ARH 390 midterm

Caterina van Hemessen

Caterina or Catharina van Hemessen (1528 - after 1565) was a Flemish Renaissance painter. She is the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there is verifiable extant work. She is mainly known for a series of small-scale female portraits completed between the late 1540s and early 1550s and a few religious compositions. often given the distinction of creating the first self-portrait of an artist (of either gender) depicted seated at an easel.[3] This portrait, created in 1548 at the age of 20,[4] shows the artist in the early stages of painting a portrait and is now part of the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel.[5] Other paintings by van Hemessen are in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and in the National Gallery, London. A number of obstacles stood in the way of women of her time who wished to become painters. Their training would involve both the dissection of cadavers and the study of the nude male figure while the system of apprenticeship meant that the aspiring artist would need to live with an older artist for 4-5 years, often beginning from the age of 9-15 female artists were extremely rare, and those that did make it through were typically trained by a close relative, in van Hemessen's case, by her father, Jan Sanders van Hemessen. While van Hemessen did create at least two religious paintings, she was mainly a portraitist The delicate figures she painted have a graceful charm and are provided with stylish costumes and accessories.[13] Her best-known work is her self-portrait (inscribed in Latin: "I Caterina have painted myself / 1548 / Her age 20". There are no extant works later than 1554, which has led some historians to believe her artistic career might have ended after her marriage, which was common in the case of female artists.[8] Although she retired, Catharina still taught three male apprentices.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, 1610

Gentileschi's painting has been compared to that of other artists who used the same subject, but were male.[3] Gentileschi's Susanna sits uncomfortably, . A common comparison is made with Annibale Carracci's version of Susanna and the Elders. Gentileschi's Susanna is both uncomfortable and more feminine than Carracci's Susanna,[3] , as if receptive to the two elders' attention.[3] Rather than depicting the typical body type of previous paintings of Susanna, Gentileschi chose a more Classical style for Susanna's body, which elevates her nudity in a more heroic sense. The setting of this scene in a stone enclosure further represents a departure from the typical garden setting used in previous depictions by other artists.[1] Gentileschi's vertical composition also spreads the two elders at the top as a dark element hovering over the scene, creating a feeling of malevolent pressure imposed upon Susanna.[3] Gentileschi painted this scene at least twice more during her lifetime. As this version is the earliest, it has been presumed that she painted with her father's guidance. Art historians Roberto Longhi and Andrea Emiliani questioned how Gentileschi could paint a convincing female nude at such a young age. They speculated whether she had studied female anatomy or used a model of her father's, as his work studio was in the family home. However, no other artist had explored the psychological dimension of this Biblical story before, suggesting that Gentileschi's father, a traditionally trained artist, would have had no hand in influencing the concept of the young artist's painting. Artemisia's naturalistic rendering of the female form stands in contrast to her father's style, however the adjustments revealed by x-rays may suggest that Orazio's guidance was focused on compositional arrangement rather than depiction.

Giovanna Garzoni

Giovanna Garzoni (1600 - February 1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. She began her career painting religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects but gained fame for her botanical subjects painted in tempera and watercolour. Her works were praised for their precision and balance and for the exactitude of the objects depicted.[4] More recently, her paintings have been seen to have female bodily associations and proto-feminist sentiments.[5][6] She combined objects very inventively, including Asian porcelain, exotic seashells, and botanical specimens.[7] She was often called the Chaste Giovanna due to her vow to remain a virgin.[8] Scholars have speculated Garzoni may have been influenced by fellow botanical painter Jacopo Ligozzi[9] although details about Garzoni's training are unknown. Garzoni's stay in Rome was short lived however, due to Christina of France's persistent efforts to have the artist come to Turin to serve as the miniaturist for the Turinese court.[13] Garzoni reached Turin in 1632 and lived there until 1637. After staying in Turin, Garzoni became familiar with the work of fellow artists Fede Galizia and Panfilo Nuvolone.[14] A few years later in 1640, Garzoni arrived in Paris and stayed there until 1642 when she went to Rome. Garzoni traveled back and forth from Rome to Florence until 1651 where her primary clients were in the Medici Family, particularly Grand Duke Ferdinando II, Grand Duchess Victoria, and Cardinal Giovan Carlo.[15] After serving the Medici Court, Garzoni decided to settle in Rome in 1651 where she worked continue producing work for the Florentine Court. It is noted by several historians that Garzoni's pieces were so well received by the public; she was able to ask any price for her paintings

