Material culture, marriage and gender in Renaissance Italy
rings. 18 This ceremony, intriguing for the importance of the female relatives, can provide interesting insight into their role in Renaissance marriages.
In Figure 1, the diamond serves two purposes. The first purpose is to display the wealth of the husband’s family, hinting at the transactional nature of the marriage. The second, and likelymore important given the intimate nature of the ceremony, is to symbolize fidelity. Indeed, in an album celebrating a marriage in 1475 Hymen, the Greek God of marriage, is shown wearing a costume patterned by diamond rings. 19
(Fig. 1) Wedding Ring, Northern Italy, 15 th century 20
As with the other objects associated with marriage, they seem consistently to adopt a didactic purpose, 21 insisting upon the women’s loyalty and fidelity. Moreover, that female relatives of the husband are involved in this ceremony seems to suggest that while the marriage ceremonies as a collective are about placing the bride within her new family that the ring ceremony was mainly about placing the bride within a group of women in her new family. 22 This also meant the bride was placed firmly in the domestic sphere. Even after gifting the ring, the man retained his power over it and the women may be forced in the future to gift it to a new, younger bride being brought into the family. 23 This established the idea of the ring as carrying a shared lineage and created solidarity amongst the family. 24 However, while these general conclusions can be well established using the rings which survive from the era, along with the records of the ring ceremonies, there are some examples which throw doubt upon the ideas. Firstly, the band of Figure 1 reads ‘ Lorenzo to Lena Lena ’ , with Lena being a nickname, probably affectionate. 25 The use of an affectionate or personal nickname on an object related primarily to family, kinship and transaction seems out of place. Moreover, Figure 2 quotes the Gospel of Mathew saying that the ‘ two shall become one flesh ’ (Matt. 19:5). 26 A religious image concerned with the marriage taking precedence over previous relationships in one
(Fig. 2 ): Ring, Northern Italy, 15 th century
18 Krohn, D. (2008) in Bayer 2008: 9-17. 19 Bayer 2008: 100. 20 Ibid. p.100. 21 Randolph 2008: 28. 22 Klapisch-Zuber 1985: 231-237. 23 Ibid. 24 Bayer 2008: 100. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. p.101.
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