Julia Nephew
Feminine myth and memory; Christine’s image in the 21st century: her portrayal in art and on the Internet
Christine de Pizan has been viewed for decades as an example of a professional woman who supported women’s rights and even an icon of women in the medieval era. Christine scholars have been successful in promoting her work such that scholars of many disciplines use her and her work as examples. This paper will explore some of the manifestations of Christine’s image in the late 20th and early 21st as expressed in many forms of art, including that found on the Internet. Art here is given a flexible definition and can include what images are chosen from manuscripts of Christine’s work for display and also how Christine’s image has been transformed and changed for a modern audience. Issues explored will include ways that Christine’s image is manipulated or altered to conform to a modern (and ever-changing) ideal of feminism. Just as the pre-Raphaelite artists of the 19th century re-imagined and recreated the medieval period, current iconography will change the image future generations will have of Christine.