THEto Young woman from Pollaiolo She returned to her place, after a restoration that – instead of subtracting her from the public – offered her multiplied to the gaze of the visitors of the Poldi Pezzoli Museumin Milan, according to the project of the director Alessandra Quarto.
For months, inside a glass box, The hands of Carlotta Beccaria and the most advanced technologies have revealed it and finally returned to its authentic colorsI, up to the last pearly reverberation. And so, from Valentine’s Day, she – the girl from the 70s of the fifteenth century – is back in her room in via Manzoni.
Yes, but now that we see her as it was posing in front of Piero del Pollaiolo, It comes to be wondered whether or not it had “a room all to itself”according to the hope of Virginia Woolf, even in her life of origin, out of the frame. Or if even the choice of the pre -mood brocade did not have her.
Barbara Stefanelli (photo by Carlo Vangeri Gilbert).
Who was the lady who shows us the left profile, avoiding to cross the eyes of the admirers, as a sign of modesty according to the virtue kit necessary for a good marriage? The age that is attributed to it oscillates from 12 to 16 years. A Florentine noblewoman promised a gentleman of a northern family.
What we can look at is the upper part of his body: the head, the bust. It was enough. Why The purpose of the portraits was to make the best, rather than the personality of the protagonists, the value of fabrics and jewels.
After a restoration that lasted months, the “Portrait of young woman” of the Pollaiolo (around 1470) is again in his room in via Manzoni.
Those young people were therefore a means, The synthesis of the prestige of families who united in marriage. They could-they had to show themselves following a precise aesthetic-moral code. In 1464 the Suntuaria laws had been issued in Florence, according to which it was established as velvets and thirst, how many parceures and for how many months – before and after the wedding – it was legitimate to show off.
Fixed -term beauty and wealth. Elisa Tosi Brandi wrote, studying society through the paintings of the Pollaiolo: “The role of clothes as a price card begins when women are left exclusively the sphere of appearances to make themselves socially visible”.
The women of the late Middle Ages and then of the Renaissance know it. For this reason, between the lines of the rules and the spinning of the clothes, they try to dig a space of freedom. In 1453, Nicolosa Sanuti, a Bolognese aristocratic, takes it out with the sunscard laws of his citysimilar to subsequent Florentine ones. Nicolosa think in an open letter: women are not granted public offices, then let us act independently with respect to fathers and husbands “at least in the external aspect”.
Does it seem little to you? A female Revolution downward? However, think about how far, reread from this claim of power, the expression of self through fashion has activated the awareness of women. Taking control of the bodies, starting from the equipment of the brides, was – yes – a political act: perhaps more powerful than a border battle between municipalities.
Who knows if the lady of the Poldi Pezzoli was able to give indications on that half a centimeter of white shirt that comes out of the bodice. Something in his mystery moves and moves us if, as Carlotta Beccaria always tells, at the beginning of the 1900s the work had to be taken under protection since the public, to which it was shown for the first time, wanted to kiss her. She points out, outside, it doesn’t seem frightened. On the contrary: it could turn suddenly, and smile.
How much does the need and pleasure of choosing how to dress you occupy in your thoughts? Write us to [email protected]
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