Unearthing the Past by Sarah Dunant ..... 1. The Past Is a Foreign Country

 This is another of those wonderful radio 4 programmes which brings history alive and in the process explores just how we understand the past.

Portrait of a woman, 1500-1525

There are five episodes in the series, and "The Past Is a Foreign Country" is the firsy which was broadcast on Wednesday, with "Renaissance Menageries" going out yesterday, "Unto Us A Child is Born", today and "An Illness Probably Caused by Love", and "Fashion Icon and Ilfluencer" on subsequent days.

"The acclaimed novelist Sarah Dunant explores the craft of blending fact and fiction to understand the past in a beguiling series of essays centred on the Renaissance icon Isabella d'Este. Written and read by Sarah Dunant.

The best-selling author of the acclaimed Italian Renaissance novels The Birth of Venus, Blood and Beauty and now, The Marchesa, takes us into the archives where she uncovers a wealth of letters and other documentation charting the wonders of the high Renaissance and the life and times of its first female art collector, fashion icon and political operator, Isabella d'Este, marchesa of Mantua. 

In this illuminating series Sarah Dunant unearths wonders that bring alive the past, how people lived, their values and their beliefs. Taking as her starting point the novelist L.P. Hartley's line 'the past is a foreign country' Sarah explores how we must sometimes suspend our own judgements to understand the social, political and cultural forces that determined the outcome of world events and every day life. 

From the acquisition of assets, art and horses, to the fealty of pets, the vicissitudes of motherhood, sex and marriage, and the wielding of cultural influence, Unearthing the Past gives us insights into how we might better understand and appreciate our colourful forebears.

You can hear more from Sarah Dunant about Isabella d'Este on Not Just The Tudors, available now on BBC Sounds. From the Aztecs to witches, Prof Suzannah Lipscomb talks all aspects of the Tudor period.

Produced by Elizabeth Allard"

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; Portrait of a woman; sometimes wrongly called Portrait of Isabelle d’Este, 1500 and 1525, Department of Paintings of the Louvre, Room 710, Accession number, INV 894 and MR 109 (Department of Paintings of the Louvre) 

*Unearthing the Past by Sarah Dunant, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002f8t3  

How to Be a Renaissance Woman by Jill Burke

Now How to be a Renaissance Women is one I am enjoying.

It is being broadcast all this week at 9.45 on Radio 4 but I have decided to binge listen to the lot.

"In the Renaissance, women cared what they looked like - they had to, in a world dominated by men. It was hard work, but they were helped by books containing beauty tips and recipes.

Boys were educated, but girls were expected either to marry or enter a convent. To catch your man, it was important to look your best. As the Renaissance visual world became populated by paintings of luscious female nudes by painters such as Titian, a vibrant literary output of beauty tips emerged. Mainly written by men like Giovanni Marinello, they were early versions of the self help books of the 20th century.

Full of advice about cosmetics, with 'solutions' to everything from podgy upper arms and smelly armpits, to droopy breasts, stretch marks, bad breath and drooling while sleeping, with particular emphasis on facial beauty, they were usually sold in the marketplace to aristocrats and peasant women alike.

Sales were in the thousands. Women, by necessity, had a wide knowledge of botanical and chemical remedies needed to help in childbirth and illness, but still had an appetite for self improvement. Some medical remedies recommended were used for other purposes – arsenic was common in beauty products, but was also useful for getting rid of a controlling husband or brother.

Through the stories of female courtesans, business women, artists, artisans, actors, and the first female writers to be published who start to rebel against the male dominance of their time, we find women beginning to discover their own voice. In a world where books are becoming more widely available, and burgeoning colonialism means that travel between nations is on the rise, the beauty of black women begins to be appreciated too as immigrants arrive in Italian cities.

Abridged by Libby Spurrier, Read by Fenella Woolgar

Produced by Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4"*

Picture; Self portrait as a lute player, 1615-1617, and Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638-1639, Artemisia Gentileschi**

*How to Be a Renaissance Woman by Jill Burke, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001r18z

**On discovering Artemisia Gentileschi ……..the Italian artist history has sidelined, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/on-discovering-artemisia-gentileschi.html