The Eloquent Body: Dance and Humanistic Culture in Fifteenth-Century Italy (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Eloquent Body: Dance and Humanistic Culture in Fifteenth-Century Italy Bronwyn Stocks Nevile, Jennifer, The Eloquent Body: Dance and Humanistic Culture in Fifteenth-Century Italy, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005; cloth; pp. 262, 18 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$39.95; ISBN 0253344530. The Eloquent Body is a welcome and valuable contribution to Renaissance studies. While a specialist text, it is written in an engaging style and its readability is aided by a clear layout and ample sub-headings. It is also supported by extensive endnotes and a thorough index and bibliography. These features make the text accessible to scholars in a range of fields as well as dance theorists. The potential widespread appeal of the book is significant, as one of the primary aims of its author, musicologist Jennifer Nevile, is to inculcate the history and theory of dance into the broader historical picture. Nevile begins by pointing out that not only is dance a neglected area of scholarship, it is a subject that has been ignored in studies that have duly recognized other aspects of Renaissance humanism and courtly culture. As she states, 'dance has never been a part of this picture'. Nevile's subsequent elucidation of the role of dance in Renaissance culture is so detailed and evocative that I found myself marvelling that this area has been practically ignored within Renaissance studies for so long. Nevile argues for the significant place of dance within the social, philosophical and intellectual milieu of courtly and humanistic culture. The study is limited to Italy as, not only was this a major centre of dance culture in the Renaissance, it is from here that we have the earliest and most extensive treatises dealing with both the choreography and philosophical theory of dance in the work of Domenico da Piacenza, Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro and Antonio Cornazano. [End Page 218] The author argues convincingly for the powerful role of dance as a signifier of high social and intellectual status and that a dancer might be distinguished or impugned according to his/her level of skill or clumsiness. She further explains that, with the influence of humanist thought, this impression might be readily translated into a reflection upon the dancer's moral character. The book provides numerous detailed descriptions of spettacoli and feste in which the role of dance is emphasized; thereby helping to fill in the picture of life and particular events in the Renaissance. This makes a significant contribution even in relation to very well-known events. The 1459 visit to Florence of Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Pope Pius II is, for example, much-referenced in Renaissance scholarship but Nevile's commentary on the role of dance during this visit expands our knowledge of courtly decorum surrounding the event. Supporting this is the publication in Appendix 1 of an extensive section of an anonymous poem in terza rima composed on the occasion of this visit (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Magl. VII 1121, f.63r-69v). While extracts from this poem have been published previously, this is the first time the entire section which describes the event's ballo and its cultural context has been made available. The text provides a vivid picture of the event: describing the anticipation, preparations, setting and furnishings, the size of the crowd, costumes, food, attitude, music, and of course dance movements. Also especially useful is Appendix 3 which offers music, glossaries and accompanying floor tracks for four balli by Domenico. The author cautions that the schematic floor tracks are just one possible interpretation of the movements but they are certainly very useful in providing readers, especially non-specialist ones, with some visual notion of the movements involved. Nevile convincingly places dance discourse within the milieu of the humanists and other humanist-influenced genres of art, proposing distinct comparisons in terms of philosophy and language. This is a particular emphasis of the discussion regarding the development of a 'technical vocabulary' for dance, in which the author points out that the dance masters adopted and adapted terms derived from classical rhetoric as well as those common to other art genres. The author contends that the dance masters sought actively to place dance within...