Women and Cultures of Portraiture in the British Literary Renaissance

An examination of the representation of female identity, creativity and power at the intersections of drama, literature, portraiture and visual culture.

Were Renaissance women merely passive and voiceless subjects in the cultures of portraiture through which they were represented? Did they have the opportunity to challenge the prevailing visual tropes that reproduced gender stereotypes? Did they create iconographical programmes for their own social and political ends?

This collection of interdisciplinary essays examines the representation of women at the intersection between portraiture, literature, drama, heritage and material culture in Renaissance Britain. It explores how power, politics and patronage manifested across text, cultural inscription and ‘portraiture’ – defined in its broadest sense as a cultural artefact expressive of the female image and identity. Contributors cover (self-)portraits, miniatures, engravings, sculptures, embroideries, murals, emblems, illuminated manuscripts, jewellery, coins, curated collections, theatrical props, calligraphy and other decorative and architectural features.

Bringing together art historians, curators, heritage specialists and scholars of early modern history and literature, this volume situates women as the active subjects and creators of ‘cultures of portraiture’. It reveals how female power was negotiated through the royal icon; how women used patronage, pedagogy and encryption to forge female networks and navigate the dangerous worlds of religious and courtly factionalism; and how art, drama and literature reflected anxieties around women’s creative agency. It demonstrates that these practices were not purely localised, but that women’s portraiture connected England – conceptually, materially and ideologically – to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Spain, Rome, the Netherlands, Africa, Persia and the Islamic world; that women employed an ‘activist intermediality’ to re-define their ‘portraits’ as tools for public identity-building, political commentary, social disruption and cross-national dialogue.

Contributor: Yasmin Arshad (Edited by), Chris Laoutaris (Edited by), Catherine Richardson (Series edited by), Evelyn Tribble (Series edited by), Helen Smith (Series edited by), Lena Cowen Orlin (Series edited by)

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.