Female Suppression Throughout the Ages

     Religious institutions and the economy have been among the major deciding factors for the role of women in society throughout the ages. In the Middle ages, most families were not really well-off and had to depend on much physical labor for survival. It was a very busy life where there wasn’t much time left to the common person to think and ponder on the deeper issues of life. The workload was usually divided between the man and woman and there wasn’t as much of a distinction apparent in regards to the particular jobs the two took over. The Church had the power around that time to set the social values in the society and deemed women to be lower in status than men. Despite maintaining such views, the Church still offered education to women who sought to become nuns. Being the only source of education and art during that time, was a woman’s only hope of attaining knowledge and whatever little empowerment it could provide. So the only choices a woman had for her future was to either get married or to pursue education as a nun. Female rights were also dependent on the social class they belonged to as women belonging to the upper-class seemed to have more rights as Chadwick states, “The confusion of sovereignty with personal property (the fief) contributed to the emergence of a number of upper-class women at a time when most other women were restricted to the home and economically dependent on fathers, husbands, brothers, or sovereigns (44).” 

Hildegard's Vision of the Devil

     As nuns, women in Medieval Ages were allowed to indulge in creating artworks for either the elites or for creating manuscripts that were important around then as a way to store, pass, or spread knowledge. The artwork was therefore only restricted to religious topics. One well known female artist during this time was a German nun named Hildegard of Bingen who came from a decent family that supported her education as a nun from her childhood. She claimed to have visions in her later years and “[p]apal recognition established Hildegard’s reputation as a prophetic voice within the Church (Chadwick, 59).” This gave her the authority and social acceptance to create much artwork on the basis of those visions. The Scivias (1142-52) is one such book by Hildegarde. To the right is Hildegard’s vision of the devil as illustrated in The Scivias.

     With the Renaissance came better times for the society in economic terms but perhaps the same could not be said of the social changes that came with it especially in regards to how they influenced the female role. The sudden increase in trade and mercantile provided the avenue for families to rise up the social ladder. Compared to its feeble existence in the Middle ages, the middle class experienced a substantial growth in this time period as more families became well-off due to the wealth brought about by trading. Now that much of the society wasn’t in a “survival mode”, people began to explore art and education more. Art itself went through changes such as increased detail and various educational institutions called “guilds” emerged around then. With so many different paths now available to explore in terms of education and career, one would think that women would finally be able to afford some freedom but it didn’t turn out to be the case. Women could get basic education as a social requirement, but still went from being workers for survival to mere housewives and mothers. While men went out to enjoy the new privileges they could now attain in the public sphere, women were encouraged instead to remain in the house to take care of the family in the private one. Apparently ideas such as “individuality” were only for men and though some women were able to pursue art in the beginning, even that became divided into two different levels. 

     In guilds, painting and sculpturing was now considered as more of a higher level of skill and perceived as art as opposed to lace-making which was now considered as an inferior skill called crafting. Art was now a skill primarily for men since it required more “complex” education and belonged to a more public realm, where women weren’t supposed to belong. Women therefore were only allowed to explore the private skill of crafts since it could assist them in their duties as a housewife. There were still a few exceptions and a few women were still able to attain access to art through various circumstances. The Church maintained its education and through it a few women could still create art as was demanded by various foundations or upper-class families. Some women who had the luck of being raised in an open-minded family also had the opportunity to receive the proper education and training in arts. These women were still very few if compared to the many others who had no choice but to remain indoors. “[Joan Kelly-Gadol’s] conclusion was that the very development of opening up new possibilities for Renaissance men...adversely affected women by leaving them with less actual power than they had enjoyed under feudalism (Chadwick, 66).”

Self-Portrait at the Easel (1556)

     During such a suppressive time for women there were still a few female artists who resisted and broke away from the norms. Sofonisba Anguissola was one of such well-known artists. About her, Chadwick states, “Sofonisba Anguissola’s example opened up the possibility of painting to women as a socially acceptable profession, while her work established new conventions for self-portraiture by women and for Italian genre painting (77).” She came from a noble family that valued education and had connections. She’s also one of the artists whose artwork came to be associated to other male artists in the later years. Sofonisba expressed rebellion from the norm through her paintings as is the case in her famous Self-Portrait at the Easel (1556). She portrayed herself as a painter in the artwork which signified her position as a female painter and she kept her appearance very realistic and modest in the painting as opposed to the popular portrait paintings of women around that time which portrayed them as mere decorations of their husbands wearing flashy clothing and jewelry.

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.