Le Gioie Della Vita: The Gemstones, Health, and Beauty of the Medici Women

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the use of gemstones in the health and beauty practices of the Grand Duchess Christine of Lorraine (1565-1637) and her female family members at the Medici Court in Florence at the turn of the seventeenth century. Precious stones were a medium of aristocratic female agency. They were ornaments that signalled familial bonds and social status, accessible repositories of wealth, ingredients in cosmetic and medicinal products, and protective pregnancy amulets. Noblewomen in early modern Italy skillfully deployed the monetary, cosmetic, medicinal and symbolic values of these stones to protect and promote their interests. The gemstone imagery used in Neoplatonic poetry to describe divine beauty elevated gems in the hierarchy of culturally significant materials, supporting the idea that they had curative virtues and inspiring an ideal of feminine beauty based upon their colours and luminosity. Early modern medical sciences’ equation of beauty, health, and morality illuminated the significance of precious stones in women’s personal care practices. Their application and consumption of alchemical products containing gemstones, with the aim of achieving a gem-like complexion, literally manifested their poetic transmutation into gems in popular literature. The women’s faith in the potency of these materials reflected the pervasive belief in natural magic in the late Renaissance and demonstrated the women’s personal engagement in the latest developments in natural science.