womxnartistsinhistory

[womxnartistsinhistory]

LAVINIA FONTANA

Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana (1552 1614) learned to paint from her father. By the 1570s, her success was so well rewarded that her husband, the painter Gian Paolo Zappi, gave up his own painting career to care for their large family and help his wife with the technical aspects of her work, such as framing. In 1603, Fontana moved to Rome as an official painter to the papal court. She also soon came to the attention of the Habsburgs, who became major patrons. 

IMAGES (Top to bottom) 

Self-Portrait at the Clavichord with a Servant, c. 1577

Minerva Dressing, 1613

Bianca degli Utili Maselli and six of her children

SOURCES

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Cothren. Art History. Prentice Hall, 2010.

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SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA. 

Northern Italy, more than any other part of the peninsula, produced a number of gifted women artists. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, Bologna, for example, boasted some two dozen women painters and sculptors, as well as a number of learned women who lectured at the university. Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 1625), born into a noble family in Cremona (between Bologna and Milan), was unusual in that she was not the daughter of an artist.Her father gave all his children a humanistic education and encouraged them to pursue careers in literature, music, and especially painting. He consulted Michelangelo about Sofonisba s artistic talents in 1557, asking for a drawing that she might copy and return to be critiqued. Michelangelo evidently obliged because Sofonisba Anguissola s father wrote an enthusiastic letter of thanks.

IMAGES (top to bottom): 

Self-Portrait, 1556,

The Chess Game, 1555.

Two Sisters and a Brother of the Artist

Family Portrait, Minerva, Amilcare and Asdrubale Anguissola, c.1559

SOURCES

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Cothren. Art History. Prentice Hall, 2010.

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PROPERZIA DE ROSSI

Very few women had the opportunity or inclination to become sculptors. Properzia de Rossi (c. 1490 1529/30), who lived in Bologna, was an exception. She mastered many arts, including engraving, and was famous for her miniature sculptures, including an entire Last Supper carved on a peach pit! She carved several pieces in marble two sibyls, two angels, and the relief of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife for the Cathedral of San Petronio in Bologna Vasari wrote that a rival male sculptor prevented her from being paid fairly and from securing additional commissions. This particular relief, according to Vasari,was inspired by her own love for a young man,which she got over by carving this panel. Joseph escapes, running, as the partially clad seductress snatches at his cloak. Properzia is the only woman Vasari included in the 1550 edition of Lives of the Artists.

IMAGES

 Properzia de RossiJOSEPH AND POTIPHAR S WIFECathedral of San Petronio, Bologna.1525 1526. Marble, 1′9″ , 1′11″ (54 ,58 cm). Museo de San. Petronio, Bologna.

SOURCES

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Cothren. Art History. Prentice Hall, 2010.

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