Women During The Renaissance Era

The Renaissance era took place between 1300 – 1700 AD. The well suited title of this era, Renaissance, is Italian for “rebirth.” During this period a “rebirth” or resurgence of interest for the Classical era and values was shown, starting with the Italians and eventually spreading throughout Western Europe. Despite being stated as an epicenter of social revolutions, the time period very much enforced gender discrimination and female stereotyping. These values were usually displayed through the paintings of the era that portrayed woman. An especially interesting rebirth at the time was the rebirth of allegorical paintings with female subjects. Women displayed in allegorical paintings are seemingly void of the societal restrictions that many

1572) is the most different between the two previous paintings mentioned. The difference lies in that the origin stories for his depicted goddesses lack a clear mythological tale to derive from. His painting present three goddesses that carry the traits/values of Justice, Chastity, Fortitude, Philosophy, Temperance, and Victory. It was not uncommon for Renaissance era artists to personify such values in an allegorical form. Ambrogio Lorenzetti used the common personifications within his depiction of The Effects of Good and Bad Government (ca. 1338 -1339). The painting is done using the chiaroscuro painting style as displayed by the intense shadow background and clearly depicts three main female subjects. In the center is dressed a female in white garb, carrying a sword and scale which is indicative of Justice. On the left hand side of the painting is a women dressed in armor with a lion and rabbit seated near her throne and with her foot on a globe. The armor is most likely depicting Fortitude within this character. The female on the right hand side parallels Fortitude with the matching use of blue and yellow garb. The right hand female holds a wreath in her hand, indicative of Victory, but under her foot is another female figure’s head. The female figure under the foot of Victory is painted to have a claw like hand and is an association of this female figure being a Sphinx and an allegory to the triumph over Lust. This allegorical painting is filled with many nuanced references. The multitude of animals depict different qualities that are associated with the different goddesses as well as the center female, who is dressed in white, is supposed to represent an emphasis of Chastity. However, the most intriguing part of this painting is the association with the deadly sin, Lust, and a Sphinx figure. Though a female Sphinx is most related to the Greek myth that surrounds the Sphinx, the association with Lust is not necessarily