Pure and Sinful: The Many Faces of Women in the 16th
Century
In the study of gender it is argued
that “society exaggerates the biological sexual difference between the male and
female thus producing ideals”[i] as
will be shown in the portrayals of 16th century women. Men and women
are different and there is no denying that but when focusing on society it is
not necessarily the biological difference but the roles men and woman play.
These roles coincide with the issues of the secular and religious attitudes of
the time for example the ideal of the Virgin Mary or the writings and images
about beauty. How do these images and writings define what it means to be a
woman and do these truly show their identity or a single ideal?
With the identity of women in mind
there are three important subjects: status, secular, and religious life. When
one thinks of status the first thing that comes to mind is life at court. An
author well known at the time was Baldassare Castiglione whom in 1528 wrote The
Book of the Courtier. Most of the book addresses the constitution of a
perfect courtier or a male who attends the court of a powerful person but the
last installment addresses the perfect lady or courtesan. A woman of court must
be “well born and of good house. To have a good grace in all her doings”[ii].
This meaning like the courtier the lady must be of noble lineage and also she
must be graceful in everything. “To have the understanding being married, how
to order her husband’s substance, her house and children, and to play the good
housewife”[iii].
This is important because it defines the woman as a person whom only stays at
home and does things for her family and husband, not herself. “To give the
hearing of such kind of talk with blushing and bashfulness and to apparel herself
so, that she seem not fond and fantastistcal”[iv] This idea
of blushing plays into the persona of a women as someone whom should be meek
and not straightforward and her clothes should be reasonable and not overly
showy. “To show such a one all signs and tokens of love, saying such as may put
him in a dishonest hope”[v].
This brings another aspect of the woman and her sexual power, don’t lead men
on. This idea goes back all the way to Eve in which she was considered the
temptress. Two Venetian Woman by
Vittore Carpaccio also known as the courtesans wear fine clothes and pearl
necklaces. Several objects around the figures allude to the chastity of the
women like the white kerchief and doves but they bend showing their cleavage in
a sexual manner.
This identity of the meek and passive
woman continued in the secular realm. Portraiture was an important tool of the
time not just as a work of art but also to establish an image of identity. This
identity was to portray the ideal beauty and at the time there were popular
writings which immortalized the idea. Lorenzo the Magnificent in his writings
recalls a lost Florentine beauty, “Her beauty as I have said, was wonderful:
she was of an attractive size and ideal height; the tone of her complexion was
white yet not pallid, fresh yet not glowing”[vi]. This
idea of the white complexion is used throughout the portraits of women.
Not to say that some didn’t had
different views on the subject of cosmetics like Leonardo whom said, “And have
you not seen the poor mountain folk wrapped in their rude clothing possess much
greater beauty than those who are lavishly adorned?”[vii]. Even though
there were some who disagreed with the vanity most in the secular realm praised
the ideal. It may seem surprising that the bodily features were focused on but
to some the woman leads to God. The Platonists or followers of Plato described
three kinds of beauty: the soul, body, and voice. “Only the mind can crave the
first, which consists in the soul’s perfection through virtue. Bodily beauty
comes from a well-proportioned and pleasing appearance and appeals to the eyes
while words that are well spoken reach through the ears”[viii]. A
woman with true beauty will have all three of these.
In Florence from 1440 to 1550 there
was a boom of female portraiture since artists were expanding out of the realm
of court life. The portraiture was not really about the individual but traits
that the woman shared with women of the same class. Looking at the portraits
one might think that “Florentine women of the time all had long necks, golden
hair, pearly white skin, sparkling blue eyes, ad rosy lips and cheeks”[ix].
This of course is not true but it reflects the idea of beauty mostly coming
from literature. Poets and artists seemed to celebrate the virtues of women
like modesty and chastity in an act of commemoration. “It is often observed
that women are nearly always seen by men to represent something other than
themselves-ideals, symbols, allegories”[x]. This was
a known effect and something people of that time understood because of the
church’s use of symbolic and allegorical terms.
