Women In the Middle Ages Vs. The Renaissance

Shani Ketema
Prof. Caçoilo
Art & Women
March 3, 2017

Women In the Middle Ages Vs. The Renaissance 

               Consider the role of a woman now : whatever she deems her role to be. So much freedom, right ? Unfortunately, it is with great sadness that I inform you that women only recently came into this amount of freedom. In the Middle ages ( , women lived in a society controlled by the church and therefore controlled by men (who controlled everything anyway). A woman role was determined by the values of the church. Similar to the roles of women in other cultures where they were expected to take on the role of the mother figure, “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). 

            Women were under the men in their lives. If she lived in her parents house, she was under her father and her brothers, if she had any. If she was married, she was under her husband. In addition to that there was the feudal system- the structure of  society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. It established a hierarchy of some sort. Peasant women would be at home taking care of the home and the children, or assist the men in the brewing of beer and wine, working the land, and maintaining livestock.  Other occupations such as spinning, weaving, and embroidery, allowed women to work in or near the home so as not to neglect other duties. Lower class women couldn't be educated and very few high class women had an education. Women in higher classes came into a new career called Midwifery that allowed for the fatality rates in childbirth to drop drastically. 

Women in the middle ages could also commit themselves to the church and become Nuns or Sisters. Even in the church, they were not allowed to teach, become priests , bishops , or deaconesses. Art was limited to the ones that

came with religious texts from the church. One woman was Herrad of Lansburg. "In 1167, Herrad was elected Abbess of Hohenburg near Strasbourg. The Hortus Deliciarum, a massive portfolio of 324 sheets of parchment paper had 636 miniatures..." (Chadwick p. 56).  With all the limits set by the church and the patriarchy, one woman managed to make a living on her own as a writer. Christine Di Pisan served as a court writer for several dukes and the French royal court during the reign of Charles VI. Di Pisan even dared to write a book where she made women the heroes and spoke of their virtues. In that book, titled "Le Livre de la cité des dames" (1405; The Book of the City of Ladies), the characters were all women, and included art of women. 

        Out of time period where little to no art or new ideas were being developed (compare to a huge brain fart), came the Renaissance. The Renaissance brought about serious change in Europe. All of a sudden, everyone was willing to eat, breathe and sleep art. Roles for women did not change by far, but were still significant. Similar to the Middle Ages, Renaissance women were denied most political rights and still under the men in their lives. Unmarried women could not live independently either. They had to live with male relatives or at a convent. Women were expected to remain virgins until marriage. The problem with marriage is that most men married in their 30's and women were married off after their first menstrual period (or as teenagers). In addition to that women would be shunned from society or even killed if they were not virgins - even in cases of rape the woman was blamed. One renaissance woman who managed to combat rape and make her way into the world as one of the most talented Renaissance women is Artemisia Gentileschi. Gentileschi's father was an artist already so he invested in his daughters education in the arts. As a teen she was raped by her fathers colleague. Usually when women were raped, the family would find a way to make the rapist marry her to "save her honor". This man, however refused to marry her and as a result her father took the man to court. The man- Agostino Tassi was charged with “withdrawn a promise of marriage, and taken away from the Gentileschi house paintings that included a large Judith” (Chadwick, p. 105). Gentileschi, understanding of rape and how women were treated towards it later re-did Tintoretto's "Susanna and the Elders". Tintorettos's "Susanna and The Elders" was designed to look like Susanna either deserved the rape or couldn't have been raped. In Gentileschi's version, it was clear that two creepy old men were trying to give Susanna something she wasn't interested in.

Tintoretto's 'Susanna & The Elders'

Gentileschi's 'Susana & The Elders'

                                                             WORKS CITED

"Artemisia, The Rape and the Trial." Artemisia, The Rape and the Trial. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, art, and society. Londres: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.