And if they had been Almost all women the first artists of the history of humanity? This theoryproposed over ten years ago by the archaeologist Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University, would overturn decades of archaeological theories according to which it has always been taken for granted that the first artists were predominantly menoften because the works were connected with Hunting themes. But what is the research hypothesis based on? On the handprints found next to the works made in the rock caves. Snow has in fact analyzed them in eight rock sites in France and Spain and compared the relative lengths of fingers. But how can you understand who a footprint belongs to? From which fingers are longer: the biologist John Manning he had in fact discovered, prior to these studies, that women tend to have the ring finger and index finger more or less the same length, while men’s ring fingers tend to be longer than the index fingers. So the archaeologist compared this data with the footprints found at the sites and came to the conclusion that approximately three-quarters of the handprints were female.
Why are there so few female artists in the history of art?
In reality, female artists are not at all few in the history of art. They have “simply” been erased from history and relegated to the role of inspiring muses or simple subjects. The long process that led to the revaluation of female artists in the history of art is still ongoing. If for many years we have known about the great talent of artists such as the seventeenth-century Artemisia Gentileschi, the genius of Art Deco Tamara de Lempicka or the voice of Mexican independence Frida Kahloit is only in recent years that the greatness of many other artists is being rediscovered, such as the Impressionists Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt or the Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola or again Hilma of Klintwho is considered to be the first initiator of Abstractionism. Contemporary female artists – who however still struggle to emerge with the ease of their male counterparts – certainly have a greater resonance: names like Yayoi Kusama, Tracey Emin, Judy Chicago or the Italians Lisetta Carmi, Letizia Battaglia or Carol Rama have already entered the art history books. Hoping that prejudice will disappear, it will be increasingly evident that there is no male genius and a lesser female genius.
