The Renaissance bedroom was the room where it happened. A room with a bed served many purposes, including sleep, sex, childbirth, illness, recovery, death, and receiving guests. This room was one of the most important and highly decorated in a home. Bedrooms have a social history all their own. The bedroom’s material culture with furniture, mattress(es), textiles, sacred and profane art tell the story of Renaissance people.
How can we envision an Italian bedroom from over five hundred years ago? Primary source material from death inventories is a good and accurate place to start. Upon death, officials undertook an inventory of everything in the deceased’s house. Usually, the bed is the first item described with an estimated value. Beds were frequently the most valued item in the household. We also have paintings and engravings featuring sacred re-enactments like the Birth of the Virgin, placed in a Renaissance home, or domestic interior paintings that give us a hint of life in the bedroom.
The Bed
The lack of bedroom privacy would be surprising to modern peoples. We shut the bedroom door for privacy and go to sleep today, but not hundreds of years ago. In most homes, cloth drapery separated the sleeping quarters from other rooms. It was common in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries for multiple people to sleep in the bed, perhaps even a visiting relative.
Beds were raised platforms with mattresses, even in the Middle Ages. Hardly anyone slept on the floor, which would be cold, and open to additional vermin joining you in bed. Simple wood frames with slats provided a basic structure upon which a mattress would be placed. More elaborate wooden beds with head and foot boards, four-poster, and curtains became more common for wealthier folks. Carpentry and artisan work crafting the bed and its furnishings made a statement about the family and their position in the community.
A well to do fifteenth century merchant’s bed would have a carved walnut headboard surrounded by a wood platform extending out from three sides of the bed. This served as a sitting area as well as storage as the hinged wood platform offered space for linens and clothing. Tastes and use of the bedroom changed. In this eighteenth century Venetian bedroom, decoration with stucco, wood, and textiles presents an elaborate resting place. The flooring is wood marquetry, and the walls are covered with a raised patterned jacquard weave. The ceiling has numerous flying cherubs in stucco. As a trend in later centuries, this room is more intimate and highly decorative, meant more for rest than guests.
What constituted a mattress? Straw stuffed into a canvas bag provided the first layer, and even poor families usually had multiple mattresses on top of the straw base. Four or more mattresses were common, stuffed each with more elevated materials. The top mattress would have feathers of higher quality, while mattresses under the top mattress were stuffed with wool, or low-quality feathers. The poor had scratchy canvas sheets while better off had linen, or the rich, silk. Beds in rural areas were large to accommodate family members as it would have been rare to sleep singly or a couple to a bed. Wool blankets and quilts topped off the bed along with pillows and bolsters.
By the eighteenth-century single beds became more common for middle- and upper-class families as well as antechambers, small rooms adjoining the sleeping room. As the size of home and palaces grew, room functions changed and the bedroom became more private. By the nineteenth-century bedrooms were primarily private and not used as reception areas.
Inns provided bedrooms and mattresses which were far from luxurious. Traveling men and transient pilgrims meant you never knew who would be your bedmate. Sleeping more than one to a bed was common in taverns and inns, surely presenting an awkward situation with little privacy. Florentine writer Anton Francesco Doni visited Venice and described in a letter his awful accommodations:
“I have a solid mattress, a good, soundly made hard bed, an empty pillow, coarse sheets…and in the manner of a cruel doctor, an army of huge bedbugs, as large as Mocenigos, and a mob of fat fleas, test my pulse and bleed me…”* (Mocenigo is the name of a noble Venetian family)
His experience was probably not exaggerated. A painting of a woman arising and searching for fleas reflects a realistic bedroom scene for people of modest means. Giuseppe Maria Crespi depicts cohabitating family members in a dark, dingy room, complete with small dog sitting on the pillow. A young woman has awakened with one foot in a slipper, the other bare foot on the bed. She has a single thin mattress over a wood frame. Dressed in a nightshirt, her left arm pulls back the nightshirt so her right hand can search for a biting flea. A woman tends to a small child in a corner, as she turns to look as another woman enters the room holding a pitcher. Simple furnishings are placed in the room, even a string of onions or garlic, some pottery dishes, and a basket. This is a true-to-life painting of a seventeenth century bedroom.
