Gender Roles & Power.

Sasha LaTange

Gender Roles, Subject, and Power

Art and Women

3 March 2019

Unfixed Roles

For centuries women have been discriminated, devalued, and sabotaged; and have been casted into a role that seemingly seems unbreakable. Women have and still are expected to be housewives, cook, clean, and sexually satisfy their partners. However, throughout history there has been many women who disagreed with the ideal role and exemplified that women could do more than just cater to the needs of their husband and/ or family. Though these movements led by women were not easy and nor did change occur instantly. If they ought to seek change they had to work for it, which entailed breaking certain laws, becoming vocal, and collectively forming groups. At the time of the middle ages women were outlined by their sexual capacites, and their roles were already determined by christian churches. Feudalism was prevalent, different social classes were separated; the nobles, the clergy, and the poor. Within the novel Women, Art, and Society by Whitney Chadwick mentions “The rigidity of social division, and the gulf that separated upper and lower classes, meant that upper-class women had more in common with the men of their classes than with peasant women." (45) In other words, evidently there was division between the upper and lower class and depending on one’s socials class, treatment and fairness also differed. Women from the upper class had more power than that of those who lived in the lower class. Although being apart of a convent, granted women the right to education but their were still constraints set upon their identity. Aside from access to education and exposure to art, women weren’t able to go beyond just learning. Yet some women retaliated, for instance Herrad of Landsberg was one of em ,who is known as the author and artist of the pictographic encyclopedia Hortus Deliciarum; a text used amongst nuns, and lay women alike. As a pioneer of women, Herrad enthralled outstanding artistic abilities, and leadership. Women were allowed to be educated to the best of their abilities and were under her protection, while her time as abbess. Aside from creating a historical document for future generations, high standards of accomplishment were set to which other women religious and secular, could aspire. As time passes, the roles of women partially alters, specifically within the Renaissance era. The structure of feudalism dismantles which results to the lost of power over society and the formation of  capitalism gains popularity. Even though women are still expected to be reliant on their husbands, they were now granted the permission to participate in guilds. In addition, art becomes available to women precisely in Bologna, Italy ever since the middle ages. According to The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, Bologna was well- known for having “…many learned women in philosophy and law…there was even a school for women artists...there were more women artists in Bologna during this time than anywhere else in Italy” (30). Elisabetta Siriani, a Bolognese artist, was influenced greatly by her father (Giovanni Andrea Siriani) so much that people often accused her of signing work her father had done. In response to her haters, she painted publicly and eventually opened a school for women artist. As Chadwick emphasizes, “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…The composition reinforces Portia’s removal from the world of women. She is physically separated from the women who spin and gossip in another room, betraying their sex by talk” (Chadwick 101). In the painting below, Portia whom is the center of attention is symbolic to that of a female’s masculinity which wasn’t accepted and went against the stereotypes of a woman. Therefore the image projects the separation from the female world and goes against the cliche that women were too weak.  

Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding Her Thigh 1664

Women were constantly depicted as weak and anything but weak was seen as abnormal, strange, and problematic since it was in their “nature” to be loving and gentle. Paintings by male artists such as Orazio Gentileschi, emphasize and captures these ideologies."Judith with Her Maidservant" 1610-12, depicts two women holding the dead body of an enemy that they killed. The position of the two women emphasizes the figures passivity, while the directing of their gazes in different directions works to defuse the intensity and commitment to a shared goal. However the attention is focused on the dead man it’s positioned in the center, and there is virtually no sign of  blood. Thus demonstrating that men did not think women were capable of doing something so complex and challenging;in actuality the painting looks like a lie. In contrast, Artemisia Gentileschi's version of the painting in 1618, is realistically depicted. The women in the picture are focused and their attention is merely on Judith, their clothes are stained with blood and the sword is held firmly(110).  In Comparison, these paintings are based on the same event, but by two different genders which allow viewers to get an understanding on how gender roles have influenced the way men perceive women and how women counter attack and provide realistic views thus emphasizing that women have, truly, the balls (Periodt).!

Left: Orazio Gentileschi, "Judith with Her Maidservant" 1610-12.  Right: Artemisia Gentileschi, "Judith with her Maidservant" 1618.

Work Cited

The Guerrilla Girls  bedside companion to the history of Western art. Penguin, 1998.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007.

“Herrad of Landsberg.” History of the Periodic Table - New World Encyclopedia