0:00:02 > 0:00:04Right in the heart of Florence there is
0:00:04 > 0:00:08a place of pilgrimage for any art historian.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10Stretching across the Ponte Vecchio,
0:00:10 > 0:00:15above the heads of the bustling tourists, lies the Vasari Corridor.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Named after the Renaissance painter
0:00:27 > 0:00:32and art critic Giorgio Vasari, its plain, white-washed walls
0:00:32 > 0:00:36house the greatest collection of artists' self-portraits
0:00:36 > 0:00:38in the world.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43Dating from the early 16th century until today,
0:00:43 > 0:00:48this kilometre-long corridor charts the journey of Western art history.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54A rich and illustrious genealogy,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58this is a who's who of the great and the good in art,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01a pantheon of masters.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03But one thing you notice pretty quickly
0:01:03 > 0:01:06is there are precious few mistresses.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10There are 1,700 artists' self-portraits
0:01:10 > 0:01:15but only 7% - 7% - are by women...
0:01:18 > 0:01:23..a situation that I've found repeated on the walls of the world's
0:01:23 > 0:01:26most important museums and galleries.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Women are models and muses
0:01:30 > 0:01:34but there is an absence of female artists themselves.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Why is that? Do women lack talent?
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Or does it speak to a more profound truth about the history of women...
0:01:43 > 0:01:47..confined as they often were to domestic and subordinate roles,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50starved of art education,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54forbidden to even gaze on the naked form?
0:01:54 > 0:01:59In this series I want to reveal that there were successful
0:01:59 > 0:02:05female artists whose reputations have simply faded into obscurity.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12I'll retrieve dazzling female artists from the shadows...
0:02:12 > 0:02:18whose talent and tenacity overcame almost insuperable obstacles...
0:02:21 > 0:02:26..on a journey from the suffocation of creativity in Renaissance Italy,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28through the emerging opportunities
0:02:28 > 0:02:34and continuing frustrations of the 18th and 19th centuries,
0:02:34 > 0:02:40to a modern pioneer who struck out alone to define an entire landscape,
0:02:40 > 0:02:46proving for all time that women could be artists with a capital "A"!
0:02:46 > 0:02:51This is the hidden story of how women painted the soul
0:02:51 > 0:02:54and crafted the fabric of the world around us.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19Florence... cradle of the Renaissance,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22where our notion of Western art was born.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27In the 15th and 16th centuries, powered by the rich
0:03:27 > 0:03:30and ruthless Medici dynasty, this city
0:03:30 > 0:03:36was at the frontier of innovation in learning, architecture and art.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40The word "renaissance" means rebirth.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43But was it only engendered by men?
0:03:44 > 0:03:49If you look about the public spaces, the piazzas, the monuments,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52the palaces of Florence, you'd certainly think so,
0:03:52 > 0:03:56because there's a potent sense of masculinity.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Male bodies everywhere.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02Virility, male dominance.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Of course, you could see images of women -
0:04:08 > 0:04:11goddesses, nymphs, saints and whores -
0:04:11 > 0:04:15but these were the creations of male artists -
0:04:15 > 0:04:19flesh-and-blood women were all but invisible.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22500 years ago, no respectable Italian woman would be
0:04:22 > 0:04:26seen on these squares, except en route to church.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Iron virtue, modesty, obedience -
0:04:34 > 0:04:40these were the qualities demanded of Renaissance ladies.
0:04:40 > 0:04:46They had to keep their individuality hidden behind a wall of decorum,
0:04:46 > 0:04:52public life, street life off-limits to chaste virgins
0:04:52 > 0:04:54and discreet matrons.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02Female creativity was confined to tapestry and needlework,
0:05:02 > 0:05:07crafts that were undervalued and overlooked. Real artists were male!
0:05:07 > 0:05:10This is the world in which women lived,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15and yet, in the early 16th century, there was one Italian woman
0:05:15 > 0:05:18determined to break that convention and, in so doing,
0:05:18 > 0:05:23she would become the first great female artist of the Renaissance.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Properzia de' Rossi was born in Bologna in 1490.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33She possessed an absurd ambition - to be an artist.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37But not just any artist - she wanted to be a sculptor!
0:05:40 > 0:05:47The hammer and chisel are archetypal male tools, wielded by artisans
0:05:47 > 0:05:49and Renaissance sculptors,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53both muscular and inspired.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58Women were seen to lack both the physical strength
0:05:58 > 0:06:01and the intellectual vigour for such a virile art.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08Any artist or sculptor hoping to make it needed an apprenticeship
0:06:08 > 0:06:13and then years of training in the workshop. For a woman,
0:06:13 > 0:06:14every step on that path was blocked.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22We don't know whether de' Rossi railed at
0:06:22 > 0:06:27her exclusion from the workshop - she left no diary or letters.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31But what we do have are fragments of her early art,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35and these are concrete proof of her ingenuity in finding a way to
0:06:35 > 0:06:40develop her skills and outflank the obstacles ranged against her.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47This extraordinary silver filigree crest
0:06:47 > 0:06:51is an object of wonder and curiosity,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54and it has inset in it what look like
0:06:54 > 0:06:5811 carved buttons.
0:06:58 > 0:07:04But the magical thing about this is that these buttons are, in fact,
0:07:04 > 0:07:09plum stones, or the stones of nectarines.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13This is the Madonna of Mercy
0:07:13 > 0:07:17and, to my amazement, under the magnifying glass
0:07:17 > 0:07:22you can see that the Madonna is opening her cloak
0:07:22 > 0:07:25to a sea of tiny, tiny little faces.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31What really amazes me is Rossi's skill.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Rossi might not have been able to work in stone,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41but she has taken something, a piece of domestic waste,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45and transformed it into magical sculpture.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Necessity was the mother of artistic invention.
