Download or read book Cassone Painting, Humanism, and Gender in Early Modern Italy written by Cristelle Louise Baskins and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Overlooked in traditional studies of Italian Art, cassone (decorated chest) painting was nonetheless a popular genre in Early Renaissance Tuscany. Made by anonymous painters for undocumented patrons, these decorated chests display 'high' art subject matter, a contradiction that has discouraged the study of domestic pictures within traditional art history. In this study, Cristelle Baskins questions the traditional readings of cassone imagery as merely didactic or moralising. Drawing on historical context and poststructuralist textual interpretation, she argues that these pieces performed an important role in the socialisation and gender formation of women during the Renaissance. Invariably depicting exemplary women from classical mythology, cassone, Baskins demonstrates, invite a range of responses, ranging from coercion to pleasure. Her study also shows how these domestic pictures contribute to revisionist approaches within cultural and literary studies of the Renaissance.