World 10 - Croatia 0 - Women in or out of the Renaissance

Valentina Perii and Daria Radman Faculty of Philosophy, University of Split, CROATIA

Keywords Gender, women, renaissance, art

Introduction The paper has, as its main subject, the lack of female Renaissance artists. Today, no more than ten female Renaissance artists are known even though there were, in fact, much more, and of equal greatness. The question then is why aren't they famous? We might venture and claim that the principal guilt for this lack of knowledge lies with the experts. Is this boycott or ignorance? One of the issues we aim to address is the idea of gender implicitly present in Renaissance society which, presumably, could not be open enough to enable women to become artists. Even if they had a chance to express themselves through art, it was reserved for the upper-class and according to rules of a male-dominated society. There's also the question of nepotism almost every female renaissance artist had to resort to it if she wanted to create art. Paradoxically, it seems that the only way for a female artist to make it during the Renaissance was through morally dubious choices, which only perpetuated her gender role, seen as submissive and inferior. The paper also deals with the problem of gender in Croatian art history. Even though there are insufficient reading materials present, the Renaissance was an integral part of our art history. Available archives could probably tell us a different story. Its not that Croatia had no Renaissance women artists; its that they are unknown! Here, the problem seems to be not boycott, but actual ignorance and indignation of art historians as far as these women are concerned. Is this really a female problem, or could it actually be a male problem? This paper aims to analyze the changes in comprehension of gender which have to occur in order to sustain a certain amount of equality. A slight change of the notion of gender might solve this problem. Art historians in Croatia have not ventured far to represent both genders. Finally, we will try to provide an answer to the following question: is this lack of research a result of gender discrimination or a proof that necessary changes in the notion of gender have not yet happened?

1. Renaissance 1.1. World The Renaissance was and is one of those useful myths which helped people improve their own position and with it act effectively. The word ''renaissance'' came in use when some Italians started to consider themselves as a part of a revival of a lost tradition it was the renaissance of classical antique. With the beginning of the 14th century and the emersion of new luxury constructions people became aware of the changes in high culture. Even though the renaissance brought something different in art, architecture and literature, its most important innovation is the one that happened in human deliberation. From 1350 to 1450 there were more philosophers, scientists, poets and artists in Italy than anywhere else in the world. Renaissance had its roots in humanism which was rediscovered through ancient history. The term renaissance is particularly associated with innovation in the arts, such as its independence. The art itself reaches its peak at the end of the 15th century with exclusively male names such as Rafaelo, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.1

1.2. Croatia The Croatian arts got their renaissance in the second half of the 15th century which is a lot sooner than most of the European countries. The vicinity of the Apennine cribs brought the humanistic thoughts into the society. The opposite sides of the Adriatic have always been a swapping ground of cultural products, so in the beginning of the new era it became a place of spiritual exchange as well. Nonetheless that process did not occur as a huge turnaround in the whole country since a lot of the works by the end of 16th century stayed dedicated to the Empire from associating it with the organization of the domestic cultural traditionalism and regional expressions2 In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ragusa and other Dalmatian cities under the rule of Venice became the centre of the Croatian Renaissance, which produced, in addition to works of art and science, an extensive and powerful literature that had a lasting influence on the development of the Croatian literary language.
3

Unlike the rest of Europe, the Renaissance in southern Croatia achieved outstanding results. It seems that it woke up awareness of the need to prove this relationship with the West since
1 2

Roberts J. M., Povijest Europe, Zagreb 2002, (pg 278. 300.) Franjo anje (ur.), Povijest Hrvata, Srednji vijek, Zagreb 2003, (pg 300. 350.) 3 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143561/Croatia/223953/History#toc43555 (30.1.2013.)

there was great danger in the form of the Turkish invasion from the East. The context of limited economic opportunities, threat of war, the border being literally outside the windows of palaces and preserved social relations in which the nobility were hired as extras power - this is the framework within which we should observe these outstanding efforts in promoting new cultural values in 15th and 16th century. 4

