Engendering the Feminine in Visual Arts

Abstract

Art is in itself is an activity of participation, and involves not only the artist, and the muse, but the viewer as well. Due to this three-dimensional nature, the production of art does not stop after its initial creation, but goes beyond to the response it attracts. Gender becomes one of the many lenses through which a study of the visual can be undertaken. Any object thus needs to be subjected to the questions of how to read such a source or the context in which it is placed, the identity of the artists, and their sources of patronage. Its current situation further adds another degree of interaction with the source. Therefore, any sculpture or painting cannot be viewed in isolation. Engendering any art requires a set of tools that are at the disposal of the analyser. The paper attempts at locating gender via a study of the celestial females, and further by focusing on the example of the famous Di?da?rganj Yaks?i, to also study the issue of the gaze in the process of engendering of the visual.