Sofonisba Anguissola

2074 Words5 Pages

Sofonisba Anguissola was one of the most prominent female painters of the Renaissance. Not only was she one of only four women mentioned by Giorgio Vasari in his famous Lives of the Artists, she also paved the way for later female artists. One may look at Sofonisba’s upbringing and assume that her talents were a result of her wealth and family background. However, if investigated more carefully through both analytical secondary sources and primary sources, it becomes clear that Sofonisba’s painting abilities formed because of her talent, not her wealth. Sofonisba integrated herself into the artistic community and used her second-class status as a female painter to accelerate her career: because she was not able to study as an apprentice in a workshop, her models were usually family members, she pioneered the style of genre painting. Historian Joan Kelly argues in her essay, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” that women did not experience a Renaissance during the actual Renaissance. Sofonisba’s training and connections were extremely helpful to launch her career, refuting Kelly’s argument that women only were taught “charm” during the Renaissance. In addition, Sofonisba married her second husband for love, not for money, debunking Kelly’s argument that marriages during the Renaissance were not based on love. Though Sofonisba’s life as a woman is a unique case in terms of wealth and profession, her success and fame, talent, and marriage (van dyck?) disprove Kelly’s argument that women did not have a Renaissance during the Renaissance.
Sofonisba was fortunate enough to receive unique extensive training in painting and the liberal arts at a young age, a consequence of her family’s wealth and her father’s desire for all his children...

... middle of paper ...

...s/IWW/texts/htmlfiles/
A0148-T001/.

Article
View live Web page
Archive & annotate page Perlingieri, Ilya Sandra. "Sofonisba Anguissola's Early Sketches." Woman's Art
Journal 9, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 1988): 10-14. Accessed October 8, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1358314. ———. Sofonisba Anguissola: The First Great Woman Artist of the
Renaissance. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, 1992.

Van Dyck, Anthony. "Commemorazioni di artisti minori. Sofonisba Anguissola"
[Commemoration of the Minor Artist, Sofonisba Anguissola]. La Fototeca Di
Emporium. Accessed November 3, 2013. http://www.artivisive.sns.it/fototeca/ scheda.php?id=40245. Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, & Architects.
Translated by Gaston Du C. De Vere. London, England: Macmillan, 1912. PDF
e-book.

Show More
Related

  • Wayne White's 'Golden Surf Rossi: The Seventies'

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Florence and the early renaissance, we have the greatest master of art like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli and others. In this period of time the painters almost never show their emotions or feelings, they were more focused on indulging the churches and the wealthy people. In The renaissance period the art provides the work of art with ideal, intangible qualities, giving it a beauty and significance greater and more permanent than that actually found in the modern art. Florence and the early renaissance, the art become very valued where every artist was trying to create art forms consistent with the appearance of the beauty or elegance in a natural perspective. However, Renaissance art seems to focus more on the human as an individual, while Wayne White art takes a broader picture with no humans whatsoever; Wayne, modern three dimensional arts often utilizes a style of painting more abstract than Renaissance art. At this point in the semester these two aspects of abstract painting and the early renaissance artwork have significant roles in the paintings. Wayne White brings unrealistic concepts that provoke a new theme of art, but nevertheless the artistic creations of the piece of art during early renaissance still represent the highest of attainment in the history of

    Read More

  • Summary Of Giovanni And Lusanna

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book, Giovanni and Lusanna, by Gene Bucker, he discusses the scandalous actions of a Florentine woman taking a wealthy high status man to court over the legality of their marriage. Published in 1988, the book explains the legal action taken for and against Lusanna and Giovanni, the social affects placed on both persons throughout their trial, and the roles of both men and women during the time. From the long and complicated trial, it can be inferred that women’s places within Florentine society were limited compared to their male counterparts and that women’s affairs should remain in the home. In this paper, I will examine the legal and societal place of women in Florentine society during the Renaissance. Here, I will argue that women were the “merchandise” of humanity and their main objective was to produce sons.

    Read More

  • Sofonisba Anguissola's Impact On Renaissance Society

    420 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sofonisba Anguissola changed or made an impact in Renaissance society by portraying women differently to her male contemporaries and by being one of the first successful independent female artists in the renaissance. She helped the renaissance society by demonstrating the significance of women through her many works of elaborate art.

    Read More

  • Jean Hey’s Annunciation

    2188 Words  | 5 Pages

    By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...

    Read More

  • Essay On Faith Ringgold

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem on October 8th 1930, the great depression had just ended and although she lived in the north, racism was still going on all throughout the country. As a young child, Ringgold was often bed ridden because of harsh asthma and during this time she often would draw. In 1950 she got her own studio and started working on oil painting projects. By 1962 she had gotten her MA in Art at the City College of New York, had two daughters and had been divorced and remarried. Ringgold was greatly influenced by a family who loved storytelling and learned from her mother’s stories about the ancestry of the slaves. Ringgold was both an artist as well as a teacher of art within the New York City public schools and a professor at the University of California, San Diego. Throughout her lifetime and time of her paintings, the civil rights movement was in full force.

