Post 2: Changing Women

Throughout the Middle Ages, everything in society was primarily dominated by males. The women, during this time, had to serve for their family. They had to obey to the males in their lives, whether they were their husbands, brothers, and/or fathers , without showing resistance of any kind. “Women’s social roles remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity, by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibility” (Chadwick, 44). Women at the time had little to no freedom  outside of her home due to the norms in the society . Many of these women were also uneducated which made it even harder for them  to work against the norm. In some sense, they were stuck in their lifestyle.“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). Due to the fact that these women didn't have any type of education, their job opportunities were limited. However, they were able to work for their family business, in the church, and/or do some type of embroidery and needle-work. Those who did work, any income that they made had to be handed over to either their father or husband. “Almost all women worked in the some family business, but the fruits of their labors belong to men-their fathers, husbands, or brothers” (Guerrilla Girls, 22). The early female artists of the time also handed all the money they made from their artwork to their superior counterparts, fathers or husbands.

Soon, upper-class women began to producing art as well become educated. “Most of the art during this period was produced in monasteries. Access to education and the convent, the center of women’s intellectual and artistic life from the sixth to sixteenth centuries, was often determined by noble birth” (Chadwick, 44). The convents opened a new world for women at the time. The reason being that  education and art was always never an option for these women.  As a result of the new opportunity,   women were able to hold several different jobs from artists to merchants. However, they were still prohibited from teaching at schools.

During the  Renaissance, women started to join guilds. Guilds were types of organizations or unions that made it possible for women to accomplish much more than in previous years. As a result of the guilds, the number of female artists were increasing. “Guilds became agencies of communal authority rather than corporate interest groups. Women’s relationship to the guilds became inseparable from their broader social role – a role which was being radically transformed by the city’s new wealth and political power, and by the new opposition of public and private spheres” (Chadwick, 69). In order to become a part of a guild, the woman must be born into a family with some sort of artistic background. “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). An example of woman who were able to join a guild was Sofonisba Anguissola. She was from Bologna, which was the only place that allowed women to be educated; she who was educated by her father, Amilcare Anguissola. He was friends with  Michelangelo at the time, and so he sent Sofonisba’s “Boy Bitten by Crayfish” to him. Due to this huge advantage and opportunity, “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 artists and Italian genre painting” (Chadwick, 77).

Rosa Bonheur, Highland Raid, 1860; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina HolladayThis painting showcases the artist’s ability to capture the rawness of the animals in such great detail. 

Arts and sciences began expanding and taking a huge leap in a good direction during the Renaissance.  The spread of knowledge and education was increasing by the tons. Feudalism  died out and Capitalism was introduced. There was a decline in the emphasis of religion because there was a  rise of humanism. Thus, creating a slight change in artwork. Instead of having religious art work, it was more about  nature and science. When the 19th century approached, women wanted to expand on their artwork ideas. An example of this kind of artist is Rosa Bonheur. She was the “most famous woman artist of the nineteenth century” (Chadwick, 192). She was born into a family of political idealists, her father was a humanist and wanted women to be educated. Her father wanted her to “fulfill his radical Saint Simonain ideals about women. Those ideals included the androgynous clothing styles and sex roles that shaped Bonheur’s adoption of cross dressing and the ambiguity of her public gender identity” (Chadwick, 193). As a result, Bonheur's artwork interests were on animals and landscape.

Over time, the roles of women have visibly changed. Throughout those changes,  women were always able to find a way to make art regardless of any difficulty that may have. In the Middle Ages, women could become nuns in order to have the freedom to make art. During the Renaissance, only women lucky enough to be born into an educated and artistic family had the opportunity to become artists. During the 19th century, women were expected to be domesticated,  therefore, most of the artwork from women in the 19th century were that made of quilts and other things. 

Bibliography:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art and Society, Ed.

Thames and Hudson. New York, New York, 2007.print.

Girls, Guerilla. The Guerilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art,

 New York: La Guardia Place, 1998.print.