In defining a woman
through portraits marriage was the biggest event in a 16th century
woman’s life. “A strong case can be made that visual representations of women
were made during the period up to six years following marriage”[xi] A
great example of this is Fra Filippo Lippi’s Portrait of a Woman and a Man
at a Casement. Looking at this image you can tell that she is no longer a
bride because brides were known to wear their hair down for the ceremony
because it symbolized innocence but married women had to tightly bind their
hair. Her outfit is also very extravagant with the crimson color and flamboyant
sleeves. The jewels have a symbolic nature also in that they signify marriage
because jewels were something that would have been exchanged during marriage.
“Pearls were by far the costliest of gem and their repeated use in this
portrait shows the wealth and splendor of this marriage and social alliance”[xii].
The white of the pearls can also be associated with purity. Her hair also has a
significance even though Italians would have had dark coloring here she has
fair hair. Dye was actually used to color the hair to resemble “beloved golden
locks” like in Botticelli’s Primavera. Like all fads this one began to
fade and women began showing their natural hair color. One can also notice the
extreme expanse of her forehead, women actually would pluck to the hairline to
increase the expanse and this made them look more elegant. Looking at the
portraits by Antonio del Pollaiuolo of some ladies one can see the similarities
except the covering around the ears which is said to hale from “the belief that
the Virgin conceived through the ear”[xiii].
In looking at these
portraits the viewer can see that the female image is in profile instead of
focusing on the face, almost looking like the side of a coin instead of a
painting. This gave the impression that the female was contained also there is
no eye contact since most likely the viewer would be male. This wasn’t
necessarily the standard for Europe since Hans
Memling painted Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, Wife of Tommaso Portinari, shown
here is the Burgundian fashion in which her hair is “concealed under a black
headdress edged with black velvet and covered with a gray veil, her velvet
bodice trimmed with white ermine”[xiv].
Around her neck the viewer can see the collar of pearls, gold, and gems. The
hair seems to be less of a factor since it is completely covered up. This norm
of portraiture eventually started to branch out and a turning point was Ginerva
de’ Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. In this you can actually see nature in the
background combined with the colors of her garments which mirrors the colors of
the nature. She is a lady of high authority but she isn’t adorned in jewels.
This in part is probably due to the Sumptuary laws which stated “with the
exception of a single brooch and three rings, all ornaments of gold or silver,
jewels, or pearls; clothed dyed crimson; and furs are forbidden”[xv].
This painting was painted in a highly individual way since women could no
longer be extravagantly covered in jewels. A similar one also done by Leonardo
is the famous Mona Lisa, her stance can be said to be different in that
she turns to greet the viewer. The connection between woman and nature is made
again due to the background but the misty quality makes it appear more
dreamlike almost as the viewer is peering into her mind.
Following Leonardo’s changes
eroticism became more prominent. Giulio Romano‘s Doña Isabel de Requesens is
an example. The red velvet of her garment makes one think of the pleasures of
love, her sleeves billow almost like the tussled sheets of a bed. “A marten fur
lies suggestively over one shoulder, and a red velvet hat, crowns her long,
golden tresses, that float erotically loose”[xvi]. The
fact that her finger tips toy with the fur makes one think of pleasure and her
knees appear to be wide apart. This image in the secular aspect is fine but in
the context of religion would have been borderline heretical. In Europe woman
were in the shadow of Eve so they are weak and not to be trusted. There is one
woman who could do no wrong and that is Mary. Women could be redeemed if they
followed in the footsteps of the Virgin Mary.
A lot of the images of the Virgin had
roles in which could be connected with women in general. A good example is
Raphael’s Madonna della Sedia in which Mary is a real flesh and blood
woman with her chubby Jesus; here the viewer can see the bond between mother
and child. A book also told of famous women other than Mary whom other women
should strive to be. Boccaccio’s Concerning Famous Women spoke for
example of a woman named Lucretia who “Cleansed her shame harshly, and for this
reason should be exalted with worthy praise for her chastity”[xvii].