    Read More

  • 16th Century Artist: Caterina van Hemessen

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    Caterina van Hemessen was born around 1528 around the Flemish city of Antwerp in modern day Belgium. She is the earliest female painter of the Northern Renaissance to have work attributed to her. In the Renaissance era, education and training in art were reserved almost exclusively for men. This idea was reinforced by the types of training aspiring artists were subject to in their early years. Potential artists would be required to move in with and learn from an experience professional from a very young age. Additionally, artists in training would be required to extensively study the nude form of the human body, something which was bel...

    Read More

  • Properzia De Rossi Project Analysis

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    The female artist I would like to write my week one journal about is Properzia de' Rossi. De Rossi was born 1490 in Bologna to a notary named Giovanni Rossi. I could not find any information about her mother or her upbringing. De Rossi face addition obstacles pursuing art due to no previous training, unlike her female counterparts whose fathers were artists and guided their hands. Later, she did have the privilege of learning from the Bolognese master engraver and artist Marc Antonio Raimondi, as well as studied at the University of Bologna. Under, Raimondi, De Rossi studied music, painting, poetry, dance, drawing and classical literature. Undecided about how she wanted to express herself through her art, she tried her hand at sculpture

    Read More

  • Catherine De Medici's Black Legend

    2162 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although the ‘Legend’ of the Wicked Italian Queen is limited by its personal malicious nature, it is credible in its demonstration of Catherine’s ambition f...

    Read More

  • The Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Johnson, Geraldine A. Renaissance Art, A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

    Read More

  • The Song of the Lark

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.

    Read More

  • Conditions of Trade, by Michael Baxandall

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article “Conditions of Trade,” Michael Baxandall explains the interaction serving of both fifteenth- century Italian painting and text on how the interpretation of social history from the style of pictures in a historical period, pre-eminently examine the early Renaissance painting. Baxandall looks not only on the explanation of how the style of painting is reflected in a society, but also engages in the visual skills and habits that develop out of daily life. The author examines the central focus on markets, material visual practices, and the concept of the Renaissance period overlooking art as an institution. He observes a Renaissance painting, which relate the experience of activities such as preaching, dancing, and assessing. The author considers discussions of a wide variety of artistic painters, for instance, Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, and numerous others. He defines and exemplifies concepts used in contemporary critic of the painting, and in the assembled basic equipment needed to discover the fifteenth- century art. Therefore this introductory to the fifteenth- century Italian painting and arise behind the social history, argues that the two are interconnected and that the conditions of the time helped shape the distinctive elements in the artists painting style. Through the institutional authorization Baxandall looks at integration in social, cultural and visual evaluation in a way that shows not only the visual art in social construction, but how it plays a major role in social orders in many ways, from interaction to larger social structural orders.

    Read More

  • The Significance of Art in Chopin's The Awakening

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edna seeks occupational freedom in art, but lacks sufficient courage to become a true artist. As Edna awakens to her selfhood and sensuality, she also awakens to art. Originally, Edna “dabbled” with sketching “in an unprofessional way” (Chopin 543). She could only imitate, although poorly (Dyer 89). She attempts to sketch Adèle Ratignolle, but the picture “bore no resemblance” to its subject. After her awakening experience in Grand Isle, Edna begins to view her art as an occupation (Dyer 85). She tells Mademoiselle Reisz that she is “becoming an artist” (Chopin 584). Women traditionally viewed art as a hobby, but to Edna, it was much more important than that. Painting symbolizes Edna’s independence; through art, she breaks free from her society’s mold.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Michael Baxandall's Conditions of Trade

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article “Conditions of Trade,” Michael Baxandall explains that fifteenth-century Italian art is a “deposit” resulting from the commercial interaction between the artist and the purchaser, who he refers to as a client. These works, as such, are “fossils of economic life,” and money, and they play an important role in the history of art. In our current perception of the relationship between the artist and art, “painters paint what they think is best, and then look around for a buyer” . However in the past, especially during the Renaissance period, the customers determined the content and form of paintings, as it was them who commissioned the work before it was created. He states that the artists and clients were interconnected and a legal agreement was drawn up specifying subject matter, payment scheme and the quality and quantity of colors, which would influence the artist’s painting style. Baxandall not only looks at the explanation of the style of painting that reflects a society, but also engages in the visual skills and habits that develop out of daily life. The author examines the situations between the painter and client within the commercial, religious, perceptual, and social institutions, centrally focusing on markets, materials, visual practices, and the concept of the Renaissance period, which saw art as an institution. Baxandall notes that Renaissance paintings also relate to the clients’ motives through such ways as possession, self-commemoration, civic consciousness, and self-advertisement. The author considers works of a wide variety of artistic painters, for instance, Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, and numerous others. He defines and exemplifies fiftee...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cassatt's The Child And Mother Nursing Her Child

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,

    Read More

  • The Shift Between The Middle Ages And Renaissance

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    The shift between the Middle Ages and Renaissance was documented in art for future generations. It is because of the changes in art during this time that art historians today understand the historical placement and the socio-economic, political, and religious changes of the time. Art is a visual interpretation of one’s beliefs and way of life; it is through the art from these periods that we today understand exactly what was taking place and why it was happening. These shifts did not happen overnight, but instead changed gradually though years and years of art, and it is through them that we have record of some of the most important changes of historic times.

    Read More

More about Sofonisba Anguissola

Open Document