The Changing Roles of Women

Beginning from the middle ages, women in Europe were not only secondary citizens in society, they were also viewed as being unintelligent, unable to do what the men in society did, and they were especially not allowed to participate in art. A woman’s role was to be a daughter under her father’s rule, followed by being a wife under her husband’s rule, or for those who could not marry due to not having a dowry, they would be sent to convents. With the development of mercantilism, however, women’s roles slowly begin to change going into the Renaissance where art became more personal and material, rather than religious. The Renaissance allowed for women to join guilds- although not ones that included men- but it gave women the choice to learn a trade such as lace making.

Going from convents to have to learn, to being able to join guilds, women slowly began able to get a semblance of an education. Even better, going into the 18^th century, women even started going to academies and universities, which allowed them not only an education, but also helped them to break away from the separate spheres of men being outside, and women having to be domestic. Because of the blatant separation of “spheres,” as well as different gender roles, women artists were able to take those social construction and critique them in their art. Some of the women overcame their gender roles–or at least tried to- while others simply mentioned them in their work.

Hildegard of Bingen, a female artist in a convent in the middle ages fully understood that as a woman, she was not allowed to have power, control, and no word when it came to religion. Luckily for her, she claimed to have religious visions that she painted out in which she would portray the wisdom of God. In order to gain some power for herself, and some say in the Church, Hildegard took advantage of her knowledge of her gender role and played on her gender, as well as her religion. On page 49 of Chadwick’s book, she writes out a passage from Hildegard’s book The Scivias and explains Hildegard’s intelligence. She writes, “And behold! In my forty-third year I had a heavenly vision…I saw a great light from which a heavenly voice said to me: ‘O puny creature, ashes of ashes and dust of dust, tell and write what you see and hear.’” The persona adopted by Hildegard for the expression of her visionary theology is, like those of many other twelfth-century  mystics, that of a weak person, a passive vessel into which is poured the word of God.”

In making herself a vessel, Hildegard takes away her own autonomy and gives it to God, who is viewed as male, therefore making her visions and her art, acceptable and easier to believe in. However, in also doing this, she gave herself power because she was able to contribute to Christianity through her art and messages of her visions.

Hildegard of Bingen Scivias 1142-52 http://heroinesofhistory.wikispaces.com/Hildegard+of+Bingen

In the Renaissance, the female artist Sofonisba Anguissola challenged her role as being a domestic woman, to being an amazing painter. Her paintings were usually self-paintings that depicted her in very plain attire- usually with an androgenous or male, look to her- and also, with her taking in part in either painting itself, or music to show that she was educated. Chadwick writes, “At least one work by Anguissola , Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola (probably late 1550s) suggests not only that she was aware of the value of her own image as an exemplar of female achievement, but also that she understood the importance of the master-pupil relationship and her unique role as a producer of images of women (Chadwick, 70).”

Self Portrait at the Easel 1556

Not wanting to remain in the role that society put her in, Anguissola took her talent for painting and chose to depict herself, a woman, as something entirely different than what was the norm for depictions of women at the time; she did not wear a dress, was not shown to be provocative, or as an object, but she was depicted as being intelligent and artistic. Just by painting this way, Anguissola changed how women could be represented within art, as well as inspired other women to paint outside of the boundaries given to women by men.

 Bibliography: 

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

Girls', The Guerrilla. Bedside Companion To The History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.