ABSTRACT
Whereas the studies of early modern widowhood by social, economic and cultural historians have called attention to the often ambiguous, yet also often empowering, experience and position of widows within society, Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modem Europe is the first book to consider the distinct and important relationship between ritual as it pertains to widowhood and representation. Much important work on women has been published in the 25 years since Lauro Martines issued a plea 'to rearrange our grasp of the whole social life' of late medieval and Renaissance Europe. There is a wealth of published material on topics closely related to the present study, such as the socioeconomic variables of widowhood, the role of gender within death and mourning rituals, the form and the function of the arts produced in conjunction with those rituals and women's patronage.
