Women artists in all ages and countries

by E. F. Ellet

In the mean while female influence grew apace among the nations that rose upon the ruins of Rome. Amalasuntha, the daughter of Theodoric the Great, was worthy of her sire in wisdom and knowledge of statesmanship, while she is said to have surpassed him in general cultivation, and to have rendered him essential service in his building enterprises. Theudelinda, Queen of the Longobards, adorned her palace at Monza with paintings celebrating the history of her people; and, from the time of Charlemagne, each century boasted several women of political and literary celebrity. There was the famous nun Hroswitha, who, in her convent at Gandersheim, composed an ode in praise of Otho, and a religious drama after the manner of Terence; there was the Greek princess Anna Comnena, the ornament of the Byzantine court; there was the first poetess of Germany, Ava; with Hildegardis, Abbess of Bingen; Heloise, the beloved of Abelard; the Abbess of Hohenburg, who undertook the bold enterprise of a cyclopædia of general knowledge; and a host of others.[1]

[1] Later, Angela de Foligno was celebrated as a teacher of theology. Christina Pisani wrote a work, “La Cité des Dames,” which was published in Paris in 1498. It gives account of the learned and famous Novella, the daughter of a professor of the law in the University of Bologna. She devoted herself to the same studies, and was distinguished for her scholarship. She conducted her father’s cases, and, having as much beauty as learning, was wont to appear in court veiled.

ILLUMINATIONS.

Noble women became patrons of art, particularly that branch cultivated with most success in the decline of the rest—miniature painting upon parchment. From being merely ornamental this became a necessity in manuscript books of devotion, and the brilliant coloring and delicate finish of the illuminations were often owing to the touch of feminine hands. The inmates of convents and monasteries employed much time in painting and ornamenting books, in copying the best works of ancient art, and in painting on glass; the nuns especially making a business of copying and illuminating manuscripts. Agnes, Abbess of Quedlinberg, was celebrated as a miniature painter in the twelfth century, and some of her works have survived the desolation of ages. “The cultivators of this charming art were divided into two classes—miniaturists, properly so called; and miniature caligraphists. It was the province of the first to color the histories and arabesques, and to lay on the gold and silver ornaments. The second wrote the book, and the initial letters so frequently traced in red, blue, and gold: these were called ‘Pulchri Scriptores,’ or fair writers. Painting of this description was peculiarly a religious occupation. It was well suited for the peaceful and secluded life of the convent or the monastery. It required none of the intimate acquaintance with the passions of the human heart, with the busy scenes of life, so essential to other and higher forms of art.”

The labors of nuns in ornamental work in the Middle Ages were not confined to illuminating and miniature painting; but it is not our province to enumerate the products of their industry, nor to chronicle the benefits they conferred on the sick and poor. The fairest princesses did not disdain to work altar-pieces, and to embroider garments for their friends and lovers.

In the commencement of the fourteenth century a female painter, named Laodicia, lived in Pavia, and Vasari mentions the Dominican nun, Plautilla Nelli. “In 1476, Fra Domenico da Pistoya and Fra Pietro da Pisa, the spiritual directors of a Dominican convent, established a printing-press within its walls; the nuns served as compositors, and many works of considerable value issued from this press between 1476 and 1484, when, Bartolomeo da Pistoya dying, the nuns ceased their labors.”

THE FIRST SCULPTRESS.

Germany had the honor of producing the first female sculptor of whom any thing is known—Sabina von Steinbach, the daughter of Erwin von Steinbach, who in that wonderful work, the cathedral of Strasburg, has reared so glorious a monument to his memory.

The task of ornamenting this noble building was in great part intrusted to the young girl, whose genius had already exhibited itself in modeling. Her sculptured groups, and especially those on the portal of the southern aisle, are of remarkable beauty, and have been admired by visitors during the lapse of ages. Here are allegorical figures representing the Christian Church and Judaism; the first of lofty bearing and winning grace, with crowned heads, bearing the cross in their right hands, and in their left the consecrated host. The other figures stand with eyes downcast and drooping head; in the right hand a broken arrow, in the left the shattered tablets of the Mosaic Law. Besides many other groups are four bas-reliefs representing the glorification of the Virgin; her death and burial on one side, and on the other her entrance into heaven and triumphant coronation.

It may well be said that in these works are embodied the ideal and supernatural elements that pervade the sculpture of the Middle Ages; and it seemed most appropriate that the taste and skill of woman should develop in such elements the purity and depth of feeling which impart a charm to these sculptures acknowledged by every beholder.