Sofonisba Anguissola, also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She received a well-rounded education that included the fine arts, and her apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art. As a young woman, Anguissola traveled to Rome where she was introduced to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent, and to Milan, where she painted the Duke of Alba. The Spanish queen, Elizabeth of Valois, was a keen amateur painter and in 1559 Anguissola was recruited to go to Madrid as her tutor, with the rank of lady-in-waiting. She later became an official court painter to the king, Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court. After the queen's death, Philip helped arrange an aristocratic marriage for her. She moved to Sicily, and later Pisa and Genoa, where she continued to practice as a leading portrait painter.
Elisabeth of France, or Elisabeth of Valois, was Queen of Spain as the third wife of Philip II of Spain. She was the eldest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.
Lavinia Fontana was a Bolognese Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious painting. She was trained by her father Prospero Fontana who was a teacher at the School of Bologna. She is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe as she relied on commissions for her income. Her family relied on her career as a painter, and her husband served as her agent and raised their 11 children. She was perhaps the first female artist to paint female nudes, but this is a topic of controversy among art historians.
Alonso Sánchez Coello was an Iberian portrait painter of the Spanish and Portuguese Renaissance. He is mainly known for his portrait paintings executed in a style which combines the objectivity of the Flemish tradition with the sensuality of Venetian painting. He was court painter to Philip II.
Boy Bitten by a Lizard is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. It exists in two versions, both believed to be authentic works of Caravaggio, one in the Fondazione Roberto Longhi in Florence, the other in the National Gallery, London.
Lucia Anguissola was an Italian Mannerist painter of the late Renaissance. Born in Cremona, Italy, she was the third daughter among the seven children of Amilcare Anguissola and Bianca Ponzoni. Her father was a member of the Genoese minor nobility and encouraged his five daughters to develop artistic skills alongside their humanist education. Lucia most likely trained with her renowned eldest sister Sofonisba Anguissola. Her paintings, mainly portraits, are similar in style and technique to those of her sister. Contemporary critics considered her skill exemplary; according to seventeenth-century biographer Filippo Baldinucci, Lucia had the potential to "become a better artist than even Sofonisba" had she not died so young.
Fede Galizia, better known as Galizia, was an Italian Renaissance painter of still-lifes, portraits, and religious pictures. She is especially noted as a painter of still-lifes of fruit, a genre in which she was one of the earliest practitioners in European art. She is perhaps not as well known as other female artists, such as Angelica Kauffman and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, because she did not have access to court-oriented or aristocratic social circles, nor had she sought the particular patronage of political rulers and noblemen.
Events from the year 1550 in art.
Portrait of the Artist's Family is a 1558–59 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola in the Nivaagaard art gallery, in Copenhagen.
Elena Anguissola was an Italian painter and nun. She was the sister of the better-known painter Sofonisba Anguissola.
Lady in a Fur Wrap is an oil painting now generally attributed to Alonso Sánchez Coello, dated to 1577-1579 and now held at the Pollok House in Glasgow.
The Portrait of Elena Anguissola, dated to 1551, is one of the earliest paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola. An oil painting on canvas, it is in the Southampton City Art Gallery, which acquired it in 1936.
The Game of Chess is an oil-on-canvas painting executed ca. 1555 by Italian Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola. Anguissola was 23 years old when she painted it.
The Portrait of Juana of Austria and a Young Girl is a full-length portrait executed by the Italian sixteenth-century artist Sofonisba Anguissola. It was one of Anguissola's first paintings after arriving at the Spanish court, where she was official painter to the queen of Spain, Isabel de Valois. In a letter to the artist Bernardo Campi, she said that the painting was for the Pope, who was then Pius IV.
The Portrait of Giovanni Battista Caselli is a half-length portrait executed by the Italian sixteenth-century artist Sofonisba Anguissola. Caselli was a poet from Cremona, the same city as the Anguissola. Executed in 1559, it was one of her last paintings before departing to the royal court of Spain, where she would become official painter to the queen of Spain, Isabel de Valois.
Self-Portrait is a small oil-on-panel painting by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, signed and dated 1554 on the open book held by the artist. The portrait is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in Vienna.
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia and Infanta Catherine Michaela is an oil-on-canvas painting created during 1569–1570 by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, now in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. It shows Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catherine Michaela, two daughters of Philip II of Spain and his third wife Elizabeth of Valois.
Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois is an oil-on-canvas painting executed c.1561–1565 by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Portrait of Bianca Ponzoni Anguissola or Lady in White is an oil-on canvas-painting created in 1557 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola. It is a portrait of the artist's mother. It is now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. It is securely identified as the artist's mother, since it reuses two elements from The Game of Chess, Lucia's pearl headdress and Minerva/Elena's necklace Under the arm of the chair are the signature and date "Sophonisba Angussola Virgo F. 15.5.7".
Maria Kusche was a Spanish art historian of German descent, a specialist on painters at the royal court of Philip II of Spain, in particular Sofonisba Anguissola, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, and Alonso Sánchez Coello.
