I wrote a short paper on female painters of the Italian renaissance for my history class. The topic is really neat, because women artists were a lot more common than one might think, and only recently are they getting some of the attention they deserve. Though I originally had five or six examples, the paper could only be four to five pages, so I had to cut it down a bit. Hopefully it might spark some intrest.
In the Italian renaissance, art became the center of attention in many aspects, and painters flourished. Though women actively participated in this cultural revolution, the names of many female painters are not recognized like their male counterparts. However, female artists were quite common, and helped make their culture as rich as it is remembered. Despite the male-dominated society they lived in, female artists flourished in the late Renaissance and made a great impact on art history.<hr>
Lavinia Fontana, born in Bologna in 1552, was one of the most conducive women in Italy to the development of female artistic talent. Bologna itself was a city of the arts, and was particularly open to women studying to become painters: during the 16th and 17th centuries, Bologna was recorded to have twenty-three women painters working. Fontana is considered the first woman painter to be successful, meaning that her artistic career supported both herself and her family financially. She received many commissions in her lifetime, both from public authorities and private patrons. As a child, she was encouraged by her father, a well-known artist and teacher, which also resulted in her access to important works by major painters like Rafael and Parmigianino. She married Gian Paolo Zappi in 1577. He had also been a supporter of her early works, and during their marriage gave up his own artistic career to assist her in her studio, paint backgrounds, manage finances, and care for their children. She moved to Rome, and became an official painter to the papal court. She was also elected to the Roman Academy, known for their admittance of prestigious artists of the area, an especially high honor for a female painter.
At the height of her career, Fontana was a wealthy and celebrated woman. She achieved her initial fame for her portraits of Bolognese women, such as “Portrait of a Noble Woman”. All of her paintings, like this one, show careful attention to detail, like the contrasting textures of cloth, the lace on sleeves and the beading on her headdress. The background, like most of her work, is uniformly dark. Fontana also painted large public altarpieces. Female artists typically painted for churches and religious buildings, but Fontana’s work differed in that hers usually had many figures, including male and female nudes. Her first altarpieces were for churches in Bologna and Centro, painted around 1589. Her best known work was a public commission, “The Stoning of St. Stephen”, for the Church of San Paolo Fuori le Mura. Unfortunately, the altarpiece was destroyed in a fire in 1823. The exquisite detail she added to all of the figures in her work were usually gained from her insight to the sitters’ personalities—by applying such knowledge, she made the portraits more personal to the viewer, and less uniform. Her portraits are always doing something in the painting as well, either petting a dog, turning the pages of a book, or some other such activity. They also always seem to be thinking. The subject of “Portrait of a Lady with a Lapdog”, for example, seems to be staring straight at the viewer, and contemplating what she sees. In her lifetime, Fontana produced one hundred thirty-five documented paintings, thirty of which are signed and dated. However, fewer than half of her recorded works can be identified today. This still represents the largest surviving body of work by a major female artist before the 18th century. Lavinia Fontana must be commended and acknowledged for expanding range of work made by female painters, and paving the road for women.
Artemisia Gentileschi is another admirable female painter during the late renaissance. Living from 1593 to 1653, she was born in Rome and studied first under her father, Orazio Gentileschi. Later, Orazio brought in a friend of his, Agostino Tassi, to teach her. Tassi was brought to court for raping her, but though convicted, he only served eight months in prison before being released. Artemisia’s unsuccessful marriage to Pietro Antonio de Vincenzo Stiattesi produced a daughter, Palmera, and lead Artemisia to Florence. She was elected at the age of twenty-three to the Florentine Academy of Design. She was a great friend of Galileo Galilee, and a frequent correspondent. He often gave her assistance in finding patrons, and suggestions on how to deal with clients. After leaving Florence, she found it difficult to find work, as the Caravaggio style of art was no longer as popular.
As a follower of Caravaggio, her depictions of the human form are slightly theatrical, illuminated by a strong light against a dark background. Gentileschi transmitted the Caravaggio style out of Rome to Florence, Genoa and Naples. Of nearly sixty documented paintings, over forty depict women subjects. She is famous especially for her depictions of Old Testament heroines—popular subjects at the time, but hers are different than most. Unlike many painters, including Caravaggio himself, she shows real women with emotions and expressions, rather than bland, beautiful women. An example of this is “Susanna and the Elders”, in which a plump Susanna cowers in fear from the leering men. Another example is Gentileschi’s tour de force: a series of paintings depicting Judith slaying Holofernes. These slightly gruesome paintings are realistic and emanate emotion. When decapitating Holofernes, Judith’s effort is shown through her locked elbows and furrowed brow. Holofernes’ expression is shocked, and his struggles have to be subdued by the maid. Blood spurts from his neck, and drips down the sheets. Many representations of this scene take place directly after Judith’s success, with the heroine holding Holofernes’ head delicately while staring mildly into the distance. Gentileschi’s series includes a more traditional painting, also taking place after the slaying, but even then the work is filled with emotion. Judith looks out into the night, tension and wariness emanating from her posture as she stretches out her hand to extend the beam of light created by her candle. She took great pride in her talent, rather than brushing it away and painting only as a hobby as many women did in her time. Because of this, she gained great fame and acquired many patrons in her lifetime. Artemisia recently has regained the favor she deserves among art critics, her talent again being recognized and applauded.
Sofonisba Anguissola, born in Cremona in 1528, is unique even among women in that her father was not an artist. He encouraged both her and her siblings to pursue careers in literature and painting, and gave the same education to her and her five sisters as he did to his one son, the only of his children who did not become a painter. Impressed with her skill in painting, her father consulted Michelangelo about her talent 1557, who commended her and even gave one of her sketches to a friend of his as a gift. She studied under Bernadino Campi with her sister Elena from 1546 to 1549, and then with a Cremonese painter Bernadino Gatti. This, along with her later success, promoted male Italian painters to accept female students. In 1560, she traveled to Spain on the invitation of the queen and became an official court painter of Spain for twenty years. Her talent was praised by a 1562 Spanish inventory: “An excellent painter of portraits above all the painters of this time.” When she married the Sicilian lord Fabrizio de Moncada in 1570, Spanish monarchs provided a lavish wedding an a large dowry for her. She was a bit of a celebrity—she produced a large amount of self-portraits because images of her were in high demand. Her international fame inspired many young women to become professional artists, and her talent encouraged many patrons and public officials to support them.
Sofonisba specialized in portraits, and also painted religious subjects. Her subject matter was often unique—many of her portraits had several figures, and the expressions were detailed, thoughtful, and portrayed emotion. An example is “The Sisters of the Artist and Their Governess”, a painting of her sisters playing chess while their governess looked on, which Giorgio Vasari wrote admiringly of. Her style echoes Da Vinci’s in facial expressions, the softly modeled forms, and the smoky, unifying tone of her paintings. The subjects of her paintings all have highly expressive eyes, giving the paintings depth and emotion even in simple settings. She paid great attention to detail, and many of the details give insight to the characters of the sitters—for example, in “Portrait of Sister Minerva”, Sonfonisba included a medallion of the Roman Goddess Minerva, her sister’s counterpart and namesake. Though praised in her lifetime, her paintings were disliked and spoken against in the early twentieth century. Only very recently has she been again recognized for her talent.
These artists, all female, were successful and contributed greatly to their culture. It is unfortunate that their names are not immediately mentioned among the other masters of their time, though their work rivaled that of Titian, Caravaggio, and Parmigianino and at times surpassed it in skill. Without the contributions of women painters, the renaissance would not have been the same.
ARRR!
) when people seem to realize that women aren't famous because of a sexist society, not because they lacked talent.
= my life
