"Killing himself going hunting against her suggestions": Eustochia Bichi and Her Life in Cinquecento Siena

• In Event: Family Archives, Families in the Archives II: Italy

Abstract

Eustochia Bichi (1461-1543) was one of the daughters of the powerful and wealthy Sienese Antonio Bichi, member of the Monte dei Nove and close friend of Pandolfo Petrucci. Following the trend of the upper social class to which she belonged, Eustochia married at the age of fifteen Cristoforo Bellanti. Widowed in 1482 at the age of twentyone, Eustochia used both her wealth and her cultural education to build in the church of Sant'Agostino a chapel dedicated to Cristoforo. The painter Luca Signorelli was hired to decorate the chapel, the first of his many masterpieces in Siena. Neither her love for both her father and her first husband nor her legal battles with her brother, limited Eustochia's agency in honoring her family and expressing her artistic matronage. Her letters in the Bichi archive allows us to take a new approach to both the cultural and economic history of Sienese women.

Author

• Elena Brizio, Georgetown University, Fiesole Campus