0:07:54 > 0:08:01By 1525, aged 35, de' Rossi had honed her skills and audaciously
0:08:01 > 0:08:05entered a competition against her male contemporaries to become
0:08:05 > 0:08:09one of a select team of sculptors working here
0:08:09 > 0:08:14in the Basilica of San Petronio, the main church of Bologna.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15And she won!
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Though you'd never guess it today, judging from where they've
0:08:25 > 0:08:28placed one of her works.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37In here, tucked away in the corner of the church,
0:08:37 > 0:08:44beside the postcards, is Properzia de' Rossi's masterpiece in marble,
0:08:44 > 0:08:50but the obscurity of the setting diminishes none of its power.
0:08:51 > 0:08:57This is a morality tale called Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01Here, Potiphar's wife - she doesn't even have her own name -
0:09:01 > 0:09:06is hanging onto this man, who's trying to flee away.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09We can tell that she's a fallen woman
0:09:09 > 0:09:12because her boobs are hanging out - it's always a bit of a sign -
0:09:12 > 0:09:17as she's rising off the bed to try and claim him.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22Look at it, it has the power of Michelangelo.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Look at the strength of that outstretched arm.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Look at the torsion all across the piece.
0:09:29 > 0:09:36She's the first female sculptor in marble in 16th-century Italy.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42She had mastered what lay at the very heart of all Renaissance art -
0:09:42 > 0:09:46the nude - but therein lay a problem for de' Rossi.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49It was unthinkable for a modest woman
0:09:49 > 0:09:52to study and recreate the male form.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Why is Properzia not better known?
0:09:57 > 0:10:04Well, I think some of the answer is implicit in the marble itself.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09She has shown a brilliant understanding of anatomy,
0:10:09 > 0:10:17even down to this bisected calf muscle, and Properzia must
0:10:17 > 0:10:22have known everything about the male body in motion.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26In short, she knew too much.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29She damned herself in stone.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35Properzia de' Rossi was competing on male turf.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40Backlash from the artistic fraternity was inevitable.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43First problem with all artists, men or women,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45is jealousy.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49And in fact she had a main opponent,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51her personal enemy was Amico Aspertini.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53Amico Aspertini was another artist
0:10:53 > 0:10:58and he was always gossiping very, very badly about her.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02So what did he say about her to slur her reputation?
0:11:02 > 0:11:05He said she was a bit of a bitch.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07A bitch?
0:11:07 > 0:11:11To do a man's work in a world populated by men,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15needed to be very determined, to know what you want to do,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18and especially to be very skilled.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21She was determined and she got what she wanted.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Well, not quite. Facing increasing attacks on her character
0:11:26 > 0:11:30and reputation, de' Rossi retreated from public works -
0:11:30 > 0:11:35and in 1530, just five years after working on the church, she died
0:11:35 > 0:11:39penniless and alone, in a paupers' hospital.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46A wretched end for a woman who the great art critic Giorgio Vasari
0:11:46 > 0:11:53included as the only female amongst 142 artists in his hallowed tome
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Lives Of The Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59As he lamented,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04"If only she'd had as much luck and support as she had natural talent,
0:12:04 > 0:12:09"she, who now lies buried in the shadows of obscurity,
0:12:09 > 0:12:14"would have equalled in fame the most celebrated workers in marble."
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Properzia's fate epitomises the risks female artists
0:12:21 > 0:12:23faced in the Renaissance.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27How many other women dared to make a name for themselves in art?
0:12:29 > 0:12:33There is a group of art historians in Florence who are working
0:12:33 > 0:12:38tirelessly to find those who did take on the challenge, to prove
0:12:38 > 0:12:42that women did play a significant role in our art history.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45You just need to know where to look.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56'There are scores of store rooms in Florence alone where
0:12:56 > 0:12:59'works of art remain hidden from view.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01'It's here Linda Falcone,
0:13:01 > 0:13:06'director of the Advancing Women Artist Foundation, and her team,
0:13:06 > 0:13:11'have sifted through to discover a lost world of female creativity.'
0:13:12 > 0:13:14In these storage areas you'll find
0:13:14 > 0:13:18approximately 2,000 works by women artists.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22We're talking about paintings, about sculpture, about drawing,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24and it really gives you an idea
0:13:24 > 0:13:26of how many invisible works
0:13:26 > 0:13:29are waiting to be rediscovered
0:13:29 > 0:13:32and waiting to be restored and presented to the general public.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Like seven-eighths of the iceberg - hidden.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Right, we usually talk about the tip of the iceberg,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41this is the bottom part of the iceberg.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44- With the female contribution hidden away.- Exactly.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47People are too quick to say women are no good at art.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Why are they no good at art? You might assume that
0:13:50 > 0:13:53women are not on the walls because they just can't do it,
0:13:53 > 0:13:58whereas, you know, if we don't see the work, how can we decide?
0:13:58 > 0:14:01But getting to see it is precisely the problem.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Most female artists did not have the stomach to fight it out in public,
0:14:05 > 0:14:10choosing instead to practise their art behind closed doors.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14There was one sanctuary where female creativity was protected,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18nourished, even celebrated - the Church.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23For a glimpse of the possibilities, Linda's diplomacy has got me
0:14:23 > 0:14:26access to the monastery of Santa Maria Novella.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30So, behind the walls of monasteries
0:14:30 > 0:14:35and ex-nunneries, there is the hidden art of religious women?
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Definitely, and it was actually one of the easiest ways
0:14:38 > 0:14:41in which a woman could produce art was through convent life.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46BUZZER
0:14:48 > 0:14:49Buonasera!
