Gendered Allegories of Power and Warfare: Warrior Women as Personifications in Early Modern Art
abstract
This article investigates the reinterpretation of warlike geographical personifications during the early modern period, focusing on sixteenth-century Italian painting. It analyses, through case studies, the ancient origin of these predominantly feminine allegories, the circumstances in which they appeared in painting and the role played by warfare in their proliferation. Additionally, the study investigates the gender dynamics involved, emphasizing how the visual portrayal of cities, countries, and republics as women positioned them metaphorically as mothers, lovers, wives, or maidens within rhetorical discourses and propagandistic imagery.
Keywords: Sixteenth-century Italian art • Politics • Warfare • Iconography • Allegory • Geographical personifications • Gendered bodies