Provincial luxury in Renaissance Verona

This article investigates the ways in which taste for luxury was expressed in the homes of the provincial Renaissance elite in sixteenth‐century Verona. Through an analysis of the domestic inventories of a crosssection of Verona’s elite, this article argues that items such as gilded and carved chest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRenaissance studies Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 441 - 459
Main Author Farrell, Zoe
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2022
Subjects
16th century
Families & family life
Fashion
Furniture
Italian culture
Luxuries
luxury
Material culture
Nobility
provincial
Religious articles
Renaissance period
Rural areas
Surface decoration
Textiles
Wealth
Italy
Verona Italy
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Summary:This article investigates the ways in which taste for luxury was expressed in the homes of the provincial Renaissance elite in sixteenth‐century Verona. Through an analysis of the domestic inventories of a crosssection of Verona’s elite, this article argues that items such as gilded and carved chests, opulent bedding, tapestries, decorated objects and religious paintings formed an integral part of luxury display and formation of family identity in elite Veronese households in the sixteenth century. The article explores how otherwise utilitarian goods were frequently ornamented and used to display taste, wealth, piety and status, as the Veronese elite competed to maintain and augment their position within Verona and the Veneto. Importantly, it is argued that as notable families in Verona manoeuvred amongst an elite social group in the Venetian mainland empire, there developed a shared taste for luxury, which largely mirrored domestic fashions emerging in Venice. Luxury furniture, fabrics and devotional objects were an important part of the construction of a splendid home and thus a positive public reputation for families navigating their way through fragile social hierarchies.
Bibliography:I would like to thank Professor Mary Laven, Professor Paola Lanaro, and Professor Alison Smith, as well as the director and staff at the Archivio di Stato di Verona, for their generous advice and assistance in the production of this article. I would also like to thank the reviewers for their detailed and insightful feedback. I was supported in the research for this article by scholarships from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, and the Cambridge Trust.
ISSN:0269-1213
1477-4658
DOI:10.1111/rest.12764