Gender Roles, Subject and Power: Women Setting the Pace

Cecylia Jablonski

Gender Roles, Subject and Power: Women Setting the Pace

During the Middle Ages, a feudalist structure existed with a a power structure representative of a pyramid. With the Pope and the King at the top, those on lower social tiers, referred to as peasants were illiterate and immobile. The expected roles of women in Europe during the Middle Ages was to be subservient to the male dominant power structure of the feudal system as well as the patriarchal figures in their immediate family. Women were in a constant state of being owned. It began with their fathers, who had complete control over their daughters and their mothers. These daughters would be “traded” off into a marriage, with a groom chosen by the father, who would take over control of the newlywed girl. The reason for this lack of agency, was a believed moral inferiority and incapability of reason or logic. However restraining this tradition of ownership, the women of the Middle Ages had an escape in joining the church, and so their roles became heavily involved in clergy work and worship. The Guerrilla Girls write, “Joining a convent freed women from the demanding roles of being wives and mothers. Families sent girls as young as five or six years old to nunneries (…) There, they lived a life by, for, and about God…and women” (Guerilla Girls, 1998, p. 21). In countries like Germany, by the 12th Century, many convents had become essentially autonomous communities of only women, separated from the world of men. “These nuns had an autonomy unknown to their sisters on the outside” (Guerilla Girls, 1998, p. 21). In these institutions women could operate businesses, farm, make tapestries, produce manuscripts, and compose music. This evolved into nuns writing books on medicine and science. The church gave the women an influence and a voice that they would not have otherwise.

Hildegard of Bingen, a German Nun, was distinctive in her ability to push through socially constructed boundaries using the power of “visions” which described not only religious but theological concepts like humanity, redemption, and the relationship between the universe and humans far beyond the contexts of gender. The works of Hildegard of Bingen, including her Universal Man, directly competed with the scientific and theoretical works of men, like Leonardo Da Vinci, who came centuries after her. 

Link to a brief history on the importance of Hildegard of Bingen to Rome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOveUzIMO10  

(Universal Man, 1165 manuscript illumination from Scivas by Hildegard of Bingen along side The Vitruvian Man, 1487 by Leonardo Da Vinci. Created 322 years apart, Hildegard’s rendition of a human in relation to the universe and the ability to connect the body to nature was an innovation in the scientific understanding of human race. However, Leonardo’s version which came centuries later is more commonly recognized).

During the Renaissance, the profession of painting become more accessible to the social class of artisans, male only of course, who could apprentice for another establish artist and eventually open their own studios. All painters' academies were closed to women, except for those specializing in lace and silk making. Women were not legally allowed to own studios or receive commissions for pieces of art. The only way into an art studio for a woman, was if her family owned a workshop, and needed her assistance in it. In many instances, woman did all the work, and men took all the credit. "The ateliers of many of the great 'masters' were filled with their wives, sisters, and daughters, grinding out the masters' oeuvre. Some of these women, including those who followed, figured out how to establish themselves as independent artist" (Guerrilla Girls, 1998, p. 29). Sofonisba Anguissola, and a few others were particularly lucky to fit into this extremely rare set of circumstances. Her father believed women should be educated and went to so far as to send one of her drawings to Michelangelo. Lavinai Fontana worked in her father's studio in Bologna. Fontana, despite being a brilliant artist, was forced to give all of her commissions to her father and when she was asked by the Pope to visit Rome, she had to wait until her father died to do so. Artemisia Gentileschi in my opinion, was one of the most feminist painters of this time period. Her art was almost always a statement on the "Male Gaze" and mistreatment of women in the confines of patriarchal power. Gentileschi painted her own interpretations of paintings from her father, Orazio Gentileschi. Her renditions emboldened the women, painting them with more apparent power, intent, and awareness in scenes like Suzanna and the Elders or Judith and her Maidservant.

 

(LEFT: Judith and her Maidservant, 1618 by Artemisia Gentileschi and RIGHT: Judith and her Maidservant, 1610 by Orazio Gentileschi. Important differences between the paintings include, the conviction with which Judith holds the sword in Artemisia's painting and the appearance of cohesion and involvement of the women as represented by their body language and shared gaze. In Orazio's painting, the women appear distraught, confused, and seemingly incapable of the murder that has just occurred. This speaks to his internal view of woman incapable of such brutality and wit.)

In the 17th and 18th centuries, European countries began colonizing countries across the Americas. As powerful kingdoms fought amongst each other for territory, intellectual movements like the Enlightenment, neoclassicism, as well as the beginnings of democracy shaped a new of thinking. Human autonomy and individuality manifested itself amongst former peasants. However, the role of a woman was not afforded such a revolutionary make over. The idea remained that a woman's place was in her home. Women remained subjected to arranged marriages, long hours of labor to provide for their poor families, and imprisonment for having children out of wedlock. But as many male artists were off busy with the work of painting scenes of war and powerful monarchs, female artists found inspiration and success in painting the "every day" subject of life. These included images of fruits, insects, and flower arrangements. "The task of describing minute nature required the same qualities of diligence, patience, and manual dexterity that are often used to denigrate "women's work". Women were, in fact, critical to the development of the floral still-life; a genre highly esteemed in the seventeenth century but, by the nineteenth, dismissed as an inferior one ideally suited to the limited talents of women amateurs" (Chadwick, 2012, p. 129).

Angelica Kauffman, unlike her fellow female artists, took on grand historical themes. She was born to a Swiss painter and had the privilege to travel throughout Europe, where she gained her ambitions to paint in the same sphere of subjects that men were painting at the time. Kauffman was commissioned by a wealthy English woman to paint full time. Kauffman experienced financial and social success, entering into an affluent social group of painters who practiced a kind of neoclassicism, which called for illustrations of scenes from ancient history and mythology, where subjects were painted with the reminiscence of Greek sculpture. 

Link to a gallery of Angelica Kauffman's artworks: https://www.wikiart.org/en/angelica-kauffman

 

(The Sellers of Love, 1780 by Angelica Kauffman. Kauffman identified herself as a historical painter. This was an unusual designation for women in the 18th century. Its subject matter was a representation of humans across mythology, history, and literature. To paint in this manner required knowledge of art theory and the study of anatomy from male nude models. This kind of training was widely denied to female painters.)

By the 19th Century, the beginning of the Civil War and the emergence of the industrial revolution made way for civil rights and woman's suffrage. In the art world, male obsession with the naked woman's body was at an all time high. On the other hand, female artists found marginally more success in opportunities to become artists, but had to continue to fight to be taken seriously. The invention of the camera was a positive for female creators because it was a new field that had not yet been dominated by men and therefore could not exclude them. Openly lesbian painter Rosa Bonheur, had a passion for painting animals, her position was that the forced domestication of animals related to the stringent historical expectations of women. Bonheur chose to "cross dress" in mens clothing to be able to travel the country and paint under the radar of the conservative public, while also being comfortable while she works. This was a step in the direction of gender equality and gender autonomy, in which women can wish to be seen not for their gender and have the agency to exist in a neutral space which does not determine their societal roles. 

 

(Rose Bonheur in mens clothing, illegal for woman to wear at the time. She was able to travel and work in these clothes thanks to a permit she got from the French Police, signed by her doctor.)

Work Cited: 

Chadwick, W. (2012). Women, Art, and Society. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson Inc.

Guerrilla Girls. (1998). The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to The History of Western Art. New York, NY: Penguin Books.