0:14:56 > 0:15:01While to us the convent might suggest confinement and constraint,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05for women in the Renaissance it could be a place of liberation.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Relieved of the demands of family, and living apart from society,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14with its rules and expectations, entire communities of women
0:15:14 > 0:15:21could devote themselves to learning, literature, music, textiles and art.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29'In this monastery lies a work by a nun, Sister Plautilla Nelli.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35'It has remained hidden from public view for over 500 years
0:15:35 > 0:15:38'and now can be found in the monks' dining hall.'
0:15:41 > 0:15:42Wow, it's immense!
0:15:44 > 0:15:48I think that's the biggest painting
0:15:48 > 0:15:50by a female artist I've ever seen.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52It's seven metres long.
0:15:52 > 0:15:58It's the only Last Supper by a woman artist that we know of.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03The courage that a woman would need to face a theme like this,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07- and we are talking about a masculine theme...- Yes.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10It's the highest sort of honour that a painter can bestow
0:16:10 > 0:16:12upon themselves, let's put it that way.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17So, for Nelli to face this theme is
0:16:17 > 0:16:20significant in its own right.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22But look closely at the male figures.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25They are noticeably feminine -
0:16:25 > 0:16:30a stark reminder that Nelli had no access to male models.
0:16:30 > 0:16:36Naturally, she relied upon the world around her, a world of women.
0:16:36 > 0:16:42Think about the scale and spiritual importance of this painting.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45You can see that, separated from the strictures of society,
0:16:45 > 0:16:49a female artist could have the same artistic ambition
0:16:49 > 0:16:51as a Leonardo da Vinci.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00The privacy of the convent protected female artists,
0:17:00 > 0:17:05but it limited what they could paint and who was able to see their work.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10There was, however, another haven for female artistry,
0:17:10 > 0:17:12one that offered protection
0:17:12 > 0:17:17whilst holding the keys to untold privilege and prestige.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19After the Church, THE most influential
0:17:19 > 0:17:23patron of art in the Western world was the court,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27and no 16th-century court was more powerful
0:17:27 > 0:17:30than that of King Philip II of Spain.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33But success as a court artist required both talent
0:17:33 > 0:17:39and political nous to navigate a glittering but cut-throat world.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46Sofonisba Anguissola was to prove a cool tactician.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52She was born into minor, impoverished nobility
0:17:52 > 0:17:53in northern Italy
0:17:53 > 0:17:57but she made it from there to the very heart of the Spanish court.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04Sofonisba Anguissola was born in 1532, the eldest of six sisters.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07With no money for dowries, her father trained them all
0:18:07 > 0:18:11to be exceptionally accomplished instead.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16He proudly boasted of Sofonisba's skill to Michelangelo himself,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19sending her sketch of a laughing child as proof.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21But the master wrote back -
0:18:21 > 0:18:26could the teenager tackle a trickier subject, the crying child?
0:18:26 > 0:18:28And this is the magnificent result.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33It showed her talent for capturing the life of her subject
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and she would go on to be a pioneer of an entirely
0:18:36 > 0:18:41new genre of informal intimacy known as the conversation piece.
0:18:42 > 0:18:48I'm looking at Sofonisba Anguissola's masterpiece,
0:18:48 > 0:18:49the chess game.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54It's a group portrait of her three sisters,
0:18:54 > 0:18:59and the individual personalities shine out of this painting.
0:18:59 > 0:19:07My absolute favourite is cheeky little Europa in the middle.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12They're playing the great game of strategy and tactics - chess.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17Here, Lucia has taken the queen
0:19:17 > 0:19:21and, interestingly, it's only in the Renaissance that the queen
0:19:21 > 0:19:26becomes the most powerful piece on the board.
0:19:26 > 0:19:33Surely Sofonisba is telling us that women can be the queens of strategy.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46Her new style of portraiture swiftly won over an influential clientele,
0:19:46 > 0:19:51and none more useful than the Duke of Alba, who would offer her
0:19:51 > 0:19:55a golden opportunity - an introduction to the Spanish court.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01So, in 1559, Anguissola, aged 27, left her home
0:20:01 > 0:20:06and sisters behind to come to Spain as a guest at the state wedding
0:20:06 > 0:20:09of King Philip II to Isabel de Valois.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Here in the Palacio del Infantado,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17she faced the biggest test of her mettle.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23The wedding was the culmination of
0:20:23 > 0:20:28delicate peace negotiations between Spain and France.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Imagine the tension.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35It would daunt even the most experienced courtier.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39But Sofonisba Anguissola had more than enough poise
0:20:39 > 0:20:41to meet the challenge.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50That evening, there was a torch dance,
0:20:50 > 0:20:55whereby a man passes the torch to the woman he'd like to dance with,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59and then the woman has the power to invite a man to dance.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03And then, with unimaginable self-command,
0:21:03 > 0:21:08Sofonisba passed the torch to Philip II, the King.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12With the eyes of the court upon her,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16she took to the floor, and he danced with her.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18She was a palpable hit.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33Sheer finesse secured Anguissola's entre to court,
0:21:33 > 0:21:34but as a woman,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37she could not be officially recognised as a court painter
0:21:37 > 0:21:42on the same terms as men - her title was lady-in-waiting.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46And there was a price to pay for her art, too.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50In the 16th century,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53state portraits were vital diplomatic tools
0:21:53 > 0:21:56amongst the courts of Europe - they were less about art
0:21:56 > 0:21:59and more about politics.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Would Anguissola's playfulness serve the art of statecraft?
0:22:04 > 0:22:11This is a highly, highly formal portrait of Isabel de Valois.
0:22:11 > 0:22:18It subscribes to all the stringent rules of Spanish court portraiture.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22The great stiffness of pose.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26She's not just a woman, she is a queen,
0:22:26 > 0:22:30and queen of the richest nation on Earth.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34There's the part of me that can't help
0:22:34 > 0:22:39but regret the transition from the intimacy, informality,
0:22:39 > 0:22:46mischief and laughter of her earlier paintings, back in Italy.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48But that's really to miss the point,
0:22:48 > 0:22:53because what a portrait like this shows is Anguissola's capacity
0:22:53 > 0:22:58to live by the stringent rules of court portraiture.
