There was quite a big gap between men and women in Europe during the middle ages. Men were given the privilege to be more than just an object. They were given the opportunity to think, express their own thoughts and actually have a personality. On the other hand, women were belittled. “Scholars have demonstrated significant differences in men’s and women’s rights to possess an inherent property… and their rights to present evidence or serve as judges or priests” (Chadwick 44). It’s insane to think that women were once not able to have a role in decision making, stating their experiences, or having roles of power such as judges, priests or teachers. Chadwick makes the expected roles of women in Europe during the middle ages quite clear. Chadwick states, “While Women’s social roles remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibility…” (Chadwick 44). In other words, women were ruled by Christian ethics that belittled and limited them to only be mothers of their children and caregivers to their husbands. Women were restricted to only being able to be responsible of their household and family. Women had to abide to the rules that men set for them and that was their only option because they weren’t educated enough to know that they could also have their own thoughts and opinions. “Education was thought to interfere with a woman’s ability to be a good wife and mother. Almost no women were taught how to read and write” (The Guerilla girls 22). Men made sure that women were not educated because if they were, then they would start to form their own opinions, rather than follow those that were already set for them. Most women were illiterate, and it explains why men were able to keep their superiority over them for so long. The roles of obedience and demands of maternal responsibility during the middle ages had an impact on women and their abilities to express their creativity. The norms affected women artists because the limited roles that they were assigned to put them at a disadvantage in their society. Women were absolutely not allowed to be creative or do anything more than take care of their kids and love their husband. “A woman had to obey her husband, and he could beat her if she didn’t” (The Guerilla Girls 22). For example, if a woman’s husband didn’t agree with her being an artist, then she couldn’t be an artist. The roles that women were forced to follow during the Middle Ages restricted them to not be able to express their artistic personality and interests.
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Hildegard of Bingen, Scivais, 1152
A description of Hildegard receiving the word of god |
During the beginning of the Renaissance, women were finally able to be involved in art but only if they were born into a family business of art. “One of the few ways women could work as an artist was to be born into a family of artists that needed assistance in the family workshop.” (The Guerilla Girls 29). Even then, creating their art was likewise something that wasn’t possible. “This whole system was, of course, closed to women. In most cities, women were barred from painters’ guilds or academies. They couldn’t receive commissions or legally own an atelier.” (The Guerilla girls 29). In other words, if a woman was lucky enough to work as an artist, she couldn’t publish her work or show it to the public because of the societal norms that limited her from doing so. Women got to the point where they had to choose between marriages and their art. Compared to the unjust roles women were forced to follow during the middle ages, women’s roles changed throughout the renaissance and drastically changed into the 19th century. Throughout the renaissance, the norms began to slightly change and women were finally allowed to be the ones who give an education instead of barely being able to receive an education. “Nuns were considered particularly proficient teachers of a skill practiced across class lines by both amateurs and professionals” (Chadwick 68). Although only nuns were allowed to be teachers, it was a big step for a woman to be a teacher compared to the middle ages, where a woman could only be educated if she was a nun. Women artists took a positive advantage of the new Renaissance emphasis on virtue and gentility. Careers for women in art were now possible, although they were only limited to the wealthy and those born into an artistic family. “Their careers were made possible by birth into artistic 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). Artists like Sofonisba Anguissola created a horizon of possibilities for women that were artists. “Sofonisba Anguissola’s 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 Italina genre painting” (Chadwick 77). The 19th century marked an evolutionary change for both women and society. The advancement of technology spread a horizon of opportunities for not only women but men as well. People started moving from farms to factories and quickly changed the destiny of their lives. The Industrial revolution during the 18th to 19th century gave women an opportunity to do something more than just follow limited roles. There were new opportunities presented and it allowed women to participate since everything was new for everyone so they couldn’t say women weren’t capable. “Photography was great for women artists: because it was brand new, there was no canon for them to be excluded from. As a result, women helped define the practice.” (The Guerilla girls 47). Photography was one of the many things that allowed women to take part in all the new inventions that were taking place. There was a drastic change in women's roles leading from the middle ages to the beginning of the Renaissance and into the 19th century.
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| Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 1561 |
Work cited:
The Guerrilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (New York, Penguin Books, 1998)
Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art, and Society, 4th or 5th edition, (New York: Thames and Hudson), 2007.
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