXIII e colloque international d’études humanistes, Tours: juillet 1980. Ed. Philippe Ariès and Jean-Claude Margolin. Paris, 1982.Google Scholar
Jones, Ann Rosalind, and Stallybrass, Peter. Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory. Cambridge, 2000.Google Scholar
Journal tenu par un bourgeois de Paris au temps de François I er . 2 vols. Clérmont-Ferrand, 2001.Google Scholar
King, Constance Eileen. The Collector’s History of Dolls. New York, 1977.Google Scholar
Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. “Les saintes poupées: jeu et devotion dans la Florence du quattrocento.” In Les jeux de la Renaissance (1982), 65–79.Google Scholar
Knecht, R.. J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I. Cambridge, 1994.Google Scholar
Knecht, R. J. “Charles V’s Journey through France, 1539–1540.” In Court Festivals of the European Renaissance (2002), 153–70.Google Scholar
Laborde, Léon de. Glossaire français du moyen âge, à l’usage de l’archéologue et l’amateur des arts; précédé de l’inventaire des bijoux de Louis, duc d’Anjou, dressé vers 1360. Paris, 1872.Google Scholar
Laborde, Léon de. es comptes des bâtiments du roi (1528–1571) suivis de documents inédits sur les châteaux royaux et les beaux-arts au XVIe siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1877–80.Google Scholar
Borderie, La, de, Bertrand. L’Amie de court. Ed. Danielle Trudeau. Paris, 1997.Google Scholar
Laver, James. Costume and Fashion. 1969. Rev. ed., London, 1995.Google Scholar
Lazard, Madeleine. Les avenues de fémynie. Paris, 2001.Google Scholar
Lefranc, Abel. Les idées religieuses de Marguerite de Navarre d’après son oeuvre poétique. Geneva, 1969.Google Scholar
Leproux, Guy-Michel. La peinture à Paris sous le règne de François I er . Paris, 2001.Google Scholar
Lilienfein, Heinrich. Lukas Cranach und Seine Zeit. Berlin, 1942.Google Scholar
Lorant, Stefan, ed. The New World: The First Pictures of America. New York, 1946.Google Scholar
Lucas Cranach d. Ä. und Lucas Cranach d. J.: Ausstellung im Deutschen Museum Berlin, April-Juni, 1937. Berlin, 1937.Google Scholar
Luzio, Alessandro, and, Renier, Rodolfo. “Il Lusso di Isabella d’Este, marchesa di Mantova.” Nuova Antologia 63 (1896a) : 441–69.Google Scholar
Luzio, Alessandro, and, Renier, Rodolfo. “Il Lusso di Isabella d’Este, marchesa di Mantova: accessori e segreti della toilette.” Nuova Antologia 63 (1896a) : 666–88.Google Scholar
Mackrell, Alice. An Illustrated History of Fashion: Five Hundred Years of Fashion Illustrations. New York, 1997.Google Scholar
Manson, Michel. “Divers approches sur l’histoire de la poupée du XVe au XVIIe siècle.” In Les Jeux de la Renaissance (1982), 525–51.Google Scholar
Marguerite de Navarre. L’Heptaméron des nouvelles. Ed. Nicole Cazauran. Paris, 2000.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. Capital, Volume One. Trans. Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. In Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker, 294–438. 2nd ed. New York, 1978.Google Scholar
Mauss, Marcel. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. Trans. Ian Cunnison. New York, 1967.Google Scholar
Orth, Myra D. “Louise de Savoie et le pouvoir du livre.” In Rouyaume de fémynie, 71–90.Google Scholar
Peers, Juliette. The Fashion Doll: From Bébé Jumeau to Barbie. Oxford, 2004.Google Scholar
Pietz, William. “Fetishism and Materialism: The Limits of Theory in Marx.” In Fetishism as Cultural Discourse, ed. Emily Apter and William Pietz, 119–51. Ithaca, 1993.Google Scholar
Pizzagalli, Daniella. La Signora del Rinascimento: Vita e splendori di Isabella d’Este alla corte di Mantova. Milan, 2001.Google Scholar
Rogers, Mary F. Barbie Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA, 1999.Google Scholar
Royaume de féminyie: pouvoirs, contraintes, espaces de liberté des femmes de la Renaissance à la Fronde. Ed. Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier and Eliane Viennot. Paris, 1999.Google Scholar
Saxl, Fritz. Costumes and Festivals of Milanese Society under Spanish Rule. London, 1937.Google Scholar
Schade, Werner. Die Malerfamilie Cranach. Vienna, 1974.Google Scholar
Shemek, Deanna. “In Continuous Expectation: Isabella d’Este’s Epistolary Desire.” In Phaethon’s Children: The Este Court and Its Culture in Early Modern Ferrara, ed. Dennis Looney and Deanna Shemek, 269–300. Tempe, 2005.Google Scholar
Singleton, Esther. Dolls. New York, 1927.Google Scholar
Stephenson, Barbara. The Power and Patronage of Marguerite de Navarre. Aldershot, 2004.Google Scholar
Tamalio, Raffaele. Ferrante Gonzaga alla corte spagnola di Carlo V: nel carteggio private con Mantova (1523–1526). Mantua, 1991.Google Scholar
Tamalio, Raffaele. Federico Gonzaga alla corte di Francesco I di Francia: nel carteggio private con Mantova (1515–1517). Paris, 1994.Google Scholar
Telle, Emile. L’Oeuvre de Marguerite d’Angoulême reine de Navarre et la Querelle des Femmes. Toulouse, 1937.Google Scholar
Toudouze, Georges. Françoise de Châteaubriant et François I er. Paris, 1948.Google Scholar
Vickers, Nancy J.. “Courting the Female Subject.” In The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque nationale, ed. Karen Jacobson, 95–107. Los Angeles, 1994.Google Scholar
Villemur, Frédérique. “Eros et Androgyne: la femme comme un autre ‘soymesme’?” In Royaume de fémynie (1999), 237–59.Google Scholar
von Boehn, Max. Dolls and Puppets. Trans. Josephine Nicholl. New York, 1966.Google Scholar
Welch, Evelyn. Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy, 1400–1600. New Haven, 2005.Google Scholar
Wilson-Chevalier, Kathleen. “Women on Top at Fontainebleau.” Oxford Art Journal 16, no. 1 (1993) : 34–38.10.1093/oxartj/16.1.34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson-Chevalier, Kathleen. “Femmes, cour et pouvoir: la chambre de la duchesse d’Étampes à Fontainebleau.” In Rouyaume de fémynie (1999), 203–36.Google Scholar
Wilson-Chevalier, Kathleen. “Art Patronage and Women in the Orbit of Francis I.” Renaissance Studies 16, no. 4 (2002) : 474–524.10.1111/1477-4658.00029CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaffanella, Chiara. “Isabella d’Este e l a moda del suo tempo.” In Isabella d’Este: la primadonna del Rinascimento, ed. Daniele Bini, 208–23. Modena, 2001.Google Scholar