0:22:58 > 0:23:05Sofonisba Anguissola has proved that she can play the game.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Anguissola never put a graceful foot wrong.
0:23:10 > 0:23:16She enriched her family, and pulled off two advantageous marriages.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Even in advanced old age, her reputation was still undimmed.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27Not only did she impress and surprise Michelangelo in her youth,
0:23:27 > 0:23:31in her 90s, she won the homage of Van Dyck.
0:23:32 > 0:23:39In 1624, Van Dyck, aged just 25, himself a celebrated artist in
0:23:39 > 0:23:44the courts of Europe, made a special pilgrimage to Anguissola's home,
0:23:44 > 0:23:49and here at the British Museum, his notes and sketchbooks survive.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56And here is a charming, vivacious, quick sketch
0:23:56 > 0:23:58of an old, old lady,
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Portrait of Sofonisba, the painter,
0:24:00 > 0:24:08done from life in Palermo in July 1624, her age then 96,
0:24:08 > 0:24:13still with her memory and her senses "prontissimo" -
0:24:13 > 0:24:16so speedy, quick, she's still got all her faculties.
0:24:16 > 0:24:22How can it be that Michelangelo and Van Dyck
0:24:22 > 0:24:26found Sofonisba so compelling as an artist
0:24:26 > 0:24:30and yet her reputation is almost unknown today?
0:24:31 > 0:24:35I think the answer must lie in the court context.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40The court made her art possible, nurtured her, sheltered her.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44But it guaranteed that her art would never be bought
0:24:44 > 0:24:50and sold on the open marketplace and ensured that her art remained
0:24:50 > 0:24:53an acquired taste of the privileged few.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00So, could a woman in the Renaissance ever become an independent
0:25:00 > 0:25:02professional artist,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05heading her own workshop, earning her own money
0:25:05 > 0:25:08and battling it out with men for commissions?
0:25:08 > 0:25:12There was one place in Italy where it was possible - Bologna,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15home to the first university in the world,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19a city with more liberal attitudes to female learning,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21and greater legal freedoms.
0:25:21 > 0:25:26Lavinia Fontana wasn't born to the Bolognese nobility,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30she was the daughter of a struggling artist.
0:25:30 > 0:25:36But that is key - she had access to oils, to pigments,
0:25:36 > 0:25:37to the brushes,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40to the canvases, but above all,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43she had an entre
0:25:43 > 0:25:49into the mysteries of artistic production - she had training.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56Commercial art in the 16th century was in the grip of powerful guilds
0:25:56 > 0:26:02who governed access to that essential training, barring women.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Family provided the only alternative for them.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09But in a corner of a store room I've discovered proof
0:26:09 > 0:26:12that Fontana realised her true value.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18This is a self-portrait of Lavinia Fontana. It's exquisite.
0:26:19 > 0:26:26But this is not just your ordinary representation of female virtue.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30It's actually a very canny piece of marketing.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35She sent this painting to her putative father-in-law.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40In the background there's a cassone, which is an Italian marriage chest,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43which symbolises dowry.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47But the Fontanas had very little in the way of dowry to offer.
0:26:47 > 0:26:54Next to the cassone, however, spot lit, there's an easel,
0:26:54 > 0:27:01a direct reference to Lavinia Fontana's professional skill.
0:27:01 > 0:27:07What's she's saying there is, "My marriage chest might be empty
0:27:07 > 0:27:11"but I am rich in talent."
0:27:11 > 0:27:15And when she got married in 1577 and became a mother,
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Fontana was determined to keep her workshop open for business,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22as her family manuscripts reveal.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25The documents that we have here tell us
0:27:25 > 0:27:26so much about what it takes
0:27:26 > 0:27:30to become a successful female painter
0:27:30 > 0:27:33and at the same time a successful wife and mother.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37I mean, this is a woman who turned out hundreds of paintings,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40perhaps 200-300 paintings in her lifetime
0:27:40 > 0:27:45- and yet was pregnant 11 times. - It's unthinkable.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50We've got a document, in fact, that's amazing
0:27:50 > 0:27:53in so many ways, poignant, remarkable.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58It's the list that Juan Paulo, her husband, writes of the births
0:27:58 > 0:28:02and, sadly, so many of the deaths of their children.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07It's a document that also attests to the way that she rises
0:28:07 > 0:28:08through society.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12Because any couple will always choose as godparents
0:28:12 > 0:28:15at this point in time the people they think they know
0:28:15 > 0:28:18- that can do the most for their children.- Yeah, the most good.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Exactly.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23So they start out with, as godparents,
0:28:23 > 0:28:25the Bolognese bourgeoisie.
0:28:25 > 0:28:31As we move on, 1587, she's got Laudomia Gozzadini
0:28:31 > 0:28:34as the godmother to one of her children.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37And the Gozzadini are THE powerful family, are they not?
0:28:37 > 0:28:40They are one of THE most important families in Bologna,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43and, of course, Lavinia has an incredibly close relationship
0:28:43 > 0:28:45with Laudomia Gozzadini.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50I've come to see a painting commissioned by Laudomia Gozzadini
0:28:50 > 0:28:55herself, a work which attests to Fontana's intimate understanding
0:28:55 > 0:29:00of her female clients, the ladies of the Bolognese nobility.
