My paper investigates Peter Paul Rubens’ female portraits in terms of the male and female gaze, psychoanalytic analysis, and historical context. My research will support the idea that Rubens painted women in a sexualized manner based on what Foucault coins the male gaze.[1] The paintings evaluated in this project include portraits of Rubens’ wives, Isabella Brandt and Helene Fourment, and portraits of wealthy patrons such as Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria, Anne of Austria, and Marie de’ Medici. It is incorrect to view these paintings as pure, complete depictions of identity because women in this time were always defined and observed by men.[2]However by deconstructing the male gaze and also acknowledging the role of the active female gaze of the subjects of these works, a more complex construction of female identity is uncovered. Throughout history the feminine has been generalized to be passive and silent. My project aims to build on recent feminist scholarship that works to uncover more responsible and representative descriptions of the images of women in history. [1]Michel Foucault, “Discipline and Punish” from Literary Theory: An Anthology, ed. by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004), 549-565. [2]Patricia Simons, “Women in Frames: The Gaze, the Eye, the Profile in Renaissance Portraiture,” edited by Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (New York: Harper Collins, 1992): 44.

The emergence of Augustus and his restoration of the Roman Republic prompted innovations in public portraiture. Though statue portraits were common in the Roman Republic, those depicting females were incredibly rare. Under Augustus, women's portraiture found a more welcome place in public statuary. In the context of the plans for restoring the Republic, this dramatic break from tradition suggests propagandistic motivation. Propagandistic imagery flooded the empire in an attempt to assist the emperor in his ambitious reform goals. Many scholars believe, however, it was challenging to find fitting visual accompaniment for the social and cultural portion of those reforms. The core of this study focuses on the sculptural portraits of women that arose during this period of reformation, and sheds light on how they were used by Augustus and the Senate as visual expressions of their cultural renewal program. This thesis examines the messages hidden within the formal style, iconography and details of portraiture of mortal Roman women. By exploring the various ways these new art works were used, such as demonstration, of normative behavior, display of proper virtue and ideals, and promotion of the marital and procreation legislation, a more comprehensive analysis of the image of the Roman woman in the age of Augustan restoration is possible.

Despite the fact that there seems to be no direct link between the works of Nikolai Gogol and those of Oscar Wilde, Gogol’s novella, Портрет (The Portrait) and Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, share many elements in common, most notably the device of the predatory portrait. This report explores the parallels that exist between these two texts and argues that they mutually derive from elements found in Goethe’s Faust and the trope of the literary vampire. / text

This thesis analyzes the philosophical origins of dualism in Western culture in the Classical period in order to examine dualist modes of representation in the history of Western portraiture. Dualism - or the separation of soul and body - takes the form in portraiture of the representation of the head or head and shoulders at the expense of the body, and since its emergence in Classical Greece, has been the major influence on portraiture. In this respect the modern portrait's commonplace attention to the face rests on the dualist notion that the soul, and therefore the individuality of the subject, rests in the head. Art historical literature on portraiture, however, fails to address the pictorial, cultural and theoretical complications arising from various forms of dualism and their different artistic methodologies, such as that of the physiognomy (the definition of personality through facial characteristics) in the 19th century. That is, there is a failure to identify the complexities of dualism's relationship to the traditional honorific aspects of the portrait (the fact that historians are inclined to accept at face value the fact that portraits historically have tended to honour the achievements and social status of the sitter). Indeed, scholars have a propensity to romanticise the humanist individualists inherent to this long history of the honorific, particularly in canonic portrait practices such as Rembrandt's and Picasso's.

En undersökning i det kvinnligt konstruerade könet och dess framställning pastorala porträtt under frihetstidens Sverige. Genom en undersökning av den dåtida kontexten och analys av tre kvinnliga porträtt undersöks framställningen av kvinnan som ett ideal. / An analysis of the female constructed gender and it's display in the pastoral portrait during the first half of the 18th century in Sweden. By looking at the kontext of the time an through analyzing three portraits the matter of woman as an ideal will be explored.

The Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck extended his preoccupation with portraiture into the printed medium by designing a body of portrait prints, posthumously compiled into a book entitled, the Iconography. This suite of images, organized and designed by Van Dyck and printed by workshop assistants between 1632 and 1644, is comprised of engraved and etched half-length portraits of contemporary European men and women of various professions and backgrounds, including artists, scholars, diplomats, and religious leaders. This thesis examines the artistic and literary context for Van Dyck’s Iconography, with a focus on the changing social and intellectual status of artists in northern Europe during the seventeenth century. It seeks to provide the scholarship on the Iconography with an understanding of how the portraits function as a collective group that enhanced the prestige of artists in the seventeenth century.

Many current media images of women have underlying messages that affect our psyche in a negative way, whether or not we are aware. These images convey an unrealistic, distorted view of ideals and perfection, which create an unattainable model to live up to. As women, we should be cherishing our uniqueness, but, rather than celebrating and accepting ourselves, we are taught to judge and conceal. This project seeks to address inner beauty as a reflection of our energy, vitality, wisdom and the mental, as well as emotional, engagement in our lives. The terms perfection and imperfection will be redefined and applied to inward rather than outward appearance. Through a photographic study, this project will emphasize the value and beauty in aging. In the end, I would like to encourage my audience to not only recognize but also understand and accept the difference between media images and their own self-images.

