christine de pizan's book of the city of ladies

“Come back to yourself,” she says, “recover your senses, and do not trouble yourself any more with such absurdities.” 5 They have a project for Christine: to build the City of Ladies, where women can finally take shelter and defend themselves from lies. Reason chides Christine for being so intellectually lazy as to believe whatever she reads. “So occupied with these painful thoughts, my head bowed in shame, my eyes filled with tears, leaning my cheek on my hand, elbow propped on the pommel of my chair’s armrest, I suddenly saw a ray of light fall on my lap as though it were the sun.” 4Īnd so, with a blaze of light, deliverance comes in the form of three beautiful ladies: the personifications of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice. She slowly falls into despair, because how could so many writers be wrong? The centuries of misogynistic writing begin to overwhelm her “like a gushing fountain.” 2 “Because the subject seemed to me not very pleasant for people who do not enjoy lies,”-an icy dismissal I intend to use the next chance I get-“I put it down in order to turn my attention to more elevated and useful study.” 3 But what she read continues to trouble her, and Christine begins to think of all the other books that say similar things about women, declaring that they are weak and evil.Ĭhristine thinks about herself, and other women she knows from various backgrounds, and can’t reconcile her experiences with the writings of the great poets and philosophers. This book appears to have been Matheolus’s Lamentations, the story of his marriage for which he blames all the problems in his life.

She decides to take a break and read some poetry, but is quickly disappointed. The Book of the City of Ladies begins with Christine reading alone in her study. This allowed me the time and resources to track down academic sources to make more informed design decisions. My process always begins with research, and the huge scope for this project was made possible through a grant from Spokane Arts. I had done paintings in a series before, but painting the figures in Christine’s book would be different. The Book of the City of Ladies seemed endlessly complicated: both medieval and modern, feminist but not anti-establishment, carefully researched but syncretistic. Every bit of research I found refracted into another set of questions. When I started this series based on The City, I quickly learned the research would be complicated.

Christine de pizan's book of the city of ladies