Equal Opportunity

While we don't hear a whole lot about the great artworks of the classical-era...the great Greek and Roman artists of the day were every bit the darlings of the ancient jetset - and they drew none of the gender lines we see in post-Renaissance art. Talented women were given the same dues as the men they competed with. Pliny names several, including Iaia of Cyzicus (in modern day Turkey) who came to Rome around 100BC and was noted for her brushwork and ivory engravings. She completed mostly female portraits, including Old Woman at Neapolis and used a mirror for self-portraits. Pliny claims she worked faster than anyone else and her pictures fetched prices far in excess of the male artists from the same period - Sopolis and Dionysius - who were the rock-star Impressionists of the time.

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