Women did not have much of a role in the Renaissance. They were occasionally muses to artists, such as Da Vinci. Women were domestic house wives in those days.
Women were occasionally muses to artists. The famous writer, Petrarch, often wrote of a woman named Laura. He referenced to her in many of his writings. The famous painter, Da
Vinci, painted his famous Mona Lisa, based on a mystery woman. Women were encouraged in these days to know the arts and be familiar with them, but never to create them. Women who were artists or writers, such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Christine de Pisan were not highly exalted. They were even looked down on for pursuing these careers. Women were expected to be respectful, graceful, and obedient wives. Wives were picked based on character and parentage. In Leon Battista Alberti’s book, On the Family, he describes how women were expected to be graceful, beautiful inside and out, educated, wealthy, and respectful to be picked as a wife. A woman who was not a virgin, if even by rape, was not likely to be picked as a wife. Her parentage also played a large role in her possibility of being picked as a wife. She was expected to have come from a good, honorable family. All of these factors decided her chances of being wed.
The expected role of women in these days, was to stay home and tend to domestic affairs. Many men believed women were only created to have and to raise children. In
Alberti’s book he also wrote that women are made to care and to nurture children. To raise them while the father is away, is the woman’s purpose in life.