Gentileschi’s self-portrait is an astonishing work of confidence and serenity by an artist who has become a beacon of feminist empowerment.
A Village Festival, With a Theatrical Performance and a Procession in Honour of St Hubert and St Anthony. Brueghel, Pieter, the younger (c.1564-1637/8).
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Only a handful of plays written by women in the early modern period have survived. But the accounts of Alice Mustian’s raunchy stage show shed light on a surprising playwright and impresario.
When scientists observed planets revolved around the Sun, they posited we were now like other planets. And if other planets were like Earth, then they most likely also had inhabitants.
Sarah Bendall, Australian Catholic University and Megan Shaw, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Mary & George depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the early 17th century English royal court.
A British mantua c. 1708.
The Met/Purchase, Rogers Fund, Isabel Shults Fund and Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1991
If you’ve watched many period dramas, you’ve probably seen a mantua. It was worn over a pair of stays (corset) and an often contrasting petticoat. The draping fabric created a front-opening gown.
Blaise Pascal’s ideas have led to some of the world’s most important inventions.
API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Amy Froide, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Go back to 17th- and 18th-century England and France and you’ll see the same sort of handwringing over birthrates that we’re seeing today.
‘The Queens Closet Opened,’ first published in 1655, shared recipes and support for the deposed monarchy. Here, portrait of Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, by Anthony van Dyck, 1632.
(Arcidiecézní muzeum Kroměříž/Wikimedia)
Recipe sharing is all the rage in the pandemic as in other times of turmoil. English cookbooks of the 16th and 17th centuries promised recipes for comfort with a dash of glamour.
‘Living Mady Easy: Revolving hat’, a satirical print with a hat supporting a spy glass, an ear trumpet, a ciggar, a pair of glasses, and a scent box, 1830, London.
Wellcome Images CCBY
For centuries, Pulter’s manuscript lay untouched at the University of Leeds’ Brotherton Library.
University of Leeds Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt q 32
In a time when women were expected to be silent, no topic was off limits for Pulter, who penned verses about politics, science and loss. Her manuscript was just published in a free digital archive.