Singing of Arms and Men

Equestrian ballets (balletti a cavallo) emerged as valued dramatic entertainments in early modern Europe, demonstrating the wealth and magnificence of the patrons who commissioned them as well as the horsemanship and military skills of the noblemen who rode in them. Author Kelley Harness undertakes the first comprehensive study of seventeenth-century Florentine horse ballets and shows how the balletto a cavallo played a crucial role in self-fashioning by the Medici family during the period. Horse ballets also provided participating noblemen a venue for demonstrating critical markers of masculine nobility and confirming their family's relationship to the Medici.