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| Mary Cassatt, "Mother and Child 1905". Depicts an example of the domestic roles assigned to women as nurturers and caregivers. |
The expected roles of women were similar through time and as a result many women struggled to succeed in the art of painting from the middle ages through the 19th century. The roles attributed to women during the middle ages affected their ability to join the artistic world and succeed in such. They were excluded from highly professional production of art such as painting, and through time they have been restricted to exercise domestic roles at home. Women’s social roles were based on Christian ethics that limited them to a life around obedience, chastity and domestic responsibility (44). Since women were often forced to marriage, many of them opted to join convents and cloisters to could get an education. Despite this, they were still limited to submission to men. “A woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over a man, she should be quiet.” (45) This was a quote by St. Paul from the church, who shows the ideology women faced in such times.
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| Hildegard of Bingen, "Scivias" 1142-52 |
Thus, joining convents were the only scape women had to avoid
marriage and get an education. This was useful for women such as Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote the book of salvation ‘Scivias” 1142-52, which depicted her
as a chosen woman of God. Her writings overcame the ideology that denied women
power and authority and created a female-religious movement to free the church
from corruption. Joining the church was a way for women to surpass the
“assigned” roles and surface to recognition. The convent life allowed women to paint but still emphasized the concepts of belonging to a private space.
By the 13th century, we see an
advancement in women’s participation in the art world, though still not pertained
to painting. Women’s input in the medieval economy through the production of
textiles for professional industries allows them to surface. However, they were
still relegated inferior roles that did not require advanced skills as those
pertained to them in painting. (63).
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| Domenico Ghirlandaio "Giovanna Tornabuoni" 1488 |
During the renaissance ideal, there are still highly skilled
women in convents, but still prevented from participating in governmental patronage
and high-profile art. During this time, women’s roles were still motherhood and
chastity in the private world. It was believed that women should not
participate in public space, because it would diminish respect toward men as
stated in Alberti’s quote (71). By the 15th century, women begin
crafting, they were given the opportunity to participate in a type of art that
would relate to domestic roles imposed on them, such as embroidering and
knitting, since both of these were seen as representatives of “domesticity” and
“femininity” (75). In addition, women were depicted as properties of men and
indicatives of social status. A portrait by Domenico Ghirlandaio, “Giovanna
Tornabuoni née Albizzi" 1488, shows the female painted as honor and property of the painter as he paints his initial on her shoulder and his family emblem. The idea of women being under and in control of men affected women's opportunities to enter the art world and thus compete with the male painters.
Sofonisba Anguissola was the first female painter to obtain fame and thus challenge the views and roles about women. She opened up the doors for women to become painters. However, because she did not have the skilled training that her male competition Titian had, her work was heavily criticized. Anguissola allows us to study the transition of women from times where they were not allowed to participate in painting, to a time where it was becoming socially acceptable as a profession. But it also lets us observe the still present struggle for females to earn credit for their work. Although Sofonisba was given credit for her art, her salary was paid to her father, indicating that females were still under patriarchal control. Women's work was still segregated from that of men, because males believed that women's work did not have the quality or high standards compared to males. In addition, her social status removed her worth as competition fir male painters because of her gender. Therefore, despite the fact that women were still limited and not very recognized, doors were still opening for them.
Through the 16th century, more women artists were emerging, but their roles were still projected in life and in painting. Women were receiving an education outside of the convents, which eliminated the need for women to seclude themselves. However, female painters were experiencing the "public vs. private" space problem dictated by males stating that females were supposed to remain in their private spaces. This was the force that drove female painters such as Elisabetta Sirani, to express their thoughts and sort of fight against this idea perpetuated by men. In her painting, "Portia Wounding Her Thigh" 1664, she depicts Portia wounding herself to prove her strength of character as a woman, and also projects the separation from the female world. Namely, Portia is removing herself from the private space confined to women, she is presented facing the audience, separated from the other women gossiping in the back. Sirani is expressing her thoughts on how women should not be forced to live in the private world and her painting shows the strength women are capable of having.
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| Elisabetta Sirani, "Portia wounding her thigh" 1664. Separation from the "private" world assigned to women and proof of strength. |
Women were also depicted as weak and if they were aggressive this represented a problem because they were supposed to be gentile. Some paintings by male artists such as Orazio Gentileschi, emphasize these ideas. His painting "Judith with Her Maidservant" 1610-12, depicts two women holding the dead body of a man they just murdered. His painting project the women with a confused look, as if they do not know what to do, Judith is seen holding the sword in a poor and weak way. The attention is focused on the male body since it is positioned in the center, there is virtually no blood at all in a scene that is supposed to be aggressive. This demonstrates that men did not think of women as capable of doing such things, the painting looks as a fake scene. In contrast, Artemisia Gentileschi's different version of the painting in 1618, depicts a more realistic view. The women in the picture are focused and the attention is solely on Judith, she is holding the sword firmly and their clothes are stained with blood (110). Comparing these paintings based on the same event, generated by a male and a female allows us to study how gender roles have influenced the views that males have on women and also how females counter attack and provide realistic views showing that women have, indeed, guts!
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| Left: Orazio Gentileschi, "Judith with Her Maidservant" 1610-12. Right: Artemisia Gentileschi, "Judith with her Maidservant" 1618. |
Ultimately, women become professionally involved in the art of painting around the 18th and 19th century, but domestic roles are still embedded on them. They were still able to paint as much as they wanted, as long as they retained the attributes of femininity and domesticity as explained in the video "Where Are The Women?" by Jemima Kirke. Women were portrayed exercising their domestic roles in paintings, drinking tea, taking care of children because it was seen as regular rituals of women (238). Female painters such as Mary Cassatt projected these ideas in her paintings illustrating domestic roles, examples of these paintings are "Mother and Child" from 1905, and "A cup of Tea" 1880. If a woman chose the artistic life first, then she was seen as a destroyer of domestic harmony because a "true woman" was supposed to sustain her roles in the domestic life. The transition from restricting females from the art world to being able to openly exercise painting as an acceptable profession was a big step in the world of artistic women. The domestic roles imposed to women have limited their work to be credited and recognized and several occasions, but it has shaped their lives to help them become even more powerful examples of strength through their art.
Work cited:
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007.
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