Gestures add layers of meaning to every interaction, yet the cultural connotations of gestures differ and shift depending on location and time. Ottavia Niccoli's Muta eloquenza: Gesti nel Rinascimento e dintorni traces gestures in Renaissance culture by weaving together images, archival sources, and textual descriptions. Though focused on Renaissance Italy, the origins of gestures in the ancient world and their changing meaning over time are explored. Beyond temporal analysis, Niccoli considers a wider geographical scope to explore comparative representations from Europe and the Americas (especially chapter 10).
A historiography of gesture studies is established in the introduction and chapter 1. Niccoli emphasizes distinctions between emotive gesture and conventional gesture (20) and encourages attentiveness to semiotic aspects that accompany gesture, which may reveal emotional state, national origins, social class, political affiliations, etc. (34). Niccoli identifies three different, but often interrelated, factors that influenced the language of the body in the Renaissance: religious belief, classical precedent, and political associations (32–33), which are explored throughout the book, beginning with expressions of power (chapter 2).
Conveying authority is linked to ritual and gesture; in fact, rituals are a series of organized gestures (37). Political rituals are performed to not only express control, but also to create solidarity and collective identity (39). Chapter 3 moves to religious ritual in its analysis of Passion iconography and associated practices of prayer, which were influenced by devotional treatises, such as Saint Dominic's nine gestures of prayer in De modo orandi (thirteenth century). The case study of the gestures of the Virgin Annunciate and Archangel Gabriel would be invaluable when teaching Annunciation scenes to novice art historians (chapter 4). Chapter 5 considers how iconic gesture (gestural formulae in religious artworks) modeled both exaggerated emotions and gestures used to express quotidian emotions.
While chapter 6 employs Visitation scenes alongside prescriptive literature like Giovanni della Casa's Galateo to explore gestures of greeting, conversation, and discussion, chapter 7 considers gestures of agreement or peace, like the kiss of peace or the handshake. Returning to prescriptive literature, chapter 8 explores how gestures of daily life were demonstrated from an early age by parents and learnt from written guides. Chapter 8 considers the “il corpo disciplinato [the disciplined body],” (115) while chapter 9 focuses on correcting “il corpo indisciplinato [the undisciplined body]” of the sick and possessed through gestures of healing, magic, superstition, and exorcism. Chapter 10 focuses on “culture diverse, paesi lontani [diverse cultures, faraway lands],” relying mostly on European accounts, particularly of explorers, missionaries, and inquisitors; however, Niccoli acknowledges divergences between account and reality, emphasizing that European interpretation of gestures differed from the meaning in cultures under observation (128).
The final section of the book returns to ritual by analyzing the history and development of gestures of mourning, distinguishing between the roles of grieving assigned to different people, particularly women (weeping) and priests (performing official ceremonies) (chapter 11). In the penultimate chapter, Niccoli nuances our understanding of gestures stereotypically associated with Italian culture in popular thought—insults. The book concludes with a discussion of women, considering both gestures that signify modesty and comportment as well as those that subvert traditional ideals of women's roles, particularly through representations in popular print (chapter 13).
Muta eloquenza brings together an array of scholarship on the language of gesture, and is valuable for art historians, social and cultural historians, particularly those focusing on religious history and the history of emotions, as well as political historians and historical anthropologists. While the images and sources that accompany the text are varied, the book's analysis could also be applied to material culture, which was lacking in representation. When handshakes agreements were discussed in chapter 7, analysis of mani in fede symbolism on fede rings and other objects, such as Renaissance majolica, would further strengthen Niccoli's argument. Objects, too, could serve as mediators for gesture, such as the use of touch-pieces to convey a ruler's healing power (chapter 2).
While this material was outside the scope of this book, Niccoli's arguments could be expanded upon and applied by scholars working in these fields. Muta eloquenza effectively aggregates and successfully expands upon past scholarship on Renaissance gesture, while providing a comprehensive guide to understanding a variety of Renaissance gestures utilizing an impressive range of primary sources.
