The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo: Duchess of Florence and Siena (review)

This edited collection on the cultural world of Eleonora di Toledo (1522-1562), Duchess of Florence and Siena and consort of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, is most welcome. Thematically, it is a companion volume to Eisenbichler's edited collection on Duke Cosimo's cultural politics published by Ashgate in 2001, to which several contributors in this volume make reference. But it is much more than a companion volume, and makes a valuable contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Eleonora's importance as a cultural patron and arbiter of influence, whose image was used by Cosimo to further the Medicean cultural and political agenda. As the contributors who discuss Eleonora's patronage of her apartments and chapel make clear, Eleonora very much supported and was involved in the creation of this agenda.

Eisenbichler's introduction provides a succinct summary of the historiography on Eleonora, noting its paucity and, with rare exception, the often limited and negative view of the duchess, especially by her one biographer Anna Baia. A sound critique of these negative views and the assumptions behind them is provided by Eisenbichler, who then suggests that this volume, which focuses on the art historical: '…is not, as one would wish, a comprehensive re-examination of her life, but [rather] a step in that direction' (p. 9). In many ways, this book has fulfilled that goal.

One of the book's strengths is its thematic unity, a task particularly difficult to achieve in an edited volume. The first two chapters discuss Cosimo's use of the image of a young and fortuitously fecund Eleonora. Mary Watt discusses the representations of Eleonora during her wedding celebrations, as a new Beatrice to Cosimo's Dante, an image that was intended to emphasise the significance of the imperial connection that his marriage to the daughter of the Emperor's Spanish viceroy further cemented and reinforced. Gabrielle Langdon then sensitively analyses Bronzino's portrait of Eleonora, which linked her through its iconography to Petrarch's beloved Laura. Both these Tuscan poets loomed large in Cosimo's cultural agenda with its emphasis on the Tuscan vernacular.

Four chapters deal with the decoration of Eleonora's apartments and their iconography. Throughout Eleonora's identification with the goddess of matrimony, fecundity and abundance looms large, a reference to the many children that Eleonora bore her husband as well as her wealth. As she grew older, she was more often identified with illustrious women in history who demonstrated the ability to rule. These frescoes were begun in the 1560s and are appropriate for the period after Eleanora's childbearing years had ceased. Tinagli and Benson both argue that Eleonora was actively involved in discussions about what the famous women cycles should contain.

The volume then moves on to Eleonora's support of the Jesuits and the Spanish practices of prolonged contemplative prayer for which Eleonora was well known. The iconography of Eleonora's chapel is well analysed by Gaston. Both he and Chiara Franceschini argue that, even though Eleonora supported the Jesuits, she exercised her independence of judgement as to its degree and extent. The last two chapters focus on Eleonora's burial attire and posthumous image, which sadly largely faded from view after the death of her sons. In their detailed examinations of her memorialisation, both Bulgarella and Cox-Rearick look to the present day and provide a fascinating analysis of the Medicean myth and its many falsehoods and half-truths.

Despite its thematic unity and incisive analyses provided by the various contributors to the volume, the book has a major gap in its thematic coverage. It lacks a sustained gender analysis and a concomitant discussion of Eleonora in relation to other women rulers of her age and those that preceded her. Nowhere are the difficulties that Eleonora may have experienced as a female ruler discussed in any depth, even though Pamela Benson hints at...