Watching: BBC 2 The Story of Women in Art - Part 1

This hour-long programme looks at the reason why there are so few women artists whose reputations and work have survived in the last 500 years. Was it lack or talent, or lack of opportunity? Presented by Professor Amanda Vickery, the programme starts out in Florence, in the Vasari Corridor, which houses more than 1700 artists' self portraits - the largest collection in the world - and only 7% of them are of women. 

Vickery starts off by looking at the lives of some of these women, who managed to "make it"  in a society where male dominance was everywhere, and when Virtue, Modesty and Obedience were the characteristics of the ideal woman. 500 years ago, no respectable woman would be seen walking around the Florence piazzas as Vickery is doing, unless she was on her way to Church. Individuality had to be hidden, creativity restricted to the home in lace-making and needlework. But.......there were those who were brave enough to grab any opportunity and they make fascinating watching. I wonder what we could all achieve if we had the determination, the bravery and singlemindedness of the women talked about in this programme.

  

First up is  Properzia d'Rossi, who wanted to be a sculptor and developed her skills working on tiny plum stones. Living in Bologna, which was particularly  helpful to women artists, she found a teacher and eventually (aged 35) and with the support of her husband entered a competition to work on the Bologna Basilica, which she won! Producing the exquisite "Joseph and Potipher's Wife" (right) she showed the extent to which she had mastered the nude, scandalous for a woman at that time. The only female 16th century artist that Vasari wrote about, she nevertheless made powerful enemies and died a pauper only a few years later. So.......
Lesson 1: Be resourceful: Get support; and Don't make powerful enemies.

Today, The Advancing Women Artists Foundation (AWAF) in Florence is trying to find hidden works that might have survived, but are not on display. Many women took refuge in the Church, where they could escape society's rules and be encouraged to practise their art, provided they restricted their subject matter accordingly. They were free to attempt enormous projects, like the Last Supper (below) by a nun, Sister Plautilla Nelli  (1524-88) - an ambitious undertaking for any artist. What's really noticeable about this painting is how feminine some of the features are, like the hands and unbearded faces, showing that Sister Plautilla probably saw more women than men (not surprising really, in a convent.) She is acknowledged as the first female painter of Florence, even although only 3 paintings of hers survive and is best known for her "Lamentation". Nelli was born into a prominent and wealthy family, which encouraged her to learn and was able to place her in an environment that gave her freedom to grow. 
Lesson 2: Getting away from it all helps you concentrate on what  you love to do; and money helps.

The Last Supper by Sister Plautilla Nelli (photo by AWAF)

If the Church wasn't the answer, securing support from the Court was another possibility, but this was far from easy for a woman artist. Sofonisba Anguissola managed it though. born into an aristocratic family in 1532, she  was one of six daughters who was taught from an early age and turned out to be incredibly gifted. Her father bragged about her to Michelangelo, to whom she was introduced in Rome, and from whom she accepted the challenge of drawing a crying child (read about it here). With Michelangelo's praise, it is not surprising she was introduced to the Spanish Court (Phillip II) by the Duke of Alba. She made informal portraiture very popular and pioneered the "conversation piece" like The Chess Game (1555) opp. Even although she was very successful at Court, she was described

The Chess Game, 1555

as a Lady-in-Waiting, not as a court artist. As her reputation grew and her career progressed, her paintings became more formal and her subjects more important. She married twice, first at 38, and was so famous that Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck paid homage to her when she was in her 90's, making several portraits. His notes still survive, with a sketch of Anguissola, in the British Museum. 
Lesson 3: It helps when you are gifted; and when you are encouraged from the start to develop your talent.

The three women above were fortunate in that they did not have to make a living from their art, or support themselves financially. Vickery wonders if it was possible back then for a woman to be successful artist in the marketplace. Lavinia Fontana managed, with a husband and 11 children! As the daughter of a painter, Lavinia grew up with access to her father's studio and was encouraged to become proficient from an early age. She was able to bypass the Guilds, which controlled access to training in those days, and she managed to build up a clientele in the women of Bologna who commissioned her to produce intimate family portraits with secret hidden messages in them.  Her 1584 painting of the Gozzadini Family is said to allude to the virility of the two husbands by including drawings of male arousal on the necklaces worn by their wives. She clearly had a sense of humour; and also a very supportive husband, who subjugated his own work as an artist to act as her manager. She also chose more and more well-heeled godparents for her children as she went along, ensuring for them an easier passage through life.  
Lesson 4: Create a niche market for your work; and develop great contacts.