0:29:02 > 0:29:03On the face of it,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07it looks to be a simple celebration of the wealth
0:29:07 > 0:29:10and dignity of a prominent noble family.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14But look behind the surface wealth,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16and, in fact, there are all sorts
0:29:16 > 0:29:21of secret messages just waiting to be decoded,
0:29:21 > 0:29:27which are the surviving record of a torrid and toxic family drama.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34Fontana begins the tale with this man, Gozzadini, the father.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37He promised to leave his entire fortune to whichever daughter
0:29:37 > 0:29:42gave him a male heir first, setting off a cruel fertility race.
0:29:42 > 0:29:48And it was not Laudomia, but Genevra who would be the victor.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51And you can see this by the fact
0:29:51 > 0:29:55that her father is touching her hand.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59But Laudomia has her revenge.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Look at Genevra, look at her face,
0:30:02 > 0:30:07she is palpably and demonstrably ugly.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12Her husband blamed Laudomia herself for his inability to
0:30:12 > 0:30:14get his hands on the great fortune.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Laudomia will have none of it.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23If you look at Genevra's medallion, on it you can just about see
0:30:23 > 0:30:29the figure of a man with a proud, rampant, erect penis,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33whereas, on Laudomia, there's another naked man
0:30:33 > 0:30:36but his penis is flaccid.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41She is saying the fault is not mine, fella, the fault is yours.
0:30:41 > 0:30:48Her version of the story is here for all time,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53she will not be marginalised, in her family or in art.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57This is the world that women made.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06Fontana owed her career to the women who commissioned her works,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09securing her position as the first
0:31:09 > 0:31:11professional female artist of the age.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14But for me, her paintings are so powerful
0:31:14 > 0:31:17because they provide a precious window upon
0:31:17 > 0:31:22the lives of daughters, brides, wives and widows.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Yet perhaps it is this very family focus that has enabled her work
0:31:26 > 0:31:29to be overlooked in history.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32In the hierarchy of art, such intimate family portraits
0:31:32 > 0:31:36were not as highly valued as historical and biblical epics.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40For a female artist to secure her place in history,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45she would need to live and paint on a far grander scale.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50Rome.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53At the turn of the 17th century, the city of Caravaggio,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57a place of light and dark, the sacred and profane.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03The home of Artemisia Gentileschi.
0:32:03 > 0:32:04Born in 1593,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Gentileschi, like Fontana,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09was the daughter of an artist.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13From the outset she tackled the epic.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15Her first subject, at the age of 17,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18was a favourite of male artists,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20Susanna and the Elders,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24typically presented by men as a beautiful naked woman
0:32:24 > 0:32:28luxuriating in the attention of older men.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34In fact, the biblical story is very ugly.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Those elders want Susanna to sleep with them
0:32:38 > 0:32:43and when she says she won't they say they'll betray her
0:32:43 > 0:32:48to her husband as an adulterer, and she will be executed.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52In her depiction, Susanna
0:32:52 > 0:32:56doesn't enjoy anything about these men.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59They're dirty old men, leering over the wall at her,
0:32:59 > 0:33:01trying to touch her,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05and she is writhing away in horror.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07At the tender age of 17,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12Artemisia Gentileschi is trying to give expression to something
0:33:12 > 0:33:20which doesn't even have a name, the violence of the male gaze.
0:33:20 > 0:33:26This stark judgment upon men was to prove depressingly accurate.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Just two years later, Gentileschi's father brought
0:33:29 > 0:33:35charges against the painter Agostino Tassi for his daughter's rape.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Tassi was her teacher and had exploited her.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43The subsequent seven-month trial
0:33:43 > 0:33:47dragged Gentileschi's reputation through the mud.
0:33:48 > 0:33:54Tassi counterclaimed Artemisia was no virgin, an easy lay,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57so how could it be rape?
0:33:57 > 0:34:02But Gentileschi refused to withdraw her testimony.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05In fact, she offered to submit to the thumbscrews
0:34:05 > 0:34:08to prove her version of events.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10Think about it, she's an artist.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14What a risk - she needed those hands.
0:34:14 > 0:34:20This demonstrates her dauntless courage, but also
0:34:20 > 0:34:27the fierceness of her commitment to her own truth about women and men.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31The shadow of this trauma has coloured the way
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Gentileschi's work has been viewed,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37as a shriek of rage and revenge against male oppression.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39But that's not what strikes me.
0:34:39 > 0:34:46I see female strength in adversity, and the triumph of art over ordeal.
0:34:46 > 0:34:52This, for me, is one of the most stirring paintings in the pantheon
0:34:52 > 0:34:57of female art - it's Judith and her maidservant.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00They've just committed a political assassination,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04creeping into the tents of the Assyrian enemy,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08where they have decapitated the general Holofernes.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11There is his head, in the bundle.
0:35:11 > 0:35:17This was painted probably about a year after Gentileschi's trial,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19when she was still around 20.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23But actually I don't read female violence against men,
0:35:23 > 0:35:28or revenge against patriarchy in this painting.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Just look at those women -
0:35:30 > 0:35:34they're shoulder to shoulder, their bodies echo each other.
0:35:34 > 0:35:43For me, this painting is all about female unity of purpose and bravery.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46It says, in the strongest way possible,
0:35:46 > 0:35:50men don't have the monopoly of courage...
0:35:54 > 0:35:58..as Gentileschi proved when she left Rome behind
0:35:58 > 0:36:02and headed to Florence, determined to reinvent herself.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08Here among the tens of thousands of volumes of city records,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12there are legal papers that have just been unearthed which
0:36:12 > 0:36:15illuminate exactly how she went about it.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20These are books that are records of some of the debts she accrued.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22In this case,
0:36:22 > 0:36:28she's purchased something from a very, very prestigious silk merchant
0:36:28 > 0:36:31who could become a potential patron.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34If she hasn't paid off her debt in time,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37perhaps she can offer him a painting.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40She first is seeking out minor patrons.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43These patrons of music in the circle of the Medici.
