Framing Influence: Women, Portraiture, and the Projection of Power by https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y Thank you for joining today's tour! Our focus is a historical examination of portraiture and how it relates to power, gender, and representation, specifically, how women have been depicted alongside powerful men to convey symbolic authority within patriarchal systems from Mughal India to the Colonial Americas. Throughout history, formal power, whether political, legal, or economic, was reserved mainly for men. Women were often excluded from direct participation in land ownership and decision-making. However, their presence in art, specifically in portraiture, allowed them to obtain a status on their own. These portraits aren't just flattering images; they are carefully constructed messages. The series begins in 1434 with the portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini, a prominent merchant, and how this portrait is a visual contract of his wife gaining authority to manage her husband's business affairs. Traveling to Mughal India and Rococo France we see an establishment of women's power within the royal courts and governments of their times by painting them alongside the rulers they were in a relationship with. Then, in colonial America, we can see an intersection of race and sex in the casta painting and how an Indian woman's status rises through her relationship with a Spaniard and producing mestizo children. These portraits throughout art history depict how art can show and even shape power and how a woman's identity is defined not just by who they are but by how they're shown and who they're shown with. en-us 2025-04-30 21:29:35 UTC 2025-05-02 02:08:53 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/8.0/png/1f3a8.png Nur Jahan holding a portrait of Emperor Jahangir szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433162522 2025-05-01 16:14:39 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433162522 Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433164775 2025-05-01 16:16:47 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433164775 Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433185659 2025-05-01 16:39:34 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433185659 Pompadour at Her Toilette szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433239096 2025-05-01 17:35:21 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433239096 Key Learning Objectives szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433368156

  • Throughout history, women have barely been given much choice to choose their own fate and make their own decisions oftentimes succumbing to the power of a man figure in their life.

  • Portraits served not only as records of likeness and beauty but as visual strategies, crafted to communicate legitimacy, authority, and power.

  • The connections between race, gender, and social hierarchy and how they intersect in portraiture, shaping the identity and perceived authority of women from Europe to Mughal India and Colonial America, giving them more freedom and autonomy.

    • ]]>     2025-05-01 20:21:55 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433368156     Boucher’s Pompadour at Her Toilette depicts King Louis XV’s mistress, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, in Rococo style which is light, playful, and ornate. These elements can also be seen in Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing. Applying rouge, a feminine ritual of the time; she wears a portrait of the King tied to her wrist, symbolizing her lasting role not just as his favorite, but as a trusted advisor and powerful figure at court.  szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433414036 2025-05-01 21:54:04 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433414036 Bishandas depicts Emperor Jahangir in a small portrait held by his favorite wife, Nur Jahan, after his death. Though she was around 50 years old at this time, she’s shown with youthful beauty. As a powerful political figure who managed state affairs during his reign, this painting emphasized her continued influence and her desire to maintain authority and power within the Mughal court (The Cleveland Museum of Art). szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433534911 2025-05-02 00:53:41 UTC https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433534911 szd6 https://padlet.com/szd6/1x66sxp36bibpd9y/wish/3433617393 The Cleveland Museum of Art. (n.d.). Nur Jahan holding a portrait of Emperor Jahangir. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Retrieved May 1, 2025, from https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.325

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