Historical Perspectives of Women in Art and Anatomy

Women in prehistory were seen as subjects of adulation, fertility, adoration, and respect, capable of healing and prognostication. By the time of Greece, Rome, and the Semitic religions, however, matriarchy and the equality of women gave way to patriarchy. By the later Middle Ages, women were seductresses and schemers and became further marginalized in subsequent centuries as vessels for men and birthing and more.