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Renaissance Women
artists – who were they?
— February 2014
Article —
Media
Jenny Kingsley explores the history of women
artists of the Renaissance
Recently, I saw a play about Elizabeth Siddal (1829–62), the Pre- Raphaelite
artists’ model, poet and artist. The art critic John Ruskin compared her work
to that of her contemporaries J.M.W. Turner and G.F. Watts. But despite
opportunities to study and exhibit, Siddal remained in the shadow of such men.
Ill health and a disheartening relationship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti
overwhelmed her. She lacked the benefit of a supportive, prosperous, cultured
family or the camaraderie of established female artists. Siddal’s father sold
knives and forks. For a while she earned her living working in a milliner’s shop.
Aspects of Siddal’s story reflect those of many female artists of the quite recent
and not-so-recent past. From the Renaissance onwards it became possible for
some women to identify themselves as artists but, still, this was extremely hard
to achieve.
Lavinia Fontana,
Portrait of
Costanza Alidosi,
c.1595, Oil on
canvas, 62 x 47
3/8 in. Courtesy of
the National
Museum of
Women in the
Arts, Washington,
DC, Gift of Wallace
and Wilhelmina
Holladay
Lavinia Fontana,
Holy Family with
St John, undated.
Oil on metal,8 7/8
x 7 1/8 in.
Courtesy of the
National Museum
of Women in the
Arts, Washington,
DC, Gift of Wallace
and Wilhelmina
Holladay
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Economic, political and legal inequality between the sexes, sustained by
prevailing cultural norms, served to thwart Renaissance women from pursuing
artistic careers; stars were few and far between. Other reasons for their
obscurity are lack of documentation and evidence; for example, despite
documented references to a woman’s oeuvre, it may be that little, if any, of her
work can be found. Another factor is incorrect attribution to a male artist, be
he a relative or mentor, in order to retain the value of the work or hide the fact
that the ‘Master’ commissioned did not create the work himself. For instance,
some of the paintings attributed to the Venetian painter Tintoretto could have
been painted by Marietta Robusti (1552/60–90), his daughter. She trained with
her father and was a highly esteemed portrait painter. Until quite late in the
20th century the tendency to preserve the status quo within art history
education curricula has also discouraged reclaiming women artists from
Renaissance history.
Lavinia Fontana,
Portrait of a
Noblewoman,
c.1580, Oil on
canvas, 45 1/4x35
1/4in. Courtesy the
National Museum
of Women in the
Arts, Washington
DC. Gift of Wallace
& Wilhelmina
Holladay; Funding
for frame
generously
provided by the
Texas State
Committee
Furthermore, female Renaissance artists were automatically disadvantaged as
there were no overt opportunities for them to study the nude, without which it
is impossible to paint the clothed body convincingly. Representations of the
human form, clothed and unclothed, were central to Renaissance art. Some
women attempted to overcome this barrier by ‘copying’ while others
concentrated on producing miniatures, portraits and self-portraits.
Nonetheless, there were women during the Renaissance who shared the artistic
realm with men, usually because they were encouraged, mostly for economic
reasons, to develop their skills by a male relative or family friend who was also
an artist. In their cloistered milieu nuns might be encouraged to nurture their
talent. But, always, as a ‘proviso’, the ‘chosen’ had to be seen as virtuous as well
as personable, reasonably educated, possibly musically gifted, and of good
pedigree. While the women artists inhabited the domestic, courtly or religious
domain, men marketed their work in the public sphere. Overt aggression would
get a woman nowhere.
An account of Siddal’s Renaissance predecessors, mostly Italian, would include
the nun Caterina de’ Vigri (1413–63), the daughter of a Ferrarese gentleman.
She might have remained behind the veil were it not for her sainthood. The
grave and paintings of this patron saint of painters became objects of
pilgrimages. Greer notes that according to her biographer, Sister Illuminata
Bembo, ‘she loved to paint the Divine Word as a babe in swaddling bands, and
for many monasteries in Ferrara and for books she painted him thus in
miniature’. Still, identifying her work is difficult. Vigri, says art historian
Whitney Chadwick, is a prime example ‘of learning and culture by women in
convents’. Another noteworthy nun is the Florentine Dominican Sister Plautilla
Nelli (1523–87), the daughter of the painter Lucca Nelli. Although Giorgio
Vasari, an artist also known as the first art historian, reported that Nelli made
many paintings for both religious establishments and the homes of Florentine
gentlemen, few of her paintings and drawings survive.
