Medieval period File:Odo bayeux tapestry.png|A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting
Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, rallying Duke
William's troops during the
Battle of Hastings in 1066 File:Herrad von landsberg.jpg|
Herrad of Landsberg,
Self portrait from
Hortus deliciarum, c. 1180 File:Hildegard von Bingen Liber Divinorum Operum.jpg|
Hildegard of Bingen, "Universal Man" illumination from Hildegard's
Liber Divinorum Operum, 1165 File:Meister des Hildegardis-Codex 004.jpg|
Hildegard von Bingen,
Motherhood from the Spirit and the Water, 1165, from
Liber divinorum operum, Benediktinerinnenabtei Sankt Hildegard, Eibingen (bei Rüdesheim) Artists from the
Medieval period include
Claricia,
Diemudus,
Ende,
Guda,
Herrade of Landsberg and
Hildegard of Bingen. In the early medieval period, women often worked alongside men. Manuscript illuminations, embroideries, and carved capitals from the period clearly demonstrate examples of women at work in these arts. Documents show that they also were brewers, butchers, wool merchants, and iron mongers. Artists of the time period, including women, were from a small subset of society whose status allowed them freedom from these more strenuous types of work. Women artists often were of two literate classes, either wealthy aristocratic women or nuns. Women in the former category often created embroideries and textiles; those in the later category often produced illuminations. There were a number of embroidery workshops in England at the time, particularly at Canterbury and Winchester;
Opus Anglicanum or English embroidery was already famous across Europe – a 13th-century papal inventory counted over two hundred pieces. It is presumed that women were almost entirely responsible for this production.
The Bayeux Tapestry One of the most famous embroideries (it is not a tapestry) of the medieval period is the
Bayeux Tapestry, which was embroidered with
wool on nine linen panels and is 230 feet long. Its c. seventy scenes narrate the
Battle of Hastings and the
Norman Conquest of England. The Bayeux Tapestry may have been created in either a commercial workshop by a royal or an aristocratic lady and her retinue, or in a workshop in a nunnery. Sylvette Lemagnen, conservator of the tapestry, in her 2005 book
La Tapisserie de Bayeux states:
The High Middle Ages In the 14th century, a royal workshop is documented, based at the
Tower of London, and there may have been other earlier arrangements. Manuscript illumination affords us many of the named artists of the Medieval Period including
Ende, a 10th-century Spanish nun;
Guda, a 12th-century German nun; and
Claricia, a 12th-century laywoman in a Bavarian scriptorium. These women, and many more unnamed illuminators, benefited from the nature of convents as the major loci of learning for women in the period and the most tenable option for intellectuals among them. In many parts of Europe, with the
Gregorian Reforms of the 11th century and the rise in feudalism, women faced many strictures that they did not face in the early medieval period. With these societal changes, the status of the convent changed. In the British Isles, the Norman Conquest marked the beginning of the gradual decline of the convent as a seat of learning and a place where women could gain power. Convents were made subsidiary to male abbots, rather than being headed by an abbess, as they had been previously. In pagan
Scandinavia (in Sweden) the only historically confirmed female
runemaster,
Gunnborga, worked in the 11th century.