Maria Sibylla Merian, Branch of Guava tree with Army Ants, Pink-Toe Tarantulas, Huntsman Spiders, and Ruby-Topaz Hummingbird, 1702-1703. Watercolour and bodycolour with gum Arabic on vellum

In her text, Merian described the behaviour of the insects closely, noting how even humans fled the movement of swarms of ants through houses. She also described the activity of Leaf-Cutter Ants, noting that they 'can eat whole trees bare as a broom handle in a single night' [translation from Elizabeth Rücker and William T. Stearn, Maria Sibylla Merian in Surinam, London 1982]. The composition includes a tarantula carrying off a hummingbird. The Latin name of the tarantula genus is Avicularia - 'small bird' - referring to the spiders' supposed diet. However, tarantulas do not prey on birds, and it has even been suggested that the reputation arose because of Merian's memorable image.Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of the printmaker Matthias Merian, and the step-daughter of the still-life painter Jacob Marrel. She was a talented artist, who was trained in flower painting by Marrel. From an early age, she was fascinated by insects and their life cycles, and undertook research into the phenomenon of metamorphosis, which was then only partially understood. She published her findings in a series of books, illustrated with beautifully-composed plates in which each insect life-cycle was illustrated on the appropriate food plant. In 1699, having encountered exotic insects in the cabinets of natural history collectors in Amsterdam, Merian and her younger daughter Dorothea set sail for Suriname, in South America, which was then a Dutch colony. There, they studied the life cycles of Surinamese insects until their return to Europe in 1701. Merian published her Surinamese research as the Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname) in 1705. The book was very well-received, and by her death Merian was well-regarded throughout Europe as both an entomologist and an artist.

Judith Leyster

Judith Jans Leyster (also Leijster; baptised July 28, 1609[1] - February 10, 1660) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, portraits, and still lifes. Her work was highly regarded by her contemporaries, but largely forgotten after her death. Her entire oeuvre came to be attributed to Frans Hals or to her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer. In 1893, she was rediscovered and scholars began to attribute her works correctly. It has been suggested that Leyster's Self-Portrait, c. 1633 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), may have been her presentation piece to the Guild. This work marks a shift from the rigidity of earlier women's self-portraits toward a more relaxed, dynamic pose.[11][12] It is very relaxed by the standards of other Dutch portraits and comparable to some of Frans Hals's work. However, it seems unlikely that she wore such formal clothes when painting in oils, especially the very wide lace collar.[13] Within two years of entering the Guild, Leyster had taken on three male apprentices. Records show that Leyster sued Frans Hals for accepting a student who left her workshop for his without first obtaining the Guild's permission.[14] The student's mother paid Leyster four guilders in punitive damages, only half of what Leyster asked for, and Hals settled his part of the lawsuit by paying a three-guilder fine rather than return the apprentice. Leyster herself was fined for not having registered the apprentice with the Guild.[1] Following her lawsuit with Frans Hals, Leyster's paintings received greater recognition.

Plautilla Nelli, Lamentation with Saints, c. 1568. Oil on canvas, 288 x 192cm

Lamentation with Saints is a Christian religious painting by the nun and artist Plautilla Nelli who was the first known female painter from Florence. Taking as her models the work of Fra Bartolomeo, Bronzino and del Sarto, Nelli (1524-88) elaborated a classical Renaissance style. She is renowned as a nun-paintress and one of the few women mentioned in Giorgio Vasari's famous work The Lives of the Artists. In this work, Nelli shows the Virgin Mary in her traditional rich ultramarine with other saints tending to and mourning over the body of the dead Christ. The structure of the figures around Jesus is pyramidal and could suggest the trinity. Plautilla Nelli's Lamentation with Saints is now in the Museum of San Marco in Florence, Italy.

