Middle Ages to the Renaissance

         

Jan van Eyck "The Arnolfini Portrait" 1434 

As seen in this photo, women were good 
at one thing, bearing children and
 expanding the family.

  Throughout history and even today, women have been fighting for equal rights and we have made a significant progression since the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, gender inequality was a major inconvenience for women. Women were overwhelmed with expectations and did not receive recognition for their efforts. Women were expected to complete household chores such as, cleaning, cooking, baking bread, sewing, weaving, spinning, and serving their husbands. Women did not have a right to choose their own husband or even gain an education if they wanted. During this time period, men had total control and authority over women. In the Guerrilla Girls, it says, “A woman was required to be faithful to her husband, and adultery could be punished by flogging or being buried alive. Husbands were allowed to commit adultery, unless it was with another man’s wife” (Guerrilla girls, 22). This represented lack of value for a marriage between two individuals. For a man to commit such an unjust act while married to woman and receive absolutely no consequence is absurd. As a woman, if adultery was committed, she was buried alive; the difference in punishment is incomparable. As far as education was concerned, “Education was thought to interfere with a woman’s ability to be a good wife and mother. Almost no women were taught to read and write” (Guerrilla girls, 22). It is upsetting to snatch a woman of her rights to educate herself merely due to selfishness. It was dangerous for women to be educated because it was a threat to men, they were intimidated by such a thought. Women were supposed to be the best mother and wife possible and gaining knowledge was obviously asking for too much, it might’ve even become a substitution for time.

        

This is the epitome of the message female artists
were trying to get across as far as their rights were
concerned. They were not given acknowledgment
 for any other talents because they were restricted to
 taking care of the family. 

    For any years, women artists were oppressed until some courageous women decided to make noise. Christine de Pizan was “the first woman known to have made her living as a writer in the Middle Ages” (Guerrilla girls, 23). Christine’s purpose was to emphasize the strong character female portray in comparison to the same things that men were capable of. She was the first feminist to educate others on how women can have a positive influence upon society. Women began to take a stand through writing and their paintings displaying women in another light than in the shadows of men. Artemisia Gentileschi “A woman like that” She made her own rules, she challenged male painters. As you can see in this short clip, A woman like that, she stood up for her talents and represented for all women artists.   Being as though women had no voice women artist made statements with their works of art painting the woman just as capable and intellectual as her counterpart. Another successful female artist by the name of Mary Cassatt during the 18th Century became well known for her depictions of women " actively at work, at women's work, not as passive models or objects of the male gaze" (Guerrilla girls, 56). Women artists wanted to stray away from the idea of male artists and the male gaze. They wanted to paint women and portray them as they view themselves, not as an object but as a human being. “It is in the cultural ideology that supported women’s exclusion from the arts of painting and sculpture that we find the roots of the subsequent shift of woman’s role in visual culture from one of production to one of being represented” (Chadwick, 67). Society followed the rules and allowed male artists to brainwash the audience into liking exactly what they expect them to be attracted to, and that was the issue.

            From the Middle Ages into the era of Renaissance (rebirth), women began to gain more freedom. Women became nuns, which led them to stay in convents and make decisions for themselves since they did not have a male dominator telling them what to do. “Their careers were made possible by birth into artist families and the training that accompanied it, or into the upper class where the spread of Renaissance ideas about the desirability of education opened new possibilities for women” (Chadwick, 76). The city of Bologna flaunted women artists more than any other city in Italy. There was a school for female artists and many pursued further education in Philosophy and Law. In comparison to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance was a period with greater equalities for women. For example, in the novel, it states, “Women could divorce her husband only if she could prove him impotent” (Guerrilla girls, 32). They were given a right over their marriage rather than being forced to live with a man that cheated on her. They were even given the right to teach in a university in the city of Bologna. With a few adjustments in laws and regulations, it was evident that women were granted more freedom which was beneficial to the rest of society long term. In this link, Women Portraits Portraits of Women during the Renaissance, you can examine the attire and differences in women during this time period as opposed to the Middle Ages. These portraits depicted the image women embraced.

This is a painting of women taking revenge for all the restrictions put upon them. 

Work Cited:

Girls, Guerrilla. "The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, and The 19th Century." The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. 18+. Print.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.