Donne splendide: some thoughts on women's acquisition of useful and ornamental objects in the Reinassance

The aim of this article is to examine, through fifteenth- and sixteenth-century documents, the ways in which donne di palazzo were important agents in the display of wealth and of beautiful objects. By their commissions and their purchases, but also with their dowries and inheritances, these women showed that splendore, one of the ‘social virtues’ that were considered an essential part in the life of the wealthy and sophisticated elite, was not just a male quality. The documents also demonstrate the ways in which women like Eleonora d’Aragona, Isabella and Beatrice d’Este, Elisabetta Gonzaga, Eleonora di Toledo and others helped to shape the style of the period.