16. 1300-1500 Renaissance and Ottoman Women Artists and Thinkers

When asked about a "Renaissance Man" several famous names of artists and scientists come to mind. However, no names of woman painters or sculptors are as widely or well known by the public despite being just as talented and impactful on the cultural scape of Europe. This section seeks to showcase women's artistic contributions to the renaissance movement from all over the world.

Typical Medieval Women's clothing, Fashion Institute of Technology

Between 1380 and 1580 in Europe, after the plagues and the Mongols had wreaked havoc on Eurasia, societies across the continent experienced a period of rebirth. In Europe it was called the Renaissance. In the Middle East, it coincided with an Islamic Golden Age under the Ottoman Empire. Building on earlier exchanges with the Silk Road, the Islamic world, African cultures, and Europeans turned their attention to their own classical past and sought to rebuild it. Women were eager to take part in this endeavor, battling against long held cultural norms that tried to hold them back.

Europe:
The term “Renaissance Man” may be familiar to you and it usually refers to a self-made man or a man who has mastered skills in everything from academic work to swordplay. In truth, the Renaissance Woman was more likely to be a patron of the arts in this time period. This was due to the lack of opportunities for women to get an education or training. Erasmus of Rotterdam, the most famous proponent of new learning in this time, made the eras view on women’s education clear when he wrote, “I do not know the reason, but just as a saddle is not suitable for an ox, so learning is unsuitable for a woman.”

Renaissance society preferred women chaste and in their traditional roles and laws were established to keep women bound to domesticity. Even women’s clothing choices were taxed in a way to limit their sexual expression, “All women and girls, whether married or not, whether betrothed or not, of whatever age, rank, and condition...who wear - or wear in future - any gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, bells, ribbons of gold or silver, or cloth of silk brocade on their bodies or head for the ornamentation of the bodies...will be required to pay each year...the sum of 50 [coins].”

As society opened up to innovation, the new academies and workshops tended to be reserved for men. Wealthy women or the daughters of scholars and artists enjoyed more freedom to learn and to express themselves, but often this happened at an individual level. Thus, the best-known women of the era were women of influence who used their positions to influence and support the artists of their choosing.

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Portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, Bridgeman Images

Lucrezia Borgia:
One of the most famous of these is also one of the most controversial. Lucrezia Borgia is sometimes described as the “Mafia Princess” of the Renaissance, and there’s no denying that her corrupt, politically powerful family used her to make the most of opportunities for alliance. Lucrezia’s father was the Catholic Pope, a position that was at that time more king-like than it was a religious calling. Rodrigo Borgia had seen to his daughter’s education—by the age of 12, she could speak six languages and had been tutored by some of Europe’s leading Humanist scholars. Lucrezia’s father lost no time in arranging her first marriage when she was just 13, but he had that annulled as soon as a better match presented itself. Lucrezia was said to have loved her second husband, but her father attempted to annul that marriage as well, she resisted. Not long after, her young husband died mysteriously. Fortunately for Lucrezia, her third marriage, to Alfonso d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, was built to last. When Lucrezia’s father died in 1503, the political intrigue ended, and she was free to create the courtly society she had always dreamed of. As Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia supported poets and musicians, made pious and charitable donations to the community, and even oversaw administrative duties when her husband had to be away.

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Portrait of Catherine de Medici, Art UK

Catherine de Medici:
Catherine de Medici was similarly controversial, but also had a more political power and influence than Lucrezia Borgia had ever had. Like the Borgias, the Medici were no strangers to political intrigue, and Catherine was destined to add to their legacy. She spent part of her youth at the Vatican since her uncle was Pope at that time. As it had been during the days of the Borgia, Rome was a thriving Renaissance hub. In 1533, Catherine was married to the French king, Henry II, in order to solidify an importance alliance. Only 14 at the time of her marriage, Catherine spent her time at the French court expanding her education and bonding with the ladies of the palace. Though Henry is said to have ignored her for much of their marriage, Catherine tried to ingratiate herself to the king and his entourage. Doing so bought her some time, for once she began to have the crown-prince’s children, her position was much more secure. And, though Catherine frequently had to compete with Henry’s mistress to get any attention at court at all, she was gradually able to assert her position. When Henry was killed in a jousting tournament in 1559, Catherine was ready to take over.

