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• 1 media/anguissola_selfportraitspinnet_1561.jpg media/anguissola_selfportraitspinnet_1561.jpg media/anguissola_selfportraitspinnet_1561.jpg 2020-10-14T21:52:55+00:00 A Turning Point for Women 16 by Aaron Wank image_header 2020-10-19T16:04:58+00:00

  
  A Turning Point for Women

  It is understood that the stories we hear and histories we learn about in school are constructed by a very male narrative. The principles of women being known as the “mother,” “daughter,” “sister,” and nothing more are so deeply ingrained in our culture that it is hard to even notice it. If we take a step back, we will begin to see that there was a large period in human history where women weren’t seen in this light. Research suggests that women had been understood as being incredibly key members to their society, even using a kind of womanly “magic” to miraculously bleed and bear children. However, much of that changed with the arrival of property and female monogamy. Being the ones to work the fields, men took charge of their property, passing their land down to their own son. Monogamy for women was introduced in order to make sure the property stays in the male’s bloodline, causing the women to be restricted and controlled in basically all aspects of her life. In many respects, we can see this transition through art. Interestingly, human depiction was rare within art during prehistoric times, yet archaeologists have discovered many statues depicting female figures, in particular the Woman of Willendorf, 25,000-20,000 BCE, which demonstrates the importance of women within prehistoric tribes. As we go later, the fewer women we see. During the classical Greek world, the male body became a measurement of “perfection.” In the Renaissance, we do see a plethora of female figures depicted, but most seemingly in submissive positions. Female artists at the time had been widely restricted within the art world through what they could feasibly learn and how they were supposed to act, as explored further in Linda Nochlin’s essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists. These restrictions are explored both visually and metaphorically within much of Sofonisba Anguissola’s works, notably her Self-Portrait Making Music with a Maidservant, 1561.
     
  When looking at the prehistoric period, many assume that men were the artists of the age. In reality, there is little to no evidence backing that theory up other than some preconceived notion that men did this work. In fact there is more evidence denying this notion. In her article, Were the First Artists Mostly Women?, Hughes explores how, on many cave paintings of the time there were tracings of hands depicted. She writes that “John Manning, a British biologist… found that men and women differ in the relative lengths of their fingers: Women tend to have ring and index fingers of about the same length, whereas men's ring fingers tend to be longer than their index fingers”. She examines various cave paintings and, in fact, discovers that the hands shown belonged to women. With no evidence to tell us the gender of the artist who made the Woman of Willendorf, we cannot assume anything about their gender. Upon first glance we see what seems to be a female figure with their face covered. To create this intricate piece, the artist used a natural rock surface and painted it with charcoal and natural pigments. The traditional narrative of this piece is being some sort of fertility goddess, yet a new narrative arises when one looks at more context clues. Historians discovered remnants of red pigment that would suggest the figure would have been covered top to bottom with this pigment. This could very well refer to a short life expectancy of prehistoric women and, in turn, childbirth. Also, the red pigment could reference a woman’s monthly period cycle and how integral and truly amazing that would seem to a male in the tribe, who sees blood causing pain and death everyday during the hunt, even considering a woman’s blood it to be magic. Archeologists discovered more statues of women with features very similar to this one, yet there was no evidence of male figures. This would suggest that women were either deeply valued within the tribe, or they could have been leaders in their own right.
  
  A sense of importance and leadership completely flipped on its head with the arrival of privately owned property. This concept has negatively affected the amount of freedom women are given with regards to sexuality and economy, even to the extent that they become part of the man’s property. This is expressed deeply in art created by women. In her essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Linda Nochlin answers the title question by exploring, “The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education”. These “institutions” that Nochlin refers to stem from this key transition which harkened the beginning of institutionalized inequality based on gender. Nochlin goes on to explore how art was used to domesticate women stating, “I cite the contemptuous remark of a bright young doctor about his wife and her friends ‘dabbling in the arts’: ‘Well, at least it keeps them out of trouble’”. This remark not only emphasizes the fact that, for women, the arts was supposed to be seen as a hobby where it was seen as a profession for men, but also keeps women from doing anything they shouldn’t be doing. Daughters, like wives, are connected in this idea of “domestication.” Admittedly, there have been various successful women who “have achieved preeminence,” yet Nochlin adds that the majority of these women “were daughters of artist fathers”. Their reputation would commonly be thanks to their father, as opposed to making a name for themselves on their own behalf, once again, stemming from the institutionalized notions of gender subordinance. As we get further along in history, women will deconstruct institutionalized gender subordinance to create their own footing on the world as we know it.
  
  The Renaissance was meant to serve as a “rebirth” of the classical culture of the past. For women, however, it was simply another period of standing on the sidelines of history. Sofonisba Anguissola, for example, eventually made a name for herself as a court painter for the successive Spanish Queens, Isabel of Valios and Anne of Austria. However, due to social ideals and implications, much of her success derived from the men in her life. Her father, Amilcare Anguissola, arranged for her to be not only evaluated by Michaelangelo, but also taught under Bernardo Campi. Her Self-Portrait Making Music with a Maidservant, in 1561, serves as a gateway into Anguissola’s world. In this painting, she sits at the spinet, gazing gently just above the viewer’s eyeline. Behind her, we see her maidservant, staring directly at us in a threatening manner. She presents “herself as a modest young woman of refinement and culture”. The spinet is depicted as a “lady’s instrument” to which the woman would not be as exposed to the audience as if she played something more “masculine.” Her attire is “refined,” showing no promiscuity at all. The Maidservant behind her would’ve been “a chaperone who went with her to Spain”. It was traditional for a woman to be accompanied by a maidservant. They would be hired by the father to protect their daughter from not only stepping out of line with regards to what she wears and how she acts, but also the daughter’s sexuality. The concept of virginity was of value for a father for that it could lead to further connections and success for him and his family. This is extended through the painting with the maidservant looking directly at the viewer, who was most likely male, to make sure you don’t try anything or neither does Sofonisba. This harkens back to Linda Nochlin’s Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists with regards to art being something that “keeps [women] out of trouble”. In many ways, Sofonisba’s father is going out of his way to “domesticate” his daughter and keep her from doing anything she shouldn’t. Of course she accomplished a lot in her lifetime, yet the institutionalized principles of gender inequality still prevailed. Although she was able to make a name for herself within the highest court in Spain, “Anguisolla’s social status prohibited her from selling work… Thus the first woman painter to achieve fame and respect did so within a set of constraints that removed her from competing for commissions with her male counterparts”. These constraints are a huge reason why Sofonisba Anguissola is not known to the world as a “Great Artist.”
  
  Looking back thousands of years, we see the Woman of Villendorf, a nude figure that was created to celebrate the female body and possibly even the “magical essence” of womanhood; having the ability to bleed monthly, with no pain or death, and give birth. Anguissola’s painting shows rather the opposite. It displays a very proper young woman with a maid servant preventing her from acting out of hand. Instead of celebrating what it means to be a woman, Sofonisba must hide that from the viewer in order for her to receive any semblance of success and respect from the patriarchal society around her.