Elisabetta was an Italian Baroque artist who not only championed both female painters and female subjects. She died mysteriously at a young age, but not before she opened a painting school where she taught other women including her sister. Most of her themes foreground female fortitude. The painting below by Elisabetta is something that I think embodies Female Power. This painting is the representation of the tale of one of Alexander the Greats captains and what happened to him after he raped titular Timoclea. The story goes after Timoclea is assaulted the one who assaulted her asks her where the money is hidden, she leads him to the garden well; as he looks in, she pushes him into the well and drops stones on his head until he is dead. This painting turns this story around by making the rapist helpless, with his feet kicking in the air as Timoclea stands strong above him. Most paintings of this scene are shown with Timoclea accepting Alexander’s judgment of mercy; this painting does not it shows us Timoclea’s justice and her in acting that justice.
Elisabetta’s death made her a martyr to her town of Bologna; she had become a symbol of progressiveness in Bologna and a place where women were encouraged to grow creatively and express themselves through art and music. This fact makes it so sad that she is not as well-known now as men of that time.
Elisabetta Sirani, Timoclea Killing Her Rapist(1659)
Can you make art outside your experiences?
I think you can make art outside your experiences. The painting above is about Timoclea and her attacker, Elisabetta was not there, yet she still painted it. I believe if one feels strongly about something and see wishes to address it than yes you can. Now there are touchy subject matters that gets everyone fired up about them and we tend to put them in their own little groups segregating them from everything else. But if you are making art to bring awareness to an issue you have not experienced yet you feel strongly about the issue and want to do something about it then, go for it.
Do we excuse the sexism/segregation of the past because it was ingrained in the prevailing culture?
This question is a tough one in that it has many ways in which to be answered. Answering the base idea of the question, no if something is wrong than do not except it even if it is the status quo. I believe that once you know the difference between what is right and wrong it is on each individual person to make the right choice and that is on them at that point not what is accepted or how they were raised. I think maybe a better question would be do we continue to look back and condemn them rather than trying to fix here and now? I wish to make now better for I can not change the past and the future has yet to be written but if I can I will have a say in how our future turns out.
Do we still need labels?
I am someone who has issues with labels, I do not want to be defined by my sex. If an individual wishes to be defined than that is on them, but we should not do that to everyone just because they are say female or male. If we do this we are creating and encouraging more segregation.
Where does feminism go now?
I believe that depends on each individual artist, it is up to every artist to decide what type of art they wish to make.