Trabajos - History Lab

Market

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

The women were actively involved in the work as saleswomen, as well as in agricultural and livestock tasks and in the transformation of the products generated by the economy. As well as working as poultry, fish or vegetable sellers, they also occupied positions as innkeepers or bakers. The age of the women implied the development of a different activity. The laws, on the other hand, placed limits on the exercise of certain jobs according to age or marital status. This image allows us to approach history from a female perspective, as it makes women visible in areas other than the domestic sphere, carrying out professional activities.

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Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia accompanied by Magdalena Ruiz

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

The Infanta Clara Eugenia, depicted by Sánchez Coello, is depicted with a portrait of her father Philip II in one of her hands. The Infanta was a woman of great intellectual worth and a great support to her father in the tasks of government, a fact that possibly authorised her to marry at the age of 32, handing her the government of the Low Countries and the duchy of Burgundy, where the Infanta earned the respect of her subjects. On the other hand, Magdalena Ruiz, pictorially depicted as subordinate to the Infanta, was part of the court of the Habsburgs and was considered a royal plaything, valued among the European courts. She was married, widowed and raised two children: the daughter was to become a nun and the son a servant to the king. In addition to being in the service of Joan of Austria (married to John Manuel of Portugal), she was appreciated by Philip II, who wrote several comments about her in letters sent to his daughters during his stay at the Portuguese court.

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The Venerable Mother Jerónima de la Fuente

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

Velázquez’s portrait of Jerónima de la Fuente was painted just prior to her departure on a long journey that would last a year and three months and take her to the farthest reaches of the Spanish empire to found the first convent of Poor Clares in Manila (Philippines). In the numerous convents in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries, women of different aspirations and conditions coincided. Many of them were forced to profess because their families did not have the resources to provide them with sufficient dowries for marriage, but the convent could be an opportunity to develop a personal project outside marriage and motherhood, as well as to learn to read and write. Some of them, through their work, foundations and evangelisation, managed to become an active part of the culture of the time, such as Mother Jerónima de la Fuente. On her arrival in the Philippines, she fought to defend the admission of mestizas and women without dowry into the convents, gaining the appreciation of the people by putting the evangelising aim above all considerations of race, creed or economic resources.

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The spinners

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

Velázquez’s work depicts a craft workshop made up of women. In the foreground are the spinners, women of the village who occupy the most important place in the representation, where three generations are shown participating in the work of spinning and reeling the wool. Their bodies convey activity and liveliness as they cooperate in a manual task. In the background are three upper-class women, one of whom focuses her gaze on the mechanical workers. In the 17th century, spinning wheels and spinning were poorly paid jobs that supplied the needs of the weavers’ guilds. Although Velázquez depicts the interior of a possible tapestry factory, the spinning work did not take place inside the factory, but in the house-workshops. At that time, the ordinances of 1561 prohibited women from joining the guild (historiographically increasingly disputed), although their presence in the workshops continued. The master’s wife took over the spinning and was assisted by other women from the age of 12, as they were considered servants since they were denied the status of apprentices.

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The 12th Marquise of Villafranca painting her husband

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

María Tomasa de Palafox, Marquise of Villafranca, received a careful education under the personal guidance of her mother, María Francisca de Sales Portocarreño, Countess of Montijo. The Countess was secretary for 18 years of the Junta de Damas de Honor y Mérito, an institution founded in 1775 within the framework of the Real Sociedad Económica Matritense, which was very actively involved in social reform programmes (such as the education of women and the improvement of women’s and inclusive prisons). María Tomasa continued her mother’s work and participated in the activities of the Sociedad Matritense, showing great interest in new pedagogical ideas and scientific development. Thus, they claimed women’s rights outside the discourse of excellence, which accepted equality as valid only for those women who were considered extraordinary for their qualities. However, the artistic, scientific and literary academies did not exclude women, but in practice, few were able to join them. The San Fernando Academy was one of the first to allow women to join, and in 1766 it had ten women painters and an honorary president, the Countess of Fuentes. The Academy frequently placed limits on women’s training in painting and they were not allowed to attend classes in life drawing or nudes, nor were they allowed to deviate from “feminine” subjects such as paintings of flowers or landscapes.

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The industry

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

In the 18th century, the enlightened project of the Bourbon Monarchy opened the doors of the guilds to women, eliminating the restrictions that had excluded them until then without incorporating new forms of production. From then on, the first public schools for girls from the lower classes were promoted, giving them an essential role in the tasks “proper to their sex” (those related to textiles). The textile workshops were spaces of sociability and mutual support for women who worked 12-14 hour days in less healthy hygienic conditions than the work suggests. Neither age nor health were clear limits to their involvement in the task of spinning linen, cotton, silk or wool, work that took place in factories in rural areas and, especially, in the domestic sphere. Some women became masters in trades linked to the textile industry, such as cordwainers or weavers, although this may be an exception.

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The washerwomen

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

The work of the washerwomen depicted in Goya’s composition shows one of the trades that remained intact in Madrid society until well into the 20th century. They are women who washed for their families, but also for middle- and upper-class people or for institutions such as hospitals and barracks. It was a widespread and low-income profession, as well as physically hard, as it required a stooped position and permanent contact with water. These washhouses were places of female sociability where women shared joys, knowledge, confidences, jokes and laughter. In 1790, a Royal Decree addressed to this group prohibited them from shouting and making obscene gestures to passers-by, which raises the question of male behaviour.

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