0:36:43 > 0:36:49Ultimately, though, we know that she's casting her line,
0:36:49 > 0:36:51looking for the big fish.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53And does she land her big carp?
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Oh, she succeeded at the highest level.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00She obtained her ultimate goal,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04which was the patronage of the Medici grand duke himself.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08What I adore about your archival finds is that I think
0:37:08 > 0:37:16they absolutely refute the popular impression of Artemisia as a victim.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20We don't see a victim of male violence here.
0:37:20 > 0:37:26What we see is a woman who is capable of doing business with men,
0:37:26 > 0:37:32doing business like a man, and yet she never ceases to be a woman.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35As you might say in Italian, she's a tremenda.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Gentileschi refused to be defined by her gender.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44As she promised one sceptical patron,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48"You will find the spirit of Caesar in this soul of a woman."
0:37:48 > 0:37:53She strode into the male arena, tackling historical epics
0:37:53 > 0:37:56and ambitious public works all over Italy and beyond,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01her reputation reaching even Charles I in faraway England.
0:38:02 > 0:38:07In 1638, Gentileschi came to join her father, who had been
0:38:07 > 0:38:10painting at the English Court for 12 years,
0:38:10 > 0:38:15on the grand public works that secured a male artist's reputation.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Now Gentileschi came to the rescue of her ageing father
0:38:20 > 0:38:23on his most prestigious royal commission,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27found here today at Marlborough House in London,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30the crowning glory of the main salon.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45And this is it - an allegory of peace and the arts
0:38:45 > 0:38:47under the English Crown.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53She was more than a match for her male contemporaries.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58The epic theme and commanding scale epitomise Artemisia Gentileschi's
0:38:58 > 0:39:02supreme belief in her own proficiency and power.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08The woman who had found herself a man's plaything,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12tortured and dishonoured while still in her teens,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15had forged an international career,
0:39:15 > 0:39:20and this in an era when most Italian women barely left the house.
0:39:20 > 0:39:26What a feat, armed only with her fearlessness and her talent.
0:39:36 > 0:39:41So, despite the stifling constraints of Renaissance Italy
0:39:41 > 0:39:44and Catholic Spain, a handful of dauntless women
0:39:44 > 0:39:47had demonstrated just what it took
0:39:47 > 0:39:52to scale the heights of artistic endeavour and gain public acclaim.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56But the days of Catholic artistic dominance in Europe were numbered.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58There was a new empire growing in the north,
0:39:58 > 0:40:02where the next great artistic flowering would take place.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Welcome to the Dutch Republic, a different world.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25Unsurprisingly, in the 17th century, the Dutch had their own ideas
0:40:25 > 0:40:28about the proper role of women in life and art.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31Women had greater freedoms than in Italy.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34They bustled about the streets and marketplaces,
0:40:34 > 0:40:36and even ran businesses.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40English visitors were shocked at their bossiness.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43Here, the Reformation had rejected the opulence
0:40:43 > 0:40:45and excess of Catholicism,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50and art was no longer preoccupied with the nude and the epic.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55The Dutch liked their paintings on a domestic scale, in a minor key.
0:40:55 > 0:41:01No blood and guts, no smells and bells, the aesthetics of restraint.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06All of this was encapsulated in a newly emerging genre,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08the still life,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12a subject at which ambitious female artists could excel.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16This is a still life by Clara Peeters.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18She is a pioneer
0:41:18 > 0:41:21of this form, which is called the breakfast piece.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26Clara Peeters was born a year after Artemisia Gentileschi,
0:41:26 > 0:41:33but you couldn't have a greater contrast of art,
0:41:33 > 0:41:37of world view and, I think, of femininity.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41You might think, well, it's all muted monochromes
0:41:41 > 0:41:46and it's just the mere makings of a meal - so, big deal.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52But, in fact, it's peace and prosperity in miniature.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56What she's saying here is, look, these are the concentrated
0:41:56 > 0:42:00ideals of our new Dutch Republic.
0:42:00 > 0:42:07Plenty, stillness, all within a context of moderation
0:42:07 > 0:42:09and religious discipline.
0:42:09 > 0:42:16If you look close, you can see, in the shiny pewter lid
0:42:16 > 0:42:20of this wine jug, there is a little face.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25So there is Clara Peeters, and she's looking back at us.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30There she is at the very centre of domestic ritual,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34and at the very heart of domestic life.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41Ironically, we know little of the life of Clara Peeters herself
0:42:41 > 0:42:44but she has left her mark on her work.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47She deftly tapped into the Dutch Republic's
0:42:47 > 0:42:50most obsessive preoccupation - the home.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55A well-run household stood for a well-run republic.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02The spotlight on the home raised the status of traditional female
0:43:02 > 0:43:06creative occupations such as lace-making and embroidery,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09celebrating the talents of the amateur.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12300 years ago, Amsterdam was abuzz with it.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14The toast of the town was not Rembrandt
0:43:14 > 0:43:18but a now long-forgotten woman called Joanna Koerten.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20In fact, amazingly, at the time,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22one of her works sold for three times that
0:43:22 > 0:43:26of Rembrandt's masterpiece, The Night Watch.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33And she achieved it all without a paintbrush or a needle.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47Isn't paper-cutting seen as a dainty craft?
0:43:47 > 0:43:49- Yes, it is.- Not an art.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Yes, it is, and it's very annoying. People say, "Oh, what do you do?"
0:43:53 > 0:43:56"I'm doing paper-cutting." And they say, "Oh, yeah that's what
0:43:56 > 0:43:59"children do in elementary school," but it can be so much more.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02My word!