2. Women in the Renaissance In her essays from Women, History and Theory, Joan Kelly pointed out an important question: did women have a renaissance? Women did have beauty which inspired love but the agent of that love was always a man. The problem was a question that remained opened regarding women's ability to love. Women's gender role by that time remained passive. She was the other person, if she was a person at all. Her rights were just a representation of the man who controlled her her father in the first place, and later on her husband. Especially with the noble women who were removed from public concerns of economic, political and cultural nature. Woman was only seen through an image and rarely as a person, mostly as a childbearing machine, which was her essential function. Daily life in the renaissance was strictly unfolded within the frame of enduring gender and social hierarchies. A women's life was revolved around work and family throughout her life cycle, in which she starts of as a daughter, unmarried girl, wife, mother and widow. It was a life cycle which showed her title defined by her relation to different men. In spite of the man's dominant role, women still had time to prove themselves as surprisingly resourceful as they took on multiple jobs to support their children and teach their daughters skills needed for future generations. One of the important things in their everyday life was their appearance which was important for women of all estates. Women's beauty was a crucial subject throughout the entire history of art. The idea of beauty changed through the renaissance from round women of the 16th century to corseted figures of the 18th century. Regarding her personal life she was in between her father and her husband who buffered her from the harsh realities of the violent outside world. The duty of a father was to provide for his daughter until her marriage where he or someone on his behalf would negotiate a settlement for his daughter with a groom. A husband was responsible for her wellbeing. This was all true regarding the upper and middle class. Women of the working classes were expected to work to support themselves both single and married.
4

Franjo anje (ur.), Povijest Hrvata, Srednji vijek, Zagreb 2003, (pg 300. 350.)

In short, the notion of the totally dependent daughter and wife was called into question by the limited resources of both her father and the man she could hope to marry.5 One of the long-maintained prejudice was picturing the medieval time as a dark and ignorant period of the human civilization, in comparison with the beginning of the early new age with humanism and renaissance, a symbol of the new and advanced. With that in mind, we would expect a lot of social questions to give us a completely different answer, even the one about the attitude of society towards women. Unfortunately, the historical facts confirm that the medieval approach not only continued, but even hardened its negative side. French historian Jean Delumeau gave an interesting thesis about the roots of mens fear of women. He believed that it is more complex then Freuds theory of mens fear of castration. She is the mans constant enigma and an eternal inconsistency. She wants him to be a hero but at the same time she tries to keep him in the house. She is more than ready to feel contempt if he succumbs. Delumeau points to a fundamental ambiguity of woman as a being that gives life and proclaims death, which is felt for centuries, and expressed in the cult of the mother goddess. Earth mother who feeds and an Empire of the deceased situated underground or in deep water. The presence of the goddess of death and female monsters in mythology are therefore not surprising. The negative side of men's relationship towards women manifested itself in the culture of Western Europe in the Renaissance which didn't change its dichotomous approach towards women compared to the previous century. Besides the exemplar of her deification there is often an emphasis on woman as a synonym for evil. Jean Delumeau noticed that there are noticeable polarizations in the approach to women on French Renaissance copper engravings. She is presented in both ways, favorable and unfavorable. When a female figure personifies the noble qualities she is never dressed according to the fashion of 16th century. They are either naked or dressed in a wide antique dress. On the contrary, when they embody malicious allegories, they are dressed in modern outfits of the Renaissance and they are blended in everyday surroundings. Thus, the virtuous woman is thrown out of the actual, while the evil woman stays in reality and she is included in full extent. Virgin Mary is a literate hero and theme artwork when it comes to Croatian humanistic Renaissance period. Fear of women, along with many others, started spreading throughout Europe in the beginning of 15th century and it will last all the way to the middle of the 17th century. The reasons for this fear are different, from great division and strong Protestant
5

http://books.google.hr/books?id=b32LdSbP0_QC&pg=PA19&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=fals e (25.1.2013.)

Reformation to the danger of the Turkish invasion. Man was also threatened by the plaque which raged in all countries, the hunger, both city and village rebellions and wars. The insecurity was fortified by the Church with their books and sermons which spread a strong fear of mortality of the soul and gave a sense of powerlessness before the greatest enemy The Devil and his assistants among which the most commonly cited were Jews and women (especially witches). 6

