On one of the scrolls, held by the Apostle John, the following lines are inscribed in Latin:
“The grace of God be with thee, O Sabina,
Whose hands from this hard stone have formed my image.”
An old painting at Strasburg represents this youthful sculptress kneeling at the feet of the archbishop, to receive his blessing and a wreath of laurel, which he is placing on her brow. This painting attests the popular belief in a tradition that Sabina, after seeing her statues deposited in their niches, was met by a procession of priests who came, with the prelate at their head, for the purpose of conferring this honor upon her.
CHAPTER II.
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Commencement of the History of modern Art.—Causes of the Barrenness of this Century in female Artists.—The Decline of Chivalry unfavorable to their mental Development.—Passing away of the Ideal and Supernatural Element in Art.—New Feeling for Nature.—New Life and Action in Painting.—Portrayal of Feelings of the Heart.—Release of Painting from her Trammels.—Severer Studies necessary for Artists.—Woman excluded from the Pursuit.—Patronage sought.—One female Artist representing each prominent School.—Margaretta von Eyck.—Her Miniatures.—Extensive Fame.—Her Decoration of Manuscripts.—Work in Aid of her Brothers.—“The gifted Minerva.”—Single Blessedness.—Another Margaretta.—Copies and illuminates MSS. in the Carthusian Convent.—Eight folio Volumes filled.—Caterina Vigri.—Her Miniature Paintings.—Founds a Convent.—“The Saint of Bologna.”—Miraculous Painting.—The warrior Maiden Onorata.—Decorates the Palace at Cremona.—Insult offered her.—She kills the Insulter.—Flight in male Attire.—Soldier Life.—Delivers Castelleone.—The mortal Wound.
The fifteenth century, with which the history of modern art may be properly commenced, is barren in female artists. This is, doubtless, owing in part to a change in the social condition of woman, consequent on the decline of chivalry, that “poetical lie,” as Rahel terms it. During the two centuries preceding this period, the fair sex had been regarded with a kind of adoration. Beauty was the minstrel’s theme and the soldier’s inspiration, and the courts of love, by giving power to the intellectual among women, stimulated them to the cultivation of their minds as well as the adornment of their persons. The descent from their poetic elevation was unfavorable to mental development; and it was not till the opening of the sixteenth century that there appeared symptoms of recovery from the reaction.
Moreover, art in the fifteenth century had assumed a character unsuited to the peculiar gifts of woman. It had parted with the ideal and supernatural element which formed at once the charm and the weakness of the Middle Ages, and which, as in the case of Sabina von Steinbach, had fostered and developed female talent. A new feeling for nature was born; a new world of life and action was waiting to be added to the domain of art; while severe study and restless energy were in requisition for more extended conquests. More correct exhibitions of human individuality, action, and passion began to take the place of forms that had before been merely conventional or architectural; and the portrayal of feeling, in which the human heart could sympathize, superseded the calm religious creations of an earlier age. Painting finally threw off the rigid trammels she had worn.
The difficulties in the way of elaborating these new conceptions, and the studies of anatomy necessary for the attainment of excellence in delineating the form, excluded women in a great measure from the pursuit. Gervinus remarks that women are fond of realizing new ideas; but they are those, for the most part, which are readily brought into use in common life, and which require no persevering study to reduce them to practice. Even the triumphs of literary talent in that toilsome age owed much to the patronage of the great. We find many ladies of high rank seeking the muses’ favor by the royal road to eminence.
Notwithstanding the paucity of women artists, we discover at least one representing each prominent school of painting—Flemish, Italian, and German.