| Miniature Self Portrait (Anguissola, Boston) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Year | c. 1556 |
| Dimensions | 8.3 cm (3.3 in) × 6.4 cm (2.5 in) |
Miniature Self-Portrait is a small oil-on-parchment painting by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola. It was painted around 1556 and mounted on a medal from the same time. The choice of format is based on Angussiola's knowledge of the works of the famous miniaturist Giulio Clovio. The painting is held at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. [1]
The miniature depicts a half-bust self portrait of Sofonisba. She is dressed in an austere everyday dress, with her hair in tresses and gathered around her head. Her hands support a round shield with a complex monogram showing the letters that make the name of her father Amilcare: ACEILMR. Circling the monogram there is the following inscription, painted in Latin in capital letters. «SOPHONISBA ANGUSSOLA VIR(GO) IPSIUS MANU EX (S)PECULO DEPICTAM CREMONAE».
The portrait is painted with the tip of the brush on a weathered green background. The physiognomy of the face is typical of the self-portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola: wide black eyes, small fleshy lips, and an austere hairstyle and clothing suitable for a woman from a good family who wishes to present herself as a virgin, as well as literate and well educated. The raised collar, in the Venetian style, is left open to allow a glimpse of the white shirt underneath.
In the small dimensions of the cameo, the body of the young woman is hidden behind the monogram of her father. He was the probable recipient of the painting, to whom Sononsiba felt herself in debt, since he had given her the chance to study painting under Bernardino Campi.
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 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.
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.
A self-portrait is a portrait of an artist made by themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of self-portraiture. Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He painted a separate portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the social group that had begun to commission portraits, already more common among wealthy Netherlanders than south of the Alps. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance, with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a subject, did it become truly popular.
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