How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty & Female Creativity

"I specialise in Renaissance art, very specifically, in Renaissance drawings of the nude. What I find so intriguing about the Renaissance is that there were these pockets of power and influence for women, even in what was a highly patriarchal society. I’d never considered that makeup and beauty would have been a way of showing your power and sharing your individuality. “Art can actually alter your neural pathways” Jill Burke, an exceptional Renaissance scholar, brings an incredibly important insight to this under-researched topic. Don’t get me wrong, this is not some kind of serious or high-minded academic history book. On the contrary, it’s written in a way that is really accessible and really entertaining, not to mention completely relevant to art history today. Isn’t it fascinating, for example, that we are still thinking in much the same way today as we were 600 years ago, when self-image and public image were deemed to be all-important? We’re still looking at ourselves in the mirror and criticising our looks, looking for ways to improve our image. Let’s face it, we haven’t really changed as humans. This is an astonishing thing about art history, when you can look at a painting from the distant past and realise, ‘God, that could be me!’"