The rigid structure of the Middle Ages’ society allowed little room for individual expression, let alone expression through art. During this time, the Christian Church ruled over a majority of Europe and enforced misconstrued religious standards onto women who had few alternatives other than to live under the church and its restrictions. As Chadwick highlights, the Church’s reformation served to set clear boundaries between men and women by isolating women into segregated institutions with perceived religious justification (58). Despite the obvious attempt to further enforce a gender hierarchy, many women pursued a monastic life because it was the sole source of education available to all women (and maybe because it was one of the only few accepted options available). The Guerrilla Girls list some of the activities practiced exclusively by nuns: “They operated businesses, farmed, made tapestries, copied and illustrated manuscripts, composed and performed music…wrote books on medicine, science and sacred music” (22). Of course, however, all artwork and other creative work by nuns was expected to be created within the framework of religious themes. These activities could have never been practiced by the laywoman as she was not afforded the same education nuns provided to one another within the monastery.
 |
| Herrad of Landsberg Hortus Deliciarum, ~1170 |
Access to education for women became more widely spread during the Renaissance, although it was still limited when compared to the opportunities available to men. Now it was not only nuns who would be able to use their knowledge to create art, but the daughters of painter-fathers and progressive noblemen who believed that their daughters should be educated. Lavinia Fontana, Maria Robusti, Elisabetta Sirani, Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi are all examples of women lucky enough to be born into artistic families which afforded them the opportunities to become threatening forces in the male-dominated art world. In order to prevent the rise of the female artist, she was pressured to paint within the confines of the notion of ideal womanhood (naturally, defined by influential men). In particular, Anguissola’s paintings emphasized her commitment to this ideal as not to jeopardize her already-unstable career as a female artist. Chadwick defines the conservative nature of the Renaissance woman’s paintings: “Her self-portraits return the focus of the painting to the personal, which cannot be read as heroic…Instead they reveal the inner attributes of modesty, patience and virtue” (85). Her virtuous works were unthreatening and thus proudly attributed to her. More unconventional artists like Maria Robusti painted works alongside her father so most of her work is attributed to him in an unwillingness to associate a woman with exclusively-male subject matters. The lesson to be learned here is that women who complied with their societal limitations were revered while women who worked only slightly out of the box were disregarded for their supposed lack of talent.
 |
| Sofonisba Anguissola Self-Portrait, 1561 |
Restricting women to “feminine themes” in their artwork continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries throughout Europe. Chadwick highlights the common domestic themes within artwork from this period: “Within the home, the primary emblem of the domestic virtue that ensured the smooth running of society was the image of a woman engaged in needlework, sewing, embroidery or lacemaking” (120). Judith Leyster and Johannes Vermeer illustrate the social order and domestic purity associated with these activities while also showing how laborious these tasks can be. Along with needlework “most women artists of the 17th and 18th centuries [were] perfecting the areas where they were allowed to excel: still life and portraiture” (Guerrilla Girls, 40). Around the same time, botany emerged as a household activity and was taken up by women artists who were able to then paint their flowers. Rachel Ruysch stands as the premier flower painter of her time and never strayed far from her subject matter – which was conventionally feminine.
 |
| Judith Leyster The Proposition, 1631 |
A class of women who pushed the boundaries of what their gender norms allowed them to paint emerged towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Angelica Kauffman disturbed her male contemporaries by working with historical themes previously only undertaken by men. Surprisingly, she was accepted in the art world but not without the public scrutiny that only afflicted women (Guerrilla Girls, 44). The 19th century proved to be even better for women both for their opportunities to create and distribute art and the corresponding legal and societal reforms that allowed for their growing independence. Chadwick lists some of the changes under Queen Victoria that afforded women the ability to push for the equality that surely modified how they painted themselves: divorce was liberalized for women, women were put in charge of their own earnings, and feminists began to rise as leading figures in a bourgeoning movement (177). This period in particular was critical in recognizing women as powerful forces in art who had the abilities to match or even outshine their male counterparts.
References
Chadwick, W. (2007). Women,
Art, and Society (4th ed., pp. 43-86). New York, NY: Thames and
Hudson.Guerrilla Girls. (1998). The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (pp. 18-37). New York, NY: Penguin Books.
No comments:
Post a Comment