Virtue and beauty : Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance portraits of women /

Accompanying a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, this book is the first on the theme of female portraiture during the Renaissance. Curator Brown and fellow experts on the Renaissance use examples from the work of Leonardo, Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and others to conclude that most of the portraits of women during this period were expressions of the wealth of the sitter's husband. The wife's elaborate jewelry and dress symbolized the honor of her husband's social standing rather than her own vanity. At the same time, the portrait of a beautiful woman during the Renaissance also was associated with the Neoplatonic ideal of beauty and its equation to virtue. It is noted, however, that while Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Mona Lisa upheld this ideal of virtue and beauty, they departed from the tradition of depicting women in elaborate dress that reflected social status in favor of a more personal, humanist interpretation of female portraiture. Illustrated with beautiful color reproductions, this highly readable volume is recommended for all libraries with art collections. Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll., MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.