0:44:02 > 0:44:04My word. It's like a hologram.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10It's far too easy today to overlook the dexterity required
0:44:10 > 0:44:12to make art with a knife,
0:44:12 > 0:44:16but Joanna Keorten was determined her work could not be dismissed.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21She was cunning. She would cut portraits instead of landscapes,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25and the portraits she cut from famous people like emperors and kings.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29It was very rare what she did. She was well-known internationally
0:44:29 > 0:44:32because travellers came especially to Holland, to Amsterdam,
0:44:32 > 0:44:36to see her and to see her work and to buy it.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40It's amazing that, to think of this kind of European celebrity
0:44:40 > 0:44:44and now she's kind of, you know, vanished into the smog of history.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46Yeah, she did.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Paper is fragile and vulnerable to the elements,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55so I'm not surprised to find that so much of Koerten's fine work
0:44:55 > 0:44:57has vanished or disintegrated.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00But one of her most ambitious works
0:45:00 > 0:45:05has survived, and can be found here at the Lakenhal Museum in Leiden.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12I can't help but notice, though, as I walk the distinguished halls,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14I'm not being led to a gallery.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Non-descript storage. Where is she, then?
0:45:24 > 0:45:26Ah, number three here, this one.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30There it is, in a frame.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Oh, so here she is, the woman that once outsold Rembrandt,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36and you keep her in storage.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38Do you think you could get it out
0:45:38 > 0:45:40and we can restore it to pride of place and have a good look at it?
0:45:40 > 0:45:42- Yeah, sure.- OK.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50And here it is. Joanna Koerten's paper-cut
0:45:50 > 0:45:57is a depiction of a king, William III, William of Orange.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01At first glance, you never would imagine that this is a paper-cut.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05It looks for all the world like a pen-and-ink sketch,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08or even a print taken from an engraving.
0:46:08 > 0:46:14But, nevertheless, it's a work of stunning artistry,
0:46:14 > 0:46:19and by having a king, and by resembling a print,
0:46:19 > 0:46:24what Koerten is doing is very cleverly asserting the high status
0:46:24 > 0:46:28of her art, she's claiming for this domestic practice
0:46:28 > 0:46:36the power and the prestige of a much more public and formal type of art.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40So, I think it's rather fitting that at last she's reinstalled
0:46:40 > 0:46:45amongst all these other old masters in the Lakenhal.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50I think this is where she would imagine her art belonged.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Joanna Koerten, like Clara Peeters,
0:46:55 > 0:47:00secured her reputation by evoking the feminine ideals
0:47:00 > 0:47:06of the Protestant north - chastity, quiet diligence, domesticity -
0:47:06 > 0:47:09but there was quite another side to Dutch life.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15The Republic presided over the richest
0:47:15 > 0:47:19and most rapacious trading empire of the age.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25Prosperity gave birth to a new, broadly based market for art,
0:47:25 > 0:47:30and here everyone from a farmer up purchased paintings.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Today's Haarlem is picture-postcard perfect,
0:47:34 > 0:47:39but in the 17th century, it was a great hub of the textile trade.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44This is not a town that really wants lots of glorious history paintings,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47they want small pieces on a domestic scale
0:47:47 > 0:47:51and that's what Judith Leyster excelled at -
0:47:51 > 0:47:57smaller genre pieces, just the thing for the bourgeois front room.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02Judith Leyster's work was more than a match
0:48:02 > 0:48:05for her male contemporary Frans Hals.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10She excelled at paintings brimming with laughter and the everyday,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14but she could also represent the darker side of Dutch life.
0:48:14 > 0:48:19Today, we see Dutch femininity - all calmness and serenity -
0:48:19 > 0:48:22through the eyes of Vermeer,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25but Leyster exposes what it was really like to be
0:48:25 > 0:48:27a woman in the Dutch Republic.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33For me, this little painting tucked away in the corner
0:48:33 > 0:48:39of a museum in the Hague is one of the most compelling paintings
0:48:39 > 0:48:41ever produced by a female artist.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45It's come to be known as The Proposition.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50Here in the centre, we have a lovely young girl
0:48:50 > 0:48:55determinedly doing her sewing by candlelight.
0:48:55 > 0:49:02A woman sewing is an archetypal expression of feminine duty
0:49:02 > 0:49:04and virtue.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08And then over her shoulder leers a man.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11He's touching her and he's offering her money.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15He seems to want her to sleep with him.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19This painting oddly reminds me of Artemisia Gentileschi.
0:49:19 > 0:49:25This is a Protestant, northern version of Susanna and the Elders.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29This bent face is like Susanna's twisting body.
0:49:29 > 0:49:35So, although these women, divided by religion and hundreds of miles
0:49:35 > 0:49:38and climate,
0:49:38 > 0:49:44they're both interested in thinking about what it is
0:49:44 > 0:49:48to be a woman who's endlessly looked at by men.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Leyster faced the familiar choice between an independent career
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and family life.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03Leyster achieved extraordinary technical success
0:50:03 > 0:50:06at a very young age.
0:50:06 > 0:50:13And then, aged 26, in 1636, she gave it all up.
0:50:13 > 0:50:19She married another painter and put down her own paintbrush.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Leyster's husband was half the painter she was,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28but the sacrifice had been made.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31We know of only two further works she painted after her marriage,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34a still life and a tulip.
0:50:34 > 0:50:39But not every woman was prepared to limit their horizons to home, hearth
0:50:39 > 0:50:43and husband. After all, this was an age of exploration.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47Men were venturing from these shores
0:50:47 > 0:50:49to the very edge of the known world.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52These were waters no woman could hope to cross.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58And yet, towards the end of the 17th century, Maria Sibylla Merian
0:50:58 > 0:51:02would do just that in bold pursuit of her art.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11The first 40 years of the life of Maria Sibylla Merian
0:51:11 > 0:51:13were pretty conventional.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17She was a dutiful daughter and then step-daughter.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20She married appropriately enough.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24But all the while in her home town of Frankfurt,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27she harboured a passion for painting nature.
