Sofonisba Anguissola
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Sofonisba Anguissola (also spelled Anguisciola; c. 1532 - 1625) was an Italian painter, the first successful female painter of the Renaissance.
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[edit] The Anguissola family
Sofonisba was born in Cremona, Lombardy around 1532; the oldest of seven children, six of whom were daughters. Her father, Amilcare Anguissola, was a member of the Genoese minor nobility. Sofonisba's mother, Bianca Ponzone, was also of an affluent family of noble background. Her mother died when Sofonisba was very young, between four and five.
Over four generations, the Anguissola family had strong connection to ancient Carthaginian history and they named their offspring after the great general Hannibal, (i.e. the name of the Carthaginian Hamilcar, as did his son Asdrubale, named after Hasdrubal) thus the first daughter was named after the tragic Carthaginian figures Sophonisba.
Amilcare Anguissola encouraged all his six daughters to pursue excellence. This was unusual in a time when women, education was totally neglected. All of the daughters (Sofonisba, Elena, Lucia, Europa, Minerva and Anna Maria) possessed artistic talent. Four of the sisters—Elena, Lucia, Europa and Anna Maria—were painters, but Sofonisba was by far the best and most renowned. Elena became a nun (Sofonisba painted a portrait of her) and had to give up painting. Both Anna Maria and Europa quit painting when they got married; Lucia Anguissola, the best painter of her sisters, died young. The other sister, Minerva, was a writer and Latin scholar. The youngest of the seven children was the only son, Asdrubale, who did not study painting but, like his sisters, studied music and Latin.
Her aristocrat father made sure that Sofonisba and her sisters received a well-rounded education that included the fine arts. Anguissola was fourteen years old when her father sent her with her sister Elena to study with Bernardino Campi, a respected portrait and religious painter of the Lombard school, also from Cremona, Sofonisba's home town. When Campi moved to another city, Sofonisba continued her studies with the painter Bernardino Gatti (known as Il Sojaro). Sofonisba's apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art. Dates are uncertain, but Anguissola probably continued her studies under Gatti for about three years (1551-1553).
Anguissola’s most important early work is Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola (c 1550 Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena). The double portrait depicts her art teacher in the act of painting a portrait of her.
In 1554, at age twenty-two, Sofonisba traveled to Rome, where she spent her time sketching various scenes, and people. While in Rome, she met Michelangelo through the help of another painter who knew her work well. Meeting Michelangelo was a great honor for Sofonisba and she had the benefit of being informally trained by the great master. He gave her sketches of his own to draw in her own style, and she would send her sketches to him, asking for his advice. For at least two years while in Rome, she continued this informal study, receiving substantial guidance from Michelangelo.
Michelangelo made a request for her to draw a weeping boy, Sofonisba drew 'Child bitten by a crab' and sent it back to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent. This sketch would continue to be discussed and copied for the next fifty years among artists and the aristocracy. Giorgio Vasari wrote this about Sofonisba: ‘Anguissola has shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in her endeavors at drawing; she has thus succeeded not only in drawing, coloring and painting from nature, and copying excellently from others, but by herself has created rare and very beautiful paintings’.
[edit] Female artist
Sofonisba Angussola's social class did not allow her to transcend the constraints of her sex. Without the possibility of studying anatomy (It was deemed unacceptable for a lady to view nudes), or drawing from life, she could not undertake the complex multi-figure compositions required for large-scale religious or history paintings. She used models that she had access to instead, looking for possibilities of a new style of portraiture, with subjects set in informal ways. Self-portraits and members of her own family were her most frequent subjects, as seen in such paintings as Self-Portrait (1554, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna), The Chess Game (1555, Museum Narowe, Poznan), that depicts three of her sisters Lucia, Minerva and Europa, and Portrait of Amilcare, Minerva and Asdrubale Anguissola (c. 1557-1558, Nivaagaards Malerisambling, Niva,Denmark).
When she was already well known, Anguissola went to Milan sometime in 1558, where she painted the Duke of Alba who recommended her to the Spanish king Philip II. The following year, Sofonisba was invited to the Spanish Court, which was a tremendous recognition for her.
[edit] At the Spanish court
Sofonisba Anguissola was around twenty seven years old when she left her family to join the Spanish court. In the winter of 1559-1560 she arrived at Madrid to serve as a court painter and lady-in-waiting to the Queen, Elizabeth of Valois, Philip II’s third wife who he had just married. She soon gained the esteem and confidence of the young Queen.
Anguissola spent the following years mainly painting only official portraits for the court, including the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, Philip II’s sister Juana, and son, Don Carlos. Her paintings of Elisabeth of Valois and of Anne of Austria (Philip II’s fourth wife) are vibrant and full of life. It took a tremendous amount of time and energy to render the intricate designs of the gowns, and the elaborate jewelry essential to the royal subjects. While working in the household of Elizabeth of Valois, Anguissola also worked closely with Alonso Sanchez Coello and the famous painting of the middle-aged King Philip II was attributed to him because of this until recently when it was discovered that Anguissola was the painting's true creator.
