During the dark period of the middle ages, women in Europe were expected to fall into line and "were the virtual prisoners of the men in their lives." (Guerrilla Girls 19) While it seemed like women were not respected, they played an essential role during everyday life. The roles changed for women through the Renaissance and into the 19th century, while they eventually had more rights and freedoms, they were still bounded to play society's roles.
The period of enlightenment, also known as the Renaissance period, wasn't so great for women during that time. "They were barred from painters' guilds or academies (except for the lace and silkmakers' guilds). They couldn't receive commissions or legally own an atelier." (Guerrilla girls 29) To bypass that, women who wanted to work as an artist had to be born into a family of artists, like Artemisia Gentileschi, who would support them and their work. Elisabetta Sirani, was such a great artist that she was accused of signing her name to works that were made by her father.
In retaliation, she painted
en plein air; painting outdoors so people could see her paint in public. She also eventually opened up a school for women artists. (Guerrilla Girls, 30)
Art during the middle ages was an essential tool for the church at that time. While most people were illiterate, people could understand the stories through illustrations. As stated by the Guerrilla girls, "Many of these artists were women, either working in businesses owned by male family members or living as nuns in convents." (Guerrilla Girls 19)
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| Alice Barber Stephens, The Female Life Class 1879 |
Some of the challenges women faced were being able to attend academies but not being able to draw from the nude male figure, which hindered women from figure drawing. Instead, some women opted to hone their skills in portraiture, like Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun, or flower paintings, like Rachel Ruysch. In some special cases, Angelica Kauffman, who belonged to the English Royal Academy, learned to draw nude male figures from plaster casts. In the Netherlands, historical subjects weren't as popular as depictions of everyday life, which boded well for women because it allowed more women to become artists. (Guerrilla Girls 40)
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| Anna Maria Sybilla Merian, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensis, Plate XI. |
Anna Maria Sybilla Merian, took life painting to a whole different level. Her keen observation and drawing skills, assisted man botanical and zoological studies, and paved the way for the scientific classification of species. (Guerrilla Girls 41) Her botanical illustrations were the first of their kind and were complied into the book,
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.
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| Rosa Bonheur, Plowing in the Nivernais, 1848 |
During the 19th century, began the women's long stuggle for equality. (Guerilla Girls 47) One of the most well known female paintings during this time is
Rosa Bonheur. Her subjects were mostly farm animals, like cows, horses and bulls. Bonheur's emphasis on painting the subjects of animal freedom and untainted nature, juxtaposed society's inferior views on women, shows the dominance that men have over women. With the support of her father, who was a member of the Saint Simonian group had their own "radical" ideas about women; cross dressing and ambiguity of public gender identity, helped Rosa flourish into who she was. (Chadwick 193)
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.
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