Women in France could not legally rule in their own names, so Catherine influenced political affairs as the Queen Mother while her sons were still young. One of her biggest concerns was maintaining order between factions divided between Catholic and Protestant forces. Catherine sought a moderate policy towards Protestants, who were considered heretics in France at the time. When her son Francis died at the age of 16, Catherine served as regent because the next prince in line for the throne, Charles, was only 10 years old. She remained in power when Charles claimed the throne at age 14, and they planned a Grand Tour of the kingdom to celebrate a new era. The tour featured a Renaissance festival at every stop during which plays, artistic exhibits, and parades allowed locals to interact with dazzling court culture. A series of tapestries depict the processions, complete with exotic beasts performing stunts. Catherine used the arts and entertainment of the day to celebrate her family, and especially her son, and reassure the people that everything would be fine in spite of religious and political threats. The tour lasted two and a half years and brought the splendors of the Renaissance to every corner of the kingdom. For Catherine, the Renaissance was not only a way to display her wealth and taste but to solidify her family’s political power.
The typical Renaissance patron, however, was not necessarily vying for power. ​

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Portrait of Isabella d’Este, Wikimedia Commons

Isabella d’Este:
Isabella d’Este, the Marchioness of Mantua and also Lucrezia Borgia’s sister-in-law, devoted herself to the arts, fashion, and education. Her extensive correspondence with family, as well as, artists, leaders, and religious figures leaves an incredible record of her far-reaching interests. D’Este supported a wide range of artists, including painters Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael and sculptors such as Michelangelo. Poets, musicians, even architects graced her court at Mantua. By the end of her life, she had founded a school for girls and turned her home into a museum.

Anna Bijns:
Not everyone appreciated the role played by patrons of the arts. Dutch poet Anna Bijns lamented how creative work had been diminished by its trendiness in her poem, “’Tis a Waste to Cast Before Swine.” She considered the ability to craft words to be a gift from the Holy Spirit and lamented that so many poets were willing to work on commission for ignorant patrons. 

“When Rhetoric I see on sale for money,
Like snow for sun my joy melts away,
And thus I repeat my initial remark:
‘Tis a waste to cast pearls before swine.”
[1528]
​
Bijns, sometimes referred to as “the Germanic Sappho,” never feared to speak her mind. Another controversial poem of hers is “Unyoked is Best! Happy the Woman Without a Man.” In it, she warns maidens not to rush into marriage and to consider all their options before they commit to a husband.

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Portrait of Christine de Pizan, Wikimedia Commons

Louise Labé:
Other women writers of the day promoted education for girls, even if they faced challenges. The French poet and adventurer Louise Labé had even gone to war dressed as a man before settling down to write sonnets. But, late in her life she regretted that she had not devoted more time to studying music, philosophy, and history. She wrote to a friend in 1555, “Study differs from other recreations, of which all one can say after enjoying them that one has passed the time. But study gives a more enduring sense of satisfaction. . . for the past delights and serves us more than the present.”

Christine de Pizan:
Many of the women writers of the Renaissance might strike us as unexpected for their hopeful ambitions for women at the time. But the way had been paved by Christine de Pizan, who is sometimes considered the first feminist. De Pizan was born in Venice in 1364 but grew up in the French court where her father was the king’s astrologer. Though not noble herself, her participation in the French court gave her the contacts and support she would need. She was married and then widowed quite young and was able to write for a living while her children grew up. She depended on patrons and tended to write whatever they hired her to write, from love ballads to military strategy handbooks. However, once her career had been made, Christine de Pizan wrote a couple of works designed to elevate women in society. One work, The Book of the City of Ladies, recounted the histories of intellectual women or great leaders and heroes who were women. She wrote this to offset the hateful images of women that were common in the literature of the day. A second book, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, was written as an advice manual for a French princess. However, along with advice for princesses and nobles, Christine de Pizan included sections on advice for women of each rank and role in society. She made it clear that all women were essential, and that the expectations of a baroness or an artisan’s wife were just as important as those of a leader. She wrote, “No matter which way I looked at it, I could find no evidence from my own experience to bear out such a negative view of the female nature and habits. Even so… I could scarcely find a moral work by any man you please author which didn't vote some chapter of paragraph two attacking the female sex."

