'Vetulae'. Depicting women's ageing bodies in 15th century Florence

Descripción del proyecto

Representación de las mujeres mayores en el arte de Florencia en el siglo XV

Los estudios sobre el envejecimiento de la población se centran en los aspectos biológico, económico, social y médico, pero ignoran su impacto sociocultural. El proyecto VETULAE, financiado con fondos europeos, proporcionará una visión exhaustiva y comparativa de las ideas sobre los cuerpos de las mujeres mayores en la Florencia del siglo XV. El proyecto recopilará un corpus de obras pictóricas y escultóricas que representen distintas facetas del envejecimiento y comparará las construcciones culturales del envejecimiento femenino con las del masculino a través de textos e imágenes de contextos sociales e iconográficos diferentes. VETULAE también reflexionará sobre el presunto sesgo de género entre médicos, artistas, escritores y promotores culturales, volverá a incluir el cuerpo que envejece según el género en la historia de la Europa premoderna e inscribirá ideas premodernas sobre el envejecimiento de las mujeres.

Objetivo

This project aims to provide a holistic and comparative view of ideas and materializations regarding women’s ageing bodies in 15th c. Florence at the intersection of art, art theory, and medicine. Over the last few decades, studies on the biological, economic, social, and cultural aspects of ageing have multiplied, as a result of the ongoing debates on demographic ageing and its impact in our societies. Although recent shifts in scholarship have led to significant advancement in this area, biomedical accounts are often privileged over the social and cultural, and the latter tend to focus mostly on the contemporary. My project VETULAE supplies this central question in modern science with a historical depth and seeks to enrich the discussion with new perspectives. The project thus has the potential to play a part in influencing the way we think about women’s ageing by anchoring present and future experiences in historic precedents.
More specifically, VETULAE aims to:
1) Collect a corpus of pictorial and sculptural works that represent different facets of women's ageing and old age, executed in Florence and its surroundings during the 15th century; 2) Compare cultural constructions of women's ageing to that of men’s using texts and images from different social and iconographic contexts; 3) Reflect on the presumed gender bias in regards to ageing among physicians, artists, writers, and cultural promoters; 4) Rewrite the gendered ageing body into the history of pre-modern Europe, addressing the underestimated yet crucial role of the intersection between natural history and the visual arts in shaping cultural constructions of gender and age; 5) Inscribe pre-modern ideas about women’s ageing in the longue durée and evaluate their impact in today's culture.
This research will be developed and disseminated through an academic monograph, a museum exhibition and a digital project designed to work in perfect synergy and reach a wider audience within and beyond academia.