The Real Cali Cali

Costume Appreciation Post:  Contessina de Bardi’s wardrobe (Medici: Masters of Florence, 2016)

The importance of a mother’s intercessory role as a source of power for the Medici women is certainly evident in the case of Contessina de’ Bardi. Her relationship with her grandsons, Lorenzo and Giuliano, was a close one. She wrote to Piero and Lucrezia in 1461: ‘Lorenzo is a good lad and they [her grandsons] willingly spend time with me quite often’. Contessina had the ability to exercise a maternal authority that extended beyond the walls of the Medici Palace; it appears she became a figure of some significance as a Medici dowager following Cosimo’s death in 1464. She played an important role, it seems, as an arbiter of influence in relation to the key issue of the contracting marriages between members of the Florentine patriciate. – Natalie Tomas, The Medici Women: Gender and Power in Renaissance Florence

Contessina de Bardi + costumes

Costume Appreciation Post: Contessina de Bardi’s wedding dress (Medici: Masters of Florence, 2016)