Casanova's Europe: Women in the Age of Enlightenment
4,438 views · Published 13 November 2018 · 1:28:41 · Indexed 8 October 2026
Channel: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston · 2018 · Education
The amorous pursuits recounted in Casanova’s memoirs and imagined in the visual art of his time depict a world of sexual liberation—a world in which women appear as both object and performer of seduction. Beneath the surface of these representations, the complex question of women’s agency looms large. The 18th century has long been associated with an unprecedented rise in the power of women. But an increase in the number of women artists, writers, and cultural or political influencers was accompanied by widespread criticism of corrupt female morality and calls for women to embrace their “natural” roles as wives and mothers. Explore what it meant to be a woman in this age of social, political, and intellectual upheaval, focusing on several remarkable 18th-century women, including the art patron and royal mistress Madame de Pompadour, the Empress Catherine the Great, and the painters Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. Susan M. Wager, assistant professor, Art History, University of New Hampshire–Durham Tuesday, July 10, 2018
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