Ambiguous Images: Women of Power in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

FAIN: FT-54278-06

Cynthia Jane Brown
University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA 93106-0001)

AMBIGUOUS IMAGES examines the cultural issues surrounding female modes of empowerment and book production in late medieval and early modern Europe. Centered on Anne of Brittany (1477-1514), twice queen of France, the study advances new ways of understanding famous women in politics by analyzing what they read, and by investigating the literary, artistic – and ultimately political -- means deployed by the makers of the books they owned. I argue that the complex verbal and visual imagery of women of influence in late medieval Europe -- complex because of its inherently conflicting portrayal of power and subordination -- can only be understood fully by drawing on the intersection of pertinent literary, historical, and art historical sources.