In the story she was raped so she killed herself in order to not bring dishonor
to her family.
Women’s roles changed during the
Reformation in Northern Europe. This depended on what their status was at the
time. In the religious realm women in convents, both nuns and lay sisters were
first affected. With the Protestant change the convents were closed down and
the nuns were encouraged to marry. Some convents actually fought the change and
a famous case was St. Clara Convent in Nuremberg. “The council first sent
representatives to try to persuade the nuns and then began a program of
intimidation. None of the measures were successful and the council eventually
left the convent alone, although it forbade the taking in of new novices”[xviii].
Katherine Von Bora a nun unsatisfied with convent life sent a message to Martin
Luther asking for help and he arranged to have Katherine “and eleven of her
fellow nuns smuggled out of the convent hidden on a supply wagon on the eve of
Easter 1523”[xix].
Later she was to marry Martin Luther. Leaders of the Catholic Reformation tried
to do the opposite by telling young women to disobey their parents and enter
convents to escape arranged marriages.
Not every woman of course was a nun
and these family women were exposed to things like “protestant pamphlets
portraying the pope with the whore of Babylon”[xx]. The Protestants
did have similar views with Catholicism in that marriage was a woman’s highest
calling. Unmarried women were looked down upon because they were fighting the
natural order and as some would say were “masterless”. With the coming of the
Protestants also meant the doing away with the veneration of Mary. They were
instructed to pray to Christ instead of a woman whom had been a mother. “The
Protestant Reformation not only downplayed women’s public ceremonial role; it
also stripped the calendar of celebrations honoring women and ended the power
female saints and their relics were believed to have on people’s lives”[xxi]. To
Luther Mary was made into a God whom only showed obedience to God and wasn’t
the true vessel, God himself. Luther wrote, “To invoke the Virgin Mary and the
saints may make a beautiful show of holiness; but we must stay together under
the head, or we are eternally damned. What will become of those who crawl for
shelter under Mary’s cloak?”[xxii]
They wanted to make an emphasis on Mary’s humanity; she is not the “queen of
heaven”. Even old woodcuts were reinterpreted into a Lutheran context like
Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Holy Kindred. The original woodblock was of St
Anne with Mary and Christ and her family but the attentions were changed to
focus on the importance of education for children and how parents were
obligated.
Schooling was very important
especially to teach and spread Protestantism. Schools were opened for both boys
and girls but even that was outweighed by the war and destruction caused by
reform, a woman wasn’t allowed to marry again if her husband went to war unless
it was absolutely certain that he was dead. Also women were banned from
discussing religion publicly unless it was a mystical vision since this was an
acceptable path to God for women. A new label that came about was a pastor’s
wife since now pastors in the protestant religion were allowed to marry. Life
for the wife of a pastor was difficult though since “former priests or monks,
these men had never been worried about an income and continued to leave such
things in God’s or their wives’ hands”[xxiii].
Noblewomen had to live by the same rules as commoners but they had the most
opportunity to express their religious convictions. Female occupations not
necessarily their own but their husbands’ were effected due to the change in
religious practices for example the demand for votive candles went down so they
were forced to find other ways to support themselves. As can be seen most women
experienced the Reformation as individuals and not society as a whole which was
prominent with Catholicism.
Unfortunately the worst of what women
suffered wasn’t losing money but sometimes death. The reformation served to
intensify the process of witch-hunting and helped the hunt spread from place to
place. Witch hunting actually began about one hundred years before the
reformation in the middle ages. Women were said to be more susceptible to the
devil since they could be deceived and seduced easily, people felt sorry for the
women but the only way to help them was to kill them. One account was of a man
who warned his mother “since she was a simple and ignorant person that this
demon was doing things which were not right, that in fact were contrary to our
faith”[xxiv].
As early as the 13th century it was said that women were prone to
witchcraft since they were “in every way morally and mentally inferior to men”[xxv].
