Humility and Influence

In June 1773 Doña Luisa García de Medina filed a lawsuit against the Spanish colonial government demanding the return of her generous donation to the confraternity of Saint Rosalia in Cuenca (Audiencia of Quito). This dispute provides a clear testimony of the influence of religious devotion and the power of female self-fashioning and agency. Doña Luisa’s piety, her promotion of the cult of Saint Rosalia, and her substantial donation allowed her to establish associations with leading local institutions and shape Cuenca’s sacred landscape and its inhabitants’ religious experience. Doña Luisa’s control of the processional route also identified her oratory as a space for spiritual introspection, self-representation, and social exchange. This article illustrates the importance of humility in the advancement of female agency in the colonial period. This research also proves that the study of religious confraternities supports a more inclusive construction of Spanish American history and shows the impact of female patronage in the civic space.

The role of women in the shaping of civic identity in Edwardian Leicester: Edith Gittins and the Anglo-Saxon past of Æthelflæd's fountain. Historical reconstruction and 3D visualization

This article analyses a case of female patronage in Edwardian Leicester, a drinking fountain surmounted by a statuette dedicated to a female Anglo-Saxon ruler. The bequest, by Edith Gittins (1845–1910), is contextualized within the nineteenth-century perspectives on the past that identified the roots of the English people in the Anglo-Saxon period. The article explores the cultural, social and gender implications of Gittins’ intentions behind the bequest both for women's rights and for the use of the past in the construction of civic identity. These have not hitherto received sufficient attention. In order to address these questions the article exploits the potential of a 3D visualization of the urban setting where the fountain was intended to be erected to help frame the historical inquiry.

Gender and Art in the 17th Century

Gender and Art in the 17th Century is a large and growing theme in art historical research, as aspects of the lives of men and women in that Golden Age are routinely revealing more information and prompting additional questions of gender’s relationship to art—production, patronage, purchase, viewing, placement, and subject matter. And each of these spheres is also multifaceted. The subject of gender is not the same as the topic of women and art, but in the 17th century, a number of women artists altered the arena and women indeed are the focal point of a study of gender and art in the 17th century. A major consideration, and the one frequently dealt with in this bibliography, is that of the lives of women and specifically women artists, as this was still an unusual profession for women (who weren’t expected to have any) in the 17th century. Although there were known women artists in the Renaissance and before, these numbers swell considerably throughout the 17th century. This distinguishes it from the centuries before. We don’t know if any of these women actually knew of each other or had any contact with each other, yet in city after city, many became members of their respective guilds or academies and achieved professional status—to sign their works, sell them, and have students. Seventeenth-century women artists regularly confronted gender issues and bias: that of workshop and/or family training and the limitations placed on a female. Patronage, subject matter, and reputation of these perseverant women often pivoted on questions of gender. At a time when the status of an artist was still a value in flux, self-portraiture, which emphasized the class and wealth of an artist, was important—for men. For women artists, the image and goals were quite different; showing themselves as painters, confidently working at an easel would have raised curiosity and also their status. With the introduction of each woman artist we catch a glimpse of a new perspective into their lives and impediments to their careers from their emergence to their possible marriage, later life, and the question of the continuation of their careers. Their relationship to male artists, who were teachers, fathers, husbands, fellow members of a guild or academy, and competitors, provides another facet of their complex lives. The subject of men and women in paintings and prints exposes some of the actual relationships, the ideal ones, and those reflected for comic spirit. The patronage of wealthy women, especially by those in Italy from important families as well as by nuns (who themselves were sometimes also from wealthy families), in art and architecture is a form of agency and impact, which is considered here in terms of gender.

Female Patrons of Monasticism in the Late Medieval Balkans (13th-14th Centuries)

This article focuses on the role of women as patrons of monastic institutions, monks and church hierarchs in the late medieval Balkans. Two case studies from medieval Serbia are examined to demonstrate the peculiarities of the relationship between female rulers and bishops, as well as of the different forms and aspects of female patronage of monasticism, like founding and donating to monasteries or commissioning liturgical books. One of the most important questions concerns the motivation of women for patronizing monks. It is suggested that there was some interplay in cooperation between female patrons and monks. The question is posed whether prayers, commemoration, spiritual guidance and even the composing of a vita (i.e. contributing to the veneration of a new saint) may be understood as a form of compensation on the part of the monks towards female patrons.

Dido’s Defense: Joachim Du Bellay’s Bid for Female Patronage

This article argues that French poet Joachim Du Bellay’s interest in the Dido figure and his unusual ventriloquizing of female characters are connected to his practice of cultivating female patrons. Du Bellay’s occasional poems, long ignored by scholars, suggest the impact that these patrons had on Du Bellay’s career. Although his writing for women is inconsistent with recommendations made in the Deffence et illustration de la langue francoyse, Du Bellay’s work for female patrons nonetheless allowed him to fulfill many of his early poetic ambitions. Cet article avance que l’intérêt du poète français Joachim Du Bellay pour le personage de Didon ainsi que l’inhabituelle ventriloquie de ses personnages féminins sont liés à sa recherche de mécènes féminins. Les poèmes de circonstance de Du Bellay, longtemps ignorés par la recherche, suggèrent que ses mécènes ont eu un impact sur sa carrière. Bien que son écriture pour des femmes soit en contradiction avec les recommandations contenues dans sa Deffence et illustration de la langue francoyse, ce travail pour des clientes féminines lui a permis de concrétiser plusieurs de ses premières ambitions poétiques.