No attempt has been made in the following pages to give elaborate critiques or a connected history of art. The aim has been simply to show what woman has done, with the general conditions favorable or unfavorable to her efforts, and to give such impressions of the character of each prominent artist as may be derived from a faithful record of her personal experiences. More may be learned by a view of the early struggles and trials, the persevering industry and the well-earned triumphs of the gifted, than by the most erudite or fine-spun disquisition. Should the perusal of my book inspire with courage and resolution any woman who aspires to overcome difficulties in the achievement of honorable independence, or should it lead to a higher general respect for the powers of women and their destined position in the realm of Art, my object will be accomplished. E. F. E. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE EARLY AGES. Women in Art.--Kind of Painting most practiced by them.--Feminine Employments in early Ages.--The fair Egyptians.--Women of Assyria and Babylon.--Grecian Women.--Sculpture and Painting in Greece.--The Daughter of Dibutades.--The Lover’s Profile.--The first Bas-relief.--Timarata.--Helena.--Anaxandra.--Kallo.--Cirene.--Calypso. --Other Pupils of Grecian Art.--The Roman Women.--The Paintress Laya.--Lala.--Influence of Christianity on Art.--Adornment rejected by the early Christians.--Art degraded for Centuries.--Female Influence among the Nations that rose on the Ruins of Rome.--Wise and clever Princesses.--Anna Comnena.--The first Poetess of Germany.--The first Editress of a Cyclopædia.--The Art of Illuminating.--Nuns employed in copying and painting Manuscripts.--Agnes, Abbess of Quedlinburg.--Princesses at work.--Convent Sisters copying and embellishing religious Works.--The Nuns’ Printing-press.--The first Sculptress, Sabina von Steinbach.--Her Works in the Cathedral of Strasburg.--Elements that pervade the Sculpture of the Middle Ages.--Painting of the Archbishop crowning Sabina. Page 21 CHAPTER II. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.