Post #2: Gender Roles, Subject and Power

Andrea Oliva Dole 
Prof. Cacoilo
Feb 27, 2020
Art and Women 

Gender Roles, Subject and Power 

The Middle Ages in Europe was a time where women were seen as less than men, and this was decided by the people in power who were rich and the church due to patriarchy because this is what has been taught since the bible was written. The Guerilla This was unfortunate because women's roles in the Middle Ages were to have children, obey their husbands, clean, cook, nurse, become nuns. The roles that were assigned to women were demanding and they were taken for granted. "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" (Chadwick, 45). The place of women in the middle ages was very restrictive to what they could and could not do and in the Middle Ages, most of this was decided by religion and the Christian church in Europe but also by people with high socioeconomic status, women were and still are at a disadvantage with men because of how the "rules" have been written by the patriarchal system. As the Guerilla Girls mention, women were not able to do a lot of things if they were not nuns, they had to be married by 15, could not divorce her husband, was not able to get an education, and they had to obey their husband (Guerilla Girls, 22). If they were to disobey their husbands, they were punished and even killed. Women painted and branched out as a way to express themselves and to show men that they were capable of more. 

Christine De Piz(s)an, The Bricklayers, from The City of Ladies, 1405

In the Middle Ages, Christine de Pizan was a writer and she was breaking boundaries and defying what she was meant to do as a woman during that time. "It was a courageous act for a woman to be an outspoken intellectual in an era when females were thought to be morally inferior and incapable of reason or logic" (Guerrilla Girls, 23). Christine was a feminist, she was doing what she was told not to do, breaking rules, and making a living from her art and a single mom with many kids. In the painting above, we see Christine and other ladies building a wall, writing and being strong. This painting shows that women are capable of much more than what they were told they were. Women are strong enough to build a wall and smart enough to write a book and many other books. The Middle Ages was a horrible and difficult time for women to do what they wanted to do, to express themselves, to have an education, to not have to marry. Christine de Pizan is a pioneer to women to come and will continue to inspire other women. 

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1618

Roles changed throughout the renaissance era and the 19th century. Women were able to express more freely but still with an extensive amount of difficulties that are unimaginable. During the renaissance, women had more freedom in their artwork and how they expressed themselves in the artwork. The Guerilla Girls mention a few things that women were allowed to do in the Renaissance: she could divorce her husband if he was declared incompetent, she could marry a man who raped her, she could teach and attend to a university in Bologna.... (Guerilla Girls, 32). These things that they were able to do are still horrible but they are more "liberal" than what they were able and not able to do in the Middle Ages. Women artists were still facing many challenges such as not being able to receive commissions and the only way to work as an artist was to be born into a family of artists (Guerilla Girls, 29). Women artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi who painted the painting above, Judith Slaying Holofernes it represents justice and truth. Judith is seen as powerful and as someone who's not afraid. "Artemisia went on to live an unusually autonomous life for a woman of her time" (Guerilla Girls, 37). Women artists in the 19th century were not afraid to paint men as weak and to show they were capable of doing great things. 

Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt, 1895

As we moved to the 19th-century things start changing for women, still not too much but women are beginning to do more things in the arts such as sculpting and quilting. Women had fewer limitations than in the middle ages, such as not being able to go out without a man or being nearly impossible to sell their art but they were making incredible art, despite all of the limitations they had. The picture of the quilt above was made by Harriet Powers, a woman who was born into slavery and freed in the 1900s created art through quilts and in the quilt we can see that she has events and that was her way of telling stories. "I have such intense pride of sex that the triumphs of women in art, literature, oratory, science or song rouse my enthusiasm as nothing else can -Susan B. Anthony" (Guerilla Girls, 47).  Different times were significantly different from each other, from girls having to be married by the age of five to not being able to divorce their husbands to not able to go outside without being accompanied by a man, these were all difficult times but one thing there is in common is that the with the freedom acquire throughout the years, the value of art made by men was worth more than women's and that still happens today.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, And Society. Thames & Hudson, 2007.

The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/christine_de_pisan