Properzia de’ Rossi (c1490?–1530) is a rare Renaissance phenomenon. She
succeeded in winning a commission to provide sculptures for the façade of the
Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, having carried out work for another city
church. Initially she was a pupil of the respected engraver Marcantonio
Raimondi. Vasari notes that the citizens and artists of Bologna rejoiced in her
talent. Rossi was also hailed for her extraordinary carvings on very small
surfaces, including peach and plum stones. Vasari considered them ‘singular
and marvellous to behold’.
Irene di Spilimbergo (1540–59) was born into a noble Venetian family. Her
fellow Venetian artist Titian apparently was so captivated by her beauty and
talent that he painted her portrait and took her on as his student. Diana
Scultori (c.1547–1612) was trained to engrave by her father, Giovanni Battista
Mantuano. Her engraving was ‘a thing to marvel at’, believed Vasari. Barbara
Longhi (1552–1638) was the daughter of the Mannerist painter Luca Longhi of
Ravenna, to whom some of her work is still questionably attributed. At an early
age she produced small works of religious themes – the Virgin Mary, saints and
scenes of the Holy Family – for use during the private prayer of local patrons.
These were painted with ‘with considerable good grace and style,’ commented
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Affiliated links
To buy any of the books
listed below, or just to
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Background info
In 1972 the Walters Art
Gallery, Baltimore, hosted
the exhibition ‘Old
Mistresses: Women Artists
of the Past’. In 1976 the
exhibition ‘Women Artists
1550–1950’, opened at the
Los Angeles County
Museum and travelled to
four American cities. It
was highly acclaimed: few
people appreciated how
many gifted women had
been omitted from the art
history canon. The
National Museum for
Women in the Arts
(NMWA), the first and
only museum in the world
devoted to art by women,
opened in 1987 in
Vasari. Later she painted larger works. Her work features in national and
international museums.
Milanese-born Fede Galizia (c.1574–c.1630) was praised for her achievements
as a copyist, draughtswoman and portraitist. Her father, Nunzio, was an
esteemed illuminator. She was revered for her atmospheric and productive
output of still lifes, and regarded as an important figure in the development of
still-life painting in Italy. Levina Teerlinc (1510/20–76) and Caterina van Hemessen (1528– c.87) are the
most noted Northern European Renaissance female painters. Bruges-born
Teerlinc was the eldest of five daughters of the miniaturist and book illuminator
Simon Benninck. Initially she assisted him with illuminations. Few works are
assuredly identified as hers although there must be a body produced by her as
she was so well known as a miniaturist in the 16th century. Indeed, she served
as a court painter for King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary I and
Queen Elizabeth I, and was paid more for her miniatures than Hans Holbein
was paid for his court paintings. Her ‘real successor’, assesses Elsa Honig Fine,
was the now rather more famous Nicholas Hilliard. Caterina was the daughter
of the Antwerp Mannerist Jan van Hemessen. Fine comments on her ‘skill in
capturing the quality of her sitters’ personalities’. She also produced religious
paintings. Caterina married ‘a gentleman of breeding’, an organist at Antwerp
Cathedral. The couple lived in Spain for a period while Caterina served as court
painter to Queen Mary of Hungary after the latter had abdicated her regency of
the Netherlands.
The two most prominent stars of the Renaissance are Sofonisba Anguissola
(1532–1625) and Lavinia Fontana. One might consider them ‘greats’.
Anguissola was born into a noble Cremonese family and was the eldest of six
sisters and one brother, all of whom were painters. (Sofonisba’s sister, Lucia,
also achieved fame for her paintings. There are pictures by her hand, wrote
Vasari, ‘that are no less beautiful and precious than those of her sister’.)
Although Amilcare, their father, was not an artist, he encouraged his daughters’
artistic potential. Their first drawing master was Bernardino Campi, a
Mannerist painter, and later Bernardino Gatti, a follower of Correggio.
