Looking at Women in Renaissance and Baroque Art

Renaissance art is often seen as the conceptual anchor for a conservative type of art history that focuses on great male artists and their revival of a classical past. This course uses recent research to challenge the idea, showing how old master painting can speak to current issues of sexual, gender and political identity. Focussing on different roles for women, we will investigate how visual culture promotes and challenges ideas of what it means to be female. We will look at women as archetypes of beauty, as wives, prostitutes, artists, patrons, poets and witches. We will consider medical beliefs in women's inferiority; the notional link between male creativity and reproductive processes; and how the separation of 'art' from 'craft' denigrated traditional areas of women's expertise, notably textiles, to a lesser form of making. Credit Level: 10 Year taken: Year 3 Undergraduate

Not running in 2025/26