Italian Women Artists
Prior to the fifteenth century, very few works of art were signed and virtually no information on their artists, male or female, was recorded. However, beginning in the early Renaissance, the identities of artists and their stories begin to be preserved. Any study of the art of this period will undoubtedly include the study of the lives and works of the great masters such as Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, but rarely is there any mention of their female contemporaries. While these men were unquestionably some of the greatest artists who ever lived, no study could be complete without an examination of the lives and influence of women during this period. Fourteenth Century Italy was the first area to show a shift in culture from the feudal system of the Middle Ages to an urban economy based on commerce and the accumulation of wealth. This new cultural system was very conducive to the development of wide spread interest in the fine arts. While this increasing interest in the arts and the development of capitalism opened many new possibilities for Renaissance men, it often left women with less power than they had had under the feudal system (Kelly-Gadol, 1974). Beginning in the Middle Ages and continuing thr
Fifteenth century Florence in considered the source of the 'renaissance' that transformed western culture. Even with all of the restrictions on their training and social disapproval of attempting to enter a 'man's world', women artists grew in number through the seventeenth century and beyond. One final note on the drawback of marriage for a woman artist was the lower life expectancy for married women due to death in childbirth. Her sister, Lucia Anguissola (1536-1568), was also an accomplished painter, but she died before she had the chance to develop much of her skill. Sixteenth Century Cremona produced the most talented family of women artists in the Renaissance period. , The Dictionary of Art Volumes 2, 4, 11, 12, 22, 27, 28, 31, & 33, New York: Groves Dictionaries, 1996. Nearly all professions developed guilds, most of which excluded women from membership. Sofonisba Anguissola (1531-1625), being the most successful of the six sisters, is considered one of the first women artists to have had a successful career. Tinagli, Paola, Women in Italian Renaissance Art. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652), the most famous of these daughters, was highly skilled in creating work that displayed human bodies. Cultural restrictions limited women's access to artistic training, especially in the study of the male nude, which was crucial to the popular biblical and historical artwork of the time. New York: Rizzoli International Publishers, 1992.
Common topics in this essay:
Elisabetta Sirani,
Middle Ages,
Plautilla Nelli,
Artemisia Gentileschi,
Jacopo Tintoretto,
,
Sofonisba Anguissola,
Florence Rome,
Lavinia Fontana-had,
Bologna Unfortunately,
women artists,
fifteenth century,
artistic training,
century florence,
fifteenth century florence,
middle ages,
daughters established artists,
italian city-states,
artemisia gentileschi,
century cremona,
daughters established,
sixteenth century,
sixteenth century cremona,
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Acceptance Essays
