Post 2 Art and Women

During the Middle Ages in Europe, women were considered inferior to men and their duties were primarily confined to the home and family life.  Women were expected to obey not only their father but also every male member of the family. The Roman Catholic Church was a major influence at reinforcing class distinction in society. Women's social roles stressed obedience and chastity by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibilities. (Chadwick p.44)

 As the Middle Ages progressed, much like the ancient days, women gain and then lose rights as the historical and political face of Europe changes. Although a number of women were able to transcend the confines of societal expectations to become prominent women, whether laboring in the service of God or for daily sustenance, the lives of most Medieval men and women were organized around work. It was a period where there were no clearly defined boundaries between domestic life and public and economic activity. Where women were encouraged to take significant part in the management of family property and in general economic life (Chadwick p.44)



Woman's Role



Not all women were confined to a life in the home. Some were able to balance the position of wife and mother with an outside occupation. http://www.thefinertimes.com/Middle-Ages/women-in-the-middle-ages.html#sthash.B299m3Jy.dpuf. 

 Other occupations such as spinning, weaving, and embroidery, allowed women to work in or near the home so as not to neglect other duties. Some women were also able to commit themselves to the Church.  By entering a convent, women became married to the Church and, therefore, could not marry a man and bear children. The convent provided women with a chance to study and acquire academic knowledge, which was very rare for women, even in the upper classes. The one authoritative position women could achieve was the role of the abbess.

 

Christian Convent in the Middle Ages

"How the roles of women changed throughout the Renaissance and into the 19century. It was not until the sixteenth century that a few women manage to turn the new Renaissance emphasis on virtue and gentility into positive attributes for the woman artist. A woman's career was made possible by birth into artist families or into the upper class.

 The Renaissance ideas about the desirability of education opened new possibilities for women like Sofonisba Anquissola who trained by her father, became a professional painter in a male dominated milieu. A court painter to Philip II of Spain and art instructor to Queen Isabella of Valois, she opened up the possibility of painting to women in a socially acceptable profession. As long as she stressed her status as a gentlewoman, Anguissola's actions as a professional painter did not conflict with the ideology of Renaissance.

 

 

"Women’s work begins to differentiate itself from men’s work, even within each social class. Women of the middle class, for instance, who had worked alongside their husbands in some sort of business--weaving, sewing, cobbling, ale brewing, etc.--could find themselves dispossessed of the business or the opportunity to work in it once they were widowed. As more occupations require a university education, to which women were denied access, the men working in jobs that did not require that education began to define their jobs, too, as the provinces of men only."(Chadwick)

How these roles influenced the lives of women artists and the subjects of their work. Women were discouraged from taking up roles in artistic work. Most women who became influential artistic of the time mostly came from artistic family and developed their painting skills under skillful guidance of their fathers.

 Though skilled compared to men, women were belittled, stereotyped suffering gender injustices. However, it was evident that women wanted to develop their paintings, and despite opposition still managed to create their own genre sending a strong message to a dominant society. Over the ages, it has been an arduous task for women to gain prominence in the artistic field. In the Western World, the medieval era was referred to as the best period for female artists. Female artists have produced considerably valuable work over generations which have often been overshadowed by the dominating male artists in the arena. (Famous Female Artists)

 

 

For example, the sisters Sofonisba and Lucia Anquissola hailed from a noble family and displayed talent with a touch of humanism in their work. The only work that survived was Lucia Anquissola’s painting, ‘Dr. Pietro Maria’. DianaMantuana, an engraver, was one of the few artists of her time who gained the permission to install her name on plates. Lavinia Fontana, the daughter of the artist Prospero Fontana and the wife painter Zappi, earned a name for herself despite being a very busy mother to eleven children. The official painter of the papal court, her work was immensely appreciated and in great demand.  Giovanna Garzoni stands out for being one of the first women to paint still life. She is known to have worked in the court of the Duke of Alcala. famouspeoplebiographyguide.com/artist/Famous-Female-Artists.html

 Women’s contribution to the world of art was ideologically limited to creating beautified works such as delicate miniatures in watercolors, and women who chose to ignore these limitations choosing grander works such as “historical compositions in oil, risked being labeled as sexual deviants.” (Chadwick pg. 167)

“While this acknowledges women’s ability to paint, it suggests that they should not exercise themselves with large-scale works, but only those pieces of a delicate nature from the family sphere where a woman’s place was seen to be by society as a whole. In Nameless and Friendless by Emily Mary Osborn (1857) the acceptance and position of a female painter is clearly illustrated. It shows a single woman trying to earn some money from her painting in an art dealer’s – she is looked at scornfully by the men browsing in the shop, and the disdain for her work is readily visible in the facial expression of the (male) art dealer, reinforces the view that a woman should be the subject of artwork, not the producer.