The Project focused on self-reflection and insight, linking these processes to an artistic one – painting. As a way to respond to the research question: Does self-portraiture have the potential to guide us through self-reflection and insight? Workshops combining art and ways of thinking were designed and facilitated by the author, with the aim of improving the self-reflection and insight of students at LNU, based on theories of brain function and thinking. Using the workshop format, the author guided the participants through an experience of introspection through painting self-portraits. Areas of design included workshop, collaborative and critical design. A simple three-step design process was employed to create the Project, focusing on What, How and Why. Next steps included prototyping, designing the questionnaires which students completed, designing the art workshops, and advertising the workshops across campus. Results included nine respondents to questionnaires, four participants in the final workshop, and an array of findings regarding the self-reflection process and insight experienced by students through the design process. Although limitations were experienced, including a small number of participants, the results of combining self-portraiture and self-reflection and insight were mainly positive. It was concluded that this process could be proposed as a means to enhance self-reflection amongst students. Recommendations from the workshops included scaling up the process to include greater numbers of students and reaching an agreement with LNU to hold periodic self-portraiture workshops throughout the academic year, to enhance students’ self-reflection, insight and art skills. The author concluded that by holding workshops to paint self-portraits, along with exercises in self-reflection and insight, she had created a safe space for reflection. In future, students could be provided with guidance and support to use art as a platform for improving Self-reflection and insight, and at the same time enhance their art skills and potentially improve their well-being.

This thesis examines the visual representations of elite women, who wielded and were seen to transgress, gendered political roles through their activity in the elite socio-political spheres of eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century Britain. In analysing the portraits and satirical prints of this select breed of women, this study questions the common bifurcation of gender debates in existing secondary literature, which include, but are not limited to, the porosity of traditionally conceived public and private spheres, contested masculine and feminine identities, and the gendering of morals and vices. The study will explore how predominantly male artists represented these women alongside an examination of how elite women were able to manipulate and choreograph their own portrayal. As such, it will probe how these political women utilised portraiture as a crucial means of self-fashioning; and likewise how their satirical representation was routinely subjugated to the male gaze. In doing so, it will reveal the varieties, vagaries and subtleties of the political power held by women and how this could be iterated, celebrated, or criticised in the visual culture of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Britain. Four case studies form this examination. The first, argues that three women from Rockingham-Whig social networks, Lady Elizabeth Melbourne, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Hon. Anne Damer, used portraiture as a form of self-fashioning to both celebrate their friendship and declare their burgeoning political agency. Chapter two revisits the 1784 Westminster election, to probe the theme of rivalry in satirical prints representing female canvassers. It argues that the visual vocabulary expressed in such prints pertains to wider cultural debates concerning class and gender that crucially came to a head during this political event. The third chapter introduces the dialogues between portraiture and satirical prints through its examination of the visual media that politicised Scottish Pittite hostess, Jane, Duchess of Gordon. Whilst the duchess used painted portraiture to proclaim her adherence to culturally-inscribed gender roles, satirical prints attacked her for her perceived political access, acquired through her daughters’ marriages and through her close proximity with prominent members of the Pittite government. The thesis concludes with a study of arguably the most political woman in the period of study: Queen Charlotte, consort of George III. This chapter revisits her reputation, arguing that a close examination of visual culture reveals that the queen, long thought to be an uncontroversial figure, became deeply problematic after the king’s bout with ‘madness’. In seeking to connect the visual aspects of women’s political engagement, this thesis expands on previous work in gender, social, cultural, and art histories such as those by Elaine Chalus, Cindy McCreery, Marcia Pointon, and Kate Retford to further our understanding of women’s political activity and eighteenth-century visual culture.

Women have long been termed "the weaker sex" in regards to physical ability, intellectual capacity, or moral character. Although this designation has since been proven to be false on every level, this categorization of females as lesser creatures than males is a stigma borne by women throughout history. This thesis has a narrow focus on the role and representation of aristocratic Early Modern daughters before they become wives and mothers, and on Sofonisba Anguissola, a female Renaissance painter, as a daughter in particular. An examination of Sofonisba primarily as a daughter, and only secondarily as a female artist, will help to clarify the traditional role of Renaissance daughters, while emphasizing the unique bond between Sofonisba and her father. While daughters of the nobility seem to disappear into the domestic realm presided over by the mother, they were, in fact, actively included in the family dynamics, and were included in the concerns of the father as well as the mother. It was commonplace to train daughters in the domestic arts with only rudimentary academic instruction, although some forward-thinking fathers bestowed upon their daughters an education similar to or equal to the education received by their sons. Sofonisba Anguissola was an exception to the rule, and was able to maintain her chaste, demure, and obedient reputation as Amilcare's daughter, while embarking on a lifelong career as a painter, and as an innovator in the genre of domestic painting. This thesis focuses on the father-daughter relationship specifically between Amilcare and Sofonisba. The social acceptance of the entrance into the traditionally male-dominated public sphere of art by this extraordinary woman, with the encouragement and support of her father, will be discussed in detail. The impact of the encouragement of Amilcare, and how this promotion of Sofonisba's abilities allowed her to achieve not only public accomplishments and distinction for her family, but for herself as an individual as well has traditionally been marginalized in discussions of the role of women in Renaissance society.