Gender roles, sex, power

        Women in the middle ages were seen as inferior to men in the most extreme ways.  The people looked to the church in order to know how to behave, and "the church's hierarchical organization reinforced the class distinctions in society; its patriarchal dogma included a full set of theories on the natural inferiority of women which can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Old Testament (Chadwick 44)."  "Women's social roles...stressed obedience and chastity (Chadwick 44)."  Women were told by men that they were to behave in a certain way; those same men were able to enforce their rules and regulations because they were backed by the Church and law.  Men created the laws, they were able to work and own land while women were left to depend upon men for survival.  There was only one place were women could be educated, the convent, but even there it "it was often determined by noble birth," whether or not you were allowed to go.  The art made during this time focused mainly on religious aspects because of how powerful the church was at the time.  But as with every time period rebels rise.  Christine De Pizan was the "first woman to have made her living as a writer in the Middle Ages (Guerilla Girls 22)."  Christine was a mother who needed to support her children.  She started as a simple copyist and worked her way up.  She eventually became " famous and influential during her lifetime and for centuries after (Guerilla Girls 22)."
The Renaissance continued to close women out of guilds, ateliers or workshops.  They were considered inferior.  Women were only allowed to work or learn in these places if she were born/married into a family of artists.  They could then assist their fathers/husbands/brothers in their work.  Any work that was considered exceptional was either criticized for being another man's work or a rare exception.  Women like Properzia de Rossi was a very well known sculptor who was "commissioned to produce marble sculptures for the Church of San Petronio in Bologna (Guerilla Girls 31),"until society began to accuse her of prostitution.  Lavinia Fontana was known as a talented painter.  She was asked by the Pope to come to Rome but she refused in order to remain at her father's side.  She was given the credit due to her but only because she was controlled by men her entire life.
         Art work in the 17th and 18th centuries was very diverse.  Those living in England, France, and Italy focused mainly on heroics and very grand themes that included nudes.  Women were excluded from learning how to draw men in the nude because of their sensitive dispositions and the fact that if they were to "know" a man's body then her purity and innocence would be lost.  Angelia Kauffmann defied conventions and drew heroic scenes that drew much attention, both positive and negative.  She had many "close relationships with other male colleagues (Guerilla Girls 44)," and was accepted into the Accademia di San Luca.  "She belonged to the English Royal Academy, and was accepted in a man's world (Guerrilla Girls 44)."

           In the meantime, in the Netherlands women were able to paint and excel at what they painted.  They were able to paint domestic scenes as well as floral arrangements.  Women were allowed to paint these subjects and were able to perfect their techniques.  The middle class was becoming the new clients and wanted paintings that would show their new prosperity, this is where women were able to begin to carve a path into the art world, however slight. Tulips "symbolize the wealth of the country (Guerrilla Girls 43)," Rachel Ruysch painted tulips and sold them in order to make a living, along side her husband.  She earned more for her work than Rembrandt did for his.  Men later on criticized women for their work in this time period, they were considered hobbies and barely worth looking at, if not flat out imitations of better artists.
           In the 19th century Rosa Bonheur addressed the problems facing women artists.  She was a famous painter who loved to focus on domestic cattle.  Horses and cows were her passion, she painted them with success and "won a gold medal at the Salon of 1848 (Guerrilla Girls 47)."  She barely fully recognized the men in her paintings.  the Horse Fair showed men in the painting but left their faces in shadows or they did not leave much of an impression on the viewer.  The main focus of the paintings were the animals in the scene.  Women through out this time period became bolder and more self confident.  They were willing to go far and wide in order to fulfill their dreams.  They had more freedom and used it to the best of their abilities.

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 2002.

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