How to be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity

Author:   Jill Burke
Publisher:   Profile Books Ltd
Edition:   Main
ISBN:  

9781788166676


Pages:   336
Publication Date:   08 August 2024
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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How to be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity


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Overview

*A Waterstones Best Book of 2023**A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week**A New York Times Editor's Pick*'Terrific' SARAH DUNANT'Lively and intriguing ... You'll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way' MAGGIE O'FARRELL'Highlights a rich tapestry of female experience that encompasses everyone from artisans to aristocrats ...' THE TIMESThis is the story of the Renaissance, but not as you know it. Discover overlooked and silenced women from this extraordinary moment in history and how they forged opportunities for creativity, community and resistance. From the bedchamber to the court, they give us an intimate window into what life was really like - and hold a mirror up to our contemporary obsession with how we look.'A witty and engaging history of cosmetics and beauty ... lavishly illustrated and hugely entertaining' IRISH TIMES'A total eye-opener, I loved it' NUALA McGOVERN

Full Product Details

Author:   Jill Burke
Publisher:   Profile Books Ltd
Imprint:   Wellcome Collection
Edition:   Main
Dimensions:   Width: 12.80cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 19.60cm
Weight:   0.280kg
ISBN:  

9781788166676


ISBN 10:   1788166671
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   08 August 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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Reviews

A total eye-opener, I loved it -- Nuala McGovern, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour A lively and intriguing exploration of female life in the Renaissance, lifting the lid on anxieties and aspirations that will sound oddly familiar to any 21st century reader. You'll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way -- Maggie O'Farrell Terrific ... Drawing on early published beauty pamphlets, letters, poems, songs, diaries and recipe books, not to mention treatises by both men and women and the rich material of Renaissance art, [Burke] has emerged with enough knowledge to open her own Renaissance Body Shop ... The book is that rare thing, a serious history that is both accessible and entertaining - no more so than when it comes to the age-old debate as to whether women's commitment to beauty is a sign of weakness, a pandering to male desire or a form of empowerment * Literary Review * Taking a fresh, women-led perspective, Burke highlights a rich tapestry of female experience that encompasses everyone from artisans to aristocrats ... the everyday women mixing their own beauty products should rightly be considered chemists and botanists. Successfully creating these cosmetics required knowledge of plants and their properties, as well as how to transform them via different techniques. Renaissance women had greater scientific knowledge and experience than they are often credited with * The Times * If you think that pressures on women to look their best, either through chemical enhancements or using filters on Instagram, are a modern invention, then Jill Burke's new book is a timely reminder that our ancestors were undergoing the medieval equivalent 500 years ago ... Some of the most compelling parts of the book detail female solidarity and friendship in this visual society ... The book finishes with an amusing and engrossing section of real-life Renaissance beauty recipes for the brave to try - from the relatively innocuous honey and egg eye cream to a non-toxic version of the skin lightener that beauties used on their faces ... But there's a serious message behind the book: the tyranny of beauty ideals has been with us for centuries * Mail on Sunday * An erudite, witty and engaging history of cosmetics and beauty ... lavishly illustrated and hugely entertaining -- Anna Carey * Irish Times *


A lively and intriguing exploration of female life in the Renaissance, lifting the lid on anxieties and aspirations that will sound oddly familiar to any 21st century reader. You'll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way -- Maggie O'Farrell * Maggie O'Farrell *


Author Information

Professor Jill Burke is Chair of Renaissance Visual and Material Cultures at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely on the history of art, gender and the body. She is currently Principal Investigator of a Royal Society-funded project, Renaissance Goo, working with a soft-matter scientist to remake sixteenth-century cosmetic and skincare recipes. She was on the curatorial team of The Renaissance Nude exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Royal Academy, London in 2018-19. Her first book, Changing Patrons, questions the motivations behind Italian Renaissance art patronage and her second, The Italian Renaissance Nude, was nominated as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2019.

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