Elisabetta Sirani And Anguissola

Throughout history female figures have played an important role as subject matter. The female figure is very subjective, as peered through the different lenses of varying cultures. The status and functions of women in these cultures are the primary factors that influence how they are portrayed in art of a certain culture. However, the female figure itself through its natural and inherent iconography represents fertility and the importance of women in society. This natural iconography creates certain parallels in content between all works that use the female figure as subject matter. This varying subjectivity of a female’s status based on an artist’s culture will create differences in content and themes; however some aspects remain similar

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” -Oscar Wilde. Women are wild, sensitive, magnificent, mysterious, and above all: individual. Art’s many different medias allowed artist throughout the ages to capture women at both their strongest and most vulnerable points. It has the power to capture a woman: as a naïve, young girl clutching her brother as they are painted into a lasting portrait, a golden statue of an angel sent down to Earth to help a saved man take his first steps into an eternal life with God, to the powerful goddess, Artemis, transforming a hunter into a deer and having his hunting dogs tragically attack him. The six pieces of art chosen express the individuality of each women who has walked, walks, and will walk the earth.

Throughout history people can see many of the developments and differences among cultures, through the artworks that were produced. This essay will carefully analyze, evaluate, and compare four distinct works, from different time periods and cultures. The works to be compared are: The Woman from Willendorf, The Bust of Nefertiti, Figure of A Woman, and Young Flavian Woman. Throughout this paper the style and function of each individual work will be explored, along with the cultural ideas presented in each piece.

The passage that I read is about renowned female Baroque (and Renaissance) painter Artemisia Gentileschi.She was taught by her father at a young age. However, as a teenager, Gentileschi was sexually assaulted by another artist and friend of her neighbor, Agostino Tassi. Later on in her life, she returned to painting and married painter Pietro Stiattesi. They eventually separated, and Artemisia lived a life of self-reliance and independence. Her art emphasized classical and biblical themes, but also focused on stories, especially of women. She also used female characters as metaphors to convey themes like oppression, suffering, injustice, and triumphs of women. Gentileschi gained popularity soonafter, and became the first woman to be admitted

Many male artists during the Baroque Period were tremendously successful having received many commissions from a multitude of rich patrons. Their equally talented female counterparts were not as accepted in the male dominated society. Although equally talented, the patriarchal mentality of the times ensured a difficult road for some in the artistic world. The more prominent female artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana and Orsola Maddalena Caccia had the advantage of having fathers who were prodigious artists themselves and provided the training required for them to flourish as great virtuosos in their own right. I will show and explain some of their known works.

Janine Antoni is a contemporary artist with an important message. She was born in the Bahamas in 1964 and expresses herself through works in performance art, sculpture, and photography (“Janine Antoni”, 2016, par. 1). The main focus of her work is to create controversy, conversation and to build awareness. She is most notable for her different choices in medium which assists her in getting her message across. Antoni’s medium of choice often involves using her body to create her art; often utilizing her mouth, hair, and eyelashes to create her unique works of art. By making her piece entitled “Gnaw” orally, she made the creation process “both intimate and destructive,”to quote Janine Antoni, herself (Steadman, 2015, par. 5). The process in which one creates an art piece is as important as the finished artwork. Janine’s process oriented work is as Antoni said, a “new way to intensely commemorate the constricted role of women in society.” (Steadman, 2015, par. 5). Janine Antoni is constantly challenging social norms and expressing her opinion on the restraints and ideals of women in society using her art.

When one thinks of influential Western artists, images of the works of Michelangelo or Caravaggio might be evoked. In fact, most paintings one may think of would have been completed by men. Most of the art movements in the western world were in fact lead and contributed to by men, especially in the Renaissance and Baroque period. Even though art as a profession in these time periods was dominated by male artists, female artists did, in fact, make significant contributions to their respective art movements. This paper will discuss and compare the lives and works of two Italian painters: Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance period and Artemisia Gentileschi of the Baroque period.

First, almost all the present figures are philosophers, the elite, in other words. Moreover, remarkable figures like Plato and Aristotle were placed exactly in the center of the fresco, matching the vanishing point and giving a sense of gravity to their importance more than the rest. Second, women are not, if any, included in this state gathering, a masculine notion that would last for centuries. Women’s absence does not merely happen in state policy making, but also happens in things related to knowledge and art. It should be

With so much history of the feminist equality, believe it or not, women have been told that they don’t have the knowledge or skill to become women artists. It started with the time period when art was

Known as one of the most famous female artists during the Baroque period, Artemisia Gentileschi's artworks showcase powerful emotions and drama. She was the first woman to gain acceptance into the Academy of the Arts of Drawing. In her later years, she was supported by Michelangelo the Younger and the Grand Duke Cosimo Medici. Artemisia remains an inspiration because she jumped several hurdles to gain recognition in a profession that was dominantly male at the time.

In the essay Stilled Lives: Self-Portraiture and Self-Reflection in Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Still-Life Painting Celeste Brusati organizes in a way that shows three different types of still lifes and how they can help identify an artist. She starts by showing the lesser of the extreme of artists who are impersonal in their works, and then goes on to show examples of those who are much more personal and more self representative in their works. What Brusati argues is that still life paintings perpetuate the social identity of the artist, and how a portrait can be a pictorial representation of them.

Today many strong willed female figures still fight to try to have the recognition they deserve. In the art world,

While one painting shows the artist intersectional-feminist history, the other shows the artist musings and inspiration, but what is unique and special about these works still being displayed in an all feminine gallery is that these experiences and inspirations are shown as a part of their unique worldview. The two works may not require the context, but they are greatly enhanced as a part of the artist life because of the

She has been through a number of abortions, miscarriages and surgeries (Herrera and Kettenmann). Furthermore, her husband was not loyal to her and betrayed her that affected her in a huge way. Her paintings seem to be extreme. This painting shows some very deep emotions hidden inside it. There a couple of modes of analysis that will be discussed about this painting; formal analysis, biographical analysis and

1. According to Gerrard, the fundamental problem for female artists during the Renaissance era is the dichotomy between her as the artist and her as the overused object for the male artist. There was this notion during this period that women were almost exclusively in the object position. In addition, it was difficult for the female artist to navigate how she becomes identified as an artist. Since women were not thought of as artists there was a patriarchal balancing act of placing female artists in the field. Women artists could be argued as an exception to the rule, “not woman,” or “only a woman” by downplaying their artistic ability. Since women were commonly depicted in art idealized, feminine, and at times eroticized, a female artist needed