Post 2

Angel Ayala

The Christian Church was the source of power and control throughout western life during the Middle Ages, especially that of women. With this in mind, “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 system organized around the control of property” (Chadwick, p. 44). Peasant women in particular had responsibilities that pertained to household duties such as raising and caring the children, cleaning the house, and cooking food for the family. They were not allowed to be literate because it was believed that it would get in the way of their responsibilities, which strictly limited education to just the males. The women were dependent on men such as their fathers, brothers, or husbands for income Speaking against them was almost unheard of because doing so would only make the lives of those women even worse. Those that did not want to be bound to the life of marriage, or if the parents simply wanted to give them away because of financial difficulties, would join convents. Women within these convents did receive some form of education; however, they were not allowed to teach. There was one women in particular that did not let the idea of women “inferiority” get in the way of her living. In fact, she fought and argued against those that belittled women. This woman was Christine de Pizan who may be the first female to make a living as a writer. She created a literary work titled The City of Ladies that represented her arguments against the poem, The Romance of the Rose, which said that it was fine to take advantage of women because they were dishonorable. Within it, she describes, “An entire city populated by the bravest, strongest, most virtuous women from history. In it, three beautiful women personifying Reason, Rectitude, and Justice describe how the city of ladies is to be built” (Guerrilla Girls, p. 26).

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan in her Study, from The City of Ladies (1405)

Women during the Renaissance period saw a bit more freedom compared to the women of the Middle Ages, which had to do with the fact that the Church was losing its power and influence along with the rise of the middle class. They were educated through art studios, family, church, and universities, but that decision was made entirely by the father, who majority of the time was an artist himself. What would push the father to want to teach his daughter is if he needed assistance in his workshop. Moreover, “in most cities, women were barred from painter’s guilds or academics (except for the lace and silkmakers’ guilds)” (Guerrilla Girls, p. 29). However, Bologna, Italy was an exception because its university allowed women to join; as a result, many women learned philosophy and law. Its painter guilds had women participants, and there was a school solely for women artist, which was founded by the painter Elisabetta Sirani. There is one artist in particular by the name of Artemisia Gentileschi who became extremely famous for her paintings, but was still criticized for it. She had instructor name Agostino Tassi who was brought on chargers by her father for raping her, “withdrawn a promise of marriage, and taken away from the Gentileschi house paintings that included a large Judith” (Chadwick, p. 105). Although the chargers had to do with more of the property that was taken, Artemisia Gentileschi reflected her anger of men in her paintings. In Judith Decapitating Holofernes (1612), you can see how the two women are not scared of what they are doing. They are focused on cutting his head even though there is blood everywhere. Artemisia showed how women could be just as violent and ruthless, if not more, than males.

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Artemisia Gentileschi 

Judith Slaying Holofernes (1612)

The separation of men and women went on well into the 19^th century too. Many of the male artists did not want to recognize the artwork that was created by women. “Critics were quick to challenge the displays for their lack of ‘quality’ and women once again found themselves confronting universalizing definitions of ‘women’s’ production in a gender-segregated world” (Chadwick, p. 229). Women fought extremely hard to promote equal rights, but it was battle proven difficult because of the male dominated world. The presence of the male gaze was also still relevant to this time period since male artists were more obsessive and objectifying towards the female body. Mary Cassatt’s Woman in Black at the Opera (1880) painting shows a woman as a spectator at an opera. Because she was dressed in black, it was fine for her to be out in the public because a woman wearing all black meant that she was a widow, which may or may not be the case in the painting. However, you see a male spectator spying on the woman from afar, and watching her every move. Although women wanted and demanded equality, it seemed like such a hard concept to grasp for the males because of the control they had in almost every aspect of life.

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Mary Cassatt

Woman in Black at the Opera (1880)

Works Citied 

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, art, and society. 4th ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

The Guerrilla Girls' bedside companion to the history of Western art. London: Penguin, 1998. Print.