ale artistic counterparts (Stokstad 733). Despite the leaps exhibited by Renassaince female artists of this time, this acceptance did not represent equality. Regardless of a select group of radical artists, female sculptors were discouraged and it was apparent that the narrative and portrait paintings of Lavina Fontana were deemed proper examples of female artistic
             expression. Moreover, during this period of artistic discrimination, it is suspicious that the male domination of sculpture paralleled its increased importance and the acceptance of female painting marked its demotion to a liberal form of artistic [removed]Adams, 81-82).
             As time progressed and the Renaissance gave way to the Baroque, Judith Leyster's self portrait and Rachel Ruysch's still life work did not exhibit any change in the artistic freedom of women. In the Baroque period, the representation of women in the work of male artists began to promote the objectification of women as either objects or prostitutes. The work of Titian supported the idea that women belonged to men (Adams 80). This sexist male approach to females was an issue, which would prevail and perhaps still prevails to this day. It would be some time before it would be acceptable for a woman to either paint nude forms or any radical subjects in order to combat such depictions of women.
             As the importance of the artistic academy began to rise in the seventeenth and eighteenth century women were still struggling for equality within the artistic community. In the seventeenth century a women's acceptance into an
             ...