Dear Artisan,
In honor of International Women’s Month, I have written this post to bring attention to the thousands of women artists whose creativity has survived cultural, societal and religious undermining, and the abrasives of time, from prehistory up to the present. Though I don’t have space here to address all the eras or cultures, I will focus on some examples of women’s art from earliest times, which I hope will rev you up to do more research on your own. It’s exciting and inspiring. I also found it surprisingly emotional. Let’s RAVE about the infinite flow of creative juice that women have always brought forth into the world!
Artists and their art stand out as an integral and essential part of all cultures throughout history, and many artisans are known to have been women. Though patriarchal values have often tried to suppress the recognition due women artists, the latter have been important in recording a society’s customs and world view through their works, despite difficulties in obtaining instruction, traveling and trading their work, and in gaining recognition.
Written records that name artists who lived in prehistory do not exist, but studies done by many early ethnographers and cultural anthropologists indicate that women often were the principal artisans in Neolithic cultures. Their beautiful works survive in fragments of pottery, textiles, baskets, and jewelry. The hand prints of women and children are present in many cave paintings right alongside those of men.
In the earliest records of western cultures, few individuals are mentioned, although women are included in all of the art images. Some depictions show them as working artists. Ancient references by Homer, Cicero and Virgil mention the roles of prominent women in textiles, poetry, music and other cultural activities, without discussion of individual artists in the culture.
One of the most famous embroideries of the Medieval Period is the “Bayeux Tapestry.” Although there has been much uncertainty about its origins, it is thought that it was completed around 1077 AD, just eleven years after the Battle of Hastings. Constructed of linen cloth and embroidered with wool, the 230 foot long visual story narrates the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England. The Bayeux Tapestry may have been created in either a commercial workshop by numerous, skilled female artisans, or by a royal or aristocratic lady and her retinue, or a workshop in a nunnery. I feel my vision dimming just thinking about all the hours spent with needle and thread on this incredible piece.
by Herrad
von Landsberg
Herrad of Landsberg (c. 1130 – July 25, 1195) was born at the castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered the Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges Mountains at a young age and became abbess there in 1167, remaining so until her death in 1195. She is best known as the author of the pictorial encyclopedia the “Hortus Deliciarum” (The Garden of Delights). This beautiful encyclopedia is a compendium of all the sciences studied at that time in history, including theology. In it, Herrad delves into the battle of Virtue and Vice with intense visual imagery preceding the text, three hundred and thirty-six illustrations to be exact, most of which demonstrate an artistic license not often seen in works from her peers. It’s interesting to think of an abbess from that era as ‘walking on the wild side’!
Manuscript illumination gives a tantalizing glimpse of many of the known female artists of the Medieval Period:
Claricia: was a 12th century manuscript illuminator of Augsburg, Germany. She painted herself as the tail of the letter Q. How cute is that?! Judging by her dress, she was probably a lay person.
Diemud or Diemudis (1057–1130): was a 12th century nun and manuscript illuminator. Her self portrait is embedded in the letter S. I wonder what made her choose that particular letter. She was a nun of the Cloister of Wessobrun in Bavaria and reputedly responsible for over 45 manuscripts.
by Frögärd i Ösby
Ende: was one of the 10th-11th century illuminators of “Apocalypse of Gerona”, a manuscript written and illustrated in northwest Spain. Ende, signs herself depentrix “female painter”, which would indicate to me that it was important to her that all who saw her work knew that she was a woman. She also signed some of her art with dei autrix, God’s helper.
Guda, also known as Guta: A banner in the Homilary of Saint Bartholomew proclaims in Latin “Guda, woman and sinner, wrote and painted this book.” Another woman artist who wanted her gender known. Her self-portrait is embedded in the letter D of this manuscript.
These clever women, some of whose faces look out at us from their hearts’ works, and many more unnamed illuminators, benefited from the nature of convents as the major centers of learning for women in the Medieval Period, and as the most desirable option for the intellectuals and artists among them.
In Pagan Scandinavia, there was a female runemaster who is the only historically confirmed female runemaster in Sweden; her name was Frögärd i Ösby working ca. 1000–1017. See photo.
by Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegarde of Bingen (1098–1179), was a remarkable, German, Medieval intellectual and artist. Her many works include: The Divine Works of a Simple Man, The Meritorious Life, sixty-five hymns, a miracle play, and a long treatise of nine books on the different natures of trees, plants, animals, birds, fish, minerals, and metals. From an early age, she claimed to have visions. When the Papacy supported these claims, Hildegard’s position as an important intellectual was secured. The visions became part of one of her seminal works in 1142, Scivias (Know the Ways of the Lord), which consists of thirty-five visions relating and illustrating the history of salvation. The illustrations in the Scivias are characterized by bright colors, emphasis on line, and simplified forms. As with the images done by Harrad of Landsberg, they differ greatly from others created in Germany during the same period. While it’s most likely that Hildegard did not draw the images, their unusual elements lead one to believe they were created under her close supervision.
The 12th century saw the rise of the city in Europe, along with a rise in trade, travel, and universities. These changes in society also introduced changes in the lives of women. They were allowed to head their husbands’ businesses, if they were widowed. They also were allowed to be part of some artisan guilds. Guild records show that women were particularly active in the textile industries in Flanders and Northern France. Medieval manuscripts have many illustrations in their margins that depict women with spindles. In England, women were responsible for creating Opus Anglicanum, or rich embroideries, for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothes and various types of hangings.
I could go on for pages with this her-story. If it intrigues you to know how stubborn women artists have persevered and have gotten their amazing art into the public eye, please check out my links below.
We can be encouraged and inspired by our foremothers and their determination to let their artistries shine through whatever avenues were available to them. Creativity is like water … it always finds a way to move and change; or like the flower that pushes up through the last snowfall of winter and blooms as if all is safe and in balance.
Yours in new beginnings,
Terrea
“O Mary, artist of life, hail!
By recreating wholeness, you have convulsed death itself.”
~ from De Sancta Maria by Hildegarde von Bingen ~
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