Maniera Devota, Mano Donnesca: Women’s Work and Stitching for Virtue in the Visual Culture of the Conservatori in Early Modern Bologna

Abstract

Textiles are often not given their due importance in art history in terms of the analysis of religious iconography, patronage, and reception studies. Bologna, however, had a thriving industry of embroidery, most of which was produced by women who, in convents and conservatori, copied famous paintings of local artists, including women. The subject matter displayed the gendered iconography of Counter-Reformation models of virtue as adapted for the use of the young girls living and working in these charitable Christian reform houses. This visual imagery was based on Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti’s call for a maniera devota or devout manner in sacred painting, and commissioned by Bolognese noblewomen or wealthy silk merchants. This article examines how two such paintings by Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani became part of a dialogue between the maniera devota and the mano donnesca, in which gender both influenced the production of sacred visual culture and was, in turn, affected by it.