The Ugly Woman: Transgressive Aesthetic Models in Italian Poetry from the Middles Ages to the Baroque by Patrizia Bettella (review)

REVIEWS 219 and precious gems, “which gleam in many biblical passages as substances that reflect the glory of God” (50), might suggest, for example, that their owners were favorites of God and thereby confer upon them a spiritual authority. Today tapestries are not widely admired, Belozerskaya argues, because their fading dyed yarns and deterioration through use make them “pale echoes of the tapestries’ original character and impact” (92). However, during the Renaissance , “rulers surrounded themselves with tapestries,” which were tremendously expensive, labor-intensive, and had the benefit of being portable, “even at war, instantly creating and defining spaces of power” (99). In the chapter on armor, Belozerskaya outlines the different kinds of armor required for combat, tournament, or parade; the rise of garnitures; and the production techniques and decorations implemented by the leading armorers. In the following chapter, Belozerskaya examines the use of different forms of music and dance that were “ingredient(s) of noble education and constituted a vital part of courtly life” (214). The final chapter considers the “weddings and funerals, banquets and tournaments, receptions of notable guests and diplomatic gatherings” (260) that would display these luxury arts. Belozerskaya’s thoughtful, well-researched overview includes many but not all of the luxury arts that were prominent during the Renaissance (furniture is the most surprising omission). Familiar and less familiar stories are retold to place these luxury goods in context, serving to illustrate their prevalence among the Renaissance elite. Yet, the lack of a consistent, compelling argument that would dictate the choice of each individual luxury good, gives the work a sort of haphazard, conversational construction, which, then, comes to an abrupt end with a sudden, one-paragraph conclusion that doesn’t truly draw together the preceding 260 pages. However, Belozerskaya’s final sentence—“In looking closely at the paramount artifacts of the Renaissance and pondering their functions and their meanings within their culture, we gain a richer understanding of the ever-elusive past” (260)—doubtless is true, and this book is a careful, often fascinating general review of the different classes of luxury goods and the ways in which they were displayed during the Renaissance. DANIEL WALLACE MAZE, Art History, UCLA Patrizia Bettella, The Ugly Woman: Transgressive Aesthetic Models in Italian Poetry from the Middles Ages to the Baroque, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2005) 259 pp. In The Ugly Woman Patrizia Bettella examines Italian poetry about ugly women from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth. Bettella chose to work only with poems written by men, and when the work is anonymous, she assumed the author was male. Part of the choice is explained by the scarcity of female writings in this period. Yet she also wanted to examine relationships between men and women in pre-modern Italy. For Bettella, “beauty standards are part of a cultural discourse regarding age, class, and race. The ugly woman, by not confirming to the norms of beauty, is depicted as anomalous, rebellious, and transgressive” (3). She sees this work as a contribution to the secondary literature on beauty norms and beauty in Italian poetry. The book is divided into four chapters both chronologically and thematically. The first chapter, “Female Ugliness in the Middle Ages: The Old Hag,” be- REVIEWS 220 gins with a short discussion of ancient and early Christian authors, who influenced later medieval writers, such as Horace and Tertullian. The main focus of the chapter is a discussion of the old hag in comic-realistic poetry. In her section on Rustico Filippi’s sonnet, “Dovunque vai con teco porti il cesso,” Bettella centers on the connection between scent and sexuality. Drawing on the work of Hans Randisbacher and Freud, she points out that good smells give out a positive erotic charge whereas bad smells a negative one. In the sonnet, the buggeressa is understood to be transgressive because she connotes non-human sexuality. This chapter is heavily indebted to the work of Howard R. Bloch on misogyny in medieval French literature. In chapter 2, “Transgression in the Trecento and Quattrocento: Guardian, Witch, and Prostitute,” there is a very interesting discussion of the effect of sight on love and the place of women in society. Bettella outlines how in medieval...