In 1570, Anguissola was thirty-eight and still unmarried. After the death of Elisabeth of Valois, Philip II took additional interest in Sofonisba's future and arranged a marriage for her. Around 1571, she married Don Francisco de Moncada, son of the prince of Paterno, viceroy of Sicily. The wedding ceremony was celebrated with great pomp, and she received a dowry from the Spanish king. After the wedding they went to visit her family and her husband's states in Italy, returning to Spain. After eighteen years associated with the Spanish court, Sofonisba and her husband left Spain for good with the permission of the king sometime during 1578. They went to Palermo where Sofonisba's husband died in 1579.
[edit] Return to Italy
While traveling home to Cremona, Sofonisba would meet Orazio Lomellino, the captain of the ship she was traveling on. They both felt very strongly about each other, and were married shortly afterwards, in January of 1580 in Pisa. Sophonisba was already forty seven years old and her husband considerably younger. Her husband recognized and supported her in her artwork and they had a long and happy marriage. They settled in Genoa, where her husband's family lived in their large home. Anguissola had time to paint, since she had her own quarters, and an art studio.
Many artists of that time came to visit, to learn, and to discuss the arts with her. She had now developed her own style, which many up and coming artists were eager to mimic. Her great success opened the way for subsequent women of the Renaissance to pursue the career of artist, among them Lavinia Fontana, Barbara Longhi, Fede Galizia and Artemisia Gentileschi.
[edit] Late years
In her late period, Anguissola painted not only portraits but religious themes, as she had done in the days of her youth. Through the years, many of her religious paintings have been lost.
Her husband's fortune plus a generous pension from Philip II allowed her to paint freely and live comfortably. She was the leading portrait painter in Genoa until she moved to Palermo in her last years. In 1620, she painted her last self-portrait.
In 1623, Anguissola was visited by the Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck, who had painted several portraits of her in the early 1600s, and recorded sketches from his visits to her in his sketchbook. Anthony Van Dyck noted that, although "her eyesight was weakened," Sofonisba was still quite mentally alert. Excerpts of the advice she gave him about painting also survive from this visit. Van Dyck drew her portrait while visiting her; this was to be the last portrait made of Sofonisba. The very next year, she returned to Sicily.
Contrary to later biographers' claims, she was never entirely blind but perhaps had cataracts. Sofonisba became a wealthy patron of the arts after the weakening of her sight. She died at age 93, in Palermo in 1625. She was internationally acclaimed and respected throughout her life.
Seven years later, on the anniversary of what would have been her 100th birthday had she lived, her husband placed an inscription on her tomb that reads, in part:
"To Sofonisba, my wife...who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world, outstanding in portraying the images of man... Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for the loss of his great love, in 1632, dedicated this little tribute to such a great woman."
[edit] Style
The influence of Campi, whose reputation was based on portraiture, is evident in Sofonisba's early works, such as the Self-portrait (Florence, Uffizi). Her work was allied to the worldly tradition of Cremona, much influenced by the art of Parma and Mantua, in which even religious works were imbued with extreme delicacy and charm. From Gatti she seems to have absorbed elements reminiscent of Correggio, beginning a trend that became marked in Cremonese painting of the late 16th century. This new direction is reflected in Lucia, Minerva and Europa Anguissola Playing Chess (1555; Poznan, N. Mus.) in which portraiture merges into a quasi-genre scene, a characteristic derived from Brescian models.
Some of Sofonisba's work was religious in nature, but the main body of her work consists of self-portraits and portraits of her family. More than 30 signed pictures survive from her years in Cremona. Her many self-portraits reflect the fact that portraits of her were requested by many people due to her fame. Her self-portraits and portraits of her family are considered her finest works; they are somewhat stiff, but can have great charm.
Her portrait of Queen Elisabeth of Valois with a "flea-fur" (the pelt of a marten worn to attract the fleas that might in its absence have attacked the person wearing it), was the most widely copied portrait in Spain. It was copied by artists such as Pieter Paul Rubens.
A total of about 50 works have been securely attributed to Sofonisba. Her works can be seen at galleries in Bergamo, Budapest, Madrid (Museo del Prado), Naples, Siena, and Florence (Uffizi Gallery).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ilya Sandra Perlingieri, Sofonisba Anguissola,, Rizzoli International, 1992 ISBN 0-8478-1544-7 on Questia
- Chadwick, Whitney, Women, Art, and Society, Thames and Hudson, London, 1990 ISBN 0-500-20354-7
- Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists: 1550-1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1976 ISBN 0-394-41169-2
- Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Maria Kusche, Sofonisba Anguissola: A Renaissance Woman,National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1995 ISBN 0-940979-31-4
- Pizzagalli, Daniela La signora della pittura : vita di Sofonisba Anguissola, gentildonna e artista nel Rinascimento, Milano 2003 ISBN 8817995096
