During the Middle Ages in Europe, women were expected to be submissive of men. Women had no rights to anything. Men were always superior to women. Women could not speak back to men unless they wanted trouble. The only job that was guaranteed for a woman was being a housewife or a caretaker. The only thing that they were able to manage was their household. The had to take care of their children and make sure their husbands were feed and food was ready by the time they got home. The only way that a women could survive in this era was by being married off or becoming a nun. For many there wasn't any other alternative. As Chadwick states "Rousseau not only believed women to be naturally inferior and submissive, but he also put great emphasis on the notion that the sexes should be separated. Believing that women lacked the intellectual capacities of men, he argued that they had no ability to contribute to art and the work of civilization apart from their domestic roles" (39). As you can see women were very limited at this time. Their easier way to obtain an education was becoming a nun. The Guerrilla Girls state "Joining a convent freed women from the demanding roles of being wives and mothers... Nuns wrote books on medicine, science, and sacred music" (21). The roles of women slowly began to change during the Renaissance and the 19th century. Some women had the advantage to do things other women couldn't do. For example, if you were born in a wealthy family or if your family was artistic, there was a chance of you being noticed; and both was great. For example, Artemisia Gentileschi was at an advantage because she was the daughter of an artist Orazio Gentileschi. She worked along side with her father.
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| Orazio Gentileschi: Judith & Her Maidservant with Holofernes |
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| Artemisia Gentileschi: Judith slaying Holofernes |
The city of Bologna was a progressive city aside from others at the time. Many women artists came to this place to make names for themselves. "The city of Bologna stood out from the rest of Europe in its attitude toward women. Women were admitted to its university beginning as early as the 13th century and were even permitted to lecture there" (Guerrilla Girls 30). Elisabetta Sirani was very famous in Bologna. She built an academy specifically for women artists. During the Renaissance things started to easy a bit for women but it was still hard for them to be their own individual. "Peasants, women, and the urban poor had no part to play in cultural renaissance oriented toward the growth and embellishment of the city as a mater of civic pride, and stressing a model of production in which man's creations paralleled those of God and carried with them the same implicit power over objects that wealth conferred" (Chadwick 70). Compared to "Not until the sixteenth century did a few women manage to turn the new Renaissance emphasis on virtue and gentility into positive attributes to the women artist. Their careers were made possible by birth into artist families and the training that accompanied it, or into the upper class where the spread of Renaissance ideas about the desirability of education opened new possibilities for women" (Chadwick 76). This is to say that during this time period the only way that women artists would be successful was if the had money. During these times not everyone was rich and social mobility was very hard.
The 19th century was just the beginning to a fight towards equality. Women were starting to speak up about the struggles that they were going through. "Rosa [Bonheur] encouraged women to be rebellious saying 'Let women establish their claims by great and good works and not by conventions' " (Guerrilla Girls 49). Bonheur made paintings to show women's struggles against men. In her notable work The Horse Fair, we can see the wild horses fighting back in order for them to not be tamed by the men, which is the exact same thing that women are trying to do. As Chadwick mentions " Images of animals frequently symbolized the vices and virtues of women. Constantly exhorted to rise above their 'animal' natures, women were pursued by animal exemplars (192). Bonheur also cross-dressed in order for her to continue with her career. Not many women were able to do this but because of Bonheur's status and the support of her family she was able to do this. This was a form of some progression as well. Bonheur was very successful at her time. As the Guerrilla Girls mention " Her first success came at the age twenty-six, when she won a gold medal at the Salon of 1848. From this she received a commission from the French government ..." (47).
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| The Horse Fair |
Despite their challenges many women tried to survive by paintings to take care of their families once their partner was dead or absent. In the painting Nameless and Friendless, we can assume that the story of this painting is about a widow mother trying to sell her work to take care of her child, whom is accompanying her. Since it was hard for women to survive without their fathers or a husband, many had to find suitors very quick. Chadwick further explains the painting as "The painting is carefully structured to emphasize the commodification of women in the art trade and the isolation and helplessness of the single women in patriachal society (188). Nameless and Friendless is a paining made by Emily Mary Osborn. "The message is clear: Women have no place in the commerce of art; they belong to the world of art as subjects, not makers or purveyors" (Chadwick 188). Women were viewed as a threat to men. Though today we still face the issues that women faced back then , "In 12th-century England, men were embroiderers too, and naturally, they got paid more: women earned only 83 percent of what men earned per day" (Guerrilla Girls 21).
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| Nameless and Friendless |
Links:
^ detailed explanations of the life of women artists mentioned above
This link goes into depth with how most artists mentioned above faced challenges throughout their life time.
Works Cited:
The Guerrilla Girls' beside Companion to the History of Western Art. 1998.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society: Fourth Edition. Thames & Hudson, 2007.
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