Decorating the Divas of Renaissance Society

Beginning with a clever play on Said's Orientalism as her title, editor Bella Mirabella's Ornamentalism: The Art of Renaissance Accessories obliquely manages to consider the construction of the Other in this interdisciplinary anthology focused on cultural practices in dress as part of the material culture of early modern European society. Sporting over sixty color illustrations attractively placed in a central choir that show accessory pieces ranging from ambergris-centered pomander beads to an ivory dildo with a butterfly bag at the other, this beautifully executed book intrigues. In the elegantly written initial chapter, Mirabella introduces this collection of studies on accessories such as pearls and jewelry, starched linen ruffs, codpieces, platform shoes, and veils, with the intent of bringing the topic of the accessories worn by men and women in Renaissance Italy and England "to the center of a discussion about material culture and social practice." Mirabella also questions the limits of any definition of what an accessory is by arguing that they are "multivalent objects, with multiple uses and meanings mediated by practice and context" (1). Thus perfume, scissors, dildos, personal wax seals, and even boys become "accessories," expanding our usual notion of the term in interesting and often intellectually challenging ways.

Mirabella elides the word accessory with access, noting how these objects allowed wearers access to desired situations (like making a fortuitous marriage) not normally available to them, if they were accessorized impressively. She also points out that some accessories held their value and therefore became strategic investments for the future. Moreover, they created beauty, which is one reason why there are records of human beings accessorizing as early as forty-five thousand years ago. Excessive decoration, however, could lead to accusations of deception, distortion, and even sinfulness, and therefore a proper balance was crucial to successful ornamentation. Beginning with an essay by Evelyn Welch on "stink"—scent and perfumed objects such as beads, buttons, and gloves—this text is coherently organized into five parts, the first of which is titled "Dressing Up," and also contains a piece on veils by Eugenia Paulicelli and a consideration of handkerchiefs by editor Mirabella. Each of these three chapters takes up the contradictory possibilities of its particular object of discussion. As a case in point, Paulicelli associates veils with both the Madonna and prostitutes, handkerchiefs with both flirtation and bodily fluids. The slippage between the sublime and disgusting is ingenious.

Part 2 then investigates "erotic attachments"; in this section three lively studies engage the titillating trilogy of busks, codpieces, and dildos. Ann Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass explore the meaning of the busk, an intimate object of ivory, wood, metal, or whalebone that was worn inside the central seam of a woman's corset to flatten her stomach while pushing up her breasts. Next, Will Fisher looks at how the male accessory of the codpiece helped to materialize "competing ideologies of masculinity" by taking on two distinct forms that favored different parts of the male genitalia (102). Liza Blake rounds out this section with an examination of the use of early modern dildos as fashionable accessories, making a distinction between the dildo as the "sign" of a penis and as a "thing" in its own right, while arguing for its "thingness." The accompanying illustrations showing the actual objects as well as representations of them (including a 1795 frontispiece showing group sex from de Sade's La philosophie dans la boudoir) make for truly enlightening reading.

Opening part 3 entitled "Taking Accessories Seriously," is Karen Raber's thought-provoking study of the many layers of meaning in Elizabeth I's conspicuous display of herself in "a bushel of pearls" (159). This is followed by Catherine Richardson's examination of the significance of the movement of jewelry in early modern society and personal relationships. Finally, Joseph Loewenstein' considers the complex meanings of the wax seal (as imprinted by a signet ring or seal matrix) in the material culture of early modern England and as demonstrated in the work of Shakespeare. Here, each...