Family in Renaissance Florence: I Libri Della Famiglia

'One time she has given birth, she should non exit in the cold and wind until all her limbs accept fully regained their strength.'
(Leon Battista Alberti, On the Family unit (Della Famiglia) Book II

'The Nativity of Hercules', painting on wooden birth bowl, from the circumvolve of Giovanni Battista Franco, Florence, Italian republic, 1530-40. Museum no. 917-1875

Tin-glazed earthenware goop-bowl from an accouchement ready, with painted birth scene by Francesco Xanto, Urbino, Italy, about 1530. Museum no. C.2241-1910

Tin can-glazed earthenware salt cellar and embrace from an accouchement set, Italia, most 1525. This would have held the salt needed to season the craven broth brought to revive the mother later on the difficulties of childbirth. Museum no. 7142&A-1861

'The The Triumph of Love', tempera painting on wooden birth tray, from the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, Forence, Italy, near 1460-70. Museum no. 144-1869

In 15th-century Florence, girls commonly married between the ages of 15 and 19, and their childbearing peaked between the ages of 20 and 24. Because of the mutual practice of sending children out to wet-nurses, fourth dimension betwixt pregnancies was brief, so that boilerplate number of children born to ane mother was between 5 and seven. If she lived to around the historic period of 45, then that figure could rise to x children, merely the dangers of pregnancy were such that this was uncommon.

Pregnancy and childbirth were unsafe times in a adult female's life, and most women wrote their wills in one case they knew they were pregnant. To safeguard and reassure the pregnant woman facing these risks, or to celebrate a successful birth, there were special foods and objects, including nativity trays and amulets. After she had given nascency, the lady of the house would bask a lying-in period. Every bit the quote from Alberti shows, this time was not strictly defined, but the fact that almost women did non attend the baptism of their children indicates that it would last at to the lowest degree a few days.

During this time she would receive visits from friends and family to congratulate her on the prophylactic delivery of her child. The new mother would be given a birth tray, or desco da parto , laden with jars containing chicken soup and sweetmeats. This would then be hung on the wall of her bedchamber. Busy with subjects suitable to the occasion, these trays were particularly fashionable in Tuscany in the 15th century.

By about 1500, maiolica bowls painted on the inside with biblical births and flamboyant moresque patterns on the outside were becoming more popular, as were wooden bowls decorated in a similar fashion (tafferie di parto). The birth trays were specially commissioned, or bought ready-made with a blank space for a personal coat of artillery or emblem.

Nascence trays were not only the preserve of the rich. Less wealthy people could go cheaper versions, with smaller amounts of expensive gold ornamentation, or they could take advantage of the lively 2nd-paw trade in objects associated with pregnancy. Artisans and shopkeepers – from butchers to apothecaries – likewise as nobles and bankers could therefore afford to give their wives a version of these trays.

The tray from the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, who likewise painted cassoni (hymeneals chests) is painted with imagery deriving from the Triumph of Dearest by the Florentine poet Petrarch (1304–1374). In his poem Petrarch adapted the idea of ancient Roman triumphal processions, in which a victorious emperor returning from the front entered the city through a triumphal curvation.

The tray shows a naked Cupid atop his chariot and identifiable by his wings and bow and arrows. The other figures also feature in the Triumph of Love, though the painter has added well known incidents in their lives to make them recognisable to the viewer.

In the foreground, nosotros tin see Delilah cutting off Samson's pilus, the source of his superhuman strength, before delivering him to the waiting Philistines. To the left is Phyllis, fictional mistress of Alexander the Great, riding upon the back of the philosopher Aristotle. Equally Alexander's tutor and counsellor, Aristotle tried to dissever his educatee from his paramour, who was absorbing all his time and energy, and causing him to neglect his duties. In vengeance at this interference, and to bear witness that no homo was allowed to the power of beloved, Phyllis seduced Aristotle and showed her control over him past saddling him and riding effectually the garden.

These antics illustrate a baroque topsy-turvy world where woman rather than man rules the roost. This was a popular field of study in Renaissance art and literature. Cheaply produced broadsheets and prints showed wives wearing the trousers, beating their husbands and forcing them to stay at home and look afterwards the children.

The figures of Samson and Delilah and Aristotle and Phyllis may have served every bit a humorous warning to men not to allow women dominate them, while the woman who received such a souvenir may have been flattered at this reference to her powers of seduction. The central bulletin of the tray, yet, can probably be found in the figure of Cupid. This paradigm of a salubrious young male person was probably idea to have a talismanic effect, encouraging the generation of healthy babe boys, especially if the tray were hung in the sleeping accommodation.

