Women in the Renaissance had very limited rights and their primary role was to serve as housewives. Peasant women worked alongside their husbands on farms, while middle-class women helped run family businesses. Wealthy women were attended to but had to seek approval from husbands to read, play music, or entertain. Unmarried women lived with male relatives or in convents. A few exceptional women, like Isabella of Castile, Queen Mary I of England, Lucrezia Borgia, and Isabelle D'Este gained influence through marriage to powerful men and some ruled regions during their husbands' absences. Most art from the time depicted women in roles of wives, mothers, or religious figures like the Virgin

1. WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE
Leonardo Da Vinci: “La bella Ferronière”

2. Role of women in society
• Liike in Middle Ages,
were denied all
political rights and
considered legally
subject to their
husbands.
• Women of all classes
were expected to
perform, first and
foremost, the duties
of housewife.

3. Social differences
• Peasant women:
– Worked in the field alongside their husbands
– Ran the home
Pieter Brueghel: “Visiting the peasants”

4. Social differences
• Middle class:
– Wives of shop owners and merchants
– Often helped run their husbands' businesses
– Attended the home
Van Reymerswale: “The moneychanger and his wife”

5. Social differences
• High class:
– Attended by servants
– Engaged in activities like: sewing, cooking, and entertaining.
– Were allowed to read and play instruments. But, always under
their husbands’ supervision.
Bacchiacca: “Woman Reading” Bartolomeo Veneto: “Woman playing a lute”

6. Social differences
• Women who did not marry were not permitted
to live independently.
• Instead, they lived in the households of their
male relatives or, more often, joined a convent.

7. Examples of texts about women
• “Es menester que la buena mujer lea, pero solo ciertos
libros: La Biblia, Cicerón o Séneca, no debe de
adentrarse en otro tipo de Literatura que la lleve fuera del
buen camino” (Fray Luis de León: “La perfecta casada”)
• “Se desaconseja a la mujer leer libros de caballería,
siguiendo los cánones establecidos por Santo Tomás que
determinaba su conducta y modo de vestir según el
estado civil, no es de extrañar por tanto el
establecimiento de rejas en puertas y ventanas para
preservar la virtud de la mujer” (Luis Vives)

8. Women in art
• It continues the binomial “Virgin Mary – Eve”
that is, the virtue in the face of sin
Michelangelo: “Pietá”
Boticelli: “The birth of Venus”

9. Alberto Durero: “Adam and Eve”

10. Exemptions of relevant women in
Renaissance
• Isabella I of Castile
• Queen of Castile 1474 – 1504 and Queen
consort of Aragon

11. Antonio Moro: “Queen Mary I of England”

12. Elizabeth I of
England.
1559 - 1603

13. Bartolomeo Veneto: “Lucrezia
Borgia”
• Lucrezia Borgia
• Daughter of the Pope
Alexandre VI
• Married and divorced three
times with important
noblemen.
• She influenced political and
social life, and was a noted
patron of arts

14. Tiziano: “Isabelle D’Este”
• Isabelle D’Este
• Married with the Duke of Mantua
• She mastered Greek and Latin
and memorized the works of the
ancient scholars.
• After her husband, was captured
in battle, she ruled Mantua
herself.
• Influenced the economic
development of the region,
encouraging the development of
the textile and clothing industry.
• Isabella collected many paintings,
sculptures, manuscripts, and
musical instruments.
• Encouraged Mantuans to support
the arts.

15. Leonardo Da Vinci: “Portrait of Isabella D’Este”