Scholars have since rediscovered quite a number of women artists from the Renaissance era.
As Renaissance humanism opened up individual opportunities for education, growth, and achievement, a few women transcended gender role expectations. Some of these women learned to paint in their fathers' workshops and others were noble women whose advantages in life included the ability to learn and practice the arts.
Women artists of the time tended, like their male counterparts, to focus on portraits of individuals, religious themes and still life paintings. A few Flemish and Dutch women became successful, with portraits and still life pictures, but also more family and group scenes than women from Italy portrayed.
Some of these women learned to paint in their fathers' workshops and others were noble women whose advantages in life included the ability to learn and practice the arts. Women artists of the time tended, like their male counterparts, to focus on portraits of individuals, religious themes and still life paintings.
Plain clothing, solemn expressions, and dark backgrounds were typical of van Hemessen’s Renaissance portraits. And while these characteristics may not sound flattering for her sitters, she was nevertheless a prolific portrait painter, even if her ghostly portraits of females often made them far from desirable.
chiaroscuro. . Her paintings of Mary Magdalene and Dahlia are portrayals of bold women, but it is Portia Wounding Her Thigh (1664) that highlights a breakthrough in depicting the courageous modern woman in a calm, virtuous pose.
The Dutch-born Leyster’s brash use of brushstrokes resulted in a style far beyond her time. Her bright, jolly portraits of musicians—usually mid-song—display psychologically charged facial expressions of sitters who were often paired with still life objects, emphasizing the artist’s skill at combining genres.
But a closer look reveals Anguissola to be poking fun at tradition by depicting her master painting the embellished details of her dress—the kind of activity normally delegated to an apprentice—as she herself, the artist, asserts her own and her master’s appearance.
Felice Antonio Casone. struck a medal in her honor that depicts the artist at work, bursting with imaginative ideas, her head covered with wild strands of hair. Her mouth is bound, symbolizing the “mute poetry” of her painting.
Along with her general disregard for gender, van Hemessen is credited as the first artist to paint a self-portrait at an easel, as seen in Self Portrait (1548). The inscription reads: “I Caterina van Hemessen have painted myself / 1548 / Here aged 20.”.
Artemisia Gentil eschi. Judith and Holofernes, ca. 1620. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Born on the cusp of the Baroque era, Gentileschi created highly dramatic, at times blood-ridden scenes that some consider to be more striking than any painted by woman before.
Women artists of the time tended, like their male counterparts, to focus on portraits of individuals, religious themes and still life paintings. A few Flemish and Dutch women became successful, with portraits and still life pictures, but also more family and group scenes than women from Italy portrayed.
Some of these women learned to paint in their fathers' workshops and others were noble women whose advantages in life included the ability to learn and practice the arts.
An engraver of Mantura and Rome, unique among women of the time in being permitted to put her name on her plates. She is sometimes referred to as Diana Mantuana or Matovana.
Marietta Robusti Tintoretto. (1560-1590) La Tintoretta was Venetian and apprenticed to her father, the painter Jacobo Rubusti, known as Tintoretto, who was also a musician. She died in childbirth at the age of 30.
Esther Inglis (originally spelled Langlois) was born to a Huguenot family that had moved to Scotland to escape persecution. She learned calligraphy from her mother and served as an official scribe for her husband (she is sometimes referred to by her married name, Esther Inglis Kello). She used her calligraphy skills to produce miniature books, some of which included a self-portrait.
Giovanna Garzoni. One of the first women to paint still life studies, her paintings were popular. She worked at the court of the Duke of Alcala, the court of the Duke of Savoy and in Florence where members of the Medici family were patrons. She was official court painter for the Grand Duke Ferdinando II.
An Italian sculptor and miniaturist (she painted on fruit pits!) who learned art from Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael's engraver.
There is a large body of scholarship on the many topics related to gender and art in Renaissance Europe ( c . 1400– c . 1600), and much of it relates to women’s production and representation.
Women’s patronage and collecting of art is a major area of research, and scholars have explored how women in the past fashioned their gendered identities via their commissions and collections. Another major field of study is the representation of women.
A collection of twenty-nine essays that examine gender issues in art history from the Early Modern era through the 20th century. Seven focus on Renaissance depictions of women, including two on women’s portraiture as well as studies of representations of the Virgin Mary and mythological women like Venus and Medusa.
One of the earliest anthologies of essays with feminist analysis of women’s representations, this volume contains chapters that explore depictions of women from the ancient through the modern, and serves as an excellent overview of the fundamental questions that early feminist art historians were exploring in their research.
The twenty-three essays in this anthology explore gender issues in women’s representation and artistic production from the Renaissance to the early 21st century.
An anthology of eleven studies of representations of women in the art of northern Europe, organized into the categories of saints as role models; sinners as negative models; and women as nuns, wives, and poets. While several chapters cover material beyond the years 1400–1600, all offer important information and analysis.
Scholars have since rediscovered quite a number of women artists from the Renaissance era. While researchers continue to uncover evidence in archives and primary sources of women artists, identify their works, and document and contextualize their careers, scholars have broadened their scope of inquiry to find further evidence ...