Sofonisba was regarded as a child prodigy. One of her most widely reproduced
drawings Boy Pinched By a Crayfish may have been the inspiration for
Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard. Vasari commended her ‘rare and beautiful
paintings’. Her portraits have a sense of warmth and unpretentiousness, rather
than appearing as majestic and imposing; and her self-portraits are spirited
and candid. For several years Anguissola was court painter to Philip II of Spain.
Art historian Elsa Honig Fine considers her the ‘first woman artist to achieve
international renown, and the first for whom a large body of work is still
extant’.
Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) was the daughter of the Bolognese painter,
Prospero Fontana. Her early self-portraits and small panels for private
devotional pieces reveal the naturalism of Raphael and the elegance of
Correggio. She depicted costume and jewellery with painstaking detail. While
famed for her portraits, Lavinia was also revered for her religious and historical
paintings including large altarpieces, some of which incorporate domestic
motifs, such as in the Birth of the Virgin.
Her marriage to Gian Paolo Zappi in 1577 was contracted on the basis that the
couple remain as part of her father’s household, so that Lavinia’s artistic career
could continue. Her husband assisted her by painting backgrounds and
draperies and by caring for their family. In 1603, she moved to Rome with her
immediate family in accordance with the wishes of Pope Clement VIII.
Fontana’s work was in great demand. Her fees were as high as those
commanded by Van Dyck. She was elected to the Accademia di San Luca in
Rome (San Luca – Saint Luke – being a patron saint of painters). There were more women artists working during the Renaissance than space
allows me to discuss – but probably not many more. Will researchers reclaim
them? Unfortunately, the walls of museums still cry out for equality of
Washington DC. In 2007, ‘Italian Women Artists,
from Renaissance to
Baroque’ (NMWA) built on
the exhibitions of some of
the artists’ work in Europe
over the previous 10 years.
How do the media treat
women artists now?
The Whitechapel Gallery,
London, is hosting a
seminar to discuss this on
6 March. More details on
the gallery's website.
Books recommended
by Jenny Kingsley
Frances Borzello, A World
of Our Own – Women as
Artists, London, Thames &
Hudson, 2000.
Whitney Chadwick,
Women, Art and Society,
London, Thames &
Hudson, 2002.
Elsa Honig Fine, Women
and Art – A History of
Women Painters and
Sculptors from the
Renaissance to the 20th
Century, London,
Allenhead & Schram/Prior,
Montclair/London, 1978.
Germaine Greer, The
Obstacle Race – The
Fortunes of Women
Painters and Their Works,
London, Secker &
Warburg, 1979.
Griselda Pollock & Rozsika
Parker, Old Mistresses;
Women, Art and Ideology,
London: Routledge &
Kegan, 1981.
Ann Sutherland Harris &
Linda Nochlin, Women
Artists: 1550–1950.
Catalogue to accompany an
exhibition at the Los
Angeles County Museum of
Art, New York, Alfred A.
Knopf, 1979.
Italian Women Artists –
from Renaissance to
Baroque, London & Milan,
National Museum for
Women in the Arts
(NMWA), Washington DC,
in association with Skira
Editore, Milan 2007.
Exhibition catalogue for
exhibition at NMWA,
2007. Various authors.
Paola Tinagli, Women in
representation or simply representation. Why, in January 2014, should Tracey
Emin feel compelled to say in an interview, ‘Louise Bourgeois has the highest
female sales price at auction but it’s so far below her male counterparts, it’s
unbelievable. Were she a man it would be ten times more’.
Credits
Author: Jenny Kingsley
Location: London
Role:
Writer and journalist
This article first appeared in Cassone: The International Online Magazine of Art and Art Books
in the February 2014 issue.
© The author, licensed to Cassone http://www.cassone-art.com
Italian Renaissance Art,
Manchester, Manchester
University Press, 1997.
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the
Painters, Sculptors and
Architects. There are many
versions, including
abridged volumes and
translations available.
Available to read online:
Linda Nochlin, ‘Why Have
There Been No Great
Women Artists?’
Editor's notes
Cassone is grateful to the
National Museum for
Women in the Arts,
Washington DC, and the
National Gallery, London,
for their help with securing
images for this feature.