In the visual arts, women made an impact even though they were usually not permitted to enroll in academies. As was the case with many writers, women artists tended to be the daughters of artists who learned the techniques at home. They were also limited in their subject matter in many cases because it was not appropriate for a woman to work with nude models. Thus, the greatest women artists of the Renaissance got their start doing portraits—portraying their subjects at home was a fitting, domestic theme for a respectable woman.

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Portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola, flickr

Levina Teerling:
Levina Teerling (1510-1575) was an artist in Bruges. Like her father, she specialized in miniatures of exquisite detail. After her marriage, Teerling traveled to England where she attracted the attention of the royal family. Teerling became a court artist under Henry VIII and stayed in that position through the reign of Elizabeth I. Sadly, very little of her work survives today. Accounts written during her career, however, gushed over a miniature of the Holy Trinity she had presented the Queen Mary and a portrait and a decorated box she made for Elizabeth.

Sofonisba Anguissola:
Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) was not the daughter of an artist but an Italian nobleman of modest rank. He had been impressed with the literature of the day that promoted education for girls, and he made sure his daughters had every opportunity open to them. Sofonisba was the oldest and her talent was obvious even when she was a teenager. A visitor to their home saw her portrait of her sisters playing chess, one of her most famous paintings, and wrote that the girls looked almost alive on the canvas. After her marriage, Anguissola moved to Spain and continued doing portraits. Word of her skill reached the king and Phillip II invited her to join his court. Once there, she expanded her portraits to adopt a formal style due to the high status of her subjects. Sofonisba Anguissola had such a grand reputation across Europe that other women were inspired to emulate her.

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Painting of Judith decapitating Holofernes by Galizia, Wikimedia Commons

Lavina Fontana:
Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was the daughter of a painter, and sought to emulate the work of Sofonisba Anguissola​, but she also benefitted from the unique opportunities available in Bologna, where women were permitted to attend university in certain subjects. Fontana even earned a doctorate at the university. She was also unique in that she managed to launch a career outside a court or a convent. Fontana worked privately, for commissions, just like the male artists of the day. Fontana did portraits but also took on large projects with mythical or religious themes. She was very popular, and the noble women of Bologna competed for her attention. Many patrons of high status employed her, including one who would go on to become Pope. Lavinia Fontana was so successful, that her art commissions served as her dowry in marriage and her husband worked as her agent and assistant. With the expansion of opportunities and growing success of female artists, it is no wonder that the next generation took the next big steps towards Renaissance greatness. 

Fede Galizia:
Fede Galizia (1577-1630) was the daughter of a painter, but he did not intend to train her until he learned of Sofonisba Anguissola’s career. Galizia is best known for her still life's and she was considered a pioneer for her delicate touch in that art form. But, she also did portraits and religious works and, like Fontana, worked on commission. Galizia was even hired to create altar pieces for a church in Milan. One of the most interesting things about Galizia, though, is that she was first in a series of women artists to focus on the portrayal of heroic women in the Bible. Judith decapitating Holofernes was a favorite theme and Galizia, like the women who followed her lead, depicted subjects like Judith was strong and dignified, with none of the suggested sexualization that male artists tended to use.

