ABSTRACT
Cinquecento Venetian women have traditionally been imagined in the role of silent domestic partner, seldom seen or heard outside of their domestic realm. The rarity of independent portraits of Venetian Renaissance women has reinforced this impression.1 When a woman is portrayed, it is often in the context of her family or as a pendant to her husband’s portrait; her individuality is overshadowed by the power of patrilineage in the Venetian Republic.2 Fortunately, the context provided by such portrayals can sometimes forge a connection to the better-documented public male world, creating an opportunity to identify women and lift the veil of invisibility that history has cast over them.
