Muse or Doer? Women in the Italian Art World 1400 – 1800

Rosalba Carriera, Self-portrait of the Artist (detail), 1707/1708, red chalk on beige paper © State Museums in Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett / Jörg P. Anders

With around 90 works, Muse or Doer? Women in the Italian Art World 1400 – 1800 illuminates the life and work of women such as Rosalba Carriera, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, Diana Scultori, Isabella d'Este, Christina of Sweden and others, their works, fates and enormous influence on the art world of their time are now partially forgotten.

In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, they put their fathers, brothers and husbands in the shade with their art, created and collected works that were coveted throughout Europe, knew how to market themselves and build networks. The protagonists of the exhibition are artists who have created coveted works, but also wives who supported their husbands and served as models for them, patrons who commissioned art and promoted artists, and custodians and collectors who have kept works and passed them on.

The intention is not only to show their art, but also, as far as is known, to tell something about the living conditions of these women. It addresses what influence being a woman had on their role in the art world, whether they married and became mothers, and what strategies they pursued to assert themselves in the male world, which was the art world in the period under review, so that it was possible for us is that traces of her work can still be found in the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett.

The diverse and active role of women in the Italian art world before 1800 is illustrated in drawings and prints from the substantial collection of the Kupferstichkabinett as well as some special loans. The youth committee of the National Museums in Berlin, Achtet AlisMB, brings the perspective of a younger generation to the current topic in a number of interventions in the exhibition and catalogue.