POST #2

Kianna Dorino

Professor Cacoilo

Art and Women

07 March 2017

            The Middle Ages began at about 476 A.D. to about the fifteenth century. The Middle Ages began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and progressively merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. After the fall of Rome, the Catholic Church became the most powerful institution of the period. People of great authority such as kings, queens, and other leaders derived much of their power from their alliances with the church. Art and Architecture became dominant during this time with great cathedrals as the largest buildings in Europe. European thinks, writers and artists began to look back and celebrate the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

Christine de Pizan. Christine De Pizan in her study from the city of ladies. 1405

            Women played several different roles during the Middle Ages. Women were wives, mothers, artisans and nuns. Peasant women who lived in the countryside had many domestic responsibilities, which included caring for their child/children, preparing the food, as well as tending livestock. Women who lived in towns often had the same jobs as women living on the countryside however; women who lived in town often assisted their fathers or husband’s work. Women were often judged and dictated by biblical texts. According to the bible women weren’t allowed to teach and were instructed to remain silent and let the men do all the talking. Women during this period were also looked at as sinful because they were derived from Eve and her sins. Most of the Middle Ages was done in the monasteries. The Gregorian Reform coincided with the development of feudal society, greatly inhibited the role of women in the church and led to the emergence of a new tradition of female mysticism. The division also emphasized an ideology of divine womanhood. This reached its peak in the twelfth-century cult of the Virgin Mary (Chadwick, 39). Women’s roles would begin to change soon after once the Renaissance began to emerge. 

 http://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages

            

                                                           

                                                             The Renaissance & Women 

  Tintoretto, Susanna and the Elders, 1555 

Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, 1610

            The Renaissance was known to be a time where women began to gain equality to men. As mentioned before, women were unable to receive an education as well as being unable to have a say in anything in their lives. During the time of he Renaissance women began to break through their traditional norms into something new. Women in the Renaissance had a greater opportunity to pursue education. Although women were able to receive education at this time there were still several limitations in doing so. Women who came from the upper class had a better opportunity in receiving the best education where as people who came from a lower socioeconomic class were unable to do so. Women from the lower class did not have as much time and money to spend on receiving an education instead, they spent most of their time tending to their families needs. Women from the upper class had time to pursue education however they also faced limitations. Wealthier women were able to receive a decent education however; they were unable to make use of the education they received. In the areas of business, commerce, and even politics women were unable to excel. Women artist also faced much scrutiny. Women were not thought to be on the same level as men and were often criticized more than men. During the Renaissance women began to turn the view of them being the victims, them being the objectified in art and began to show that they were art and that they were no longer going to be to blame in works of art.

Elisabetta Sirani. Portia Wounding her Thigh. 1664

                       

            Elisabetta Sirani was born in 1638 and died 1665 at the age of twenty-seven. Sirani was born and raised in Bologna, Italy. Bologna Italy was famously known for its progressive attitude towards women’s rights and for producing successful female artist. Sirani is the artist who created a famous painting during the Renaissance by the name of, “Portia Wounding her Thigh 1664.” The painting literally shows Portia stabbing herself in the thigh to test her strength before having to confide in Brutus. Sirani created this painting as a powerful statement on women’s political agency and the measures women must face in order to be taken seriously. Chadwick says about Sirani, “Sirani chose the moment at which Portia wounded herself to test her strength of character before asking Brutus to confide in her […] its other meanings are more complicated and return us to the issue of how sexual difference is produced and reinforced. Stabbing herself deeply in the thigh, Portia has to prove herself virtuous and worthy of political trust by separating herself from the rest of her sex […] Removed from the private world of women to the public world of men, Portia must assert her control over speech before she can claim exceptional status. She demonstrates, finally, that women who prove their virtue through individual acts of bravery can come to be recognized as almost like men” (Chadwick 78). Elisabetta Sirani shows the inequality women faced at the time of her existence. 
https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/elisabetta-sirani