Portrait of a Venetian Family, 1542
Upperclass Italian families stuck together. Though each individual family (father, mother, and children) had their own residence, the separate residences of a larger family would often be close to one another. When a person in one household was ill, dying, having a baby, in mourning, or any other life-altering event, family members would flock to them, taking care of the household and nursing the person in need. In everyday life, each member of a family had their own roles.
This husband’s job was to see that the family maintained and expanded their social, political, and economic positions. The man of the household would spend a good portion of time cozying up to the leading powers and trying to garner public favor while attempting to out-maneuver rival families. Creating blood ties with the nobility was crucial: marrying their children to royalty was the only real shot these families had at climbing the social ladder. For this reason, aristocratic families tended to be large. The characters old Montague and old Capulet clearly follow this model: each man is the head of his family, speaking for all his kin when making public appearances. Capulet is in the process of finding a marriage for his daughter: he could not have dreamed of a higher match than Paris, a relative of Prince Escalus.
The wives of these powerful men had their own jobs: raising the children and maintaining the house. While they weren’t actually doing the dusting themselves, the women organized the household, from the tapestries that decorated the walls to the languages the children were taught. The woman of the household would decorate the house and oversee any celebrations. Giving the proper impression to the nobility and other allies was vital. An upper class woman’s most important job was to oversee the raising of the children. Each child was a potential political connection: they had to be perfect marriage material when they reached adulthood. If a child grew up to be untalented, unattractive, stupid, or dull, the mother was blamed. Some women were content to leave their children in the hand of nannies and tutors, rarely seeing their own offspring. Others took a more active roll, often keeping company with their children. Lady Capulet seems to have left Juliet’s upbringing mainly to the Nurse: though she certainly cares for her daughter, she doesn't seem to know her well. Though we see little of her, Lady Montague clearly frets over her son. She expresses her concerns to Benvolio in scene one, and later dies from grief when her son is banished to Mantua.
Children were generally not seen or heard until they reached adolescence. Upper class women were discouraged from breastfeeding, so a wet nurse was employed to feed the children. Generally, this woman would also act as a nanny to the children, watching over them and doing the day-to-day child wrangling. Boys and girls were raised together until the age of size or so, when education started. Girls were taught the read and write, to sew, sing, play instruments, and hold lively conversation: skills that would help them attract a husband. Occasionally, girls were sent to convents for the duration of their education. Education for young men was much more extensive. Boys were taught reading and writing as well as arithmetic, philosophy, rhetoric, logic, and Latin or Greek by a tutor. Boys were also schooled in the arts of riding, swordsmanship, strategy, and oration. Starting around age fourteen, girls were available for marriage. Once a match was secured, the bride's family paid a dowry to the groom's family: money used to offset the cost of adding another member to the household. The newlywed couple would move into their own residence, often near to the groom's family's house.
Information Drawn From:
Brown, Alison. The Renaissance. London: Longman, 1999. Print.
Humfrey, Peter. Venice and the Veneto. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
Strathern, Paul. The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Print.
"Women in the Renaissance." The Victoria and Albert Museum. Web. 23 July 2013.
Humfrey, Peter. Venice and the Veneto. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
Strathern, Paul. The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Print.
"Women in the Renaissance." The Victoria and Albert Museum. Web. 23 July 2013.