This image was constantly confirmed until it was just assumed that witches were
female. One of the arguments used to support this was the devil was male and
there is usually ritual copulation so the witch must be female. The rise in
women with courtly love and the Virgin Mary may have also had a hand in that it
separates the women as good and evil. The evil qualities become something of a
principal and are looked at more. Evil becomes more humanized and thus the
growth of the witch belief increases.
One of the factors was the increased
fear of the devil. Martin Luther actually reported having “active bouts with
Satan and that we are all subject to the Devil, both in body and goods”[xxvi].
This concern emphasized more so the heretical side of witchcraft rather than
the magical. Ironically the rise of the Protestants itself appeared too many
Catholics as the work of Satan which caused more fear. Another aspect was the
idea of the morally conscious Christian, that you alone are a sinner and
responsible for it. This produced extreme guilt and a way to get rid of it was
to simply transfer it to another person. “The ideal object of such projection
was a witch, a person who personified evil”[xxvii]. Evil
was also associated with superstition and this produced a conundrum since it
deprived people of forms of protection, like medals of saints, against evil.
The reformation led to many translations of the bible and this lead to a deadly
misinterpretation. Exodus 22:18
states “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” witch actually meaning a
poisoner not a sorcerer. This didn’t matter because “to deny the possibility,
nay, actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly to contradict
the revealed word of God”[xxviii]. This literal interpretation would later be
the undoing of witch persecution since the Bible contains little references to
witchcraft and that God restrained all diabolical powers in the world.
Women are often hidden in history as
is their intimate reality shown in portraits but they still depict real women.
The viewer may not see the conflict in the idealic sitter but it doesn’t mean
it isn’t there. The female portraits aren’t necessarily the real experience of
women but they do tell the viewer the relationship between life and art. What seem
to define a woman are relationships in general. Men dominated the public space
and a woman was defined by her husband, she essentially was a poster board for
his wealth. The woman was behind the scenes but without her the man would be
lost as was evident in the Reformation when the priests were allowed to marry.
The early images of women seemed to focus on ideals but later in the century
artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Giulio Romano delve deeper into the image
showing the woman’s true power, maybe that’s why Mona Lisa has that smirk
because she knows.
[i] Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide To Writing about Art(Pearson, 9th
edition), 228-231
[iii] Castiglione, Baldassare. The book of the courtier(New York
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903),
374
[v] Castiglione, Baldassare. The book of the courtier (New York
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903),
376.
[vi] Herald, Jacqueline. “The Image of
Beauty: 1450-1480”, Renaissance
dress in Italy
[vii] Herald, Jacqueline. “The Image of Beauty:
1450-1480”, Renaissance
dress in Italy
[viii] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 59.
[ix] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 12.
[x] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 41.
[xi] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 65.
[xii] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 67.
[xiii] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 67.
[xiv] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 69.
[xv] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 73.
[xvi] Brown, David. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits
of Women (Princeton University Press, 2003), 81.
[xviii] Wiesner, Merry. “Nuns, Wives, and Mothers: Women and the Reformation in
Germany”, Women in Reformation
and Counter Reformation Europe: Public and Private
Worlds, (1989): 291.
[xix] Zophy, Jonathan. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe
Dances Over Fire and Water
(Pearson Education, 2009), 188.
[xx] Zophy, Jonathan. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe
Dances Over Fire and Water
(Pearson Education, 2009), 293.
[xxi] Wiesner, Merry. “Nuns, Wives, and Mothers: Women and the Reformation in
Germany”, Women in Reformation
and Counter Reformation Europe: Public and Private
Worlds, (1989): 295.
[xxiii] Wiesner, Merry. “Nuns, Wives, and Mothers: Women and the Reformation in
Germany”, Women in Reformation
and Counter Reformation Europe: Public and Private
Worlds, (1989): 302.
[xxiv] Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in
the 16th and 17th
Centuries (John Hopkins University Press, 1992), 66.
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