Power, Gender, and Ritual in Europe and the Americas (review)

The late Richard C. Trexler had a profound impact on the scholarship of the Italian Renaissance, ritual studies, and gender studies. His most influential work, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (1991), is an innovative model study for those seeking to understand the role of ritual and politics in the early modern period. In addition, Trexler became fascinated with the religious and cultural history of Mexico and wrote two important books on the gendered scripts of the Spanish Conquest and the passion play of Itztapalapa. The 17 essays in this volume, first presented at a 2004 conference at Binghamton University, seek to honor Trexler’s scholarly contributions. The volume begins with an essay by Edward Muir that places the articles in context: all were inspired, in some part, by Trexler’s interest in ritual, gender and sexuality in Italy, Europe, and Mexico.

The first section of the book focuses on Renaissance Italy, especially Florence, and contains seven essays on disparate themes. Karen-edis Barzman traces the development of Italian identity to the representation of Islam in the frescoes of the Assisi and Bardi Chapels. Through visual representation, experienced travelers such as the Franciscans and the Bardi banking family were able to define the local and Christian in contrast to these depictions of the religious and cultural other. Lyn A. Blanchfield analyzes the gendered aspects of public weeping as a means of political expression surrounding the controversial figure of Savonarola. The essays of Konrad Eisenbichler, Christiane Kapisch-Zuper, and Michael Rocke all deal with the morality and sexuality of young males. Eisenbichler documents Florentine attitudes towards adolescents and residents’ worries regarding the rowdy street antics of young men. Attempts to inhibit or channel such violent expression through membership in confraternities proved only partially successful. Kapisch-Zuper presents the case of one youth in particular, Neri, the so-called prodigal son of the prominent Cavalcanti family, whose immoral and scandalous behavior forced his permanent internment in one of Florence’s most notorious prisons. Both Eisenbichler and Kapish-Zuper only allude to male sexuality, but Rocke focuses his study on sodomy and the thriving and rather open male juvenile sex trade and legal codes that appeared to encourage such prostitution or, at the very least, ignored its prevalence. John M. Najemy and Dana E. Stewart both focus their efforts on Renaissance ideas about passionate love. Najemy points out that, although the secular humanists of the era emphasized the repression of love in favor of conjugal friendship, seen as more befitting of a healthy family, Leon Battista Alberti, for example, warned of the overwhelming power of love and the futility of efforts to deny love’s power in his writings. Stewart examines the poetry of Cavalcanti, Dante, and Petrarch to demonstrate how their portrayals of love at first sight hinged on contemporary scientific theories regarding the eye and sight.

The essays in the second section study prominent symbols, their meaning and their use in war. Peter J. Arnade studies Dutch depictions of the pillaging conducted by Spanish troops during the Dutch revolt for independence. Portrayals of Spanish atrocities assisted Dutch independence forces in their efforts to depict Phillip II as a cruel and illegitimate ruler while emphasizing William of Orange as the ideal father for a unique Dutch nation. Samuel J. Cohn documents the use of banners in popular revolts in Italy and compares such revolts to those in northern Europe in which flags played a far less important role than fiery speeches and assemblies calling for revolt. Klaus Schreiner examines the many instances in which the Virgin Mary was seen as a protectress in military conflicts. Joëlle Rollo-Koster provides interesting insight into the looting and pillaging that occurred at the death of one pope and the election of a new one. She claims that such actions were directly linked to changes in the selection process in which important segments of the...