Anguissola sofonisba biography

Summary of Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola was the first female artist of the Renaissance to achieve international fame during her lifetime. She had the ability to create life-like, sophisticated portraits that were intellectually engaging and flattering at the same time. She used self-portraits to promote and define herself, and she then turned this skill toward creating official portraits of the Spanish royal house that advertised their ability to rule.

She was described as a marvel of nature and her work as a marvel of art. Ironically, these descriptions both marked her as a strange anomaly and catapulted her to fame. She was also noted to be virtuous and beautiful, a superbly educated conversationalist, accomplished in music, and a charming dancer - all of which endeared her to the Spanish and Italian nobility and did not threaten the cultural norms about what women could or could not do. Nonetheless, she turned cultural limitations to her advantage, surpassing all expectations and becoming one of the most famous portraitists of her age.

Accomplishments

• In the 16 century, Italian artists, writers, and collectors were interested in art theory. The idea that art was about art itself was being born. Anguissola's paintings are not simple depictions of the people she represented. Many of her works are meditations on the nature of art that invite the viewer to think about the relationship between the artwork, the viewer, and the artist.
• In the Renaissance, opportunities for learning painting were usually reserved for sons and daughters of painters. Most female artists worked for their family workshops and very few were recognized independently for their talents. Anguissola did not fit in these categories. She became a renowned portraitist at a time when female painters were rare. She and her sisters became ground-breaking examples of what women could achieve in the arts.
• Because she was a noblewoman, it would have been inappropriate for her

Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 1556, Lancut Museum, Poland.

Sofonisba Anguissola is a rare example of a woman who led a successful career as a painter during the late Italian Renaissance. 

She was born around 1532 in Lombardy to a noble but relatively poor family. The eldest of 7 (six daughters and one brother) her family provided her and her siblings with a good education, including the opportunity for artistic instruction. Her talent in drawing and painting became readily apparent and the opportunity to work alongside local artists allowed her to further expand her skills, blazing a trail for other aspiring female artists to come!

Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 1554 

Sofonisba Anguissola’s work was admired by the likes of Michelangelo, who apparently exchanged sketches with the young artist and offered her encouragement (quite a boost for any aspiring artist!).

Giorgio Vasari wrote about Sofonisba Anguissola in his “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects” that she 

“has laboured at the difficulties of design with greater study and better grace than any other woman of our time, and she has not only succeeded in drawing, colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very choice and beautiful works of painting.”

Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola, c. late 1550s, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

In her 20’s Sofonisba Anguissola painted the remarkable double-portrait which is now held in Siena’s Pinacoteca museum in the Spannocchi Collection. The painting depicts the artist herself being painted by her tutor Bernardino Campi. It is a fascinating work, especially in the context of the art historical discussion of the “male gaze” and “female gaze”. In the remarkably rare position of a female

Sofonisba Anguissola (y. 1532-1625), İtalyan ressam. Özellikle portreleri ile bilinen bir Rönesans dönemi sanatçısıdır. İspanya Kralı II. Felipe'nin himayesinde portreler resmetmiştir. Geniş tanınırlığa ulaşan ilk kadın sanatçılardan biridir.

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Kaynakça

Italian painter (c. 1532–1625)

Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 – 16 November 1625), also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She received a well-rounded education that included the fine arts, and her apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art. As a young woman, Anguissola traveled to Rome where she was introduced to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent, and to Milan, where she painted the Duke of Alba. The Spanish queen, Elizabeth of Valois, was a keen amateur painter and in 1559 Anguissola was recruited to go to Madrid as her tutor, with the rank of lady-in-waiting. She later became an official court painter to the king, Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court. After the queen's death, Philip helped arrange an aristocratic marriage for her. She moved to Sicily, and later Pisa and Genoa, where she continued to practice as a leading portrait painter.

Her most distinctive and attractive paintings are her portraits of herself and her family, which she painted before she moved to the Spanish court. In particular, her depictions of children were fresh and closely observed. At the Spanish court she painted formal state portraits in the prevailing official style, as one of the first, and most successful, of the relatively few female court painters. Later in her life she also painted religious subjects, although many of her religious paintings have been lost. In 1625, she died at age 93 in Palermo.

Anguissola's example, as much as her oeuvre, had a lasting influence on subsequent generations of artists, and her great success opened the way for larger numbers of women to pursue serious careers as artists. Her paintings can be seen at galleries in Boston (Isabella Stewart Gard