Timothy McCall offers a fresh perspective on power and masculinity. Instead of the modern image of force and authority, he shows how Renaissance men performed power through appearance, behaviour, relationships, and symbolism often shaped by art, romance, violence, and even animals.

Across five chapters, McCall explores how elite masculinity was carefully constructed, from chivalric ideals and courtly romances to the role of mistresses and the display of animals as markers of dominance. His case studies are particularly striking. Leonardo’s Girl with an Ermine is re-examined to reveal uncomfortable truths about age and exploitation, while Borso d’Este’s portraits show how masculinity (and even political memory) was curated after death.

The book is occasionally dense, and some untranslated passages may slow the reader, but Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy is a rich and provocative study. McCall challenges simple binaries of gender, stripping Renaissance princes of their romanticised image and revealing a world that is complex, performative, and often brutal. A world shaped as much by lovers, artists, and animals as by rulers themselves.

I reviewed Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy for UCLA’s Comitatus 54. Read the full review for free here.