Gender roles took a very big part with the depiction of women during the strong artistic values in the Renaissance. This included social run ins, what women did and were allowed to do, the women who participated in making art, art workshops and institutions, how nuns and religions were involved, the differences between men and women with public art, patronage and the female representation. Women have always been discriminated against in the art world and had very different rules than men.
There were very restrictive forms of gender roles in society, which meant that people imposed limitations on activities people did or participated in. Art theory was gender norm, so it wasn’t frowned upon for women to invest their time in (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). But with all of the discrimination against women, no matter what, artists were not accorded a special status in society (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). The term “artist” was a male-gendered concept. Men were also prescribed different paths in women with work and values (Floodlit, Sheila. Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). That being said, men dominated crafts and trade (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). The emphasis on domesticity confined women across social spectrum to the household. Women were also envisioned primarily as wives regardless of their class and extolled modesty, silence and discretion as virtues (ROI). Most women took the roles as miniaturists, illumination or embroiders (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). But since they were women, it affected them as makers and consumers of art (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “).
Women established their own workshops and and there were even court cases in which women are mentioned as professional craftspeople with work contracts. At least 5/10 women were widows whose husbands once had run an art workshop. They were paved 2/3rd the paying rate of men. Women also accounted for 10/229 sculptors and painters in year 1300 (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). Since women’s roles were different than men’s, they were only allowed to do so much. The greater parts of objects produced by women remained outside of what developed into top genre in the hierarchy of art history categories.
Art theory minimized and put down women’s contributions to their works of art. Women produced commercially successful rarities, which meant that anyone could tell them something to draw (or whatever their medium was), and they would produce exactly what the client asked for. In the seventeenth century, women gained admission to artistic academics like schools and workshops (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Humanists thought that upper class women should be trained like their male counterparts, but lower class women shouldn’t even be considered (ROI).
Women occupied exceptional occupational positions and they learned how to exploit their “exceptional” status to become famous and make money (Floodlit, Sheila. Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Most artists did not sign their artwork, so identifying if it was a woman was very difficult. The vast majority of medieval female artists have disappeared without any record of their names (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). Women were excluded from many different things involving the human allowed to be drawn. They were also excluded from learning the mathematics based on the perspective system, which included the body proportions.
They were excluded from religion, mythology and historical subjects. Portraiture was the most socially acceptable outlet for women. Still life and portraiture were theorized as less mentally challenging than narrative work, since the still life and people were right in front of them it was easier to visualize, rather than coming up with visuals from what people were telling them (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Women also worked with metal trades, textile art (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “) and perspective settings.
They typically decorated ecclesiastical civic homes or domestic interiors in frescos, which were oil paintings on the walls. Women did not actively commission works of their art. They did almost all of it for free since they thought they could not make a living off it, since they were women (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). There was an embroidery contract for Queen Philippe of England in which 42/112 people who worked with that contract were women. People were all hired in big teams or groups (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. ); Only a few female artists artwork has survived. There was Forgot, who was a very popular and famous illumination. She was employed by her father, who helped and guided her to making an illustrated book for the countess of Bar. Mabel of Bury SST. Edmunds worked with embroidery and worked in an English court. Anastasia was famous in the fifteenth century for being a manuscript illumination. Sancta Gadolinium of Spain worked with metal. She was the first woman to work with metal. Sancta created a large silver cross decorated with human figures.
Giovanni Vacation was the “famous woman” because she made illuminations showing women painting frescos and other women in work. Tulsa was a rube atria. This meant that she was the first woman to apply red to highlight certain words, phrases or letters in a manuscript (Beardsley, Sandy. Medieval women artists. “). There were many institutional values women held publicly and at home. In the public, when they were trying to become professionals, big structures inhibited girls from becoming professionals with producing their own artwork because of the male domination.
To have an apprenticeship, you had to work with an established master, which is where the term “old master” came from, but that was impossible for women to get, since they were women. This was also because the workshops were filled with 12-20 men. The guild rules also inhibited many possibilities for only some, not all, irking class women. At home, women started out by beginning work in their family workshop and then gradually moved onto their own work and workspace.
This all being said, women were also closely guarded to protect their family and their honor, so that’s why not a lot of women moved on (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Nuns were very important when it came to art and manuscripts and other works of art. Nuns didn’t create work for devotion but for income too. The nunneries were their workshops (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). Nuns produced vocational objects, meaning that they created their work with religious worship (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “).
Nuns found outlets for professional art, it was only considered as a religious vocation (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Nuns made tapestries, manuscripts, embroidery and drawings (Beardsley, Sandy. “medieval women artists. “). They also made panel painting and portraits of saints. The saints especially appeared in a variety of media (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Public work between men and women made the distinction between the wealthy ND the poor. In communities, woman artists had access to monumental and smaller works in the household.
With the economical spectrum, devotional images were produced, even though women weren’t allowed to produce images like that. The wealthy and elite women and their families remained in family residences, where they bought and did a narrative of the trays and bowls that they wanted to associate with their births and decorated the inside of their homes accordingly with furniture. In the public squares, which was where everything was going on and was the center f the social spectrum most of the time, women spent less time there than men.
Men and women of all social classes both took part in decorating their local churches, or even churches in other cities, and public squares. Women mostly studies Latin, classical literature, philosophy and history in the public squares (Floodlit, Sheila. “Art and Women in the Renaissance. “). Men and women both had very distinct Jobs, values and art styles. They also were very dependent on their own gender and the discrimination that was involved and these topics were very important during the Renaissance.