Scivias I.6: The Choirs of Angels. From the Rupertsberg manuscript, fol. 38r. In Germany, however, under the
Ottonian dynasty, convents retained their position as institutions of learning. This might be partially because convents were often headed and populated by unmarried women from royal and aristocratic families. Therefore, the greatest late medieval period work by women originates in Germany, as exemplified by that of
Herrade of Landsberg and
Hildegard of Bingen.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) is a particularly fine example of a German medieval intellectual and artist. She wrote
The Divine Works of a Simple Man,
The Meritorious Life, sixty-five hymns, a miracle play, and a long treatise of nine books on the different natures of trees, plants, animals, birds, fish, minerals, and metals. From an early age, she claimed to have visions. When the Papacy supported these claims by the headmistress, her position as an important intellectual was galvanized. The visions became part of one of her seminal works in 1142,
Scivias (Know the Ways of the Lord), which consists of thirty-five visions relating and illustrating the history of salvation. The illustrations in the
Scivias, as exemplified in the first illustration, depict Hildegard experiencing visions while seated in the monastery at
Bingen. They differ greatly from others created in Germany during the same period, as they are characterized by bright colours, emphasis on line, and simplified forms. While Hildegard likely did not pen the images, their idiosyncratic nature leads one to believe they were created under her close supervision. The 12th century saw the rise of the city in Europe, along with the rise in trade, travel, and universities. These changes in society also engendered changes in the lives of women. Women were allowed to head their husbands' businesses if they were widowed. The
Wife of Bath in
Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales is one such case. During this time, women also were allowed to be part of some artisan
guilds. Guild records show that women were particularly active in the textile industries in Flanders and Northern France. Medieval manuscripts have many marginalia depicting women with spindles. In England, women were responsible for creating
Opus Anglicanum, or rich embroideries for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothes and various types of hangings. Women also became more active in illumination. A number of women likely worked alongside their husbands or fathers, including the daughter of
Maître Honoré and the daughter of
Jean le Noir. By the 13th century most
illuminated manuscripts were being produced by commercial workshops, and by the end of the Middle Ages, when production of manuscripts had become an important industry in certain centres, women seem to have represented a majority of the artists and scribes employed, especially in Paris. The movement to
printing, and book illustration to the
printmaking techniques of
woodcut and
engraving, where women seem to have been little involved, represented a setback to the progress of women artists. Meanwhile,
Jefimija (1349–1405) a
Serbian, noblewoman, widow and
orthodox nun became known not only as a poet who wrote a lament for her dead son, Uglješa, but also as a skilled needlewoman and engraver. Her lament for her beloved son which immortalized the sorrow of all mothers mourning their deceased children, was carved on the back of the
diptych, (two-panelled icon representing a Virgin and Child) which Teodosije, Bishop of
Serres, had presented as a gift to the infant Uglješa at his baptism. The piece of art, already valuable because of the gold, precious stones, and beautiful carving on its wooden panels, became priceless after Jefemija's lament was engraved on its back. In 15th-century
Venice the daughter of the glass artist, Angelo Barovièr, was known to have been the artist behind a particular glass design from Venetian
Murano. She was
Marietta Barovier, a Venetian
glass artist. Of fourteen specialist glass painters (
pictori) documented between 1443 and 1516, she and
Elena de Laudo were the only women. Seemingly several centuries had to elapse before women were able to pursue the medium in
Glass art.
Renaissance ,
Portrait of Elizabeth I. c. 1565 File:Catherinebolognaart.jpg |alt=Art work of St. Catherine of Bologna, the patron Saint of artists.|
St. Catherine of Bologna (Caterina dei Vigri),
(Maria und das Jesuskind mit Frucht), c. 1440s. She is the patroness saint of artists. Image:Hemessen-Selbstbildnis.jpg|
Caterina van Hemessen,
Self-portrait 1548 File:Self-portrait at the Easel Painting a Devotional Panel by Sofonisba Anguissola.jpg|alt=a portrait of a woman at an easel, painting a scene of a mother and child.|
Sofonisba Anguissola,
Self-Portrait, 1554 Image:Esther Inglis Mrs Kello 1595.jpg|
Esther Inglis,
Portrait, 1595 Image:Judith with the head of Holofernes.jpg|
Fede Galizia,
Judith with the Head of Holofernes, 1596. The figure of Judith is believed to be a self-portrait. Image:LFontana.jpg|
Lavinia Fontana,
Minerva Dressing, 1613,
Galleria Borghese, Rome Artists from the
Renaissance era include
Sofonisba Anguissola,
Lucia Anguissola,
Lavinia Fontana,
Fede Galizia,
Diana Scultori Ghisi,
Caterina van Hemessen,
Esther Inglis,
Barbara Longhi,
Maria Ormani,
Marietta Robusti (daughter of Tintoretto),
Properzia de' Rossi,
Levina Teerlinc,
Mayken Verhulst, and
St. Catherine of Bologna (Caterina dei Vigri). ,
Doctor of Cremona, 1560, Museo del Prado,
Madrid This is the first period in Western history in which a number of secular female artists gained international reputations. The rise in women artists during this period may be attributed to major cultural shifts. One such shift came from the
Counter-Reformation reacting against
Protestantism and giving rise to a move toward
humanism, a philosophy affirming the dignity of all people, that became central to Renaissance thinking and helped raise the status of women. The work went on exhibition at the
Santa Maria Novella Museum in Florence in October 2019. As of early 2020, AWA has sponsored the restoration of 67 works by female artists, unearthed in Florentine collections.
