WHERE WERE THE WOMEN?: Women Artists of the 16th Century

One question I am regularly asked is if I am going to do more short articles about women artists who influenced the arts in the past.  I had the script outlined to do a longer-than-usual segment comparing and contrasting the art of American painter Mary Cassatt and her French counterpart, Berthe Morisot. (You will get to read that later this year.)   The topic is, I think, a very important one, and one I plan to follow up in future articles.  I also want to make young people — men and women — aware that it took a long time to acquire the rights and stature that many of you enjoy today — and which your parents or other ancestors may not have enjoyed. So, from time to time I will inject some opinions and tell you some experiences I have had in my very long life. Please bear with me.

Two things happened recently that convinced J. D. and me that something larger and broader needed to be written right away. First of all, we started watching a series about art detectives. These people retrieve stolen artwork, prove that some paintings are fakes, uncover "lost" works by other artists, and sometimes are able to return artwork that was stolen from people during World War II by the Nazis to surviving members of their families. We were greatly impressed by the way these detectives worked so diligently with the smallest clues and scoured all sorts of information sources.

Shortly thereafter, J.D. sent me a link to an NPR story about an interesting group in Florence, Italy, who have set out to locate, reclaim, and — wherever possible — restore the work of women artists from the region of Florence who were well-known  during and after the 16th Century. They used the title "Where Are the Women?" The group calls itself the Advancing Women Artists (AWA). In the years since the establishment of AWA, its director, Linda Falcone, has spent much of her time going into the storage spaces of museums and art galleries, searching for the work of forgotten women artists. The group has discovered nearly 2,000 pieces of women's artwork.

Florence, Italy

Bankrolled by a wealthy American woman philanthropist, Jane Fortune, they forged ahead with many projects. Unfortunately, their benefactor died in 2019 and the AWA will close operations in the summer of 2021 for lack of funds. They feel they have accomplished most of their mission by raising awareness and are seeing similar projects start up in other parts of the world.

Why weren't there more women artists during and after the Renaissance? Mainly because women were not citizens during those centuries. They could not own property or run businesses in most places. They did not even have the rights to their own children, who could be taken away from them by their husbands or the husband's family, and they might never see them again. Aren't you glad that is ancient history? But, wait a minute, just how ancient is that history? The women of the United States acquired the right to vote on August 18, 1920. (The 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage was very quietly celebrated on August 18, 2020, but you probably missed it.) It may be necessary to protect that right again in the future, so don't take it for granted and be ready to defend it if necessary.

In the 16th Century it was a risky proposition for women of that time to want to have careers or run their own businesses, unless they had some kind of backing or protection from men or from the Church. One of the most successful women of the 16th century was Plautilla Nelli. She was the daughter of a member of the merchant class and was intelligent and well-educated. She had met a number of male artists before she became a nun. She entered a Dominican convent at the age of 14. She taught herself how to draw and paint by studying religious works and reproductions of artworks in books. She went on to establish a workshop of nuns who took on church commissions and private clients as well as producing large-scale Biblical scenes for their own convent. She signed her work, adding a request that the recipient of her work pray for the female painter that she was. Her work was much in demand because people felt she endowed it with special piety. When the AWA began researching her work, only 3 existing examples were known. Now there are about 20, with still more to be tracked down.

Nelli's "Last Supper", as restored

The most important "find" was a rendition of the Last Supper — the only one ever known to have been done by a woman. Or women, for there are parts of the painting that indicate they were done by other hands than Nelli's, although the basic painting was obviously hers. The painting, is huge, measuring 7 meters in length and 3 meters in height (23 feet X 10 feet). Most "Last Suppers" are static, but this one is full of movement and emotion. Nelli looks at the situation with a woman's perspective. The table is set with dishes, glasses, food and drink. Creases in the tablecloth show it has been ironed.

Nelli chose to focus on the moments after Jesus announced to his followers that he had been betrayed — sold out for a small bag of silver coins — and that he would be arrested and crucified. The men are life-sized. Each face shows a different emotion. There is Thomas, the doubter, trying to decide if what he heard is real. There is Peter, beginning to show the fear for his own life that would cause him to deny any knowledge of Jesus three times before the cocks crowed at dawn. Although Nelli, even as she became abbess of the convent, had limited contact with men, the expressions on the faces and the body language of the disciples are compelling and true to life.

Bologna, Italy

Many successful male artists had workshops that were actually small factories. Their children were put to work at various jobs so they would learn how to keep the business going into the next generation. Often one or more of the children showed unusual talent and were allowed to take lessons. A case in point is that of Lavinia Fontana. Her father, Prospero, was a successful Mannerist* painter who had a small "stable" of painters, including his talented daughter. Born in Bologna, but later moving to Rome, she was one of the first women to be commissioned to do large figure paintings. Lavinia is credited with about 150 paintings, which she managed to complete in between giving birth to eleven children!

Painting by Giuseppe Arcimbolo

*Mannerist painting and sculpture was a style of art popular in the 16th Century as a kind of rebellion against the classical religious painting of the time. It tended to be less realistic than most Renaissance work. It was more emotional, using elongated human figures, "special effects" of scale, lighting, and perspective, and often garish colors. During the later half of the century, Mannerism became more intellectual, more intricate, and more forward-looking, making it much more popular with sophisticated people. Some four centuries later, it became the cornerstone of "modern art".

Nelli and Fontana were not alone in their endeavors. (I managed to make a list of 40 women artists of the 16th Century in just about 40 minutes of searching.) Nor were they all painters. There were ceramists, woodworkers, jewelry makers, engravers, calligraphers, and many other professionals, including female musicians.

Now, back to the 20th Century. American women had the vote, so they had all the rights and privileges, correct? Wrong! For one thing, my mother and other women found it very difficult to get credit, let alone credit cards or charge accounts without the backing of a father or husband. And that is just one of many "stumbling blocks" put in their way.

Now let's talk about another practice that you have probably not come across. that of “indentured servitude". These young women and girls (commonly called "bound girls") were, when they were teenagers, sold by their families to wealthier families to be servants. They remained 'bound’ for years as they worked to pay back the money their family had been paid, out of the pittance they earned. And of course the family to whom they were bound charged them for everything they could think of to increase the time before they could be free. Some literally died in bondage. And none of them were women of color. They were white. Some earned their freedom and married. They usually had few children because they were nearly past their child-bearing years when they achieved freedom. How do I know? Because I knew two of them. One was our next door neighbor when I was in junior high school. The other lived about four blocks away. Both had teenage sons.  I went to school with both boys and dated one of them when we were in high school.

Be grateful for all of your opportunities, use them wisely, and never,  ever, take them for granted.

With love,

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