Imagine being one of the world’s most accomplished female artists and yet suffering the ignominy of having your works passed off under someone else’s name. Imagine being told that your name couldn’t appear on your works because of the sociopolitical climate of the era you worked in. Imagine being as qualified and as talented as your male peers but being forbidden from joining a guild of artists simply because you were female.

This, in fact, was the plight of numerous female artists.

Exquisite masterpieces created by 16th and 17th century women in Florence, Italy languished in dark basements, gathering dust and woodworms, until they were rediscovered and restored by female art historians and art foundations centuries later.

In 2005 Jane Fortune, an American author and philanthropist, founded The Florence Committee of the National Museum for Women in the Arts to raise awareness about the achievements of early female artists and preserve their works. Since then, The Florence Committee has taken care of several key restorations, including Lamentation with Saints, a large-scale Renaissance painting by Suor Plautilla Nelli, Florence’s first recognized female painter.

Later, in 2009, Jane Fortune founded the non-profit organization Advancing Women Artists Foundation, to research, restore and exhibit artwork by women, particularly in Florence, Italy. In 2013, PBS produced a television documentary Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence, based on her book of the same name. It went on to win an Emmy award for best documentary in the historical/cultural programme category.

Thanks to the efforts of Jane Fortune and others like her, today, the world is rediscovering the overlooked talented female artists of the past.

Florence, Italy

Sister Plautilla Nelli (1524–88), first known female Renaissance painter, was a nun belonging to the Dominican convent of St. Catherine of Siena located in Piazza San Marco, Florence.

Despite limited training and technical resources, she produced monumental artistic works. She also trained other nuns in her convent so that they could sell their works to patrons.

Image: WikiArt

Her works were mostly religious paintings; Lamentation with the Saints (shown above) is one of her finest pieces. After extensive restoration in 2006, the painting is displayed in the museum of San Marco.

Plautilla Nelli also created the Last Supper, the first such piece in the history of art by women. Nearly 16ft long, it is the largest work of art by an early female artist. Hidden from the public eye for more than 450 years, its restoration is expected to be complete by 2018. Currently, it is at the Florentine restoration studio of Rossella Lari, one of the Advancing Women Artists Foundation’s top conservators.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652), was an Italian Baroque painter and is today considered one of the most accomplished painters of that period. She was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (literally, the Academy of the Arts of Drawing) in Florence. Trained from an early age as an artist, her painting was influenced by several renowned artists such as Caravaggio.

She lived and painted in Florence, Rome and Naples during various phases of her life. Her life wasn’t easy—she lost her mother at 12, then, at the age of 17, she was raped by her father’s friend and endured a long and humiliating public trial to bring him to justice. She was then married off at 18 to an artist, and in her later years, struggled to raise her daughter by herself. She transcended these personal setbacks to become an accomplished artist.

View Full Image Image: WikiArt

She created several magnificent paintings such as Judith and her Maidservant (shown above), Bathsheba, Mary Magdalena and Judith Slaying Holofernes. As of today, just 34 of her paintings survive.

Florence, though, was not the only region where women artists flourished. Women were also creating art in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, India and other countries.

Flanders

Levina Teerlinc (1510-76) was a royal painter who painted Tudor miniature portraits for the English court of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Miniatures of other royals, Queen Mary I, Queen Elizabeth I, depict these women in their finest costumes and finest jewels. One of Levina’s miniatures of Elizabeth in her coronation robes, the robes themselves illustrated in great detail, depicts even the immaculate detail of the real diamond in the sceptre. Remarkable, when you consider that these miniatures were usually no more than 2 inches by 1 inch in size.

It is speculated that Levina possessed great skill, talent, and patience to have executed such incredible works. She exclusively focused on portrait miniatures that were rather like personal souvenirs. So, her works were not formally displayed anywhere and consequently Teerlinc never achieved much fame in her time or after. The nature of her work also makes it difficult to attribute them specifically to her.

View Full Image Image: Wikimedia Commons

Featured here is a portrait miniature of Elizabeth I created by Levina Teerlinc around 1565.

Netherlands

Maria van Oosterwyck (1630-93) was a Baroque-era artist who specialized in still life, notably fruit and flower paintings.

