Medieval Women Subjects and Makers of Art

This exhibition catalogue explores women as subjects and women as makers of medieval art. As subjects, we find women taking centre stage as venerated mothers, powerful heroines and resolute saints. Still, while our contemporary outlook may view these images of medieval women as powerful and commanding, it may also be misleading because many of these images were created by men and for men, adding a further layer of complexity to every story told.

As makers, we look to redefining the way we credit women for creating artworks. This new definition calls us to be more inclusive with the term ‘maker of art,’ which embraces artists, patrons and recipients as having equally active roles in the conception of art in the Middle Ages. The artworks in this section allow us to discuss the women who worked closely with artists, the women who were powerful patrons and the women who were artists in their own right.

With this exhibition catalogue, we want to tell a story that will take medieval women out of the subplot and bring them centre stage, thus acknowledging that medieval women were fully integrated into the story of art, whether or not they are ‘written in’ by art historians today.