During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many images of dwarves, hirsutes, and castrati depict them in the guise of the monstrous, either as jokes of nature or indices of courtly wit. However, there are some Renaissance portraits of physically deformed individuals that transcend these categories. These portraits point to the intricate cultural, religious, ethical, and scientific perception of monstrous individuals who were fixtures in various Italian courts. Combining a topos of courtly self-fashioning with visual observations akin to dissections, these portraits humanize monsters while simultaneously scrutinizing them to stress their anatomical difference. This study demonstrates that monsters in courts altered Renaissance ethics vis-à-vis human otherness and social virtues, evolving from objects of curiosity to intellectually and legally independent beings. In addition, this project pushes the boundaries that have been established by much of the literature on Renaissance portraiture. Portraits of monsters challenge the prevalence of idealization - as a means to convey the sitter's character - and include mimesis as an essential part of their composition, stressing the accurate details of the sitter's physical deformities. By examining theoretical writings on portraiture, early-modern scientific treatises, and theological postulations about monsters, it becomes evident that portraits of the physically deformed were not merely visual expressions of the world turned upside down. They were the result of multivalent vectors that drove courtly and scientific life in the Renaissance and they negotiated a new terrain in which the emerging sciences of the body transformed human perceptions of abnormalities.

Last modified

• 06/01/2018

Creator

• Touba Ghadessi Fleming

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2S702

Subject

• Art History

Keyword

• hirsute
• anatomy
• monster
• Renaissance
• dwarf
• castrato
• portraiture

Date created

• 2007-05-14

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright