The Cahnging Role and Status of the Artist 1300-1600

The Changing Role and Status of the Artist 1300 – 1600 To explore the changing role and status of the artist during the period 1300 – 1600 we have first to look at the period of time prior to this. For a thousand years before, Rome had ruled most of Europe, bringing new developments in technology, education and government, but after Rome fell to invaders in 542 CE, Western Europe became stagnant, a period we now term as the Middle Ages. Ordinary people did not venture far from their hamlets. Local lords ruled with fear and intimidation. Learning took place only in religious houses, and generations grew up ignorant, illiterate, and superstitious of outsiders. Artists and merchants during this time formed organisations called†¦show more content†¦His previous interest and work in mathematics and geometry obviously helped in his study of perspective and his contemplative approach to his paintings is apparent in all his works. Caterina van Hemessen (1528-until after1587) was a Flemish painter. As with many Renaissance female painters, she was the daughter of a painter, Jan Sanders van Hemesson (c. 1500-after 1563), and he was probably her teacher. She is the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there are verifiable works still existing. In the late Renaissance the training of artists began to move from the workshops and to the Academy and women began a long struggle to be able to access this training. To study the human form required working from male nudes and corpses, and women were generally thought to be too sensitive and were barred from this type of training. Her success is marked by her good standing in the Guild of Saint Luke, and her eventual position as teacher to three male students. Her patron in the 1540’s was Maria, Queen of Hungary. In 1554, she married Christian (or Chrà ©tien) de Morien, an organist at the cathedral in Antwerp, which was at that time an important position. In 1556, when the Queen of Hungary resigned her position Caterina and her husband also moved to Spain, on invitation of her patron, to Spain. Two years later, when Maria died, Caterina was given a sizeable pension for life. She