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Women during the Renaissance period
Women during the Renaissance period
Women during the Renaissance period
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Throughout history women have always struggled with equality in the art world. Men took most of the attention appearing as great artists, while women were barley recognized by their great artworks and fought discrimination. As a result, women found a way to show a sign of feminist meanings in artworks. (Feminism & Feminist Art, Art History Archive). An example would be Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith Slaying Holofemes”, a painting made in 1614-20. Artemisia was one of the few successful female artists who got recognition during a period where most weren’t. She was the first women member in Accademia di arte del disegno and had relations with other famous artists such as Cristofano Allori. The aim of her painting was to show the power of women
Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of
Women were not allowed to draw naked people, so instead she painted women in informal environments as seen in “The Chess Game”. Her paintings helped break gender and class barriers and led the way for women to be accepted in society as artists. Historian Whitney Chadwick wrote that she was “placed her within a critical category of her own”. (New World Encyclopaedia, 2012) During the middle ages, the only artists were nuns, and Sofonisba’s newfound success influenced the art of today. Many famous male renaissance artists copied her artwork style, which can be seen in the works of Peter Paul Rubens. Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian credited her work: “…she has not only succeeded in drawing, colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very choice and beautiful works of painting.” (Oxford,
Art could be displayed in many different forms; through photography, zines, poetry, or even a scrapbook. There are many inspirational women artists throughout history, including famous women artists such Artemisia Gentileschi and Georgia O’Keeffe. When searching for famous female artists that stood out to me, I found Frida Kahlo, and Barbara Kruger. Two very contrasting type of artists, though both extremely artistic. Both of these artists are known to be feminists, and displayed their issues through painting and photography. Frida Kahlo and Barbara Kruger’s social and historical significance will be discussed.
Artemisia was born on July 8 of 1652 in Naples, Italy. She has been credited as one of the most famous female artists of the Baroque period. Her father, Orazio Gentileschi, helped her develop her skills as he was an artist as well. In her early life, she lost her mother at the age of twelve years of age, which may have led to her style of artwork. Another possible contributing factor is that she was raped by one of her father’s colleagues named Agastino Tassi. She married a Florence painter named Pietro Antonio di Vicenzo Stiattesi, and moved to Florence with him. Together, they had one female child. She befriended many artists, thinkers, and writers during her time, which included Galileo the astronomer. She was a female artist in a male dominated art world of her time, and succeeded at standing out.
Sofonisba Anguissola was one of the most prominent female painters of the Renaissance. Not only was she one of only four women mentioned by Giorgio Vasari in his famous Lives of the Artists, she also paved the way for later female artists. One may look at Sofonisba’s upbringing and assume that her talents were a result of her wealth and family background. However, if investigated more carefully through both analytical secondary sources and primary sources, it becomes clear that Sofonisba’s painting abilities formed because of her talent, not her wealth. Sofonisba integrated herself into the artistic community and used her second-class status as a female painter to accelerate her career: because she was not able to study as an apprentice in a workshop, her models were usually family members, she pioneered the style of genre painting. Historian Joan Kelly argues in her essay, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” that women did not experience a Renaissance during the actual Renaissance. Sofonisba’s training and connections were extremely helpful to launch her career, refuting Kelly’s argument that women only were taught “charm” during the Renaissance. In addition, Sofonisba married her second husband for love, not for money, debunking Kelly’s argument that marriages during the Renaissance were not based on love. Though Sofonisba’s life as a woman is a unique case in terms of wealth and profession, her success and fame, talent, and marriage (van dyck?) disprove Kelly’s argument that women did not have a Renaissance during the Renaissance.
Across Europe, between 1400 and 1650, there were women present in all major styles of time. They worked along side of great artists and were developing new techniques and styles. Women also played a very important role in the Renaissance. Although not as well documented as their male counterparts, women worked along with the other great masters, were just as innovating, and were key in developing new techniques.
I think that Frida's life greatly influenced her paintings. Most of her paintings have some form of nature or wildlife featured in them. Not only did she display a theme of nature, she also liked to wear indian women clothing. Her style is realistic and lifelike. She has many paintings that fall into the categories of symbolism, surrealism, cubism, modern art, and magical realism. Not only that, a lot of her paintings have herself in them. The color use of Frida Kahlo is very lifelike, she uses natural colors; she doesn't use many bright colors. She uses many primary colors. I have also noticed that a few of her paintings exhibit monkeys. Her paintings remind me of the Mexican culture that I studied in my two year Spanish class. Artemisia’s paintings are very feministic. I believe that Artemisia put her life into her paintings as well. The paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi that I have seen all have women displayed in them; whether they are her, or other women. I would recognize her paintings because almost all of her artwork features a woman reaching out for something. Women in these paintings have a facial expression, that is the same in almost all of her works. Artemisia had very lifelike paintings, they were beautiful but also displayed a tense mood. Her paintings were very striking as were Fridas. Artemisia's paintings are historical and display a tone of hurt. In comparison, both Fridas and Artemisia’s paintings
This investigation will examine a few key works by the anonymous female artist group know in popular culture as the Guerrilla Girls. In this essay it will reveal several prominent themes within the groups works that uncover the racial and gender inequalities in politics, art and pop culture with the use of humor. These collaborating artists work and operate with a variety of mediums, their works display a strong message concerned with activism connected by humor allowing the Guerrilla Girls to communicate and resonate a more powerful message to the viewer. The ways in which this collaborating group has employed many questions and facts against the hierarchy and historical ideologies which have exploited women and their roles in art. This investigation will allow the reader to identify three areas in which the Guerrilla Girls apply a certain forms of humor to transform society’s view on the prominent issue of gender in the art world. These specific ploys that are performed by the Guerrilla Girls are in the way they dress, the masks they wear, pseudonymous names of dead women artists and the witty factual evidence in their works. These are all examples to evoke audiences in challenging not only the art society which dictates the value and worth of women in art but also to confront yourself and your own beliefs in a way that makes audiences rethink these growing issues.
