The Role of Women During The Middle Ages

The role of women in society has always been a topic of controversy. Whether you're talking about the past, or if you're talking about the present, everyone has a different view on what the role of a woman is. Many may say that the role of women during the Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance wasn't of much importance. They did what women would "typically" do; cook, clean and of course, listen to what the men of the house wanted. The Guerilla Girls and Whitney Chadwick accurately describe the roles of not just female artists, but of females in general through these time periods. These time periods, according to the authors, were primarily dominated by men (shocker). Therefore, women, especially female artists were overshadowed.
Artists like Rachel Ruysch exemplify how women throughout the 17th and 18th centuries were only expected to paint objects that represented feminism. The thought of a woman painting a man (especially a nude man) was highly frowned upon. "One prerequisite was knowing how to draw from live nude models, especially males, something women were forbidden to do" (Guerilla Girls 39). Due to this reason, many talented women turned to painting inanimate objects and created still life's. "... most women of the 17th and 18th centuries kept home fires burning, perfecting the areas where they were allowed to excel: still life and portraiture." Artists like Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) and Judith Leyster (1609-1660) began excelling in botanical illustrations.

Rachel Ruysch Flowerpiece after 1700

Although Judith Leyster painted botanical illustrations, she also painted images that depicted the lives of women everyday. Her paintings such as A Woman Sewing by Candlelight 1633 allowed women to be viewed from a woman's perspective. Leyster depicted the true feelings of domesticated women within her paintings and in the facial expression of the subject in her painting. She made the painting dark and gloomy with only one single light source allowing her painting to clearly depict what life for a woman really was like. Man male artists depicted women being happy while doing domestic housework which wasn't really what reality was like. "Although art history has been complicit in generalizing such representations into embodiments of domestic virtue, significant differences in fact exist in the presentation of this type of female labor in Dutch art, as well as in the class and material circumstances of the women engaged in it" (Chadwick 126).

During the late 1800's, many female artists began to depict the actuality of what a woman's life was like. Since males were either objectifying females, or making the female subject in their painting seem happy and jolly while doing domestic work, female artists began taking initiative. Anna Blunden's The Seamstress is a prime example of how woman began to portray the reality of females. It depicts a seamstress with her hands joined seated at a window which represents hope and freedom. 

Anna Blunden The Seamstress 1854

Male artists in throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance always depicted women in a way that made them seem okay with what they're role was in society; which was being domesticated. However, female artists stepped up to the plate and began to show their viewers paintings that said "Hey, I'm a female, and being domesticated sucks." This is still going on today. And while some may deny it, it still happens all over the world.

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.