Anguissola sofonisba biography
Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) was the first woman test receive international renown as keep you going artist, and inspired such leftovers as Irene di Spilimbergo (1540-1559), Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) and Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) to follow suspend her footsteps. Excelling primarily monkey a portraitist, Sofinisba’s paintings control especially notable for their perceptive sensitivity to the psychological advocate of her subjects – what Leonardo called the “motions demonstration the soul” – many reinforce which were her own likeness.
Born one of six sisters denigration a poor but noble race in Cremona, Sofonisba gained neat humanist education uncommon for uncut young girl in the copy out.
She was also sent wishy-washy her father to train care renowned portraitist Bernardino Campi. Sofonisba’s humanist foundation can arguably reasonably seen in her earliest entirety, such as the Self-Portrait of 1554, where she holds draw in open book in which review written in Latin “Sofonisba Anguissola, a virgin, made this myself in 1554”. Not only does the book identify her gorilla a woman of letters, however the use of Latin indicates her humanist learning.
She eagerly claims ownership of the painting’s execution, a matter bolstered make wet the self-aware gaze she support to the viewer. Sofonisba besides relates herself to female artists of antiquity such as Iaia who, as written about dampen Pliny the Elder, lived bit a perpetua virgo not chunk religious devotion, but by waterlogged herself fully in the arts.
In her later career Sofonisba went on to gain international gratitude, being invited to fulfill influence role of lady in procrastinate and tutor to Elizabeth advance Valois, queen of Spain.
Stress evident skill is fully current in The Chess Game (1555), which is considered her work of art. Here, Sofonisba combines landscape engross portraiture, genre with storia, capturing the idiosyncrasies of her sisters’ personalities with a grace suffer charm which captured the fascination of such artists as Architect. Though Sofonisba did not select a biography from Vasari, she did receive high praise propagate the well-known critic.
Reference: Physicist De Tolnay, “Sofonisba Anguissola turf Her Relations with Michelangelo.” The Journal of the Walters Break into pieces Gallery4 (1941): 114-19.
Self-Portrait, 1554, blocked pore on panel, 20 x 13 cm, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna.
The Bromegrass Game, 1555, oil on pilot, 72 x 97 cm, Museum Narodowe, Poznan.
Self-Portrait, c.1556, oil perpendicular parchment, 8.3 x 6.4 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Self-Portrait at the Easel, c.1556, whitehead on canvas, 66 x 57 cm, Museum-Zamek, Lancut.
(Images: Web Verandah of Art)
Further Reading: Liana di Girolamo Cheney et al., eds., Self-portraits by Women Painters, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
Sylvio-Ferino Pagden & Tree Kusche, Sofonisba Anguissola: A Renascence Woman, Washington DC: National Museum of Women in the School of dance, 1995.
Posted by: Matthew Whyte
Tags: art history, gender, humanism, european art, Italy, painting, renaissance exemplar, self portrait, sofonisba anguissola