Life still wasn't easy for women though, as shown by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652). Her father, Orazio,  was also an artist and she sold her first work at 17; but she was raped by her father's colleague and her teacher, Agostino Tassi. Her father demanded that he marry her, he refused, so Orazio had him charged and this led to a long trial, where Tassi tried to destroy her reputation. Although she won the trial, Tassi's punishment was not enforced and Artemesia soon relocated to Florence with her new husband, where she was not afraid to tackle the subject of the "violence of the male gaze" in her epic paintings. Showing bravery and the unity of women in equal measure in her paintings, she sought out patrons and was rewarded with that of Cosimo de Medici. She was no victim, although the violence of the rape appears to have stayed with her. A commission from Philip IV of Spain helped her reputation, which reached Charles I of England. By 1638 she had joined her father in England and her work (below) can be seen at Marlborough House in London (formerly The Queen's House, Greenwich).
Lesson 5: Women can make it in a man's world, with some perseverance and courage.

An Allegory of Peace and the Arts under the English Crown, c.1638

Tastes were changing after the Reformation, though, and the Dutch Republic was in its ascendancy, where the role of women was quite different. Peace, prosperity, moderation, religious piety and discipline were encouraged, starting from within the home. Efficiency was encouraged everywhere, in domestic arrangements, in trade and in the running of the country. Born only a year after Artemesia, Clara Peeters spotlighted the home, celebrating the virtues of well-organised domestic arrangements in still life paintings like "Still Life with Cheese, Almonds and Pretzels" (1615).

Still Life with Cheese, Almonds and Pretzels, Clara Peeters

The growing merchant class wanted to decorate their homes with artwork, and a flourishing market developed.Still life paintings were extremely popular, as were portraits, vanitas paintings and anything depicting the growing trade abroad. 
Lesson 6: It helps to be in the right place at the right time.

One female artist became so popular that she outsold Rembrandt! This woman was most famous as a paper-cutter, and created silhouettes of portraits, flowers and still life scenes  using only paper cuts. Her portrait of William of Orange looks like a pen or pencil sketch but is made entirely of paper cuts. She was Joanna Koerten (1650-1710)
Lesson 7: It helps if you are the best in your field.

Judith Leyster (1609-1660) (below) was an artist who painted the real lives of women, and was so competent that she has been compared to Frans Hals. Her "Proposition" (right) shows a young woman with a much older man leaning over her shoulder and her leaning away from him, and is reminiscent of the way Artemesia Gentileschi portrayed the way women felt endlessly looked at by men. She was a member of a Guild, and achieved great success at a very early age. Yet she gave it all up to marry another painter, completing only two works after her marriage. Lesson 8: Marriage is a serious business. Be sure.

 

The end of the 17th century brought the exploration age to the Netherlands, giving an opportunity for one of the greatest nature painters of all time and the first person to show the natural habitat of the living creatures in such a way that she drew attention to life cycles and natural habitats.  Maria Sybilla Merian,(1647-1717) born in Frankfurt, was encouraged to paint from an early age and had a great interest in nature. She married, had two daughters and left her husband of twenty years to enter a religious retreat in the Netherlands, where she continued drawing the interconnectedness of life in nature and educating her daughters. Maria had kept her independence on marriage, and her own name, supporting herself in her own silk business, where she employed several female staff. One daughter married and moved to Suriname, and in 1699 Maria travelled there to see the habitats of the rain forest for herself and continue her research. Staying two years, she returned to the Netherlands with malaria, but having revolutionised the scientific study of habitats and ecosystems with her finely detailed paintings. Although her engravings were widely published, she was perhaps someone who fell between the labels of scientific illustrator and scientist, and perhaps for this reason, did not achieve the fame that her talent and endeavour deserved. However, she did achieve some success, and published her book of the work done in Surimane in 17o5. One of her paintings can be found in Windsor Castle in the Royal Collection. 
Lesson 9: Keep on learning - there are always things to find out.

I found this programme made me more aware of the fact that many women who lived in the past were trailblazers. They deserve to to rediscovered. Am looking forward to Part 2 and Part 3.  I recommend a book by Germaine Greer that looks at the subject in more depth. 

Greer, Germaine. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work  
                                 (2001),Tauris Park Paperbacks, London