Giovanna d'Austria and the art of appearances: textiles and dress at the Florentine court

Abstract

This article examines the potential value of textiles and clothing as a means for a female consort, whose position was dependent on a variety of mutable factors and who frequently lacked access to independent institutional authority, to exert influence, gain loyalty, assert status and express ambiguity and even conflict. Taking the underexplored subject of Giovanna d'Austria, wife of Francesco de' Medici and the first Grand Duchess of Florence, as a case study, I examine her use of material culture in the context of her increasingly precarious position at the Florentine court. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from account books and receipts to ambassadors' reports and private correspondence, Giovanna's activities are contextualized through comparison with her predecessor, Eleonora di Toledo; her husband Francesco's mistress, Bianca Cappello and her sisters, Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara, and Eleonora of Austria, Duchess of Mantua.