THE MEDICI WOMEN
Michael Barbour, art guide
Monday 19–Wednesday 21 January 9.15 am COURSE FEES R345; Staff and students R173
Medici hegemony in Florence spread across time from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The famous men, from Cosimo il Vecchio and Lorenzo il Magnifico to Cosimo I and the Grand Dukes of course had mothers, wives and sisters – often mentioned only by name or listed on a family tree.
Some of these women who were born de Medici or who married into the family were, in their own right, notable contributors to the culture, enterprise, power and collections of this remarkable dynasty. There were those on whom the limelight fell and accordingly attracted public admiration or disdain: contemporary comments described one as ‘a dangerous sorceress’ and another as ‘a wise, sovereign woman’. Then there were those who confined their roles to maternal and uxorial concerns, and others who managed family, as well as charitable or cultural or religious activities, at a discreet distance from the pomp and power that surrounded them.
Lecture titles
- Wives and mothers
- The duchesses
- The queens
Recommended reading
Acton, H. 1980. The Last Medici. Florence: Scala/Becocci Editore.
Cardini, F. 1996. The Medici Women. Florence: Vincenzo Rita & Arnaud Editore. Strathern, P. 2007. The Medici. London: Vintage Books.
TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575244234
Michael Barbour grew up in Zambia and Zimbabwe. He graduated in library science and economic history at the University of Natal & worked at the National Archives of Rhodesia and in public libraries in South Africa. In 1987 he went to Italy to study art history for three months and has stayed for 36 years.