In the introduction to Brilliant Bodies: Fashioning Courtly Men in Early Renaissance Italy, Timothy McCall states that it is his intention to " . . . explore and interpret how [fifteenth-century Italian princes] . . . used art, spectacle, and especially clothing and adornment to reinforce and advertise power, and to seduce those who beheld them." McCall’s focus on aristocratic masculine dress is a significant addition to the growing literature on Renaissance male fashion. Central and unique to McCall’s argument is the assertion that quattrocento rulers such as Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Borso d’Este, and Alfonso d’Aragona purposefully attracted the attention of both subjects and peers by exuding an almost physical radiance by means of their clothing and jewelry, and “that brilliance and other qualities of light, including resplendence, glamour, and splendor, were essential courtly ideals that constituted authority and manifested status by emitting distinction and nobility” (1–3).

To support his thesis, McCall draws upon a wide range of published written sources, including chronicles, letters, inventories, ledgers, legislation, poetry, and literature, as well as works of art (portraits and other categories of painting and sculpture) and other types of material objects related to fifteenth-century male dress, including armor, clothing, and fragments of cloth.  The association of early Renaissance nobility with material splendor and reflected light was manifested in the “radiant” manner in which rulers were addressed, with such honorifics as “illustrissimus" and “spettabilis,” as well as in the ways in which they were praised and flattered (3).  In letters, poetry, and literature, princes and their companions were described as “lustrous,” “golden,” and “resplendent”; as the “shining light of our century;” and as a “shimmering star of fame.”  They were likened to Apollo and said to have faces “bright enough to obscure the sun” and described as wearing clothing that “made midnight a bright clear day.” 

In the first chapter, “Riddled with Gilt: Lords in Shining Armor and Shimmering Brocades,” McCall focuses specifically on the reflective qualities of polished and gilded armor and different types of cloth and clothing. In his discussion of cloth, the author describes brocades, velvets, silks, and precious cloth-of-gold; how these materials were produced (including a brief review of the Genoese and Milanese textile industries), and the function of various types of cloth as signifiers of status and fungible repositories of wealth. McCall describes a number of common pieces of aristocratic clothing (giornea, farsetto, zuparello) and armor (sallet, arming points, corazza, corazzina, cimiero), and includes these and numerous other technical terms in an extremely useful glossary at the end of the book. He also considers the significance of particular dyes and colors such as kermes crimson (historically a sign of nobility) and murrey (one of the heraldic colors of the Sforza). Because of the instability of most fifteenth-century dyes, bright colors in general were the special province of the aristocracy and a sign of wealth and status. A comparison of the attire in images of the adoration of the Magi with the clothing depicted in representation of the annunciation to, and adoration of the shepherds, bears out McCall’s assertion. 

Princes were under constant scrutiny by both their public and their peers. They were expected to dazzle, particularly when appearing in public spectacles such as state visits and entries, weddings, and holiday celebrations. However, McCall cautions, aristocrats’ sense of decorum was defined not only by status but also by age, gender, and context. As a result, even a prince could be deemed to have overstepped the accepted norms of personal splendor. For example, in his Commentaries, Pius II criticized Borso d’Este for having tried to appear more magnificent than he was.

The second chapter, "’Ornado d’oro e gemme’: Brilliant Male Bodies Adorned,” considers the collection and display of precious jewels and other types of masculine adornment. Pearls by the hundreds and individual precious stones such as rubies, rose-red balases, emeralds, and diamonds costing thousands of ducats were set in golden brooches, necklaces, collars, and belts, and functioned as glittering signs of a prince’s wealth and aristocratic status. Other types of ornament such as gleaming golden eyelets or grommets (magete) and shimmering gold and silver fringes (tremolanti) were added to cloaks and tunics, further enhancing the illusion of an aura of radiant light. Through the language of emblems and devices, jewelry and embroidery could serve as a visual means of affirming allegiances and alliances. Some jewels, such as the legendary spigo/libro, were sought after and collected not only because of their monetary value (Ludovico il Moro was able to pawn the spigo for 25000 ducats) but also because of their prestigious lineage. 

