Role play : An analysis of 18th century portraits where the portrayed is pictured as an antique godess

In this bachelor’s thesis I have studied portraits from the 18th century where the person portrayed is named and in the guise of an antique goddess. I have used a gender perspective through out the paper and have used Judith Butler´s ideas about gender performativity. I have also used Carolina Brown’s Liksom en herdinna. Litterära teman i svenska kvinnoporträtt under 1700-talet and Anna Lena Lindberg’s En mamsell i akademien – Ulrica Fredrica Pasch och 1700-talets konstvärld which both has a gender perspective when they examine portraits and the art world during the 18th century. I have used iconological and iconographical analyses to study what it means to be portrayed as an antique goddess, what the portraits communicate and how they create gender identities. I have also done literature studies to understand and explain the society that created the portraits I’m analysing. My study has shown that it was more common for women to be portrayed as antique goddesses than it was for men to be portrayed as antique gods, and that class was more important than gender but that gender performativity still had an important role.