Discuss several factors that discouraged or limited women’s creativity during the 17th and 18th centuries and into the early years of the 19th century. Be sure to consider how different social categories impacted their lives and work (for example, race and class). How did women challenge these power structures that attempted to discourage their creativity? How successful were they with these challenges? Use examples in text and multimedia to illustrate your discussion.
For this post make sure that you take some time to acquaint yourselves to some women composers of the Baroque Period and what little opportunities they had to obtain patronage, as in an institution like the church, a court or a theater. The few that did manage to make a career of composing against adversity had determination and some powerful patrons, and in some cases, a supportive family in addition to great talent, as with Barbara Strozzi of Venice.
Also don’t miss watching A. Vickery’s video on the “Story of Women in Art” Part II. Here you will see a visually stunning video of women artists and craftswomen from the 18th c. in Britain to the end of the 18th c. in France and Italy. This century was known for its great talent in male painters and architects, as in Gainsborough, Hogarth, Reynolds and Robert Adam. However, there were women of enormous talent in both the crafts, painting, sculpture, print making and fashion. How did some of them reach the heights of patronage and fashion to make their own livelihoods? Did they all need aristocratic patronage, as did Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun? How did some influence fashion design in fabrics, like Anna Garthwaite in London? What became of these women latter in their lives? See this video for the answers to these questions.
