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*A Waterstones Best Book of 2023* *A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week* *A New York Times Editor''s Pick* ''Terrific'' SARAH DUNANT ''Lively and intriguing ... You''ll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way'' MAGGIE O''FARRELL ''Highlights a rich tapestry of female experience that encompasses everyone from artisans to aristocrats ...'' THE TIMES This is the story of the Renaissance, but not as you know it. Discover overlooked and silenced women from this extraordinary moment in history and how they forged opportunities for creativity, community and resistance. From the bedchamber to the court, they give us an intimate window into what life was really like - and hold a mirror up to our contemporary obsession with how we look. ''A witty and engaging history of cosmetics and beauty ... lavishly illustrated and hugely entertaining'' IRISH TIMES ''A total eye-opener, I loved it'' NUALA McGOVERN
About the author
Jill Burke is a professor of Renaissance Visual and Material Cultures at the University of Edinburgh and writes about the body and its representation, focussing on Italy and Europe 1400-1700. Her most recent book The Italian Renaissance Nude was deemed "a keystone for future studies" and selected for Choice's 2019 Outstanding Academic Titles list. A member of the curatorial team for The Renaissance Nude exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in New York in 2018-19, she co-edited the exhibition catalogue. Jill talks regularly about renaissance bodies on TV, radio and podcasts and discusses ideas about the history of art and beauty on "Jill Burke's Blog". Her current research interest is how people in the Renaissance sought to change their bodies, faces and hairstyles to meet beauty ideals. This includes trying out renaissance cosmetics recipes at home and experimenting with physicists in a lab in an unlikely but fruitful collaboration between the history of skincare and soft-matter science.
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A total eye-opener, I loved it Nuala McGovern, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour
