Post 2

Rana Yassa
Prof. Cacoilo


The Roles of Women;

Women's roles changed throughout each century and each time period. Men and women were born equally, although women were born after men that doesn't mean they are less important or less valuable. So why women faced so many discrimination through ages? Why were women put in a lower position and perception than they really deserve?

In the Middle Ages women weren't expected to word, to be heard, to have a voice, or to be responsible about anything but her household and her husband. In these ages women were forced into any and everything.  Women artists didn't really have place during this time, but they were a few. For example Herrard of Landsberg , Scivas, and Christin De Pizan.

Hortus Deliciarum Drawing was about naming and drawing women including herself. As stated "The subjects of the Hortus Deliciarum come from a long tradition in Western and Byzantine art, but their fresh and spontaneous treatment, and the author's close attention to the costumes, life and manners of her age, have made the work a unique and valuable source for our understanding of life at the time" (Chadwick 58). Her work is remarkable due to the fact that she lists women's names which wasn't really known or done back then.
Also in Guerrilla Girls,
" what women who weren't nuns could and couldn't do in the Middle ages guerrilla girls:
-women were usually engaged to be married at the age of 12, and were married by 15. If an engaged girl married another man, she could be killed.

- A woman was required to be faithful to her husband, and adultery could be punished by flogging or being buried alive. Husbands were allowed to commit adultery, unless it was with another man's wife.

- Education was thought to interfere with a woman's ability to be a good wife and mother. Almost no woman were taught to read or write" (Guerrilla Girls 22). This is a closer image on what women were treated, and what was expected from them in return they had no expectations allowed except of a husband and not necessary a faithful one just a man, and children for her to raise and be there maid.

In the Renaissance, things changed a little for women artists. More women started to paint but also more women were attacked and more women were raped and taken their rights away from them. One of the most known artists by that time is Artemisia Gentileschi, who was the daughter of Orazio Gentlischi and she was one known for her women's attorney.





 Orazio Gentlischi, Judith and her Maidservant, 1610.

That was one painting by Artemesia's father, that told the biblical story of Judith killing the king. Oarzio pictured the story for the women to be the weak object, confused and scared. Also picturing the dead man's head as the most important thing in the picture, even when he is dead and killed by two women. He is picturing as if they were mentally ill and after what they did they were hit by confusion.

Although Artemisia draws the same painting with the same title but giving the women a totally different role and position.

   Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and her Maidservant, 1618.

The woman is holding the sword tight, hiding the man's head and ready to run for their lives. Artemisia puts these two women in a powerful position where they are the ones in control for their actions and they are ready to be responsible for what they have done. They are not scared in the painting or afraid or confused or seem mentally ill.

Artemisia like many other girls at that time was raped by a man who was working at her dad's store. She was tortured by the judges for them to make sure that she was not lying about her rape incident, and even after they were sure they gave him very little punishment and he even later came back to work at her father's.

Women were treated really badly at this time like the middle ages, but what changed is that women started to express themselves, started to show emotions and show how capable and powerful they are.

Another image Artimisia fought against, was the idea of always women are the one to blame and she is the one mistaken all the time.

      Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, 1610

   
                                 

Tintoretto, Susanna and the Elders, 1555

Susanna and the Elders is also a known biblical story. Susanna and the Elders is an old painting that was drawn by Tintoretto first in 1555. And then years later Artemisia drew the same painting but from a women's prespective. Tintoretto drew the painting claiming that it was the women's fault that she was raped, the fact that he drew her bathing in front of a mirror looking at herself and not paying attention to outsiders and how 'she was asking for it', which if someone thinks about it its okay for a woman to shower in front of a mirror or love her body, but he used it to grab the attention on how unfocused and distracted she was. While Artemisia on the other hand drew the same painting but throwing the blame on the Elders. She pictured them forcing her and she tried to resist but they won't let her go.

  Lilly Martin Spencer, We Both Must Fade, 1869

Another painting a little later in the 19C. A painting that doesn't show much difference in the women's way of being treated although shows a more detailed kind of art. The women in the picture is somehow pictured as being forced maybe in an engagement or something else. But the painting still doesn't show women being freed or having the ability to say no.

Through all these ages, women were treated badly, either by their family or their husbands. Even today in 2017 many women are still raped, forced into marriages, never heard, taken away their rights, and even violently attacked. These artists knew no other way to fight for themselves or express their feelings and words other than drawing, and I am sure many other women had other ways that they showed their struggle with. Women should see their history, and know that women have fought for too long and that they must continue on fighting until they reach equality with the males.

Girls , Guerilla . The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art . NY : Penguin Group , 1998 . Print.

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