When not being worn, gems and jewelry, along with ancient cameos and silver and gold coins and plate, were stored in guarded treasuries, where they were not only secure but also available to be shown to visiting diplomats and princes. It was not only the monetary value of these dragon-like hoards but also their abundance which impressed visitors. As Giovanni Pontano observed in his treatise “On Splendor,” one had to be very wealthy to possess a lot of jewels. Not all gems, however, were what they appeared to be, and McCall recounts some of the tricks that were employed to enhance the color of jewels and create artificial pearls.

The third chapter, “Contours of Renaissance Fashion,” considers the relationship between Quattrocento notions of the ideal male body—a svelte torso and shapely legs—and the clothing that enhanced it or, in the case of those whose bodies were less than perfect, hid them. As McCall points out, the masculine ideal is prominently displayed in the portraits of Borso d’Este and his companions in the frescoes in the Salone dei mesi in Ferrara, where the smiling duke, dressed in his customary cloth-of-gold, is surrounded by an entourage of slender young men in brightly colored doublets (giornea) and stockings (calze). In contrast to fifteenth-century women, whose dresses typically descended as far as the tops of their shoes, aristocratic men wore clothing that showed off the wearer’s legs. As a result, men’s stockings were an important piece of their attire. Calze were regularly supplied to members of the court and were even given as gifts. In addition, stockings’ colors were often used to advertise allegiance or service.  

In the fourth chapter, “Fair Princes; Blanched Beauty, Nobility, and Power,” McCall considers two other characteristics of fifteenth-century norms of beauty: a fair complexion and blond hair. That these were prized in both men and women is evident in both literature and art.   McCall notes that Borso d’Este, his companions, and other members of his family were consistently depicted as matching this ideal not only as they appear in the Salone dei mesi frescoes, but also in an illuminated, fifteenth-century Este genealogy. At the same time, the author cites figures who represent an alternative to the paradigm of light skin and blond tresses:  Ludovico il Moro, with his swarthy features and dark hair, and the black African and “Moorish” figures who played a role in both courtly life and quattrocento art. McCall closes this chapter with a discussion of aristocratic children, whose appearance and behavior were closely monitored. It seems that, when Ludovico Gonzaga was a child, he was fat-shamed by his father.

Brilliant Bodies’ brief epilogue considers the proposition that in the sixteenth century, colorful male clothing gave way to black as the sartorial choice of princes and aristocrats, a development which has been referred to as a shift from “peacock to penguin.” McCall calls into question the myth of the central role played by Fernando Francesco d’Avalos and Vittoria Colonna in effecting this change. He notes that black clothing had a place in courtly culture throughout the fifteenth century, particularly in the North. In addition, he notes that when it comes to the display of precious gems and golden jewelry, black silk would have served as a more perfect background than brocaded cloth-of-gold.  

As McCall acknowledges, the association of rulers with light, specifically with the sun, is hardly a new or exclusively European trope, nor is the notion that clothing has historically functioned as a means of signaling class distinctions. In the mid-thirteenth century, for example, in the legal code Siete Partidas, Alfonso X of Castille (1252–84) asserted that “the ancient sages [had] established the rule that kings wear garments of silk, adorned with gold and jewels, in order that men might know them as soon as they saw them.” However, what makes Brilliant Bodies: Fashioning Courtly Men in Early Renaissance Italy a significant contribution to the growing literature on Renaissance masculinity and dress is the author’s focus on the aristocracy in the principalities of fifteenth-century Italy, rather than in republican Florence or Venice. Equally important is the wealth of material McCall has gathered in support of his discussion of the ways in which “brilliance,” both sartorial and metaphorical, enhanced the perception of power and how splendor was exploited by rulers as a public manifestation of their authority and legitimacy.