The Dais and the Artistic Objects in the Proxy Marriage of Infanta Beatrice of Portugal, Duchess of Savoy: Textiles, Ceremony, and Dissimilarity

In 1521, Infanta Beatriz of Portugal married Charles II of Savoy, leaving Lisbon for good with her dowry, retinue, dynastic image of power, and her own agenda. This paper focus on the dais and textiles as devices of Beatrice self-empowerment by analyzing the different perceptions of its symbolic use in two descriptions of the party that followed the wedding and in four episodes of ceremonies performed on this piece of furniture in the Duchy of Savoy, before and after Beatrice’s arrival. It argues that the duchess’s own cultural heritage and artistic taste led to a recontextualization of Savoy’s ceremonies, manifested in the creation of the decorative programs and styles of celebration discussed here, as well as the increased use of daises and textiles, which, replicating models of the daily courtly environment of Beatrice’s dynastic house, served as a means of shaping her image and that of the Savoyard court itself.