2.1. World 10 In spite of the difficulties, some women had the chance to allow themselves to do so-called male jobs. Not many of them, but enough to bring us to the conclusion that money and power had a great impact on their doings. When we first got the idea of writing this paper we were amazed that there were any women, at all, who painted by that time. We had no idea what a big story this work would unfold. Around the 1510s the oldest daughter of the renowned manuscript illuminator Simon Bening broke her way through art and joined her father in their family business. Levina Teerlinc limited her output to portrait miniatures, which are personal mementos which tended to become widely dispersed and were not formally displayed like full-sized paintings. As a result, she is less know than her predecessors and it is more difficult to authoritatively attribute works to her. In 1545 she was invited to the court of Henry VIII who had been the patron of Hans Holbein and Lucas Horenbout, and named royal ''paintrix''. After Henry's death, she continued in this role under Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I. At the same time, a woman known as Caterina van Hemmesen was trained by her father Jan Sanders van Hemmesen in portraying wealthy men and women. She was a member of the Guild of Saint Luke and even became a teacher to three male students. Caterina's main patron was Maria of Austria, who invited both Caterina and her husband to join her in Spain and gave them funds, allowing them to live the rest of their lives comfortably. A few years later, in Italy, a member of an aristocratic family, Sofonisba Anguissola was receiving her education in the fine arts. She was the eldest daughter of a Cremonese nobleman (her 5 sisters also painted and received good education), painting being only one of her many accomplishments. She studied under local artists and practiced a portrait style based on those of Moretto and Morone. She painted
6

Delbianco, V. Biblijske ene u hrvatskoj knjievnosti srednjega vijeka i renesanse / Narodna umjetnost : Croatian journal of ethnology and folklore research, 43 (2006), 2 ; (pg. 135-148.)

a few religious subjects but most of her work consists of portraits of herself and her family. Her first dated work is the self-portrait of 1554, the year in which she met Michelangelo, who recognized her talent and even sent her some of his own drawings so that she would copy them and send them back to him for critique. She was the first Italian woman artist to win international fame and she opened the way for later woman painters most of whom were the daughters of painters. There are works by her in Bergamo, Budapest, Florence (Uffizi), Naples and Siena. Though not rich in their genres and the number of works, these women made a difference in the notion of gender as seen in the 16th century. It is notable that they dared to do something only men usually had the privilege to do. There might have been only a few of them but given the time in which they worked, it is amazing that they even existed. The size of their accomplishment in the sociological sense is surely notable and should have been well known. We could try and understand the society in which they lived, and we can easily comprehend why they weren't as great as Michelangelo was. But the thing we can't quite understand is why we dont know about them today. These women fought to do a man's job then and it's our job today to acknowledge their efforts. Lavinia Fontana was the daughter of the School of Bologna painter Prospero Fontana, who trained Lavinia in painting. Unlike Sofonisba and Caterina, she worked with portraiture as well as with religious and mythological scenes, which included male and female nudes. The nudes were a big accomplishment for that time since women were not allowed to see a nude male body, let along paint it. She married a minor artist, G. Z. Zappi and despite having eleven children she enjoyed a successful career, working in a style close to Corregio and Parmigianino in her religious, works which were often of considerable size. She is documented to have painted over 100 works, though only 32 are definitely known today. As the daughter of Nunzio Galizia, a portrait painter, Fede Galizia was an accomplished artist by the age of twelve. Taught by her father, Fede had a great eye for detail and her skill at painting clothing and jewelry made her a very popular portrait artist. She was also commissioned for both religious and secular paintings, and she painted several depictions of Judith and Holofernes. Fede was also interested in still lives, for which she is perhaps best known. She was a pioneer in the genre for women and her style has influenced the evolution of still life painting. One of the most recognized woman artists in the Renaissance was Artemisia Gentileschi, the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi. She was trained by her father, but was rejected from the academies because of her sex (for she took on the wrong gender role).

She then continued her studies under Agostino Tassi. Tassi raped Artemesia and her father subsequently brought charges, leading to a seven-month trial during which she was required to give testimony under torture. Tassi was convicted and Artemisia was vindicated, and married the artist Pierantonio Stiattesi shortly thereafter. The trauma of sexual harassment and assault she experienced has been said to appear in her works. These include several depictions of violent stories of Judith and Holofernes, and Jael and Sisera, as well as versions of Susanna and the Elders in which Susanna exhibits genuine terror. After her death, most of Artemesia's works were attributed to her father and other artists up until recently. Since the reappearance of her work and story, there have been many feminist studies of her paintings. Judith Leyster was born in Haarlem, Holland. Although her artistic education is unknown, her paintings are influenced by the paintings of Frans Hals and Dirk Hals. By 1633, she was a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke where, within two years, she had three male apprentices. Judith married Jan Miense Molenaer, another artist, and had five children. After her death, her work was forgotten until a painting at the Louvre was discovered to have her monogram on it, under a false "Frans Hals" signature in 1893. Since then, many works that have been incorrectly attributed to Hals have been revealed to have been painted by Leyster. Elisabetta Sirani was the daughter of Giovanni Andrea Sirani of the School of Bologna. By the time she was 17, she was a successful painter and engraver with over 90 works. And although she died at the age of 27, she had completed over 170 paintings, 14 engravings and many drawings. She had a very rapid working method, and art lovers from all over visited her studio to see her at work. Sirani's portraits and mythological and religious paintings are her most famous, and she had many wealthy patrons. 7

