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.
Lavinia Fontana was an Italian 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. 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.
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.
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.
Self-Portrait as a Lute Player is one of many self-portrait paintings made by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It was created between 1615 and 1617 for the Medici family in Florence. Today, it hangs in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, US. It shows the artist posing as a lute player looking directly at the audience. The painting has symbolism in the headscarf and outfit that portray Gentileschi in a costume that resembles a Romani woman. Self-Portrait as a Lute Player has been interpreted as Gentileschi portraying herself as a knowledgeable musician, a self portrayal as a prostitute, and as a fictive expression of one aspect of her identity.
Elena Anguissola was an Italian painter and nun. She was the sister of the better-known painter Sofonisba Anguissola.
The Stampa are a well-known family of old Italian nobility that rose to prominence in the 15th century. They were Grandees of Spain, members the Order of the Golden Fleece and owned many estates throughout the Italian Peninsula, including a Castle in Soncino, a Palace in Milan, and countless others in Muggiò, Melzo, Gorgonzola, Rivolta d'Adda, Ferentino and Rome. They are related to some of the most important Italian noble houses, such as the Doria, Sforza, Gonzaga, Borromeo and Visconti.
Miniature Self-Portrait is the smaller of two known miniature self-portraits by skilled portraitist Sofonisba Anguissola (1535-1625) to survive. Painted around 1556, this small oil on parchment on cardboard is set in a metal frame with a scroll surmount. The choice of format is based on Anguissola's knowledge of the works of the celebrated Italian Renaissance miniaturist Giulio Clovio (1498-1578), as well as virtuous self-fashioning, and the Renaissance taste for puzzles.The painting is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston.
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 Child Bitten by A Lobster is a drawing by the Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola, executed in chalk and pencil on light blue paper, and dated to around 1554. It is in the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte, in Naples.
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.
Anna Maria Anguissola was a 16th-century Italian painter born in Cremona, Italy.
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.
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.
Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola is an oil on canvas painting from the late 1550s by one of the most important woman artists of the Italian Renaissance, Sofonisba Anguissola. It is a double portrait in which Anguissola has painted a self-portrait as if it were a canvas being painted by her teacher, Bernardino Campi. Despite not being physically present in the scene, Anguissola established herself as the primary subject of the piece by making the self-portrait appear larger than the artist. Witney Chadwick has called this "the first historical example of the woman artist consciously collapsing the subject-object position." Mary Garrard has noted that this is an important example of what Giorgio Vasari termed a "breathing likeness."
Jacobs FH. Woman’s Capacity to Create: The Unusual Case of Sofonisba Anguissola*. Renaissance Quarterly. 1994;47(1):74-101. https://doi.org/10.2307/2863112
