Why You Chose This Medium?
Religion is something that was very important to most men and women of the Medieval Times, so I set out to create a collage that illustrates that, despite their differences, the way women cared for their families were similar between those members of Christianity and those of the Judaism religion. Being able to create something that showcases the families and especially the women of these times is what I set out to do, and I believe that illustrations are a very effective and respectful manner of representing not only what day-to-day life looked like but also the religious powers that played into family dynamics.
Overview of Topic
As mentioned before, religion played a key role in the lives of those from medieval times. From the way in which families were structured and the way societies were also structured, often putting women at a lower status than men in most cases. Lives for these women were not easy. From taking care of children, taking care of the house, collecting water after long hikes, to serving to their husband, women would do a lot for not a lot in return. For centuries, women had the duty to serve their husbands and obey their wishes and commands. In Sefer Hasidim, sexual pleasure is discussed, and the consent is a large thing, however, it is also discussed that women must sexually pleasure their husbands – ultimately showing that women had duties to their men and the idea of consent was not upheld to the standard it is today (509-510). I bring up this point to depict what life was like. In Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe by Emilie Amy, Amt discusses how marriage for women was a “sacrifice” (72). The lives of women were not taken into account as they are today and is evidenced by writing from the past.
The history of women has been primarily unknown for centuries. Besides history and knowledge that has been shared surrounding queens and monarchs, ordinary life has pretty much been unknown until recent decades. For that reason, I pushed to create a collage that represents and further symbolizes the history of the women who were not known until now.
Illustrations Relation to Christian and Jewish Women
Originally, I was going to choose to find paintings and murals of women and their families as well as women who are well known for their status as a royal, but as I began researching, it dawned on me that the collage should not include large figures from these times. The lives and stories of Christian and Jewish women and their history is something that has not been long exposed and known as much as the history that surrounds male figures of the time and royal women. With that in mind, I attempted to find images of women who were not well known in history, almost as a tribute to the millions of women who have not had their history known for all that long.
Beginning from left to right, Christianity to Judaism, are a series of images I found from online articles and webpages. I aimed to portray the women as accurately as possible and wanted to portray the different statuses. I aimed to include both low and high-status women and wanted to also include the fact that, though they were able to achieve high status through marriage, they would always fall to the domination of men as they had a role to keep their wives and children in line (citation). Women were not treated as equals as they are today, so I did not want to brush over images of women who have been beaten or tortured by men. I also wanted to showcase nuns because as historical and well-known as they are today, many women became nuns, not for the reasons many may think. Many women became nuns so they could receive a proper education as “A proper education was difficult to come by during the Middle Ages for men and especially women” (Pak).
Researching images for Jewish women during the Medieval Time was a task that deemed far more tedious and difficult than originally expected, especially when compared to the amount of material that is available for Catholic Christian women during this time. Though it is common knowledge that all women, despite their religions and their cultural backgrounds, were abused by their husbands, paintings of Jewish women did not hint at this fact at all – instead, women were painted beautifully and are almost always portrayed in fine clothing. I feel that this was a choice by the artist to portray women as respectfully as possible and in the best manner possible and possibly alludes to a quote from Medieval Sourcebook: Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Daughters Inheritance, 1293, “How much raiment is the husband obligated to provide for his wife? Clothes to the amount of fifty zuz per annum… The new garments should be given to her in the rainy season, so that they would be well worn in when she wears them in the dry season…” (5). Maybe the artist is aiming to portray women wearing their new clothes in the rainy seasons?
What was ultimately aimed to be achieved through the collage was what life looked life for women in each of the two different religions. Pregnancy, objectification, abuse, duty to men and duty to care, as well as the idea of jobs women in these days had were to be displayed amongst the collage. In a sense, commonality is the main focus between the two groups – once again displaying how life for women during these times were so similar.
Primary and Secondary Sources
When it came to primary sources, I chose The Sefer Hasidim, Medieval Sourcebook: Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Daughter’s Inheritance, 1293, and Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe as each was centred around the two different religions that I centred my project around – Christianity and Judaism. The Sefer Hasidim offered lots of great information that pertained to the lives of Jewish women and gave me a sense of what the marriage and family was like for women during these times. As for Women Lives in Medieval Europe, this source allowed me to better understand what the daily life of Catholic Christian women was like and how society worked.
As for secondary sources, each of my images came from journal articles with multiple images and from webpages also with multiple images but most often only a single image. Alongside the images, was information about the paintings and illustrations, why they were created and what they were to resemble and truly stand for.
Writing Details
- Harrison Ritchie
- 17 June 2022
- 1140
- Life for Christian and Jewish Women
- Tweet
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