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This Is How Much The Female Portrait Has Evolved In The Last 500 Years

This Is How Much The Female Portrait Has Evolved In The Last 500 Years
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Deputy Enterprise Editor, Culture, HuffPost

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Art history books have a reputation of showcasing dead, white, European males -- DWEM -- and the (mostly white) women they handpicked as muses. Portrait after portrait reveals a woman's face through a man's gaze, casting a rather unsavory light on the tendency of artists to eroticize, objectify or idolize the female form.

Artists in the 21st century have made strides to rectify art history's mistakes -- and critics and historians have begun to give women artists and artists of color their rightful place in the canon. But it's difficult to forget the centuries of whitewashed paintings that still reign supreme. Case in point: artFido's three-minute survey of 500 years of female portraits.

Names like Leonardo, Raphael, Hans, Peter, Pablo and Edouard dominate the list of featured paintings. Sure, the likes of Mary Cassatt and Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun attempt to break up the monotony, but the portrait images expose the real story. Art history just didn't really evolve in the last 500 years.

You can catch a bit of change in the last 30 seconds of the video above, as the (still very white) faces become more and more abstract. But the takeaway from this montage: the art world needs more diversity, and quick.

h/t Jezebel

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Before You Go

12 Famous Artists On Art And Life
(01 of11)
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“I think that any photographer is an investigator. Photography is a pretext to know the world, to know life. To know yourself.” -Graciela Iturbide(Graciela Iturbide. Our Lady of the Iguanas, Juchitán, Oaxaca, 1979. From the series: Juchitán. Silver gelatin print; 24 x 20 inches. Courtesy the artist. © Graciela Iturbide)
(02 of11)
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“Art is more than a series of images that are disembodied. Art is objects that live in real places, economies, spaces, architecture.” -Trevor Paglen(Trevor Paglen. Prototype for a Nonfunctional Satellite (Design 4; Build 3), 2013. Mixed Media; diameter 12 feet. Installation view: Protocinema, Istanbul. Courtesy the artist, Metro Pictures, Altman Siegel, and Galerie Thomas Zander. © Trevor Paglen)
(03 of11)
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“I believe that every human being has an understanding of art. What is separating us is smaller than what is unifying us.” -Thomas Hirschhorn(Thomas Hirschhorn. Gramsci Monument, detail, 2013. Site-specific participatory sculpture at Forest Houses, Bronx, New York. Production still from ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 7, 2014. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation. Photo: © ART21, Inc. 2014.)
(04 of11)
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“There is the artwork that you physically make but there’s also the journey that happens on the inside.” -Leonardo Drew(Leonardo Drew. Number 161, detail, 2012. Burnt wood, paint; site-specific installation; dimensions variable. Installation view: Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, 2012. Photo: Jason Wyche. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co. © Leonardo Drew.)
(05 of11)
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“The art that we should be doing today in the 21st century is art that is not for the museum, it's art for the street and people’s lives.” -Tania Bruguera(Tania Bruguera. Immigrant Movement International, 2010–15. Appropriation of political strategies, useful art; long-term project. Materials: Immigration policies and laws, immigrant population, elected officials, politicians, community organizations, public pressure, media. Location: Corona, Queens, New York. Courtesy Immigrant Movement International. © Tania Bruguera.)
(06 of11)
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“Am I a painter? Am I a sculptor? I don’t know. I’m talking to the world while painting on it. Or with it. Or in it.” -Katharina Grosse(Katharina Grosse. Wunderblock, 2013. Acrylic on glass fiber reinforced plastic; 169 1/4 x 102 17/47 x 803 1/8 inches. Installation view: Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. Photo: Kevin Todora. Courtesy Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Wien. © Katharina Grosse und VG Bild-Kunst Bonn.)
(07 of11)
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“Anyone who’s ever put a stamp on an envelope or a note on their refrigerator knows what it’s like to make a collage. There’s no esoteric technique.”-Elliott Hundley(Elliott Hundley. Anne as Hekabe, 2009. Inkjet print in lightbox; 29 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 5 inches. Edition 1 of 4 with 2 artist’s proofs. Courtesy the artist, Andrea Rosen Gallery, and Regen Projects. © Elliott Hundley.)
(08 of11)
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“To think about the work in terms of truth and lies or truth and fictions is to kill the work.” -Omer Fast(Omer Fast. Nostalgia, production still, 2009. Video installation:Nostalgia I, Single-channel HD video with sound, 4:35 minutes;Nostalgia II, Two-channel HD video (synchronized) with sound, 9:49 minutes; Nostalgia III, Super 16 film transferred to HD video, 31:48 minutes. Co-produced by South London Gallery; UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; and Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Photo: Thierry Bal. Courtesy the artist; gb agency, Paris; Arratia Beer, Berlin; and Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv. © Omer Fast.)
(09 of11)
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“For me, it’s always very beautiful that you can do something today in the 21st century which is not an imitation but which has a connection to art which is 4,000 years old.” -Wolfgang Laib(Wolfgang Laib. Passageway, 2013. 7 brass ships, rice; 18 x 128 x 102 inches overall. Installation view: Sperone Westwater, New York, 2013. Courtesy the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York. © Wolfgang Laib)
(10 of11)
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"I’m aware of what could be read into things. I don’t like to talk about the symbolism, it puts too much meaning into it. I like it to be what it is in a very concrete way.” -Joan Jonas(Joan Jonas. Mirror Piece I, 1969. Performance at Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Photo: Joan Jonas. Courtesy the artist. © Joan Jonas)
(11 of11)
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“Clay is extremely elemental. There is nothing about it that attractive or interesting. It’s just very, very basic. The lack of beauty in its raw state is important to me, because it gives me great freedom.” -Arlene Shechet(Arlene Shechet. The Sound of It, installation view, 2010. Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Cathy Carver. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co. © Arlene Shechet)
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