“If it were customary to send daughters to school like sons, and if they were then taught the natural sciences, they would learn as thoroughly and understand the subtleties of all the arts and sciences as well as sons. – Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, 1404
Master of the Bedford trend. Christine and her Son in the Collected Works of Christine de Pisan. 1410 - 1411. http://historymedren.about.com/od/picturegalleries/ig/Christine-de-Pizan/christine_and_son.htm
Women's magic becomes something to fear
Odysseus and Circe http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2069317343/in/pool-626043@N23/
Peter Paul Rubens. Adam and Eve. 1597. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/411886648_ff3e7d3942.jpg
Walt Disney Studios. The Little Mermaid. 1989. http://www.impawards.com/1989/posters/little_mermaid_ver2.jpg
What's a girl to do with all of that "free" time in the home?
Attributed to Amasis Painter. Lekythos, Women Working Wool. c. 56 BC. http://shelton.berkeley.edu/painting/FinalReview/46AmasisLekythos.jpg
Artist unknown. Painter in Her
Studio. Tomb relief from Rome. 2nd Century.
Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerilla Girls' Bedside
Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
The Battle of
Issos or Battle of Alexander and the Persians.
Mosaic copy from Pompeii
of a Hellenistic painting of c. 315 BC.
http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/109images/4thc_hellenistic/alexander_mosaic.jpg
Detail of the Battle of Issus
Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerilla Girls' Bedside
Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
Dry mariner's compass developed after ancient Chinese models
1337 - 1453
Hundred Years'
War between France and England
1340s
Black Death kills about 75 million people worldwide
1378 - 1417
Great Schism divides the Roman Catholic Church into eastern and western traditions
1387 - 1400
Chaucer writes
the Canterbury Tales
1405
Christine de Pizan writes Book of the City of Ladies
Joan of Arc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Joan_
of_arc_miniature_graded.jpg
1429
Joan of Arc defeats the English for France, becomes a scapegoat and is sent back to England by her country where she is burned at the stake
Women Weaving. Boccaccio, Concerning Famous Women. 1402. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Hlg0SppUSc8/SejI7JRpakI/AAAAAAAAADY/
fPkrddRLuSc/s1600-h/medwomenatloom.jpg
By 12th century cities begin to develop bringing growth in trade, travel and education
More people involved in selling goods for profit
Decline in power of convents but increased participation of women in trade guilds
Guilds controlled price of labor, protected the worker and esnured quality for the buyer
Children as young as 12 entered an apprenticeship with guild member to learn trade
Once an apprentice had learned their craft well, they worked as a "journeyman" until they could establish their own business
As the Middle Ages progressed, women were usually allowed to become apprentices and participate in every aspect of guild membership, except becoming a member
Eventually, women will be entirely excluded from guilds,
and their work dismissed as "hobby"
Hildegard of Bingen http://www.pacifica.org.au/files/Hildegarddetail.jpg/image_preview
Because of the structure of commerce, Medieval women's artistic production usually falls into two categories:
Illuminated manuscripts
Embroideries
Most (recognized) medieval women art makers were from the wealthy class and were nuns
Nuns produced illuminated manuscripts
Upper class women who were not nuns produced embroideries
Illuminated manuscript = a hand written and illustrated manuscript from the Western or Islamic traditions, commonly produced on vellum and incorporating gold and silver leaf
Probably Jean Le Noir and/or his daughter Bourgot. Psalter and Hours of Bonne de Luxembourg. Before 1349. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h3/h3_69.86.jpg
Marcia, Self-Portrait from a Mirror. From Boccaccio, Concerning Famous Women. 1402.
Reasons that Medieval women joined convents:
Claricia from the German Psalter. 13th century. http://www.bluffton.edu/womenartists/Claricia00001a.jpg
Wanted to live a religious life
Adult women with pasts to be forgotten
Daughters presented as tithes by parents
Sickly or un-marriageable daughter
Women who wanted to escape the roles of motherhood and marriage - convents provided the only opportunity
for women to live outside the constraints of medieval society