2.2.Croatia 0 The symbolic title of our paper aims to represent the picture of Croatian art history today. It is not that Croatia did not have any female artists in the Renaissance; its more that we do not know of them. The only one we ever heard about was Milica Koriolanovi ipiko and there are legitimate reasons to believe that the story about her is more a story about our great poet Hanibal Luci. We found that it is our job, as future art historians to present these women to the public and humanistic horizon.

Murray Peter and Linda, The Penguin dictionary of art and artists, Harmondsworth 1987

Milica Koriolanovi ipiko, was a noble descendant of Cipiah family. She was born in the beginning of 16th century in Trogir and was a well-known embroiderer. Her father Jerolim was a warrior and a son of a noble Koriolan Ciepi, who was a famous Latin writer. Her uncles were very well-educated. One of them was Lau, a bishop of Famagosta and another one was Ivan, an archbishop of Zadar. When she was very young Milica lost her mother and became another mother to her younger siblings. She took care of them and worked on her familys land at the same time. When it came to weaving and embroiling she was particularly adept and well known for it. Hanibal Luci Hvaranin, one of the oldest Croatian poets (1480 1530) wrote two poems about Milica. In one of these he was in fact celebrating her artistic skills.8 Milica was Hanibal's muse and he used his words and his poems to celebrate her virtues, which gave her the first real female role in Croatian literature. In a manuscript from 1708, written by Pavao ipiko there is information about her marriage from 1534 with Ivan Adreis with whom she had a son Franjo. 9 Hanibal Luci was in fact her cousin on her mothers side, but still there are convincing stories about their romance. His poems show the sentimental affects he had toward Milica, and one can easily conclude she was something more than a cousin to him. Milica became similar to Petrarca's Laura and Croatia got its love story between a poet and a noblewoman, or as we'd like to think a love story between a poet and a female artist. Other painters of the period mentioned in the documents of Dubrovnik were Peter and Helen of the family Grguri Ohmuevi of Ragusa, they were Bosinan immigrants and their paintings are preserved in the convent of Sutijesko in Bosnia (1482)10 Jelena Ohmuevi Grguri is not mentioned in any other archives so the only data we have about her existence is her year of birth - 1569, and the year of her death - 1610, with her occupation as a painter. Among women embroiderers who were involved in the repairs of the dilapidated sacerdotal vestments, Cecilija Lukojevi was one of them. She is referred to as madonna because of her noble heritage.11 The poor picokara Dobrica is also mentioned, she was allegedly paid for repairs of three shirts that belonged to the Church in 1544.12

8 9

Sakcinski Kukuljevi Ivan, Slovnik umjetnikah Jugoslavenskih, sv. I -III, Zagreb 1858, pg (197. 198.) http://www.matica.hr/vijenac/vij211.nsf/AllWebDocs/Pjesnikoviljubavnijadi (30.1.2013.) 10 Dudan Alessandro, La dalmazia nell arte italiana, Milano 1922., (pg. 450) 11 Tadi Jorjo, Graa o slikarskoj koli u Dubrovniku XIII -XVI v., Beograd 1952.str 284-291 12 Cvito Fiskovi, Prilozi povijesti umjetnosti u Dalmaciji, svezak 7, Split 1953 (pg 157)

3. Nepotism Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis (m."nephew"), from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote and Catalan nebot, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended. Nepotism gained its name after the Churchs practice in the Middle Ages, when some Catholic popes and bishops, who had taken vows of chastity, and therefore usually had no children of their own, gave their nephews such positions of preference as were often accorded by fathers to son. Several popes elevated nephews and other relatives to the cardinalate. Often, such appointments were a means of continuing a papal "dynasty".13 Nepotism differs from cronyism primarily as nepotism refers to partiality to family whereas cronyism refers to partiality to friends, significant others, or acquaintances. Forced cronyism may be due to political promises whereas nepotism under duress is generally due to social pressure. In our case we can find both nepotism and cronyism. As it is said women artists were "artists" due to their artist fathers. Not one of these so-called famous women artists were the daughters of lower-class men. Some of them even had to resort to both nepotism and cronyism, their fathers were painters, but often their husbands as well. This could be because some of them were probably only surrounded by that type of artistic people and they had no knowledge of the outer world, but the fact that all of them who eventually got married had painter husbands seems indicative, and is hardly a coincidence.

