Making her mark: a history of women artists in Europe, 1400-1800

Abstract

"Gathering together nearly 300 objects, including paintings, prints, scientific illustrations, textiles, sculpture, metalwork and furniture, Making Her Mark illuminates the astonishing diversity and breadth of female contributions to art of the pre-modern era (c. 1400-1800). In this important re-examination of early modern European art, an international team of scholars and curators assess the critical concepts that have shaped Western culture's understanding of what constitutes great art. In its recalibration of gender imbalances, this impressive volume offers an alternative view of the history of European art and sheds light on the collaborative nature of the creation of individual works and the interconnected histories of literature, politics, religion, science, and economics. Ambitious in its scope, Making Her Mark is a bold corrective to the assumption that female artists of the past were rare and that their work was unremarkable. The result is a dynamic introduction to scores of women artists whose names are entirely new and a long-overdue reassessment of the art, culture, and history of early modern Europe."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Director's foreword / Stephan Jost and Dr. Asma Naeem -- Editor's foreword / Andaleeb Badiee Banta, Alexa Greist, and Theresa Kutasz Christensen -- Not seen, not heard: In search of the unexceptional woman artist / Andaleeb Badiee Banta -- Prints and needles: Women makers and European textile pattern books, 1500-1800 / Alexa Greist -- Designing women: Drawings by women artists in early Modern Italy / Babette Bohn -- Multiple challenges, or the challenge of multiples: Early Modern women as creators of prints / Madeleine C. Viljoen -- Unravelling the threads: Women working with silk in Italy, France, and England, 1500-1800 / Yassana Croizat-Glazer -- Women in workshops / Brittany Luberda -- Women and the art of science / Virginia Treanor -- Art and politics: Women artists and the rulers of the revolutionary world / Paris A. Spies-Gans -- Women of the world: European women makers in a global context / Andaleeb Badiee Banta and Theresa Kutasz Christensen -- Works exhibited. Book arts and publishing -- Ceramics -- Cloister work -- Drawings, pastels, and watercolours -- Furniture -- Lace -- Manuscript illumination -- Painting: History -- Painting: Miniatures -- Painting: Portraiture -- Painting: Still life -- Painting: Women at work -- Prints -- Scientific and natural illustration -- Sculpture -- Silver and enamel -- Tapestry, woven fabrics, and embroidery.