The Expected Roles of Women

The expected roles of women in Europe in the Middle Ages were to be a wife, a mother and to take care of all the household chores for the man. Women were usually engaged at a very young age, were required to be faithful to their husbands, and had to obey them or could be beaten if they didn't. Education was thought to interfere with their expected roles, so most women were not allowed to learn how to read and write.

Despite these expectations, some women during this period of time became writers, artists, merchants, and nuns. One of the most important medieval art objects surviving to the present day is the Bayeux Tapestry, and it was embroidered by women! Such a huge and important work of art but sadly, in the Guerrilla Girls, it is mentioned how one scholarly book completely ignores the women who made it.

“One scholarly book on the tapestry goes on and on about its historical and formal sources, but completely ignores the women who executed it. Instead, the author assumes the tapestry to be the design of a single male genius who hired it out to insignificant sewers. The author is preoccupied with discovering the nationality of “the master artist,” continually referred to as he” (Guerrilla Girls, 21).

The Bayeux Tapestry, c 1086

During this period of time women were fighting to become equal, but they were still being unrecognized and underpaid compared to their male counterparts. Women who became nuns saw the convent as an escape from the male domination. They saw this as a chance to escape marriage, childbearing, and freedom to become artists and follow their dreams. Christine de Pizan and Hildegard von Bingen are two Middle Age women who were successful artists during the time. They lived lives very far from what was expected from women in the Middle Ages.

During the Renaissance, Europe was experiencing many changes such as the switch from Feudalism to Mercantilism. Compared to the Middle Ages, women were able to be educated in church or if they were very wealthy. One of the ways a woman could work as an artist during this time was to be born into an artist family. This is how most of the women artists of the time found their success. They were daughters of established artists, and in some cases married one as well. Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Siriani and Artemesia Gentileschi are a group of women artist whose work got recognized thorugh this way. All their fathers were artists. “Gentileschi is the first woman artist in the history of Western art whose historical significance is unquestionable” (Chadwick, 100)

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Judith Slaying Holofernes
Artemisia Gentileschi, 1612

These roles influenced the lives of women artists and it was reflected in their work. Women began to paint subjects through women’s eyes. It was no longer only a man’s world. Before this period of time the woman was depicted to please the male gaze, but as women artists gained fame and were beginning to be recognized this changed. 

Susanna and the Elders
Tintoretto, 1555

One example of this is Genlileschi’s Susanna and the Elders from 1610 compared to Tintoretto’s 1555 version. In Tintoretto’s version, Susanna sits calmly taking a bath, admiring herself in a mirrow while the elders look at her. The mirror signifies vanity, and in this painting it feels as if Susanna is unaware of the elders, or knows their presence but continues to bathe unbothered. It looks as if she’s there to be observed by the men. The invasion of the woman’s privacy goes unnoticed.

Susanna and the Elders
Artimisia Gentileschi, 1610

In Gentileschi’s version the story is totally different, because it was painted by a woman. As soon as you look at the painting you can tell Susanna is bothered by this invasion of privacy. You can see the elders are up to no good, and that Susanna is fighting this. She will no longer allow men to look at her, and she will tell us how she feels about it with her hand gestures and facial expressions.

Even though women through these times found a million obstacles, they overcame them by showing their excellent works of art and proving they could be equally talented to men. They are unknown to many people because our society has mainly only recognized the male’s work throughout the years. This, however, does not make women’s work less important and influential. Women during this time paved a way for modern women artists to keep fighting for equality in the art world.

Works Cited

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.