Innovation Through
Controversy
The history of the female
artist is one plagued with controversy. Controversy that exists over a
broad range of areas, from the education of the female artist,
encompassing the exposure of the delicate female mind to the horrors of
nudity to, naturally, the exposure of the male art world to the
brilliance of the female mind. From the earliest of times, the male
dominated art world has attempted to cloister the female sex away into
corners where they would be rendered incapable of creating art that
would be equal, if not surpass that of men. I wish to present seven
female artists who have shed the cloaks of anonymity to truly shine as
innovators in the art world.
The first is
Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was a female artist from the middle ages.
She is best known for her work on the illuminated manuscript entitled
Scivias. This is one of the best known pieces to come out of the
middle ages. Bingen was a true visionary, in every sense of the word.
Born in 1098 to wealthy parents, it was as early as the age of 7 that
she began to see mystic images. It was this perhaps that influenced her
parent’s decision to enroll her into the convent at Disibodenberg at
such an early age. At this Benedictine convent she was educated in
scripture, Latin, and music. She took her vows in 1117 and was elected
Abbess in 1136. Through her journeys of spiritual life, Hildegard of
Bingen continued to have holy visions encompassing scientific and
religious knowledge that would influence her later workings. The
Scivias is her account of 35 visions that recounted the history of
salvation. Scivias was only the second piece from that time to
use line and color to portray the supernatural. The illustrations range
from the church, portrayed in human form, or as a city, or as fallen
angels.
Though unquestionably one of
the most remarkable artists of her time, Hildegard of Bingen’s work has
always been regarded with an aura of controversy. Fathers of the church
regarded her, as they did all female mystics, with skepticism. They
tended to emphasize her visions and ignore her education. Some said that
she was illiterate, that, while she recounted her visions in Latin, she
was illiterate. This has been refuted by critics who have professed her
knowledge of such writers as St. Augustine and other contemporary (of
that time) scientific thinkers. Others have said that her work, her
visions included, were nothing but the side-effects of a chronic
migraine. Even with all this controversy, Hildegard of Bingen helped to
change the views of much of the art world as well as the church as a
whole (58-61).
The next female artist who
stood above the crowd in the male dominated art world of the Renaissance
was Sofinisba Anguissola. Anguissola is credited as being the only
female artist of her time with the ability to permeate life into an
image. Her father was Amilcare Anguissola, a nobleman and widower who
decided to train his children in the ways of the arts. Sofinisba studied
under Bernardino Campi and Bernadino Gatti for a total of three years as
opposed to the minimum four years that male artists were forced to spend
apprenticing. Her career was aided by Michelangelo. Sofinisba managed to
attain great recognition through her contacts and those of her father.
One of her most memorable pieces is Bernardino Campi painting
Sofinisba Anguissola. This painting truly denotes her style as an
artist, as well as her vast comprehension of the art world itself. It
suggests that she is aware of both her achievement as a female artist,
but also pays homage to the artistic heritage that exists between a
pupil and their master. This is perhaps the first piece that displays
the dichotomy between female subjectivity and the role of women as
objects of representation (77-79).
On another side of the
Renaissance, were women that received much notoriety for being of the
female sex, amongst these women was Artemisia Gentileschi. Gentileschi
was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, also a well renowned painter of
the period. It was her father that influenced her work. When she was 19
she was raped by her father’s assistant, Tassi also had a great impact
on her life as well as her work. Indeed this added to the depiction of
the strength of the female in her pieces. One of Gentileschi’s most
notorious paintings is Judith Decapitating Holofernes. This is
one of the most graphic paintings of that time. This piece displays both
the cunningness as well as the pure determination of the women as they
fight this man in order to end his existence. The strain on the women’s
faces and bodies as well as the expressions on these visages are
evidence of Gentileschi’s knowledge of the human body. Gentileschi was
also a forbearer of Tenebrism, which she used to make her pieces stand
out, to she used bright colors to draw the viewers attention to the
foreground while using dark colors to detract from any wondering eyes to
the background. Gentileschi was indeed an innovator of her time, both in
subject matter and in style (105-109).
As far as female painters in
Northern Europe go, one of the best examples of an innovator of that
time is Clara Peeters. Peeters is best known for her still-lifes that
were both stylistic as well as realistic. It was her meticulous
attention to form as well as detail that helped to further the practice
of still-life paintings before they were even called that. Along with
the detail in color and form, Peeters also possessed the talent for
drawing a viewer into her painting. She paid such attention to even the
reflections that she has been criticized by some for the representation
of her own visage in the mirrored images. She also held a viewers
attention with her pieces that seem to come off the table toward her
audience. By putting some of the objects in her paintings partially off
the table, she puts it in her audience’s space, therefore taking them
into the world of the painting and making it even more realistic.
Indeed, Peeters was one of the most influential artists of her time
because she practically created a new genre with her still-lifes
(131-132).
In the time of Marie
Antoinette and the French revolution, one of the most significant
artists of the time period was Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun. Vigee-Lebrun is
best known court painter to Marie Antoinette. She was fiercely loyal to
the crown through the openings of the revolution. She and her daughter
fled from France on the same day that Versailles fell to the French
revolution. Even with the controversy that surrounded he political
beliefs, Vigee-Lebrun was one of the two women responsible for
introducing the image of the “natural” into the iconography of the
upper-classes. Vigee-Lebrun introduced the idea of the “natural” woman
by means of painting herself as well as the aristocracy in Neoclassical
Grecian gowns. This portrayed women in their unencumbered ‘natural’
state and introduced a new idea of motherhood (161,165,168-170).
One of the American artists
that dared to challenge the male perceptions was Evelyn Pickering de
Morgan. Her piece Medea fights male perceptions in many ways. In
classical mythology, Medea was the wife of Jason, who, once abandoned by
him, murdered their children as a source of revenge and freedom.
Euripides helped to popularize this myth with his play “Medea,” which
was often used to educate individuals in Greek, as it was a good
representation of the language. Morgan’s depiction of Medea was
controversial because it did not depict the subject as a cruel
temptress, but as a woman highly gifted in the art of sorcery. She
challenged contemporary society by daring to give more character to
formerly the one-dimensional icon (204).
The final artist that I would
like to discuss is Harriet Powers. Powers achieved recognition for her
African-American story quilts, the most famous of these is the one
entitled Pictorial Quilt. Powers was born into slavery in
Georgia. It was the oral tradition of the slaves that inspired her
narratives in three directions, astronomical occurrences, local legends,
and biblical tales. While the quilting was of the American style, she
also used an appliqué technique that can be traced to ancient eastern
and middle-eastern cultures. Along with the Pictorial Quilt came
a detailed description of the scenes that it was depicting that was
written by Powers herself. Economic hardship forced her to sell her
prized quilt, but it was later written that she used the money to buy
freedom for herself as well as her son. She used her art as a means of
escape, in every sense of the word (210-211).
Where many other females had
their artistic fires were stifled, these seven women managed to shine
through the torrents of criticism and controversy. They brought new
ideas and perspectives as well as new techniques and even genres into
the art world.
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