“I give you this, my beautiful one, as a token of my love” These words featured on a decorated cup made in Italy in the late fifteenth century and were accompanied by an image of a winged Cupid and a heart pierced by an arrow. The decorations on gifts like this, exchanged during courtship in Renaissance Italy, are intricately designed and can tell us a great deal about attitudes and beliefs about love. This talk explores some of the rich legacy of objects made to celebrate and to commemorate love and courtship.
Dr Lydia Goodson is an art historian and lecturer specialising in the art and material culture of Renaissance Italy. She holds a BA in Renaissance History, an MA in History of Art and was awarded her PhD in 2020 from the Warburg Institute of the University of London, for her thesis on painting and patronage in Renaissance Perugia.