View Full Image Image: Fitzwilliam Museum

Despite the fact that her works were highly valued and held in high esteem across the continent, she was denied membership in the painters’ guild (The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe).

Germany

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), was a German Baroque-era illustrator and naturalist. Merian received her artistic training from her stepfather.

In 1675, at the age of 28, she published her first book of natural illustrations, titled Neues Blumenbuch. Her works are preserved and exhibited at several famous galleries worldwide.

View Full Image Image: Wikimedia Commons

Later, in 1705, she published what would become one of her major works, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, for which she gained fame.

She is considered by British naturalist David Attenborough to be among the most significant contributors to the field of entomology.

India

Women played a major role in the tribal art forms of India such as Madhubani, Warli painting and Gond art. Some of these art forms date back to the eighth or 10th century. References to folk paintings are found in early Indian classical texts including the Puranas.

Madhubani painting

The erstwhile region of Mithila, now divided between Bihar in India and Madesh in Nepal, is considered unique for a special reason. The women of the region, though leading conservative lives, painted intricate artwork on freshly plastered mud walls of their homes.

The style of painting came to be known as Mithila painting or Madhubani painting (after the Madhubani district in the region). The artwork is made with fingers, twigs, brushes and nib-pens. Colors are made using natural dyes and pigments. As of today, the art has evolved to include surfaces such as cloth, handmade paper and canvas.

View Full Image Photo: Hindustan Times

For decades though, Mithila painting was largely unknown to the outside world. That was until 1934, when after a devastating earthquake in Bihar, a British colonial officer in Madhubani came to inspect the damage caused by the disaster. The officer, William Archer, found the paintings on the interior walls of the homes.

Observing the elaborate paintings to be on par with the work of modern Western artists such as Picasso and Miro, he documented some of it through black-and-white photos and later brought them to the attention of the world.

As Mithila/Madhubani art grew to be appreciated and valued, it empowered women to step beyond their four walls and exhibit their works across the nation and even overseas.

Warli art

Though there is no documented evidence of its origins, the roots of Warli painting may be traced to as early as the 10th century AD in rural Maharashtra. To this day, it is treated as an art form from Maharashtra.

View Full Image Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Typically done on a brick red or black background with a white foreground (which was earlier made using only rice paste, but now uses artificial colour), Warli painting depicts stick figures going about everyday tasks or performing traditional rituals. While in its early years, the art form was only used on surfaces such as the inner and outer walls of houses in villages, later it evolved to paper, cloth and canvas, similar to Madhubani.

Gond art

Gonds are the largest Adivasi community in India, mainly found in Madhya Pradesh and its surrounding states.

View Full Image Photo: Hindustan Times

Similar to the other tribal art forms, Gond art was traditionally painted on mud walls of houses and today is found on canvas, paper, silkscreen prints, and animated film. They are brightly coloured with intricate detailing.

China

Chen Shu (1660–1736) was a female Chinese painter during the early Qing dynasty. She often painted figures, birds, insects, plants, landscapes and flower-and-bird paintings.

Even as a child, Chen Shu would often copy famous works of painting or calligraphy. Later, she became a proficient artist in her own right.

When her son became a prominent statesman in the court of the Qianlong emperor, her works gained more visibility. Several of them found a place in the imperial collection.

View Full Image Image: Wikimedia Commons

Some of her most famed works include Three Friends (Sanyou tu, 1731) and Plum Blossoms and Magpie (Meique tu, 1716). Pictured above is Red Plum and Camellia Flowers (1717).

Japan

Ike Gyokuran (1727–84), is one of the most notable early artists of Japan. Her works included paintings and calligraphy.

Gyokuran painted folding screens and sliding doors, handheld scrolls, hanging scrolls and fan paintings. She was famous in Kyoto during her lifetime, and she remains a celebrated artist in Japan.

View Full Image Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Back in the 18th century, women artists in Japan were almost non-existent. This makes Ike Gyokuran’s contribution to the field all the more valuable.

Mamta D. works in the technology industry by the day. She writes now and then. She counts cinema, travel and food among her interests. Her stories and features have appeared in various publications. Two of her works were also part of international anthologies. She is based in Mumbai, India.

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