A Gift
for
Eleonora
by Alison Oddey
First Performed Florence May 2015
This performance installation focuses on Eleonora Di Toledo, a remarkable woman who married into the Medici dynasty, and was the first Duchess of Florence in Renaissance Italy. Alison introduces us to Eleonora: her thoughts, loves, fashion and business ambitions through an evocative piece of story-telling, where we gain an insight into Eleonora’s world and that of the sixteenth-century. Living within a city of commerce, trade and transactions, themes are woven of everyday living, motherhood and fecundity, and the human body at the mercy of court doctors and the apothecary’s cabinet. We witness Eleonora’s disconnection to her Spanish identity, to the children that she loves, and how her health finally disconnects her from life.
A Gift for Eleonora
Costume Designs and Drawings Tim Heywood
Hair Design Elaine Diniro
The trailer gives a sense of the interviews that began this exploration of Eleonora di Toledo. The interview series made by Alison Oddey and Chris White with Video Editor Alex Torres. These conversations bridge the past and the contemporary and makes for a stimultaing and thought-provoking performance, interrogating cultural memory through fashion mementoes of contemporary Florentines and the rememberings of Eleonora di Toledo, whose powerful impact on the city influenced the visual culture and changed the course of Tuscan history. The full length film will be posted here shortly.
