Between the Lines: The Insights Early Modern Women Offer to Mainstream History

Art Institute of Chicago Content Warning : Brief reference to sexual assault Upon entering the Art Institute of Chicago, one feels a sense of great smallness. However, moving through the museum, this mood gives way to a star awareness of one’s autonomy as a being moving through the acquired work of others. The art and its descriptions are at times enlightening and at times misleading, and looking at them in the semantic level can reveal information about the curator as well as the artist and their work. Funnily enough, walking up the “Woman’s Board Grand Staircase” one finds themself at a crossroads between early European art and impressionism. Further investigation into the European galleries reveals many interesting depictions of women in art.  Eustache Le Sueur’s “Meekness” from his series of the personified Beatitudes stands out both visually and symbolically. Le Seur painted her on an elaborate altarpiece he constructed from panels of his art for his patron’s Paris home. Meekn...