The Ever Changing Struggle

In the Middle Ages, women were expected to follow the role that had been given to them by their family and society. Women were supposed to follow the role of being subservient to men and to be the nurturer of the family. This meant that they would stay home taking care of their kids, and that’s as far as the responsibilities for women went. During the Middle Ages women were however also expected to be educated on top of their other duties. However, although they had the same level of knowledge as men, women were never supposed to have authority over males as stated according to Guerilla Girls “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But suffer not women to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (Guerilla Girls, 19). Even while being writers, artists and merchants, women still had the role of being subservient to men during the Middle Ages.

            Women were kept oppressed in part by the obligations that were set for them by the church. Women during the Middle Ages were supposed to represent humility and obedience as deemed by the church. This meant that women would have a submissive role to men in art during the Middle Ages. The theme for art during this era was religion, whether that be painting, religious objects, manuscripts etc.… Women were not part of religious paintings in the Middle Ages, art was always dominated by males. Although shunned through representation, women were still played integral part of art history during this time by creating something as grand as the Bayeux Tapestry in 1086. While it is not known for certain that a woman made the tapestry, it is widely accepted that a woman made it. Many women artists were forgotten in time as they were never recognized for their work, but women artists began to be more and more common as the Middle Ages progressed. These women would change the way a woman is represented in the art world.

Bayeux Tapestry in 1086

            During the Renaissance era women started to have a bigger impact on art but only if they were noble. During this time, art was less influenced by religion as many of the thinking’s of religion were being challenged by the common people. This allowed for art to be much more expressive than it previously was and therefore allowed for women to express themselves further through art. Being from a wealthy background was very important during this time, to where if you weren’t, you may not have had the means to study art. Women artists who were born into a noble background, had the resources to go out and study art. Even so, women still faced challenges in trying to make money from their art. Guerilla Girls speaks on how to become an artist in the Renaissance by saying: “They had to go through an apprenticeship with another, established artist, then join a guild… If they were very successful and won commissions from the richest… they might even, make a claim to nobility… This whole system was, of course, closed to women” (Guerilla Girls, 29). Women were still at a comparative disadvantage in comparison to males due to the systematic oppression of women and all that they resemble. However, things were slightly different for women who were born into nobility.

Sofonisba Anguissolas, Self Portraits, 1561

Artist such as Sofonisba Anguissola began paving the way for women during the Renaissance Period. Anguissola was born into a wealthy family, and her father believed that women should be educated. This allowed her to study art and literature in which her father would even send one of her paintings to Michelangelo. Anguissolas paintings began portraying women in a different light than previous artists, she portrayed women as powerful. Her famous self-portrait displays her as looking directly into the painting which in turn gives off the feeling that women are powerful. She also paints herself painting, trying to prove that women are more than just spectacles of male gaze but, that women are able of being artists. Her talents would lead her to paint the Queen of Austria, paving a path for future female artists. Chadwick states that: “Sofonisba Anguissolas example opened up the possibility of painting to women as a socially acceptable profession, while her work established new conventions for self-portraiture by women and for Italian genre” (Chadwick, 77). She would begin showing people that women are more than capable of being artists though her art.

Queen of Austria painted by Sofonisba Anguissolas

            The 19^th century saw a vast culture shift in society due to the Industrial Revolution and the American Civil War. The Industrial revolution brought with it new technologies that made it easier for women to get supplies for their art. The Industrial Revolution however also brought with it photography which threatened to take out painting entirely. This also gave women a chance as for photography, there weren’t many barriers holding them back from getting into it. Women would continue to push photography forward throughout the 19^th century and still to to this day. While photography was an up and coming art medium that women could get into, actual paintings became even harder for women to make a name for themselves. More than ever “male painters began to obsess over and objectifying the naked female body as never before” (Guerilla Girls,47). Women artists had to fight to be taken seriously in this day and age as the topic of art became centered around the naked female body more and more.

The Death of Cleopatra, Edmonia Lewis

            Women such as Edmonia Lewis would use her disadvantages of being a female to her advantage. Lewis would use her background of being an African American woman to make money. She would carve marble sculptures and people would pay to see her make those sculptures in her studio. This would lead to her making sculptures and sending them out to people with an invoice, to people who had not agreed to buy her sculpture. From this she was able to make a living for herself and prove that women could do what had been previously seen as a man’s art form: sculpting. Women had to constantly prove to the world that they were capable of doing what a man could do during the 19^th century and Lewis was one of the many female artists throughout history that would continuously push the boundaries of what was socially acceptable for women to do. All in all, through the evolution of art through time, women were able to persevere through the glass ceiling that was put against them through the form of art and, by doing so, they embraced the true nature of what a women is: powerful.

Works Cited

.The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion of the History of Western Art, Penguin Books, 1998.

.Chadwick, Whitney. “Women, Art, And Society,” Fourth Edition. World of Art. 2007.