The power of the imagination

'Have pictures of saintly children or young virgins in the home, in which your child, still in swaddling clothes, may accept delight…There should be a good representation of Jesus nursing, sleeping in His Mother's lap or standing courteously before Her while they expect at each other.'
(Giovanni Dominici, Rules on the Governing and Care of the Family (Regola del Governo di Cura Familiare), most 1400

Painted and gilded stucco relief depicting the Virgin and Kid, past Donatello, wooden frame probably painted past Paolo di Stefano, Florence, Italy, nearly 1435-40. Museum no. A.45-1926

In every Renaissance bedroom, there was typically at least i prototype of the Virgin and Child, very often a impress, painting or relief prepare in a carved, painted and gilt wooden frame. These images were hung loftier on the wall then that the holy figures could watch over the enclosed space, protecting those within information technology by their presence. During the 15th century the Church was increasingly cracking to promote piety among its followers. One way of accomplishing this was through humanising the holy figures of Christ and the Virgin, an approach that was complimented by the new realistic tendencies in art. Depictions of the tender relationship between mother and child, with a smiling Virgin and playful Christ Kid, became increasingly pop. Devotees were expected to kneel and pray before these images, and be moved by them.

The aim of these objects was not wholly to inspire religious devotion; they as well played an important role in the promotion of nascence and matrimony. A relief of the babe Christ, the platonic child, and the Madonna, the ideal mother, would take been a adept example for new brides and for mothers in full general. This imagery was also thought to inspire women to conceive. Madonna and Child reliefs were oft bought in the months earlier and afterwards a wedding in gild to stimulate the fertile female imagination into producing male children.

A woman's imagination was thought to be instrumental in determining such characteristics every bit the sex and looks of the unborn kid. For this reason, it was considered appropriate to environment a woman, at the time of formulation and throughout the pregnancy, with beautiful images of children, and especially with images of baby boys. Terrifying examples of the fertile female person imagination gone awry were plentiful and sensational - the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, for example, gave a lecture in which he cited the case of a woman who gave birth to a mouse after 1 surprised her during her pregnancy. As a effect, the doctors and the writers of bestiaries (encyclopaedias of animals, both real and fictional) warned women non to expect at or think of beasts at sure times.How much better, therefore, to have a pic of the babe Jesus hanging on the bedroom wall to provide the future mother with an appropriate image for her kid.

Keeping infant warm

'The Lady to the Nurse: How now, how doth the child? ... Unswaddle him, disengage his swaddling bands...Pull off his shirt, thou art pretty and fat my little darling …Now swaddle him once again, Just first put on his biggin.' (From a dialogue, The French Garden, by Claudius Hollybrand and Peter Erondell, 1605)

Linen and cutwork babe's bonnet or coif, Southern Netherlands, 1550-1600. Museum no. 7523-1861

Detail of a linen and cutwork baby's bonnet or coif, Southern Netherlands, 1550-1600. Museum no. 7523-1861

In this quote, the solicitous mother mentions an particular of clothing found throughout Renaissance Europe. A 'biggin' was a baby's cap like the one illustrated here, although oft it was less ornate and warmer than this delicate lace example.

Babies' and infants' heads were ever kept covered against the cold. When they went exterior young girls would wear hoods and immature boys a type of pork-pie hat, often decorated with feathers. Children went on wearing caps throughout their infancy. Boys stopped wearing them later breeching - that is to say when they started wearing trousers rather than skirts, usually between the age of 6 and eight years old. Girls wore coifs, often decorated with lace, until their teens. For a brief period earlier she married, a maiden'due south pilus was unbound and visible, simply equally soon equally she married it was braided into elaborate coiffeurs and covered by a veil.

This bonnet is made of linen and cutwork lace, made past cutting spaces into a fine linen ground and and so filling them with a delicate structure of needle lace. The lace indicates that the baby must have been born into a rich family, as lace was a luxury item that emphasised wealth and social continuing. That is why royal children are often painted festooned with lace, on their collars, on their wrists and on their heads. Royal babies, tightly wrapped in swaddling wearing apparel, are shown with lace-worked caps and sometimes lace trimmings to their swaddling bands.

Swaddling was used to keep children warm, and to ensure proper growth by preventing any move of their limbs. Wrapped in swaddling bands and wearing a piddling cap, a new infant would be presented to the guests who came to visit the mother during her confinement.

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Source: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/renaissance-childbirth/

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