0:51:27 > 0:51:28As she wrote,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31"I collected all the caterpillars I could find
0:51:31 > 0:51:34"in order to study their metamorphosis."
0:51:34 > 0:51:37She had two daughters and raised them
0:51:37 > 0:51:42just as she was raising her caterpillars to be butterflies,
0:51:42 > 0:51:46but as she got older you get a stronger and stronger sense
0:51:46 > 0:51:51that conventional family life in Frankfurt was a brake on
0:51:51 > 0:51:55her artistic ambition, her spirituality
0:51:55 > 0:51:58and her scientific reach.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05So, in 1685, she did the unthinkable.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08She left her home and her husband.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17Merian packed her bags, and with her two daughters
0:52:17 > 0:52:21and her mother in tow, escaped to the Netherlands
0:52:21 > 0:52:26and a religious community in the bleak and empty north.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30Protestants believed that nature study combined the ideals
0:52:30 > 0:52:36of religious devotion and education, capturing God's wonders on Earth.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Merian set herself the task of revealing
0:52:39 > 0:52:42the interconnectedness of life itself.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47She was the first who combined in a very
0:52:47 > 0:52:51delicate and beautiful manner
0:52:51 > 0:52:54all the life cycle...
0:52:54 > 0:53:00- In one image.- ..in one image with the host plants.- Yes.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03- And that, she invented that.- Yes.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05This is the pupae, you see,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09- so there are different metamorphoses. - Yes.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16It takes extraordinary nerve, I think, in the 17th century,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19to leave a living husband.
0:53:19 > 0:53:25She knew, "I have to be without my husband
0:53:25 > 0:53:28"to do the things I want to do."
0:53:30 > 0:53:33And one of her missions was to educate her daughters.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37To pursue this she had no choice but to leave
0:53:37 > 0:53:42the wilderness behind and remove to cosmopolitan Amsterdam.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46But it would be here that Merian would encounter the remarkable
0:53:46 > 0:53:49specimens brought back by mariners and merchants
0:53:49 > 0:53:52which would intoxicate her.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59She loved cabinets of curiosity,
0:53:59 > 0:54:04stuffed with the treasures of the East and West Indies,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07but over time, she became frustrated with them.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12As she wrote, she realised that they were not looking at the habitat
0:54:12 > 0:54:16and propagation of the insects that she adored.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18It was as if you were looking at a book
0:54:18 > 0:54:21and the first two-thirds of the story were torn out,
0:54:21 > 0:54:26or, instead of a film of the life of an insect, you just get a snapshot.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32So, in 1699, a woman who had already fled home and husband
0:54:32 > 0:54:36undertook her most dramatic journey yet,
0:54:36 > 0:54:42to voyage for over two months and 5,000 miles across the Atlantic,
0:54:42 > 0:54:46to reach the tropical jungle of the Dutch colony of Suriname...
0:54:56 > 0:54:59..an inhospitable and uncharted territory
0:54:59 > 0:55:03on the coast of South America.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07It's hard to recreate now the sheer nerve
0:55:07 > 0:55:11of a 52-year-old woman setting off across the Atlantic -
0:55:11 > 0:55:16a perilous journey - with her 21-year-old daughter.
0:55:16 > 0:55:21She set off into the interior, in a canoe, with her daughter,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24four days' rowing.
0:55:24 > 0:55:29Finally there, deep in the tropical rainforest,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32she saw, teeming in the canopy,
0:55:32 > 0:55:35the life that she came to encounter.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50The paintings from Merian's expedition were
0:55:50 > 0:55:54published in 1705 and greeted with awe and wonder.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Prized in the eminent collections of Europe,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03and few more illustrious than the one held here at Windsor Castle.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08I've come to see a rare set of Merian's watercolours,
0:56:08 > 0:56:12purchased by the future King George III in 1755.
0:56:13 > 0:56:19Look what Suriname did to Sibylla Merian's art.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30There's nothing miniature, polite or domestic about this.
0:56:30 > 0:56:36The whole thing is alive, it's like a freeze-frame in a drama.
0:56:36 > 0:56:43It's exploding off the paper with my least favourite of God's creatures.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45Spiders.
0:56:48 > 0:56:55To me, it has elements of a monstrous, horrific cartoon.
0:56:55 > 0:57:01This is nature as imagined by Tarantino, not by Walt Disney.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10Maria Sibylla Merian had revolutionised scientific study,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13showing the cycle of life for species never seen before.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17Finally, people understood the intricate whole.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21And yet, over time, as the world of science and art parted company,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25deemed neither a scientist nor an artist,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28Merian slipped into obscurity.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32But I'm impressed to find a woman who refused to be
0:57:32 > 0:57:37constrained by conventions of gender or by rules of art.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42When I began my journey two centuries before,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45a female artist was so desperate to be a sculptor
0:57:45 > 0:57:47she practised on plum stones,
0:57:47 > 0:57:52yet here is a woman trekking to the deepest reaches of the tropics
0:57:52 > 0:57:55to fulfil her artistic ambitions.
0:57:55 > 0:58:02Recovering that lineage has not been easy because posterity has
0:58:02 > 0:58:06not been kind, so much is hidden, unhonoured and unsung.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11But by digging away in stores and dark corners of houses,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15churches and museums, you can find a different perspective
0:58:15 > 0:58:20on our world that female artists fought so ingeniously to bequeath.
0:58:31 > 0:58:36In the next programme, I'm heading for Britain and France,
0:58:36 > 0:58:39to discover if the industrial and social transformation
0:58:39 > 0:58:41of the 18th century would finally
0:58:41 > 0:58:46see women vault the obstacles in the path to becoming artists.