Many modern ideas about femininity — often stereotypical, contradictory, and sometimes overtly misogynistic — have their origins in the Renaissance. The painting of this period tells us less about the real lives of women than about the ideals, fears, and fantasies of its time.

Who is she, the woman in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art? A saint — a symbol of purity and an earthly embodiment of the Virgin Mary? A muse — a source of inspiration and an object of desire? Or a sinner — a temptress deserving of punishment?

In this lecture, we will discuss why artists repeatedly returned to these images and what influence they had on ideas about femininity in general. We will also attempt to uncover a distinctly female perspective on oneself, one's place in life and art through the work of the first women artists of the Italian Renaissance.