A Woman's Place

The expected roles of women have changed in Western Society since the Middle Ages. Economic, political and societal events have all shaped gender roles and changed them through time. The creation of the printing press, the Industrial Revolution and the Women’s rights movement are just a few that changed the lives of women. The woman artist was not only impacted in her personal life by these events but her professional life as well. Many pieces are not only a reflection of the artist but of the time itself.

                The Middle Ages was a time of conformity for women. Work was a priority for people of the time for survival secondary was education. “Women’s social roles remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity, by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibility” (Chadwick pg. 44)  The feudal system assured that class movement was almost impossible left little to no options for women except to obey her male protector or the church.

                Christianity played a large role in the Arts for women at this time. The monastery provided an education and freedom for women that life outside could not provide. Along with tapestries that were completed by the nuns there were also illuminated encyclopedias that served as an outlet for artistic expressions. The German Psalter from Augsburg displays Clarisa dangling from the Q, expressing an unrestrained freedom. The Herrad of Landsberg in her Hortus Delicarium included six rows of miniatures depicting the females in the convent, a dedication that includes no man or mention of one. If this were a lay woman this exclusion would have been inexcusable and inconceivable.

                The Renaissance may have been an enlightened period but for women almost all doors were shut. The invention of the printing press allowed for more wide spread education for men and few select privileged women. The Christian ethic was still stressed specifically women being the ward of their father then husband and always a domestic servant. Women fortunate enough to be born into an artistic family or given instruction had to fight for recognition and respect. Women like Elisabetta Sirani eventually painted au –plein air to demonstrate that her work was her own and not her father’s. Her work Portia Wounding her Thigh, displays her technical skills and renaissance spirit in changing the way Portia is usually portrayed.

Elisabetta Sirani, Self Portrait

                The separation of home and work in the Nineteenth Century created a different platform for women. The Industrial Revolution created a middle class, along with gender roles for women specific to the domestic care of the house. This lead to a “large numbers of middle–class women in America were caught up in the Christian reform movements…the abolition of slavery, temperance and universal suffrage.”(Chadwick pg. 205) This allowed for some inclusion in the arts for women, both in so called “female” art (craft) and “male” art (painting and sculpting.)

                The “domestic feminism” of the Nineteenth Century liberated the woman artist. Rosa Bonheur demonstrated in her personal and professional life that she would not be contained by gender roles. She cross dressed, with special permission from her doctor and was in a committed relationship with another female. Her work The Horse Fair, 1853, was “full of life and breed, have(ing) no pretensions to culture.” (Guerrilla Girls pg. 48)  Rosa supported the women’s rights movement, encouraging women to be rebellious and defy the conventional standards. 


Bibliography:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. 
Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York:
               Penguin, 1998.