Sargent vs Strong Women in Renaissance Italy
Sofonisba Anguissola self-portrait about 1556, medallion is inscribed in Latin: "The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, at Cremona."
My visit to the Museum of Fine Art Boston (MFA), was nothing short of dissapointing. I went as I had learned about the Strong Women in Renaissance Italy Exhibition, the post I saw on instagram had an accompanying image of Sofonisba Anguissola, an artist I so deeply admire and look up in my own art career.
My excitement was palpable to my sister who I had brought along with me, we both wanted to experience the wonderfulness of these daring women who had lived creative lives in times when women were so restricted by custom, tradition and society. What I found in the exhibition was 5 women artist being identified by name, with small to miniature artworks. An institution with the reputation and the size of the MFA, could most certainly have organised a larger exhibition and could have used its resources to borrow and showcase a wider range of artworks. The exhibition was held in one large room, there were few visitors to the exhibition. From the 5 female artists I spotted, only 1 of them had several artworks, others only had 1 artwork.
The rest of the exhibition focused on discussing, what women wore during the Renaissance, the customs of marriage, it also showcased tapestry, textiles, lace, among other objects. I read in a couple of places the role of women in focusing on working in creating tapestry, lace, as well as on embroidery. All the aforementioned were considered adequate things for women to do. There were other texts talking about patronage, and another one discussed sorcery.
I felt confused, I did not know what to make of the exhibition. I was immensely grateful at first that I got to see Sofonisba’s self-portrait in person for the first time, but I also could not avoid feeling upset. I voiced this to my sister, and she agreed that the exhibition was not what she had expected either. Given that we were already in the museum and that we had paid a supplement of $7 US dollars to see the exhibition which was also being held at the time on John S. Sargent, called Fashioned by Sargent. I want to mention that on the main entrance to the museum there were two very large banners at the top of the entrance mentioning the Sargent exhibition and no mention of the Strong Women in Renaissance Italy (on the website, the main page also makes a large reference to Sargent’s exhibition, you can see for yourself by clicking here: MFA.org ).
The Sargent exhibition was large, with timeslots allocated for visits, and the rooms were full, it was difficult at times to navigate it. It was impressive and astonishing. I enjoyed every painting and as I walked through every room (there were at least 4 or 5 large rooms from what I remember). I imagine how much time Sargent must have devoted to make the paintings on exhibit. And immediately the thoughts that followed, were how many women were probably in his life facilitating, meals, cleaning, clothing, looking after pets or children, while he was devoted to his art.
The stark contrast with the exhibitions left me feeling uncomfortable, in the way that I feel when I think about how unjust we women artist have it. I am writing this reflection about my visit, to bring awareness to what is so prevalent still in the art world. Women are overlooked and relegated in much the same way that it has been for centuries, not much has changed for us, and I no longer can just be thankful to see art that doesn’t reflect us and our stories when I go to museums and large institutions. I have refused to attend museums that don’t hold women artists in their permanent collection or who don’t exhibit contemporary women artists, it is no longer acceptable that women continue to be between 70 to 80 of subjects in paintings in museums, with a large portion of them being naked women, and only under 10% of the artists being women. These rough statistics are taken from the fantastic work by Guerrilla Girls . In addition, it is not enough that women are paid only 10% of what male artists receive for artworks, as I explained in a previous post. Especially as women make about 70% of art students.
May 2024 bring more visibility and awareness as well as advocacy for women artists including for myself, and if it doesn’t may we continue to raise our voices, type our texts, make our art and demand what is rightfully ours, equality.
