PUBLIC LECTURE: Gendering Political Relationships in Genoese Ceremonial Entries

Gender is a valuable lens for interpreting the hierarchies at play in political performances and entry iconography. Throughout the preparation, enactment, and chronicling of ceremonial entries during the Italian Wars (1494–1559), cities and their entrants utilised gendered performance and allegory to articulate and negotiate their political relationships. The northern coastal republic of Genoa was a pivotal ally, first for Valois, and then for Hapsburg rulers, and in this capacity was the stage for both triumphant entries and entries-in-arms. Viewed collectively, the respective entries of King Louis XII of France, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and his son Prince Philip of Spain, demonstrate the entered city’s subjection to foreign interpretation as well as its flexibility of self-representation. Political interpreters, be they organisers tasked with staging an entry or poets tasked with shaping its cultural memory, drew upon familiar gendered scenarios to place the city in relation to the entrant. In this talk I will suggest that Genoa’s allegorical identity shifted from that of a dependent mistress, to a ruined woman under the French Valois; and then to a supportive brother, and ‘uncle’ under the Austro-Spanish Habsburgs.

This public lecture is organised by the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group (PMRG) and the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS) at The University of Western Australia and sponsored by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.