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“The Allegory of Inclination”, Wikimedia commons

Artemesia Gentileschi:
Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1652) was one of most famous artists of her age. She was painting professionally in Venice by the time she was 15. She was raised by her father, who was also a painter, but Gentileschi went on to become a member of the Academy of Arts and Drawing in Florence. She worked on commissions and briefly served as a court painter, especially for the Medici family. Some of the greatest houses in Italy hired her, such as the family of Michelangelo, who hired her to do a ceiling panel. Gentileschi also corresponded with great thinkers across Italy, including Galileo Galilei, and it is thought he was the inspiration for the work she did on that ceiling—it features a nude holding a compass, entitled “The Allegory of Inclination.” Artemesia, not surprisingly, did a series of paintings of the biblical Judith, as well as other strong women such as Esther, Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, and Saint Cecilia.

Elisabeth Sirani:
Finally, Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665) had an amazing career in Bologna, cut short by a mysterious illness when she was only 27. Her father was a painter and an art dealer who took over the school of his own master and trained Elisabetta himself at first. But, as Bologna offered opportunities for women, she was able to move on to other academies and eventually opened an art academy for girls. Sirani did not hesitate to tackle grand historical or religious subjects in her paintings. More than 200 works of hers survive and she signed just about every piece. Sirani also painted a few versions of Judith and a variety of saints, but she might be best known for Timoclea killing Captain of Alexander the Great. According to the ancient historian Plutarch, Timoclea was a noble woman in Thebes who was assaulted by one of Alexander’s officers. In revenge, she pretended to lead him to her hidden wealth at the bottom of a well. When he stooped to look in, Timoclea pushed him to his death. Though other artists did survive assaults at the hands of male artists, Sirani seems to have simply been making a statement about strong women.

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Painting of Timoclea killing Captain of Alexander the Great by Sirani, Wikimedia Commons

Sirani was, by all accounts, a dazzling artist and some observers said she painted with such speed and perfection it was almost like she was “laughing” instead of working. Male critics who refused to believe a young woman could have produced such amazing work challenged her to paint a prince’s portrait in front of an audience to prove it was her own skill. She did so. She had such a loyal following that, upon her sudden death, contributions poured in to cover an elaborate funeral. Musicians composed works for the event and poets outdid one another with their heartfelt eulogies. But the experience and rights of European women was still emerging. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, women’s rights and freedoms looked considerably different. 

​Ottomans:
After the Mongols sacked Bagdad, destroying the riches of the Islamic Empire, the Muslim world was in disarray. Eventually, the Ottoman Empire emerged out of Turkey in the 1300s. There, the role and position of women shifted from the more public roles they played as Turkish tribes to the more segregated lives they lived in a thriving empire. At this point the faith of Islam was well established and it was up to a new government to give it political shape. Since this section explores later Islam, consider reviewing the impact of early Islam on women in 12: 700-1200 The Golden Age of Islam.​

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Harem woman, Wikimedia commons

For one thing the status of women in Islam had certainly taken a dive. One Ottoman writer explained, “The responsible officials [have] the great desire to restrain the barbarous and irrepressible bestiality of women who...with that reprobate [morally damned] and diabolical nature, force their men, with their honeyed poison, to submit to them.” 

When the Ottoman’s successfully conquered Constantinople in 1453, the empire was set to control the Mediterranean economy and thus the Ottoman patriarchy set about doing what all major empires had done: telling women what they could and could not do. Before you knew it women were socially removed from society, called “cloistering.” This was a social convention more than any dictate in Islamic law. 

One of the most enduring images of Ottoman women's segregation is the harem. The exotic and eroticized image of the harem is a Western obsession that overlooks the much more complex functioning of this important institution. 

A big contrast between European and Ottoman women was harem life. Ottoman harems were much different from Chinese harems, and both were eroticized in the Western imagination. In Ottoman society, the harem served to exclude women, but also to grant them freedom of expression. One contemporary observer wrote: “the women dress themselves very richly in silk. They wear cloaks down to the ground, lined just like those of the men. They wear closed-up boots but fitting tighter on the ankle and more arched than those of the men...They are fond of black hair, and if any women by nature does not posses it, she accuses it by artificial means...They decorate their hair with small bands of ribbon and leave them spread over their shoulders and falling over their dress. Covering their hair they have a colored strip of thin silk...On the head they also have a small round cap, neat and close fitting, embroidered with satin, damask, or silk and colored.”

