Description
Book SynopsisExplores the relationship between fashion and power in Renaissance Italy, focusing on visual art and culture and the nature of aristocratic masculinity and patriarchal authority.
Trade Review“With this vivid account of fifteenth-century fashion, McCall has given us thrilling new ways to interpret the politics, gender posturing, and art of Renaissance Italy. Bringing new light to such well-known historical figures and events—and from such a surprising angle and with so much delicacy in the details of the prose—is what makes Brilliant Bodies a remarkable achievement.”
—Emanuele Lugli,author of The Making of Measure and the Promise of Sameness
“Readers who worry that McCall’s book might be an academic affair directed toward art historians, costume scholars, archivists, and other specialists need not fear: the chapters are beautifully illustrated, the writing is accessible, the argument is clearly developed with a critical eye toward current debates on gender, identity, and the symbolic valorization of whiteness, or ‘brilliance,’ in the courts of early Renaissance Europe, where aristocratic men and women regularly bleached their hair blond, powdered their hands and faces white, and embellished their clothing with shimmering metallic threads and gems that made their bodies glow like the sun.”
—Maria H. Loh Art in America
“Readers who worry that McCall’s book might be an academic affair directed toward art historians, costume scholars, archivists, and other specialists need not fear: the chapters are beautifully illustrated, the writing is accessible, the argument is clearly developed with a critical eye toward current debates on gender, identity, and the symbolic valorization of whiteness.”
—Maria H. Loh Art in America
“Specialists have long awaited the publication of [McCall’s] book, which will turn into an instant classic in the field.”
—Ulinka Rublack Journal of Design History
“Lavishly illustrated and written in an accessible style, it is a must-read for anyone interested in dress or the Renaissance court.”
—Sara van Dijk Virtus
“Beautiful, provocative, and stylishly written.”
—Charlotte F. Nichols Renaissance and Reformation