Throughout Chapter 23, the two paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi drew my attentions the most. Both of these paints offer rare occurrences of a woman’s perspective in the 17th century art scene, which are unique and refreshing. In Susannah and the Elders, Gentileschi depicts a scene from a story in the book of Daniel, where the young Susannah is threatened by two elder men while bathing alone in her garden. The subject matter was popular among Roman catholic arts, perhaps because it offered a rare chance to display the female nude. Non-allegorical female nudes were highly stigmatized, subsequently paintings of female nudes were often cloaked in the framework of biblical/ mythological narratives. Following this tradition, female nude figures, including the depiction of Susannah, were often highly idealistic and unrelatable.
The School of Athens (Figure 1) is a fresco painting–a painting done in sections in the fresh plaster–on one of the four walls of the room, the Stanza della Segnatura this room is designated as papal library in the Vatican palace. In this image Raphael represents pictorially the intellectual activity of philosophy. He chooses to represent philosophy by depicting a large number of philosophers in the midst of their activities. The fifty-eight figures who occupy the grandiose architectural space are depicted in the midst of their activity: they are questioning, arguing, demonstrating, reading, and writing. Each figure is characterized so that it is not a mere compositional device, but a shorthand statement of the figure represented (Murray, 62). Raphael rendered the faces of the philosophers from classical statues if known, or else used his own contemporaries for models (Haas, 8)
“Judith Slaying Holofernes” is an oil painting by an Italian female artist of the early Baroque period; Artemisia Gentileschi. This oil painting in particular was completed between 1614 and 1620 (Wikipedia). Gentileschi has a style of painting that often reflects certain events in her past and how it has impacted her thoughts and feelings. “Judith Slaying Holofernes” is a religious-based painting depicting the moment when Judith assassinated general Holofernes with the help of her maidservant. For a woman in the 17th century, she was very successful and was the very first woman to enter the art academy known as “Accademia Delle Arti del Disegno” or “Florence’s Academy of Design”. Today, she is considered to be the first successful professional
Religious Value: This work shows women over powering men, which comes from the “Apocryphal Book of Judith” in the Old Testament of the bible, which Gentileschi mainly based her painting on. The story behind is that Judith, who is known as a beautiful wealthy widow, and then there was Holofernes who was sent to the town of Bethulia because the King had ordered him to punish people in all states to whom those that
Gentileschi was inspired by Caravaggio’s painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes (Waldron). However, Gentileschi added her own twist, making it “one of the bloodiest and most vivid depictions of the scene, surpassing the version by Caravaggio, arch-realist of Baroque Rome, in its immediacy and shocking realism” (Camara). Scholars believe Gentileschi made her mark on the painting by adding a special bracelet, as seen in Appendix C. One of the Cameos on the bracelet depict Artemis, the ancient goddess of both chastity and the hunt (Camara). As mentioned before, Gentileschi’s trauma was unforgivable and unforgettable, and she depicted that in her artwork. In Appendix B, Artemisia depicts two strong, young women working in unison, their sleeves rolled up, their gazes focused, their grips firm while on the other hand the original, Caravaggio's version, has only one female character committing the act while looking timid (Camara).
Rossetti shows us the woman being painted as many different things. Although she is just a painting, the woman symbolizes how the artist views women in real life: as objects. Irony is used when the woman is painted as “a queen”(5). She is put on a pedestal in a position of power, yet she is only described as being “in [an] opal or ruby dress”(5), cementing her role as an ornament. The ruby symbolizes passion and perhaps promiscuity. Opal is a white stone that reflects many colors. White symbolizes purity; while the different colors reflected symbolize how her meaning can change, and how the artist controls her identity and can make her fit any persona he desires. The woman is also depicted as a “nameless girl”(6), indicating her identity is not important to the artist. It also shows that he does not personally know the women he’s painting, but only their looks, affirming that he bases their value off of their appearances. Lastly, the artist portrays a woman as “a saint [and] an angel”(7) and compares her to the “moon”(11), an allusion to Artemis, the goddess of virginity. In this painting, she is established as a pure virgin, which was a requirement of the time period Rossetti lived in. However, because it is one of the fantasies the artist creates, and the poem antagonizes him, this line also expresses the idea that a woman’s purity should not define her. He makes the innocent virgin and the licentious queen the only ways women can be viewed. Yet, they are the same to him. Lacking depth, their physical description is the only thing giving them any meaning. Rossetti describing the portraits conveys the idea that no matter the position in society; or what their actual personalities are like, women are just blank canvases for men to project their fantasies onto. Uninterested in a real person, the artist worships the idea of a
Despite her artistic reputation, her strong personality, and her numerous good relationships, however, Rome was not so lucrative as she hoped. Her style, tone of defiance, and strength relaxed. She painted less intense works; for instance, her second version of Susanna and the Elders (1622).[9] The appreciation of her art was narrowed down to portraits and to her ability with biblical heroines. She did not receive any of the lucrative commissions for altarpieces. The absence of sufficient documentation makes it difficult to follow Artemisia's movements in this period. It is certain that between 1627 and as late as 1630, she moved to Venice, perhaps in search of richer commissions. Evidence for this is that verses and letters were composed in