Women artists in all ages and countries

by E. F. Ellet

Their eve of parting was a sad one. As they sat together by the lamplight the maiden suddenly rose, and, taking up a piece of pointed charcoal from the brasier, and bidding the young man remain still, she traced on the wall the outline of his fine Grecian profile, as a memorial when he should be far away. Dibutades saw the sketch she had made, and recognized the likeness. Carefully he filled the outline with clay, and a complete medallion was formed. It was the first portrait in relief! Thus a new art was born into the world, the development of which brought fortune and fame to the inventor! The story is, at least, as probable as that of Saurias discovering the rules of sketching and contour from the shadow of his horse. It was neither the first nor the last time that Love became a teacher. Might not the fable of Memnon thus find its realization?

It is related that Dibutades, who had followed up his medallions with busts, became so celebrated, that many Grecian states claimed the honor of his birth; and that his daughter’s lover, who came back to espouse her, modeled whole figures in Corinth. A school for modeling was instituted about this time in Sicyonia, of which Dibutades was the founder.

At a later period we hear of Timarata, the daughter of a painter, and herself possessed of considerable skill, as Pliny testifies, he having seen one of her pictures at Ephesus, representing the goddess Diana.

Several names of female artists have come down from the time of Alexander the Great and his luxurious successors. Art began to have a richer and more various development, and women were more free to follow their inclinations in its pursuit. One belonging to this age was Helena, who is said to have painted, for one of the Ptolomies, the scene of a battle in which Alexander vanquished Darius; a picture thought, with some probability, to have been the original of a famous mosaic found in Pompeii.

Anaxandra, the daughter and pupil of a Greek painter, appears to have labored under the same royal patronage, as well as another female artist named Kallo, one of whose pictures, presented in the Temple of Venus, was celebrated by the praise of a classic poetess; the fair painter being declared as beautiful as her own work. Among these pupils of Grecian art we hear also of Cirene, the daughter of Kratinos, whose painting of Proserpina was preserved; of Aristarite, the author of a picture of Esculapius; of Calypso, known as a painter de genre. Her portraits of Theodorus, the juggler, and a dancer named Acisthenes, were celebrated, and she is said to have executed one that has been transferred from the ruins of Pompeii to Naples, and is now called “A Mother superintending her Daughter’s Toilet.” The name of Olympias is remembered, though we have no mention of her works. Beyond these few names, we know nothing of the female artists of Greece.

THE ROMAN PAINTRESS.

Among the Romans we find but one female painter, and she was of Greek origin and education. The life of the Roman matrons was not confined to a narrower sphere, and the influence conceded to them might have been eminently favorable to their cultivation of art. But, with the nation of soldiers who ruled the world, the elegant arts were not at home as in their Hellenic birth-place. They flourished not so grandly in the palmiest days of Rome, as in the decay of the Empire. The heroic women celebrated in the history of the Republic, and in Roman literature, had no rivals in the domain of sculpture and painting. The one whose name has descended to modern times is Laya. She exercised her skill in Rome about a hundred years before Christ. The little knowledge we have of her paintings is very interesting, inasmuch as she was the pioneer in a branch afterward cultivated by many of her sex—miniature painting. Her portraits of women were much admired, and she excelled in miniatures on ivory. A large picture in Naples is said to be one of her productions. She surpassed all others in the rapidity of her execution, and her works were so highly valued that her name was ranked with the most renowned painters of the time, such as Sopolis, Dionysius, etc. Pliny, who bears this testimony, adds that her life was devoted to her art, and that she was never married. Some others mention a Greek girl, Lala, as contemporary with Cleopatra, who was celebrated for her busts in ivory. The Romans caused a statue to be erected to her honor.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

Painting was destined to higher improvements under the mild sway of the Christian religion than in the severer school of classical antiquity. Woman gradually rose above the condition of slavery, and began to preside over the elements that formed the poetry of life. But changes involving the lapse of centuries were necessary, before Art could be divested of her Athenian garment, and put on the pure bridal attire suited to her nuptials with devotion. After the destruction of the Roman Empire, there is a long interval during which we hear of no achievement beyond the Byzantine relics, and the mosaics of the convents and cemeteries.

Even the beauty of early art, associated as it was with the forms of a pagan mythology, was detested by the votaries of a pure and holy faith. The early Christians rejected adornment, which they regarded as inconsistent with their simple tenets, and as an abomination in the sight of God. Thus, for seven hundred years art was degraded, and only by degrees did she lift herself from the dust.