Gentile Da Fabriano,St. Nicholas,and an Iconography of Shame

Abstract

The article concentrates on Gentile da Fabriano's 1425 painting of St. Nicholas Providing Dowries for the Three Daughters. It identifies the activity of one daughter who is undressing her father (removing his shoes and hose) and the gestures of two others, one removing a head-covering and the other undressing, as signs of the social incompetence of the father: he has lost his authority over his family and moral corruption ensues. These iconographical innovations coincide with the establishment of the municipal dowry fund in Florence, where the painting was made. It is argued that the new signs of shame about the inability to provide dowries were part of the intensified discourse on honor and marriage which occurred at this time.

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