Martina A. Pfleger Hesser
Dr. Martina A. Pfleger Hesser is an Austrian-born Art Historian. Her specialties are the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, German and Austrian Art, Asian Art, Women Studies, and Soma-Aesthetics.
ART 139, Islamic Art
Los Angeles City College
Summer 2023
Art 143, Modern Art
Grossmont College
Fall 2023
UPCOMING EVENTS
ART 101, Prehistory - Gothic
Los Angeles Valley College
Spring 2023
MY LATEST RESEARCH
Juan Sánchez Cotán’s still life paintings produced prior to his entry into monastic life are somewhat of a mystery. Focusing on his “Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber” still life from 1602, an artist’s path of personal growth, self-censorship, and most importantly, gender transformation emerges. Vehicle is the hyper-realistic, ecstatic mysticism of the Spanish Counter-Reformation.
We know of very few women artists in the early modern period compared to the number of men who excelled in this profession. Most of them came to the arts by virtue of their upbringing. Often they were trained by fathers or other relatives. In most cases it was understood that they would seize their work outside the home once they were married, but some of these few continued to produce outstanding works of art. Suitable subject matters for women painters were portraits, landscapes, and still lives, but there are also great pieces of history painting by women artists around that defy the rules of decorum and show bloodthirsty subject matters. How do women picture other women in history? How are active, self-determining women portrayed by other women in a time when most women had little or no freedom at all?