Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance ed. by Wilson-Chevalier, Kathleen (review)

172Women in French Studies Tarte examines are, as she suggests, perhaps most significant for what they reveal about the many facets of historical writing in sixteenth-century France. Her book will appeal, however, not only to historians, but to all those with an interest in sixteenth-century France, the early modem city, the evolution of cartography, women writers and intersections of genders and genres. Carrie F. KlausDePauw University Wilson-Chevalier, Kathleen, éd., avec la collaboration d'Eugénie Pascal. Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l'Université de Saint-Etienne, 2007. Pp 680; 16 pp color plates. ISBN: 978-2-86272-443-0. €27 (Paper). Part of l'école du genre, an interdisciplinary series on women's history, socio-sexual relations, the construction of identity, and other topics, the twentyfour essays and introduction of Patronnes et mécènes seek to bring woman as patron and Maecenas out of the oblivion to which history had consigned her. This sizeable work is divided into two main sections, the first of which, devoted to woman and "text," is significantly shorter (88 pp) than the second (443 pp), which focuses on approximately ten individual women, as well as the abbesses of Fontevraud. The volume also contains brief biographies of its contributors, a résumé of each essay and the introduction, a comprehensive bibliography and index, and a list of its one hundred and twenty-seven black-and-white illustrations and sixteen color plates. It would be impossible, in a brief review of such a lengthy work, to do justice to each and every essay. Correlatively, it would be unfair to highlight just a few articles for appraisal, as a function of the reviewer's personal interests. Commentary on Patronnes et mécènes requires a vue d'ensemble that reflects its success in presenting articles that truly complement each other, thus creating a more nuanced portrait of woman as supporter of the arts than had been previously available. The introduction by Wilson-Chevalier, far from being simply a pro forma component, offers useful insight into the volume's organization and purpose. It emphasizes that powerful women, like their male counterparts, fully assumed the duty of patronage, in particular, with respect to the building and decoration of châteaux and collegiate churches. Specifically addressed is the connection of queens, regents, and other aristocratic ladies with the iconography ofParisian devotional sites dedicated to women. The three essays in the first part of Patronnes et mécènes approach "text" from three distinct angles: the passage from manuscript to print, the influence of women on Renaissance theater, and the usefulness of letters in revealing the role of "princess," notably, in political terms. The first essay concludes that, while the advent of printing brought new opportunities for both women and men to support literary production and distribution, the subjects of texts deemed most "appropriate" to women continued to be piety and spirituality. Nevertheless, Book Reviews173 Renaissance translations of Ancient writings, medical manuals, and various other works did come to enjoy female readership. The next essay explores how women, who continued to be an important part of the audience of farces, mysteries, and morality plays, became actresses in early Humanist theater, thus exerting a major impact on its development. The third article concentrates on letters by approximately fifteen Catholic and Protestant princesses. Their epistolary activity shows them to have been at the same time ostentatious consumers, avid patronesses ofthe arts, and savvy political propagandists. The second part of Patronnes et mécènes deals with several particularly prominent women—Anne de France, Anne de Bretagne, Marguerite de Navarre, Alienor d'Autriche, Diane de Poitiers, Antoinette de Bourbon, and seven articles devoted to Catherine de Médicis—as well as Anne d'Esté, Catherine-Marie de Lorraine, Louise de Savoie, and the Fontevraud abbesses. There is also an article about the funerary monuments in Nantes and Brou that were commissioned by Anne de Bretagne and Marguerite d'Autriche, respectively. All of these essays bring to light, in one way or another, both the aesthetic and political legacy of women patrons. Topics range from books to architecture, from statuary and portraiture to goldsmithing...