Artemisia Gentileschi,
Judith Leyster,
Maria Sibylla Merian,
Louise Moillon,
Josefa de Ayala better known as Josefa de Óbidos,
Maria van Oosterwijk,
Magdalena de Passe,
Clara Peeters, Maria Virginia Borghese (daughter of art collector
Olimpia Aldobrandini),
Luisa Roldán known as La Roldana,
Rachel Ruysch,
Maria Theresa van Thielen,
Anna Maria van Thielen,
Françoise-Catherina van Thielen and
Elisabetta Sirani. As in the Renaissance Period, many women among the Baroque artists came from artist families.
Artemisia Gentileschi is an example of this. She was trained by her father,
Orazio Gentileschi, and she worked alongside him on many of his commissions.
Luisa Roldán was trained in her father's (
Pedro Roldán) sculpture workshop. ,
St. Michael Overwhelming the Demon, 1692,
Royal Collections Gallery, Madrid Women artists in this period began to change the way women were depicted in art. Many of the women working as artists in the Baroque era were not able to train from nude models, who were always male, but they were very familiar with the female body. Women such as
Elisabetta Sirani created images of women as conscious beings rather than detached muses. One of the best examples of this novel expression is in Artemisia Gentileschi's
Judith beheading Holofernes, in which Judith is depicted as a strong woman determining and avenging her own destiny. Letizia Treves, curator at London's
National Gallery 2020 Gentileschi show has commented: "you can't see it without thinking of
Tassi raping Gentileschi." The elements of the picture are "balanced with such skill they speak of a painter who prioritised virtuosity over passion." She was not born into a traditional artistic family, but her determination to become a painter was supported by her family, and she studied painting between the ages of 11 and 16. Her work showed vigorous and exuberant techniques not seen in many female artists at the time, and was seen as masculine, like that of
Artemisia Gentileschi. After her death, Leyster's work was overlooked by many for more than two centuries before she was introduced into historical studies.
Maria Cosway,
Marguerite Gérard,
Angelica Kauffman,
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard,
Giulia Lama,
Mary Moser,
Ulrika Pasch,
Adèle Romany,
Anna Dorothea Therbusch,
Anne Vallayer-Coster,
Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun,
Marie-Guillemine Benoist and
Anna Rajecka, also known as Madame Gault de Saint-Germain. In many countries of Europe, the Academies were the arbiters of style. The Academies also were responsible for training artists, exhibiting artwork, and, inadvertently or not, promoting the sale of art. Most Academies were not open to women. In France, for example, the powerful Academy in Paris had 450 members between the 17th century and the French Revolution, and only fifteen were women. Of those, most were daughters or wives of members. In the late 18th century, the French Academy resolved not to admit any women at all. The pinnacle of painting during the period was
history painting, especially large scale compositions with groups of figures depicting historical or mythical situations. In preparation to create such paintings, artists studied casts of antique sculptures and drew from male nudes. Women had limited, or no access to this Academic learning, and as such there are no extant large-scale history paintings by women from this period. Some women made their name in other genres such as portraiture.
Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun used her experience in portraiture to create an allegorical scene,
Peace Bringing Back Plenty, which she classified as a history painting and used as her grounds for admittance into the Academy. After the display of her work, it was demanded that she attend formal classes, or lose her license to paint. She became a court favourite, and a celebrity, who painted over forty self-portraits, which she was able to sell. In England, two women,
Angelica Kauffman and
Mary Moser, were founding members of the
Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1768. Kauffmann helped
Maria Cosway enter the Academy. Although Cosway went on to gain success as a painter of mythological scenes, both women remained in a somewhat ambivalent position at the Royal Academy, as evidenced by the group portrait of
The Academicians of the Royal Academy by Johan Zoffany now in The
Royal Collection. In it, only the men of the Academy are assembled in a large artist studio, together with nude male models. For reasons of decorum given the nude models, the two women are not shown as present, but as portraits on the wall instead. The emphasis in
Academic art on studies of the nude during training remained a considerable barrier for women studying art until the 20th century, both in terms of actual access to the classes and in terms of family and social attitudes to middle-class women becoming artists. After these three, no woman became a full member of the Academy until
Laura Knight in 1936, and women were not admitted to the Academy's schools until 1861. By the late 18th century, there were important steps forward for artists who were women. In Paris, the Salon, the exhibition of work founded by the Academy, became open to non-Academic painters in 1791, allowing women to showcase their work in the prestigious annual exhibition. Additionally, women were more frequently being accepted as students by famous artists such as
Jacques-Louis David and
Jean-Baptiste Greuze. ==19th century==