Historical Female Artists

Scivias, by Hildegard Von Bingen, 1152.
An illumination of her incoherent visions.

Women frequently encompassed a desolate, restrained life throughout the middle ages. From its inception in the 4th century, women were initially restricted throughout the bleak life already imposed under the feudal system. Life as an average citizen consisted of impoverish standards, lifelong servitude, social immobility, and zealous worship of Christianity. These bleak conditions were augmented with other prevalent detrimental forces inflicted upon women, immobilizing any residue of autonomous liberty possible for the sex. Chadwick describes their role, emphasizing “...women’s social roles remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity, by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibility, and by the feudal legal system organized around the control of property”(Chadwick, 44). Their role, rendered them as domestic caretakers, prioritizing the role of a responsible mother and devoted wife, enforced by the church and government. This role remained consistent throughout the middle ages(arguably in several aspects it’s still prominent today). Due to this, art conceived by women was sparse. To maneuver this impediment, Hildegard Von Bingen stood as a pariah by her success. Her ability to join a convent was greatly attributed to her wealthy parents, where she started “having visions as early as 8 years old” according to Guerrilla Girls. These visions led her to writing literature despite the dissuasion of men’s advice. Her most profound work, Scivias, was a ten year piece describing her mystical visions. Several works of media led her to become a subversively (in)famous author, even receiving divine blessing from the pope. Living a life of traveling and engagement with international intellectuals along with independent ideas was too erroneous to the church, sporadically placing her in house arrest for the remainder of her life.

The renaissance began in the 15th century, and already showed a sense of feminist progression in art, in contrast with its prior medieval age undermining female artists. Art was a driving force in the renaissance, playing a vital role in social and economical frontiers. “During the Renaissance in Italy, artists usually came from the social class of artisans, without wealth or property. They had to go through an apprenticeship with another, established artist, then join a guild… and set up an atelier or workshop of their own”(Guerrilla Girls, 29). The path of an artist was a perilous one despite its massive influence, easily still prevalent today. But, the path was conventionally disbarred to women,

Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentileschi
1610. A vivid depiction of rape.

considering “they couldn’t receive commissions or legally own an atelier”(Guerrilla Girls 29), along with other obvious preventions inflicted upon women. The few exceptions that rarely surfaced, were female artists who shifted the paradigm of art. In the stead of platitude art traditionally displayed as portraits or still lives, there was a small minority of women artists who invoked feminist messages incorporated in their pieces. Take Artemisia Gentileschi, a female prodigy blessed with the ability to work in her educated father’s atelier. She created the piece titled Susanna and the Elders in 1610, subversively critiquing the intrinsic prevalence of male rape and dominance, an artistic message never even dreamed of being public during this period. It displayed two attackers grabbing a women with sexual coercion. It also depicted an elder “shushing” the viewer as if they’re implicit in the rape, proving to be a thought provoking piece with a powerful message.

While the progression of female representation and feminism was incremental throughout the first 17 centuries, there were some surfaced artists that impacted the art world greatly. Despite their conditions confiding them to their roles, few women truly surpassed their male opposition in the realm of art. There was a distinguishable dichotomy of art in the middle ages and renaissance, championing as a crusading paramount of feminist success.


The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin, 1998.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016.