Ornamento delle belle & virtuose donne 1554

Matteo Pagano made this woodcut print, “Ornamento delle belle, & virtuose donne”, in Venice sometime in the mid-to-late 16th century. The title translates as “Ornament for beautiful and virtuous women,” and this print is just one page from a pattern book for lacemakers and embroiderers. In Renaissance Italy, sumptuary laws dictated who could wear what. These laws were designed to police social hierarchies, but books such as this offered women some agency in how they presented themselves to the world. The rising merchant class challenged traditional hierarchies of wealth and power. The visual codes in pattern books offered a means for women to outwardly express their inner virtue and taste, while simultaneously allowing them to accrue symbolic capital. As art historians, we use a wide variety of sources to understand art. Examining the artist's other works, and pattern books from the same period helps us better understand the social and institutional contexts of art making.