Being a woman is more than biology, and it goes beyond just the normal gender construct, being a woman is far more complex to the human eye, but there was a time where woman were only "seen and not heard". In the Middle ages women lived in a society controlled by the church and by man, to sum it up "the man" ruled everything. A woman role was determined by the values of the church. Similar to the roles of women in other cultures where they were expected to take on the role of the mother figure, “women's social role remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity, by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibility, and by the feudal system organized around the control of property” (Chadwick, p. 44). Women were always deemed inferior to men and their roles in their lives reflected that as well. If she lived in her parents house, she was under her father and her brothers. If she was married, she was under her husband. During this time there was also the Feudal system, the structure of society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor), that established a type of social hierarchy. Peasant women would always be at home taking care of the house and children, or out assisting the men with their work. Women in the lower class could not be educated and only a few of higher class women had an education. In every aspect of the Woman's life they were treated subservient to man and treated like 2nd rate citizens who could not be on par or equal to the man. Women in the middle ages were allowed to commit themselves to the church and become Nuns or Sisters, and even then they could not teach or even elevate their position within the church. Most of the Art that was produced came during this time really came from the religious text from the church.
One woman was Herrad of Lansburg. "In 1167, Herrad was elected Abbess of Hohenburg near Strasbourg. The Hortus Deliciarum, a massive portfolio of 324 sheets of parchment paper had 636 miniatures..." (Chadwick p. 56). Along with Herrad, Christine Di Pisan served as a court writer for several dukes and the French royal court during the reign of Charles VI. Di Pisan even dared to write a book where she made women the heroes and spoke of their virtues. In that book, titled "Le Livre de la cité des dames" (1405; The Book of the City of Ladies), the characters were all women, and included art of women, that was a sign of women empowerment.
Out of time period where little to no art or new ideas were being developed, came the Renaissance, which bought drastic change to Europe. Art became the identity and talk of Europe. Roles for women did not change by far, but were still significant. Similar to the Middle Ages, Renaissance women were denied most political rights and still under the men in their lives. Unmarried women could not live independently either. They had to live with male relatives or at a convent and were expected to remain virgins until marriage. Women would be shunned from society or even killed if they were not virgins, even if they were raped, they would still take the blame, which was something that caught me off guard. For example there was one rape case involving Renaissance women artist, Artemisia Gentileschi. Her father was an artist so he instilled that learning and love for the arts in her. She was only a teen when she was raped by her father's colleague, and when a woman is raped, the family would try to force a marriage to "save the woman's honor". This man, however refused to marry her and as a result her father took the man to court. The man- Agostino Tassi was charged with “withdrawn a promise of marriage, and taken away from the Gentileschi house paintings that included a large Judith” (Chadwick, p. 105). During the 19th century, women started fighting for their role in society. "Women who became artists- like Mary Cassatt, Rosa Bonheur and Edmonia Lewis-had to fight to be taken seriously"(Guerilla Girls,47). Women artists started making paintings based off of perspective and this was also during the time period where Woman claimed photography and made that a main avenue to express their art. Overall from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance Era you can see slight progress in the way woman were treated, but you could see a strong sense of woman empowerment, especially within their art.
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| Gentileschi's 'Susana & The Elders' |
WORKS CITED
"Artemisia, The Rape and the Trial." Artemisia, The Rape and the Trial. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, art, and society. Londres: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.
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