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= Gender Roles in Art =

Antique/Pre-History
Source #1

- women embody traits such as beauty, domesticity, and passivity.

- males principles of power, dominance, and social status.

- Representations of male nudity, such as in Greek sculpture, underline the physical perfection of the male body, representing superiority and civic authority.

- In the antique world gender attributes served to emphasize and elevate the human and superhuman characteristics of gods, goddesses, and mythological figures.

- Female figures in Roman art frequently represent virtues such as justice or piety or symbolize wisdom and victory.

Source #2

- Venus figurines are the most indicative of this era. They are highly stylized depictions of women with exaggerated female parts representing fertility and sexuality.

- They are most common in the Mediterranean region, but there are examples from as far as Siberia. Archaeologists can only speculate on their meaning, but their ubiquitous nature indicates a universal human attraction to art and possibly religion.

- Venus figurines—an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric female statuettes portrayed with similar physical attributes—were very popular at the time. These figurines were carved from soft stone (such as steatite, calcite, or limestone), bone or ivory, or formed of clay and fired.

Source #3

- This view, which proposed the male nude as the true vehicle of beauty, constitutes a reversal of the dominant trend in Western art history that has historically identified the female body as a passive receptacle for sexual desire, and the male body as an agent of virtue and heroism.

Middle-Ages
Source #1

- During the Middle Ages, presentations of gender were sublimated mostly in depictions of biblical figures.

- Notably a single figure, that of the Virgin Mary, represented most of the attributes associated with the feminine in an idealized figure.

- Furthermore, moralistic tendencies in the representations of gender relations can be found from the late Middle Ages onwards, as in the so-called Weibermacht (woman's power) depictions showing maltreatment of men at the hands of women. These depictions by male artists represent the polarity of viewing the female sex: idealization or misogynism.

Source #4

- Gendered expression of identity where fashion speaks as a narrative for the society in which he lived.

Source #5

- Medieval gender ideals derived from western Europe’s dual Roman and Germanic heritage, from medical theories inherited from the ancient world, and from religious, primarily Christian, ideology.

- These attitudes influenced medieval legal thinking, and, in general, women were placed under masculine authority. Medieval medical theory defined gender according to the principle of the humours, which determined men to be hot and dry and women cool and moist.

- Furthermore, women were thought to be more subject to sexual desire as a way of obtaining men’s greater heat. Religious ideology identified Adam and Eve as the primary gender models resulting in a reinforcement of male authority and a female fallibility.

- The primary models for femininity and masculinity, especially in the case of female representation, were provided by biblical and other holy figures.

- Visually, this superiority was frequently expressed by the tendency to depict men to Christ’s right (the viewer’s left), the favoured position, and women to his left in numerous works of art.

- Representations of female saints sometimes combined Eve’s sensual corporeality with Mary’s purity.

- Reinforcing the medieval association between women and corporeality.

- The iconography of the Holy Family also reinforced gendered norms, in this case in a familial context. Initially, the family relationship between God the Father, Christ, and the Virgin Mary reinforced patriarchal authority within the family, but rejected any possibility of being both sanctified and sexual.

Renaissance/Baroque
- Engaged with gender issues, particularly in discussing the social role of the feminine.

- the virtues that Boccaccio saw women capable of achieving were established "male qualities" of the time.

- In Renaissance and Baroque visual arts, mostly made by men, female figures appear less often than depictions of men, irrespective of whether they are the central figures or not. In addition to their outnumbering presentations, males are mostly depicted in dominant and central positions.

- Since the Middle Ages demonology had been chiefly associated with femininity. Trials of witchcraft promoted discussions of gender issues and influenced the visual arts. In Renaissance graphic art, especially in northern Europe, female sorcery was a popular theme.

- The male was defined by attributes of profession and social statues. Female portraiture in Italian Renaissance art was not meant to be a direct representation of the individual.

- Eroticism—the sublimation and stylization of sexual desire—depends on culture and social milieu. In art this relation is reflected in the sublimation of sexuality. Traditionally the key elements associating gender themes to visual issues have been female sexuality and nudity. Nudity and sexuality are the predominant aspects of gender themes in Renaissance and Baroque visual art.

- The era also saw the emergence of female patronage in arts.

- Seventeenth-century Dutch portraits of women, however, express a new trend toward gender identity: men and women figures are not presented anymore as an ideal or a symbol but mostly in their realistic surroundings in a neutral manner.

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century
- During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a gradual shift from an emphasis on gender to an emphasis on class.

- Sexism and patriarchism were prevalent in the nineteenth century. In Victorian English art, traditional binary gender distinctions prevailed.

- Moralistic concepts of pure and modest womanhood, glorification of domestic life, and Christian ethics influenced gender visual imagery.

- Such established gender types as the mother, the female as a lover or courtesan, and the femme fatale were often represented in Art Nouveau works by male artists.

- Reciprocal roles and interchangeable gender identities manifest themselves in the art of Art Nouveau.

Twentieth Century
- The appearance of new fashion designs for women in the beginning of the twentieth century with its acknowledged elements designating traditional masculine features signaled a change in gender identity and the emergence of a cross-gender figure.

- Gender perceptions in the 1960s and 1970s were defined by the emergence of the feminist movement. Art of both genders became instruments of political and social change.

- In visual art since the 1970s, physical appearance and gender distinctions blur.

- Lesbian visual art as it has emerged since the 1960s is multifaceted yet does not represent a cohesive stylistic movement.

- This "queer" art has explored and broken down the conventions of traditional gender and sexual roles.

Feminism
- Feminist art history is closely related with the feminist movement. One of the earliest themes of feminist art historians was that of the male gaze and its consequence on visual art.

Source #1

[https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/gender-art#:~:text=In%20classical%20art%2C%20gender%20qualities,%2C%20dominance%2C%20and%20social%20status. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/gender-art#:~:text=In%20classical%20art%2C%20gender%20qualities,%2C%20dominance%2C%20and%20social%20status.]

Source #2

https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/cavestocathedrals/part/prehistory/

Source #3

http://omeka.wellesley.edu/piranesi-rome/exhibits/show/winckelmann/desire-and-the-male-body

Source #4

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/medieval-women-unveiled-fashion-gender-and-piety

Source #5

Rachel Dressler. “Gender Studies in Medieval Art.” Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, 2012.