In 2020 the National Gallery hosted the first major exhibition in the UK dedicated to the work of Artemisia Gentileschi, following the acquisition of her Self-Portrait as St Catherine of Alexandria, and in 2019 the Prado Museum dedicated a highly acclaimed exhibition to Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. These are promising and inspiring steps towards the revival and recovery of the reputations of many great female artists who achieved fame and renown amongst their contemporaries, but whose lives became obscured over time. Thanks to the efforts of several scholars and to many high-profile institutions attempting to redress gender disparity in their collections, less familiar names such as Catharina van Hemessen, Sofonisba Anguissola, Levina Teerlinc and Lavinia Fontana are again rising to the fore. In this session we will explore their work and also some of their contemporaries who acted as notable patrons and collectors of art.
After the break we are joined by the award-winning author Sarah Dunant who will discuss the life and patronage of Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua. The first and greatest female art patron and collector of the Italian Renaissance, she was born into the Este court of Ferrara and married at 15 into the Gonzaga family in Mantua. Over the next fifty years she would go on to create a dazzling Renaissance court, running the state while her husband was away fighting or in prison and amassing a collection of contemporary and antique art to rival the greatest collectors of her time. When she died, she left behind her a treasure trove of letters, unique in the history of the Renaissance women. An hour in her company is not enough. But it is a good way to start.
Lavinia Fontana, Lady with a dog, 1590s.
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki,
Auckland
Lavinia Fontana, The Virgin of Silence, 1589. Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial
Lavinia Fontana, Mars and Venus, c.1595. Fundación Casa de Alba, Madrid
Lavinia Fontana, Lady with a lapdog, 1590s. Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of a noblewoman, c.1580. National Gallery of Women in the Arts, Washington
Artemisia Gentileschi, Susannah and the Elders, 1622
The Burghley House Collection
Appeared in the recent National Gallery exhibition but formerly attributed to Caravaggio
Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait as St Catherine of Alexandria, c.1615-16,
National Gallery, London.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait as La Pittura, 1630.
The Royal Collection
Catharina van Hemessen, Portrait of a lady, 1551. National Gallery, London.
Catharina van Hemessen, Self-portrait, 1548.
Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel
Catharina van Hemessen. Portrait of a Man, 1552.
National Gallery, London.
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| Levina Teerlinc |
TINTORETTA,
MARIETTA ROBUSTI
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| Sofonisba Anguissola, Three children with dog (two sisters and a brother of the Artist?), c.1570-90. Lord Methuen Collection, Corsham Court, Wiltshire |
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Bianca Ponzoni, 1557. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Sofonisba Anguissola, Family portrait, c.1558.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling, Nivå
Sofonisba Anguissola. Boy bitten by a crayfish, 1559.
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples
Sofonisba Anguissola, Pietà, 1574-85.
Brera Art Gallery, Milan
Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-portrait with Bernardino Campi, 1550s.
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Three sisters playing chess, 1555. Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Anne of Austria, Queen of Spain, c.1573.
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Philip II King of Spain, c.1573.
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Queen Isabel of Valois (Philip’s third wife), 1561-5.
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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| ←Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-portrait with spinet and attendant, 1561. Earl Spencer Collection, Althorp Park, Northamptonshire → Lavinia Fontana, Self-portrait at the spinet, 1577. Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome |
Part 2 Sarah Dunant - The life and work of Isabella d’Este
A truly cultured woman is as rare as the phoenix:
the life and work of Isabella d’Este
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| Anonymous Ferrarese illuminator – Giancristoforo Romano – Leonardo da Vinci School of Leonardo – Anoymous cameo carver – Lorenzo Costa Anyonimous Painter – Titian – Rubens |
