[Paper:] Christoph Dartmann (Münster/Hamburg), Heraldry as element of the visual culture of late medieval Italian cities

Domenico Ghirlandaio, St. Zenobius, Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Sala dei Gigli (1482-1484). (Source: Wikimedia)

The density of heraldic imagery in the Italian cities of the Late Middle Ages is the result of an interaction between different aspects:

1. The cities are places where a large number of noble families live together in a situation of permanent competition. The fierce competition of the families leads to aggressive strategies of visualization of a family’s or a person’s status. The permanent ascent of new families increases the dynamics of this rivalry in visibility.
2. As other corporations the city-communes adopt heraldry as a means to represent its identity and its claim to be the embodiment of legitimate public authority. Therefore it uses its symbols on a large variety of occasions where the government interacts with the people of the town itself or the inhabitants of other cities.
3. Since the 13^th century the culture of northern and central Italy experiences an immense increase of visual signs; this visual revolution permits a highly increased number of places and/or occasions where heraldic imagery can be displayed.
4. The political dynamics of city-republics developing new forms of government change the system of visual representation of familial and governmental structures from the 14^th century onwards.

My paper will discuss the interaction between the aspects listed above by presenting examples from the 13^th to the 15^th century with allow to understand the interaction between the political and social structures of urban society and the visual culture of Italian cities in the Late Middle Ages.

Conference: Heraldry in the Medieval City: The Case of Italy in the European Context (Journées Héraldiques 5), Rome, 5th-7th May 2015