1st Edition

Gender and the Woman Artist in Early Modern Iberia

By Catherine Hall-van den Elsen Copyright 2024
168 Pages 15 Color & 38 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

168 Pages 15 Color & 38 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

168 Pages 15 Color & 38 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This monograph explores the social constructs surrounding artistic production in early modern Iberia through the lenses of gender and class by examining the rarely considered contribution of creative women in Spain and Portugal between 1550 and 1700. Using the life-stage framework popular in texts of the period and drawing on a broad spectrum of materials including conduct guidebooks, treatises... Read more

List of Figures

Foreword

1. Introduction: Early Modern Iberia: Gender and the Woman Artist

2. Women’s Lives. Social and Political Contexts

3. The Unmarried Woman as Artist

4. The Married Woman as Artist

5. The Nun as Artist

6. Conclusions: The Challenges Facing Women Artists

Bibliography

Index

Biography

Catherine Hall-van den Elsen, Ph.D., has a long-standing interest in the lives of the women of early modern Spain and Portugal. In 2018, she published a monograph in Spanish on the sculptor Luisa Roldán, in 2020, an annotated bibliography for the Oxford Bibliographies series, and in 2021, the monograph Luisa Roldán for an English-speaking audience.

GEMELA Awards, 2024: Best Book. 

"Hall-van den Elsen’s work is a most welcome addition to the scholarship, providing an accessible gateway to thestudyof the Iberianworld and furthering the application of gendered perspectives to the arts of the area"

-- Aoife Cosgrove, Early Modern Women Vol. 20 No. 1

"La meticulosa investigación y la claridad con la que Hall-van den Elsen presenta las microhistorias hacen de esta monografía una lectura indispensable para quienes deseen profundizar en la intersección entre género y la historia del arte."

-- Dayanira Moya Pérez, RESEÑAS 797 HIPOGRIFO, 13.1, 2025 (pp. 793-797)