International Journal of Art and Art History

The Conception of Authority and Power in the Works of Christine de Pizan. Mediation and Consensus in her Work
Mª Elisa Varela-Rodríguez

Abstract
My wish, in this text, is to study and observe the concept of authority and power in the work of Christine de Pizan (1364/1365-ca. 1430?), as well as editing ideas of mediation and consensus in the works of the author. I will analyze these political conceptions in L'epistreàla ReineIsabeau (1405); Le Livre de la Mutation de Fortune; The City of Ladies; The Rose and the Prince; La Vita e ibuonicostumi del saggio re Carlo V; in Librodella Pace and the Poema di Giovanna d'Arco. Christine was a woman of privileged culture, she had received since childhood a refined education in the Court, and she had had access to the Royal Library, as per her social situation. From a young age she was ableto devote herself to the arts and culture, i.e., to move in an area that was considered in her time above all to be a male domain, at least for lay people, although this was not the case for the religious, because some nuns, canonesses and medieval beguines were also highly educated women. The ideas of authority and power, as well as the policy of mediation and consensus are present in the work of Christine de Pizan, because these ideas have as basic element the practice of relationship, or rather of relationships, and it is this that allows us to understand feudalism, because this system was conjoined in a network of relationships.

Full Text: PDF       DOI: 10.15640/ijaah.v4n1a4