Woman as Artist, Subject, or Patron in Baroque Art

Many elements must scram unneurotic for a ikon to be considered successful. Perhaps paramount in 17th century Europe were the guidelines sic forth for art following the Council of Trent Clarity, realism and emotional stimulus. Many workmans fulfilled these requirements in their own shipway Rubens employed his mastery of drawing, eon Caravaggio masked his appargonnt lack of skill by inventing a unseas iodined way of painting, tenebrism (Caravaggism). While clarity could be established relatively easily, this doesnt mean images had to be simple.One of the most mingled elements of Baroque painting is the use of women as subjects, particularly women of power, be they princely, biblical, or artists themselves. Artemisia Genteleschis Judith Slaying Holofernes (1620) prefaces a female jaguar drawing on her own experiences to depict a heroine defeating a great enemy as only a lady could. creature Paul Rubens Medici Cycle (1622-25), specific eithery The Presentation of Her Portr ait to hydrogen IV, shows the product of a woman patron trying to glorify herself as a queen and free her political ideals while being presented quite literally as an object to her husband-to-be.Finally, Diego Valazquezs Las Meninas (1656), a royal family portrait focusing on the daughter of Philip the IV and Mariana of Spain, however using the commission as a vehicle to draw attention to the artist and p brace his craft. Using these three works, one washstand conclude that a woman, present as the artist, the patron or a decorative faux-subject, was a very powerful animal in Baroque art. Artemesia Genteleschis Judith Slaying Holofernes shows the Old Testament story of a Jewish widow and her maiden beheading the Assyrian commander Holofernes to save the city of Bethulia.The history of the artist is a strong influence on this work, as Artemesia was raped at age 17 by an associate of her father. Mary ONeill points out in her article Artemesias Moment that rape in the 17th centur y was a crime against a familys love rather than the victim herself. This surely doesnt mean there is an absence of the psychological harm that accompanies the crime, and this work is seen as a revenge painting, an outlet for the artist to voice her feelings on a personal subject.Maybe one of the first examples of art therapy, a very powerful and deliberate action is taking place empowering women while go alonging their femininity in tact, as mentioned in Mieke Bals article,Head Hunting Judith on the Cutting keenness of Knowledge. Bal says the three major jobs in womens lives are life-giving, in this case, saving the city and its residents life taking, the killing of Holofernes and in between, hard work, the two women with their sleeves rolled up, completing a task. The fact that the artist is female plays a gravid part in the mood and reception of the painting by both men and women.In this case we can compare it to a male-painted version of the same event. Caravaggios, Judith Beheading Holofernes (1599) shows the two women as apprehensive toward their charge and involuntary to make a mess, but the most striking visual difference is the red sash present in the background of both paintings, in Caravaggios, it remains hanging as it should be in the space, in Artemesias, it has fallen over the victim (victim? ) suggesting a battle has taken place and the women have triumphed.In Rubens Medici Cycle, Louis VIII had come of age while his mother acting as regent, ruled France, when he grew tired of her policies, Marie de Medici commissioned the artist to make 26 paintings depicting events in her life to be shown to members of the French court and important visitors, with the disembodied spirit to glorify herself as a legitimate ruler of France, Painted Propaganda, as David Freedberg puts it in his book Peter Paul Rubens Oil Paintings and Oil Sketches. She was not meant to be shown as a mere member of the royal family, but as the single ruler of the country in which her son was the rightful ruler.The fourth painting in this series, The Presentation of Her Portrait to Henry IV, shows the lady patron as a portrait, an object, being presented to a man, her husband-to-be. Though a woman as an object is generally seen as degrading, the way in which she is presented by deities and allegorical personifications strengthens the perception of the Medici Hymenaios and Amor escort the portrait to the King while Jupiter and Juno look on in encomium and France stands behind Henry in support of the union. She also engages the poster, staring directly out of both frames, something the Kings isnt satisfactory to accomplish.This series wasnt meant to be viewed differently by men and women, only to glorify the female monarch Mother of France to all people of France. The painting was produced at a time when Marie de Medici needed the support of her people, and although her attempt to keep the potbelly was ultimately unsuccessful, this painting among the series is a strong example of what women could accomplish as patrons to artists. Diego Valazquezs Las Meninas shows the more handed-down negative way women can be shown as objects. composition dominated by women, the foreground depicts the girl of Philip IV and Mariana of Spain, Infanta Margarita surrounded by maids, dwarves, pets, other people important to the royal family as she goes about apparently unimportant tasks. To her right, stands the artist, aposentador to the King, staring out at the audience as he paints. The king and queen are alluded to in a mirror on the back wall, present in the viewers space, as their carnal presence in a portrait with the artist would be disrespectful. The artist takes advantage of this commission to raise his own status as an artist and member of the court.He does this by pretending Margarita is the subject, Magnificently dressed and centered, but bored and uninterested, only there to showcase the artists skill as a painter along with her s ervants. The male monarch is also taken advantage of, present with her King in the background. Michel Foucault points out the objectivity of the King and Queen in his in-depth interpretation of the work in the first chapter of The Order of Things, In the midst of all those advertent faces, all those richly dressed bodies, they are the palest, the most unreal, the most compromised of all the paintings images. only present to produce the idea of the work the raise the artist and the art higher in the community. Men and women would both view this work similarly, showcasing the artists mastery of spacial representation and perspective, with underlying tones of narcissism as they discover the highly grace and scholarly painter peeking out from behind the canvas. In these three very different views of women in paintings, as artists, as patrons, and as objects, we see how women were depicted, or used, as subjects in seventeenth-century art.It seems views of women have remained the same in the a few(prenominal) hundred years since these works were completed, they can be seen as powerful, inspirational and strong, but also passive, boring, or as mere filler. The differences in composition, mood, and ideas were fun to discover as you move from a woman painter depicting a biblical event while drawing from her own experiences to a man attempting to keep a woman in the lifestyle to which shes become accustomed and not be executed himself.