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Mothers and other relatives of sultans, living cloistered lives became powerful and influential. Women of the harem used their wealth to support important projects and charities like supporting schools, hospitals, caravansaries, baths, fountains, soup kitchens, hostels, and mosques. Some estimate that about a quarter of Ottoman charitable foundations were started by royal women! This shows that women (who owned land in Ottoman society) were able to somewhat freely manage their wealth. 

Women of all social levels had the right to manage their property without patriarchal infiltration. They used the courts to defend their financial control, and it seems in most instances judges upheld these rights. Women were borrowers and lenders and had their own private businesses. During festivals women were allowed in public. But then those old concerns about women’s public morality created a backlash that forced them away again.

Lower class women lived different lives from their wealthy peers. They intermingled with men because they ran businesses, domestic errands, and other work that necessitated it. Primarily, women monopolized work in textile production, winding silk and spinning cotton. But women also sold food, were traders, operated public baths, brokered slave trades, and were entertainers. In the rural areas, women worked in agriculture and animal husbandry. 

Ottoman law created an imbalanced marriage system that favored men in numerous ways. Muslim men could marry non-Muslim women, but women could not. Men were permitted absolute authority over up to four spouses, but women were not. Men could divorce with relative ease, but women could not. But outside of the “law” marriages were a bit more egalitarian than meets the eye. Marriages were arranged, but women got prenuptial agreements and had the right to refuse a match. Even though the law allowed up to four wives, in the Ottoman empire, 95 percent of husbands had only one wife. Muslim women had, in reality, a much easier time getting divorced from neglectful and abusive husbands than their non-Muslim peers within the empire. So much so, that some women would convert to Islam in order to get divorced.

Ottoman women's status was probably equal to European women. Lady Elizabeth Craven, traveled through Crimea to Constantinople, and observed, “I think I never saw a country where women may enjoy so much freedom from all reproach, as in Turkey…. The Turks in their conduct towards our sex are an example to all other nations.”

​The Renaissance was a rebirth of art and culture– but it was in many ways a rebirth of the same old patriarchy. Women did not see widespread access to education or a major change in their status. 
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[Setting up the Inquiry] How many more women would we know about today if only they had had the chance to try? How would women find greater access to education and other means of self improvement? And what would bring about that shift?

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Bibliography

Goody, Jack, Renaissances: The One or the Many? (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Jennie R. Ebeling , Lynda Garland , Guity Nashat , Eric R. Dursteler "West Asia" The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Ed Bonnie G. Smith. Oxford University Press, 2008. Brigham Young University (BYU). 1 November2010 <http://www.oxfordreference.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t248.e1144-s4>

King, Margaret, Women of the Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 1991).

Miles, Rosalind. The Women’s History of the World. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988.

​​Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.

​Wellman, Kathleen, Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France (Yale University Press, 2013).

Primary AUTHOR:

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer and Kelsie Brook Eckert

Primary Reviewer:

Dr. Katherine Koh

Consulting Team

Editors

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant
Professor of History at Maryville University. 

Chloe Gardner, Consultant
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University

Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant
Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

​Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval
PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University

Amy Flanders
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Ron Kaiser
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Chris Canfield
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy

Reviewers

Ancient:
Dr. Kristin Heineman
Professor of History at Colorado State University
Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon
Professor of History at Wilson College
Sarah Stone
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University
Medieval:
Dr. Katherine Koh
Professor of History at La Sierra University
Dr. Jonathan Couser
Professor of History at Plymouth State University
Dr. Shahla Haeri
Professor of History at Boston University 
Lauren Cole
PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University
Modern:
Dr. Jack Gronau
Professor of History at Northeastern University