Artarterie – Women in ancient art | December

Women have always been present in art. The first sculptural depictions we know of are actually statues depicting the fair sex. From the earliest times they were muses, inspirations, painted, sculpted, worshipped. Paradoxically, however, although they were on a pedestal, they were almost absent as artists in art. Pliny, in his Natural History, mentions barely six women parading themselves in the arts. In later times it was even worse. Until the 19th century, women’s artistic activities were incidental issues. However, this does not mean that the fair sex in the visual arts was completely absent. However, the mass viewer has a big problem to name examples of works of modern art created by women.

The lecture will introduce women artists, brought out of the darkness of history, who from ancient times to the 19th century performed often heroic deeds in order to be able to simply create. Thus, during the next ArtArteria we will learn about these forgotten stories, we will look at the works of Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola, Elisabeth Vigee-Le Brun or Rosalba Cariery, among others. We will also try to answer the question about the reason for the absence of women artists in early art. Was it only due to social and religious issues, or was it also reflected in art theory?

As always, the speech will be enriched with multimedia and many intriguing anecdotes. The lecture will traditionally be hosted by Lukasz Wudarski.