4. Gender Similar to today, identity in the Renaissance derived from class, family, occupation, and community, although each of these social forms was itself undergoing significant modification.14 The understanding of gender back in the 1500's was of very little significance. Of course it was a general belief that God made both man and woman, but the equality stopped there. They were created together but man was made a little bit sooner than woman of course. To rely on the popular belief of those days, women were the less important sex and they werent very mad about it. Noble women had no problem staying at home, studying and having and raising children. Painting in the Renaissance era was strictly a mans hobby / job although today it is more popular for women to paint, draw etc. The so-called equality of the
13 14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism (31.1.2013.) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe/58315/The-Renaissance (1.2.2013.)

sexes was just not there until the 1920's when the First World War had ended and by that time men were out on the field fighting battles and women were the true machines of the factories of that time. Until then women everywhere were left at home and were expected to be the human embodiment of the Virgin Mary herself.

5. Conclusion All of these great women were pioneers of their time and dared to do what only a few would do even today. They had their artistic fathers, their wealthy families and some of them even had a poets love but the most valuable thing they had was the true meaning of the Renaissance in their hearts. The world acknowledges Sofonisba Anguisola today, and its well known that Judith Leyster actually did that which was attributed to Frans Hals for many centuries, but who ever heard about Cecilija Lukojevi and Jelena Ohmuevi Grguri? Why arent these names in our history books? Is there a good enough reason that we were deprived from knowledge about these women? One has to resort to digging through 200 years old archives to found astonishing information about these great talents that lived on Croatian land 500 years ago. It took a lot more time for us to find these names than it did to write the entire paper. Why are men today still afraid of womens accomplishments? Its been so long since we fought to do a mans job and we wonder how long it is going to take for us to be acknowledged. Whilst digging through the books and archives in our university library we ran across only a few names who wrote about these women. Cvito Fiskovi and Ivan Kukuljevi Sakcinski were both men confident enough to acknowledge these women and present them to the public eye. We believe that the Croatian approach to gender has not changed a lot throughout history. There are multiple possible reasons why this happened but it's not our job to guess. It takes a lot more than this paper for these deeply rooted gender views to change but every small and simple step in raising public awareness is absolutely necessary.

6. Bibliography Boani 1999 Bezi-Boani Nevenka, Majstori od IX. Do XIX. Stoljea u Dalmaciji, Split 1999. Dudan 1922 Dudan Alessandro, La dalmazia nell arte italiana, Milano 1922. Fiskovi 1953 Fiskovi Cvito, Prilozi povijesti umjetnosti u Dalmaciji, svezak 7, Split 1953 Murray 2002 Murray Peter and Linda, The Penguin dictionary of art and artists, Harmondsworth 1987 Roberts J. M., Povijest Europe, Zagreb 2002 Sakcinski 1858. Sakcinski Kukuljevi Ivan, Slovnik umjetnikah Jugoslavenskih, sv. I-III, Zagreb 1858 Tadi 1952 Tadi Jorjo, Graa o slikarskoj koli u Dubrovniku XIII-XVI v., Beograd 1952. anje 2003. (ur.) Franjo anje, Povijest Hrvata, Srednji vijek, Zagreb 2003 Delbianco, V. Biblijske ene u hrvatskoj knjievnosti srednjega vijeka i renesanse. // Narodna umjetnost : Croatian journal of ethnology and folklore research, 43 (2006), 2

Web http://www.matica.hr/vijenac/vij211.nsf/AllWebDocs/Pjesnikoviljubavnijadi http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe/58315/TheRenaissance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143561/Croatia/223953/History#toc4355 5 http://books.google.hr/books?id=b32LdSbP0_QC&pg=PA19&source=gbs_toc_r&cad =3#v=onepage&q&f=false