Religiosas, santas y mujeres de la Bibliala creación de un imaginario femenino en la pintura religiosa del Renacimiento en España (1479-1563)

Abstract

OBJECTIVES The presence of women throughout art history has had an unquestionable weight, becoming at times the most represented subject in works of art. The female figure has been illustrated in the most varied circumstances and its iconographic repertoire is immense. This doctoral thesis studies the imaginary created around the women of the Renaissance in Spain, from a social, religious and cultural perspective, and, by analysing the paintings made at this time, to see how we can perceive it through the representation of sacred female characters. On the one hand, it investigates how female figures who have been protagonists in Christianity, and the iconographic types and scenes in which they appear are effectively a reflection of new ideas about the female gender, and how they serve as a role model for the women who contemplate them, thus checking their use and capacity as a transmitter tool and legitimizing these concepts. With this research, we not only aspire to highlight the importance of art as a historical document and the need to apply it to the History of Women, but above all to defend the need to study the image of women in art from a different perspective, not objectify it or treating it as another part of an iconography, but as an active talking agent of art, who tells us of a presence that has sometimes been left veiled, but which is real. KEY WORDS: History, Women, Iconography, Paintings, Renaissance. METHODOLOGY The methodology established to carry out this work is based on the search, consultation and analysis of bibliography about the history of women in the Renaissance, both in Spain and those places in Europe that influenced Spanish circumstances. The state of the matter, not only studies in depth the literature on Renaissance women, but also focuses on the study of Spanish Renaissance art, and those places in Europe, such as Italy, that had an influence on it. This thesis focuses on religious painting, since it is dominant during the Renaissance in Spain, and analyse the presence of female figures that appear on it. Furthermore, primary sources have been analysed, corresponding to written or disseminated in Spain, Renaissance treaties speaking about women. The analysis of the Renaissance art works in Spain as well as other interesting places for this research, such as the Netherlands and Italy, are also part of the methodology of the project. Always noticing that they are idealized images, a comparison is made with the existing information about female life during the Spanish 16th century to find out how these images influenced the moral education of women. CONCLUSSIONS During the end of the 15th century until the middle of the 16th century, the pictorial image in Spain fulfilled an important function. The importance now attached to the role of women as mothers and wives implies the need to give them a good education, controlled by men. To do this, the male authorities will create an entire imaginary around women, establishing how they should behave in all areas of their lives. The Church and the State were able to take advantage of the great role that religiosity had in the Renaissance women and used it as a way to educate women in their new role, for them to achieve the ideal as a wife and as a mother. Thus, one of the most important conclusions to reach is to understand that the Renaissance images of religious themes in Spain show us ideal women, who usually have nothing to do with the feminine reality. The ideal image that these feminine figures of Christianity projected, allow us to perceive that reality was very different from the ideal that was wanted to be established around lives of women. It is proliferation of iconographies that explain to women how they should behave in different areas of his life, together with the amount of educational texts aimed at women that appear in the Spanish Renaissance, evidence of a feminine attitude that was necessary to change. Therefore, given the great presence that women have had throughout History, artistic images are of great help to analyse certain aspects of female life which cannot be found anywhere else. Since its presence is so small in traditional history, you have to go look for women to other places, being art one of those where you can find them in their representations.