Bedroom Guests
Ceremonial functions, such as welcoming a new baby, or hosting visitors would take place in the bedroom. Guests were received in bedrooms for two reasons: the bedroom had the best furnishings to present to guests, and before domestic spaces evolved to contain separate room functions (dining room, parlor or salon, and bathroom) the bedroom often was a multi-functional room. Conversation, eating, praying, and reading, all took place in the bedroom.
The wealthiest had “show beds” where no one really slept. This bedroom would have a monumental four poster bed with expensive textiles, high canopy, fireplace, chairs, tapestries on the walls, with ample room surrounding the bed for guests. They might sit on the bed and receive visitors, but the real sleeping room was smaller and closed off from the show bedroom. These show rooms were just that – to show affluence and possessions.
Conception, birth, and the recuperation of the mother, called a lying-in period, also took place in the bedroom. During the lying-in period, guests would arrive to greet the parents and celebrate the newborn. One Venetian merchant got into trouble for too much decoration in the bedroom. Midwives were required to report live births to officials, who then sent sumptuary officials to visit the home to see if regulations against ostentatious displays of wealth had been violated. Too much wealth displayed in homes or in clothing was frowned upon, but little was done to enforce the laws.
Authorities reported a gilded chest with bronze fittings, silk tapestries floor to ceiling, gilded iron bedstead, and a yellow damask bed canopy. The father and husband, Vincenzo Zuccato, filed a report challenging their accusations. Declaring he had nineteen mouths to feed including that of his seventh and newest child, he had no time nor money for such luxuries. We don’t know how the sumptuary officials ruled in his case, but the descriptions of the convalescent mother’s bedroom sheds light on possible furnishings in a bedroom.
Vittore Carpaccio’s Dream of St. Ursula has some similarities to Zuccato’s bedroom. Ursula was a fourth century Christian mystic who unwillingly married a pagan prince and became a martyr. Carpaccio is known for placing sacred narratives in his present-day fifteenth century Venice, capturing realistic details of life, costume, and interiors. Here Ursula lies in bed with a red coverlet, laying on her back, while an angel enters the room with a palm frond to signal her martyrdom. Her dreamy state portends her death. A four-poster canopied bed sits on a wood platform with a carved decorated headboard. Inlaid decorative elements surround the platform. A pair of slippers are placed beside the bed on a rug. A few pagan statues decorate the walls; some books, chair, and table complete the bedroom along with a cat. Comfortably furnished, the bed is the centerpiece of the room, with adequate space surrounding the bed to receive guests. As an idealized space in the painting, it would be appropriate for representing a saint.
Sleep
The main function of the bedroom was sleep. Theories of sleep, why it was needed, and the best time and position to sleep reflect humoral theory and the ideal balance between bodily functions. Based in ancient Greek thinking, the humors of the body consist of four fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Humors refer to evidence of well-being, personality, and emotional state. These medical theories, developed first by Greeks, continued into the Middle Ages and were advanced by Islamic philosophy and medicine. Four fluids present in the body needed to be balanced for mental and physical health. All waste material from the body were evaluated for evidence of humoral balance or imbalance. If the humors were out of balance, they would manifest as fever, illness, psychological problems, or mood disorders. For example, too much black bile would indicate you were sad or depressed. The four humors were thought to be present in the blood which led to bloodletting when there was evidence of imbalance.
The foundations of humoral theory and beliefs related to sleep continued well into early modern philosophy and medicine. Sleep was considered non-natural and medical theory advocated for proper sleep hygiene to obtain optimal health and balance. Daytime sleeping was to be avoided, making the body bloated and heavy. Sleeping on the right-side aided digestion. Upon awakening during the night they advised a turn to the left side to continue digestion. Sleeping created moisture throughout the body and it was essential to balance that moisture. Sleeping on the back concentrated the moisture in your back and head. Sleeping about 1-1/2 to two hours after consuming the evening meal was ideal. Sleeping on your stomach signaled delirium or stomach pain. The ideal position was on the right side, with arms and legs slightly bent. Sleeping on the back was avoided, and sleeping with one’s mouth open was deadly. Awakening from sleep in the morning meant digestion was complete.
