Sofonisba Anguissola
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Sofonisba Anguissola (also Anguisciola) (ca. 1532-1625) was the first successful female painter of the Renaissance.
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[edit] The Anguissola Family
Sofonisba was born in Cremona, Italy 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. Over four generations, the Anguissola family had strong connection to ancient Carthaginian history and their 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 figure 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, he did not study painting, but studied music and Latin like his sisters did.
[edit] Early Career
Her aristocrat father made sure that Sofonisba’s 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 Bernardino Campi, her art teacher in the act of painting a portrait of her.
In 1554, at age twenty-two, Sofonisba traveled to Rome. 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 such as: Self-Portrait 1554, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna and 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. The Queen and other members of the Royal Family, including 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.
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 have 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. Female painters, such as: 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. Her sight was failing; according to Anthony Van Dyck, "her eyesight was weakened." 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.
In 1623, Anguissola was visited by the Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck, who had painted several portraits of her in the early 1600's, and recorded sketches from his visits to her in his sketchbook. Anthony Van Dyck noted that, though Sofonisba had weakened eyesight, she 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, where she died at age 95, 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 work was religious in nature, but the main body of work consists of self-portraits and portraits of her family. More than 30 signed pictures survive from her years in Cremona. She painted many self-portraits due to 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 that have been securely attributed to Sofonisba. Her works can be seen at galleries in Bergamo, Budapest, Madrid,(El Prado) Naples, Siena, and Florence (Uffizi Gallery). Sofonisba Anguissola was the first internationally known woman artist,
[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- Ilya Sandra Perlingieri, Sofonisba Anguissola,, Rizzoli International, 1992 ISBN 0847815447 on Questia
- Chadwick, Whitney, Women, Art, and Society, Thames and Hudson, London, 1990 ISBN 0500203547
- Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists: 1550-1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1976 ISBN 0394411692
- Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Maria Kusche, Sofonisba Anguissola: A Renaissance Woman,National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1995 ISBN 0940979314
