This cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary project is unique in many ways. First, it brings together researchers and students from different fields, primarily art history and French literary/cultural studies, who, as scholars of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, study similar periods, cultural dynamics and political events, but through different prisms. By facilitating intellectual exchange in a sustained manner among academics who traditionally have not been engaged with each other, this enterprise will enrich participants' understanding of the Medieval and Renaissance periods in new and enlightening ways. Second, the project convenes scholars from different countries, France and the US, not only allowing insight into the intellectual and pedagogical dynamics of different national institutions, but also providing an opportunity for sustained international experiences for both faculty and students alike. For example, opportunities for UCSB faculty and students to engage with scholars at Lille 3 University in art history and associated fields as well as with European scholars concerned with the same issues will be very beneficial. In addition, much of the research material related to our project is located in Northern Europe, although the Getty Center and Huntington Library have relevant holdings as well, and joint consultation of this material will be invaluable to collaborators. Third, the proposed project offers participants the unusual possibility of exploring and practicing ideas and theories of collaboration. Such an opportunity is rare, especially in the Humanities in American institutions, where researchers, who traditionally work on individual projects and publish single-authored works, do not often benefit from extramural support for collaborative projects. Fourth, the project focuses on and includes at every stage the interaction of faculty and graduate students, thereby providing an engaging atmosphere for the professionalization of emerging experts in the field. Through focus on a critical sub-field of Medieval and Renaissance studies, namely the role of women in European culture and the arts, this project aims to integrate all the dimensions of academia, teaching, research and professional activities, in a fluid and interconnected manner. In addition, graduate student participants will have an excellent opportunity to master a foreign language, French or English as the case may be, in a natural setting with their intellectual peers.
Because they are of vital interest to scholars of art history and literary/cultural studies in their multiple functions as art objects, cultural artifacts and containers of literary texts, one area on which we will focus our research on women in the arts and culture is the great number of manuscripts and early printed books that were produced in Europe from the 12th to the 16th centuries, with particular attention placed on late Medieval and Renaissance works. Often elaborately decorated and illuminated, these books provide insight into the cultural and artistic roles of women through their many verbal and visual depictions of females as writers, patrons, dedicatees, commissioners, subjects, owners and readers. By examining these books closely in detail as individual documents and in relation to each other and by placing them in their cultural context, we seek to better understand women's roles as transmitters of written and visual culture and of knowledge itself. Questions such as the following will guide our collaborative investigations. To what extent were women proprietors of book culture? What role did women play in constituting their libraries and in establishing artistic and literary tastes of the time? What do books about and for women reveal as regards their roles as educators? What specific insight can be drawn from the religious (Saint Anne reading to or teaching the Virgin how to read, the Virgin reading) and secular (the patroness as donor, the patroness as dedicatee, the woman author at her desk) iconography of women in illumination? Are these traditions related in any manner?
Another related area of research focus will involve female patronage. While the history of female artistic patronage in Italy, especially in the Renaissance period, has received a certain amount of attention, female patronage that developed north of the Alps between 1200 and 1550 is only beginning to receive critical research interest. On the one hand, various exhibitions with scientific catalogues have recently shed new light on female patrons such as Mary of Burgundy, Isabel of Portugal, Margaret of York, Mary of Hungary, Margaret of Austria and Anne of Brittany.
In addition, several historical studies about Mary of Hungary (M. Triest, 2000), Isabel of Portugal (M. Somme, 1998) and Margaret of Austria, (M. Debae, 1995 and D. Eichberger, 2002) have also recently appeared in print. On the other hand, existing sources for other French queens and princesses such as Charlotte of Savoy, Louise of Savoy, Anne of Brittany and Anne of France have as yet been only very partially exploited. Therefore, we aim to carry out collaborative investigations in this vast area with the goal of better coordinating the research program and better diffusing the results. Questions such as the following will guide our collaborative investigations. To what extent did female patrons take the leading role in setting the cultural and artistic agendas of their courts? What different kinds of artworks, besides, books, did female patrons commission in Medieval and Renaissance Europe? How did their choices reflect the special interests of their courts or individual tastes? What relationships existed between female patrons and their male protégés? Were there any significant lines of communication established among the various cultural and artistic programs of female patrons at this time?
Anne-Marie LEGARÉ, IRHIS, université Lille 3 ; Cynthia J. BROWN, university of California