Dreams were considered normal unless they were disturbing. Individual personalities were reflected in dreams. Dreams were associated with the type of humor dominant in the individual. The humors of a melancholic person (black bile) would produce dreams of death, caves, and dark events. A person disposed to a sanguine nature (blood) would dream of dances, sex, feasting, and laughter. Yellow bile would produce dreams full of light, noise, and action. Phlegmatic people dreamt of water, falling from high places, rivers, or floods.
Nightmares caused puzzlement for physicians. As it could be an early sign of madness or cause apoplexy (stroke), they recommended diet changes, no daytime sleep, bloodletting from the forearm, wearing a cap on the head and applying hot dill oil to the head. Alcohol and sleeping on the back were seen as a potential cause of nightmares; eating foods that caused flatulence could also contribute. Overall, remedies for sleep disturbances or insomnia resulted in little relief for those afflicted. Concerns of evil present in the individual causing nightmares presented a complex humoral problem necessitating early intervention. Bloodletting and gargles were prescribed to combat potential evil appearing during sleep.
Sleeping wasn’t always peaceful. Bedbugs, gnats, and fleas disturbed sleep. Concoctions to fumigate the pests were often as frightening as the insects. Driving out bedbugs by drawing curtains around the bed and adding a source of smoke was popular. Ox-dung also worked as a fumigant as well as hanging dung at the foot of the bed to attract flying insects away from human bodies. Chewing cumin and rubbing the saliva over one’s face and body repelled certain pests. Body ointments made of goat and ox galls (bile from the gallbladder), as well as ointment made of cucumber leaves were highly recommended as repellents. Less repulsive ways to fumigate or repel pests are ointments made from citrus or hanging winter cherries or hemp seeds around the bed.
Art in the Bedroom
Marriage chests and art work were staples of the bedroom. Sacred art works were likely found in the bedroom to act as exemplars of faith and Christian values. Madonna and Child subjects maintained their popularity throughout the Renaissance. Frequently commissioned as wedding paintings, the tondo, or a round sacred painting was typical in Florence. Pagan artwork, like a sleeping Venus, would implore the married couple to have an active sex life and produce many children. Décor with a nude Venus and Madonna and Child were not incompatible.
Women came to marriage with at least one wood cassone, or chest, filled with dowry items to start her married life. These were carved with pagan figures or a painted panel served as decoration on the front. Elite women would have multiple chests for their goods. Clothing, valuables, and household items would be stored in the chest, which was placed in the matrimonial bedroom. The cassone would be carried in the wedding procession to her new home.
Titian’s painting of an interior wealthy bedroom was most likely intended for the marriage of Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere to Guilia da Varano. Venus of Urbino reclines on luxurious silk bedsheets while looking seductively at the viewer, most likely intended to be the groom and bride. Venus’ beguiling look and nudity would encourage intimacy. Two thick red mattresses are visible which contrast against the white pillows. Two maidservants in the background either place or take out a garment from one of the marriage chests. The dog, curled up and sleeping on the bed, representing fidelity and loyalty. If the painting was installed in Guidobaldo and his bride’s bedchamber, it would underscore the bedroom’s primary reason for marriage: procreation to secure heirs to the della Rovere line.
*Dennis, “Sound and Domestic Space in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth Century Italy,” 7.
Sources
Allerston, Patricia. “‘Contrary to the Truth and Also to the Semblance of Reality’? Entering a Venetian ‘lying-in’ Chamber (1605).” Renaissance Studies 20, no. 5 (2006): 629–39.
Brundin, Abigail, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven. The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Dannenfeldt, Karl H. “Sleep: Theory and Practice in the Late Renaissance.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 41, no. 4 (1986): 415–41.
Dennis, Flora. “Sound and Domestic Space in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Italy.” Studies in the Decorative Arts 16, no. 1 (2008): 7–19.
Sarti, Raffaella. Europe at Home: Family and Material Culture 1500-1800. Translated by Allan Cameron. Yale University Press. 2002.
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