In viaggio per il lavoro. Modelle dal contado a Roma nell’Ottocento

Abstract

This work focuses on female mobility in the Long Nineteenth Century. Painters, sculpturs, artists of many different countries came to Italy for their Grand Tour and models of both genders arrived in Rome from the roman countryside to work for them. Usually unmarried and with a poor reputation due to the use of their naked body to earn money, female models tried to build a new life in town, often without a parental network to rely on. Based on literary and documentary sources, this paper aims to explore the relations they buildt in the new context, how they prepared their travel and how they buildt their job network in Academies, Schools or private studios, in a period of cultural and social changes as well as of political instability.