Post #2

Victorious Secret Women Breakout!

      Women have come a long way to get where they are now, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, 19^th century, to present day.  During the Middle Ages women were extremely limited as to what would become of them.  The men in their lives determined everything woman did.  This method of control also stretched throughout the Renaissance, it wasn’t until the rights of women bloomed throughout the 19^th century.  During the 19^th century women started to go to work due to the their men being at war, this proved to men and women that women can handle the job of a man.  Women from the Middle Ages to present day used their art to illustrate social issues, as well as women issues.

    The expected role of women in Europe during the Middle Ages was very limited compared to contemporary times.  The Guerrilla Girls quote, “Many of these artists were women, either working in businesses owned by male family members or living as nuns in convents.  “Guerrilla Girls, p. 19)  It is noted that the only way for a women to be able to gain some kind of freedom was to become a nun or to work under a male family member.  What was expected of women was to only marry, and to give her dowry to her future husband, and if she wasn’t married she as to love in a household of a male relative or usually joined a convent.  The Guerrilla Girls say, “Joining a convent freed women from the demanding roles of being wives and mothers.  For some it was to live a religious life, for others it was because their parents had blown the family fortune on their sisters’ dowries.  (Guerrilla Girls, p.21)  Moreover, women were extremely limited politically and independently.  Artistically they also were not given the credit they should have received but instead the dominant male of the family/husband during the Middle Ages received the credit done by women. 

The role of women of the Renaissance Era was the time when women began to slightly rebel against what was expected of them.  The Guerilla Girls quote, “One of the few ways a woman could work as an artist was to be born into a family of artists that needed assistance in the family workshop.” (Guerrilla Girls, p. 29)  If women were lucky enough to become an artists was only through working within the family.  What about the women who weren’t blessed with a family of artist?  I suppose their chances were shot.  Women during this time period were brave enough to paint and illustrate the struggles of a women’s life through their paintings, for instance take Artemisa Gentileschi for example.  Artemisa’s paintings can seem a bit revengeful and blunt but are extremely essential help generations to come the understanding of the struggles during the Renaissance.  Artemisa’s “Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1620”, Guerrilla Girls quote, “The biblical story of a Jewish women who kills an Assyrian General, an enemy of her people, by pretending to seduce him.”  (Guerrilla Girls, p. 37)  This painting represents the power and injustice feeling of a woman during the struggling period of the Renaissance.  

   The 19^th century was the time of major transition for women.  During this century women began to recognize the split between being a “housewife”, and “work”.  Many forms of art such as paintings and quilting told stories of the struggle it was for women also the culture during the 19^th century as well as the Middle Ages.  Chadwick writes, “The design characteristics of nineteenth century African American quilts-vertical stripes, strong colors and shapes, asymmetry and multiple pattering-often the roots (though sometimes disguised) in the forms and elements of African Cosmology and mythology.” (Chadwick, p. 210)  Moreover, in the quilts stories were told, but also were disguised.  These women artists used art to say a message as a way of communication to the public.  For example the “slave quilt code”, is the idea that African American slaves used quilts to communicate information about how to escape to freedom.  (Wiki)  Art made by women was not only to tell the struggles of women but of the generation and cultural struggles.
     

   Overall, women not only were fighting for their rights, but also were undercover activist.  With their artwork women were able to illustrate the contemporary social issues of their generation, and culture, as well as women issues.  Women have a great amount of importance throughout our history in helping us understand what women struggles were from a women’s perspective. Thanks to the help of women artists such as Christine De Pizan, Sofonisba Anguissola, Elisabetta Sirani, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Harriet Powers, and etc., we are able to learn through their art the pros and cons of being a women during their time period. 

Bibliography:

·     * The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1998. Print.

·     * Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4^th ed. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1990, Print.

·      *“Quilts of the Underground Railroads.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad_quilt

Pictures:

1.   *   http://www.momlogic.com/2009/08/how_feminism_hurt_our_love_lives.php

2.   *   https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigk0VfP3EzmeaoQeVPmfWkmK7KSEhxL-RcsnBrB0dwBAg1oNvxs2a-FCNOS8kkfI_i6Kn4FqudDG62nL3JM6nRsWleoPEPWNDR_W42vEKUm_7ZVUiHd4w7Gom6vLicteusU9I0PmqNGJk/s1600/4-30TroubadourGarden.jpg

3.    *  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GENTILESCHI_Judith.jpg

              http://hatterns.com/archives/9497

*This link has awesome pictures and they’re humorous!

4.     http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236694/War-women-Propaganda-postcards-suffragette-era-fierce-battle-fought-American-women-vote--Obama-thank-job.html