Hysterics, visionaries, seductives: from the classical iconographies to the surrealism

Abstract

This paper proposes a chronological review of women's visual representation. Starting
with the classical canons to be found in the symbolists' iconographies, this study will take us
to the images that the surrealists give of the women.
We will stress the ideological and visual continuity of the avant-garde which did not
break away from the tradicional patriarchy. The canon will not be transformed until the 1970s,
when the feminist theory emerges as both a political and ideological medium for the images
created by male or female artists.