ABSTRACT
The start of the new millennium saw an exuberant repertory of exhibitions, books, articles and similar cultural feats in relation to women. Women researchers are attempting to rescue the work of our ancestors from oblivion. Already in 1405 Christine de Pisan, the first professional woman writer in France, wrote Cite des dames, as a reply to Boccaccio and his De Claris Mulieribus. In her work, this literate woman conceived a city in which independent ladies lived away from manly calumnies, and passionately defends the rights and honesty of women. The situation of women throughout history has not followed a linear progression in the conquest of rights. The unequal status of women in the history of art is dramatically evidenced in the painting by Johann Zoffany, entitled The members of the Royal Academy. The women thereby became art objects, figures of contemplation and inspiration, instead of producers of art.