Judith Leyster, The Proposition, 1629

Meg Lota Brown, professor of English at the University of Arizona, and Kari Boyd McBride, professor of Women's Studies at the same, consider The Proposition to be "one of [Leyster's] most intriguing works from her period of greatest artistic output".[5] Marianne Berardi, an art historian specializing in Dutch Golden Age painting, states that it is "perhaps her most notable painting".[7] Its most distinctive feature is how different it is to other contemporary Dutch and Fleming "sexual proposition" paintings, many falling into the Merry company genre.[5] The convention for the genre, a common one at the time, was for the characters to be bawdy, and clearly both interested in sex, for money. The dress would be provocative, the facial expressions suggestive, and sometimes there would be a third figure of an older woman acting as a procuress. Indeed, in The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen, an example of the genre, that is exactly the case.[2]This feminist reinterpretation of the picture largely originated with the work of Frima Fox Hofrichter who tried to claim in 1975 (Hofrichter 1975) a difference between Leyster's painting and others of the genre and that it had served to set a precedent for other, later, artists, such as Gabriël Metsu in his An Offer of Wine. According to Hofrichter, the woman in The Proposition is an "embarrassed victim" presented sympathetically and positively.

Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, c. 1556, varnished watercolor on parchment, 8.3 x 6.4 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Praised by her contemporaries as the foremost woman painter of her day, Anguissola executed more self-portraits than any other artist in the period between Dürer and Rembrandt. This miniature displays the artist's meticulous technique and a Renaissance taste for puzzles: the interwoven letters at the center of the medallion form a monogram or phrase that has not been satisfactorily explained. Around the rim, the medallion is inscribed in Latin: "The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, at Cremona."

Lavinia Fontana, Holy Family, c. 1575. Oil on beechwood, 39.7 x 32 cm, inscribed: [LAV]INIA PROS[P]ERI FONTANAE

Renaissance artists often employed foreshadowing as a theological device in their paintings of Christ's infancy to remind viewers that Jesus came not just to live a perfect life but to die an atoning death on behalf of sinners. Over all the joy and celebration of the Nativity looms the dark cloud of Crucifixion. Holy Family with Saints Margaret and Francis by Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614)—one of the first professional female artists to achieve international fame—is one such work that's embedded with signs of future death: a sarcophagus-like crib resting on an altar-like slab; Mary's elevation of the body of Christ in a manner that recalls the priest's raising of the host during the Eucharist; Francis's cradling of a crucifix in his left elbow pit; and a curtain opening into darkness. A year earlier, Fontana's firstborn child died, so her bereavement may have partially inspired the painting. Like other artists of her period, Fontana responds to the artistic decrees of the Counter-Reformation by turning away from the excesses of the Mannerist style in which she had been trained. Instead, she uses linear perspective and foreshortening to create a realistic sense of spatial recession that clearly defines the setting. In addition, she gives her figures the modest dress and pious decorum that are appropriate to the painting's religious subject matter. By creating a balanced, nearly symmetrical composition with strong upward diagonals, she emphasizes the centrality of Christ to the devotional image.

Giovanna Garzoni, Still Life with Bowl of Citrons, 1640. Tempera on vellum. Getty Museum

Robust citrons with their leafy branches still attached fill a worn ceramic bowl to overflowing in this meticulous still life. Giovanna Garzoni's acute observation of nature and refined handling of paint are evident in the carefully rendered citron skin, and in the wasp's delicate wings. With its central bowl of fruit, this painting is characteristic of Garzoni's style; a single flower or insect placed in front of the picture plane adds interest to the composition. Garzoni deliberately manipulated textures and shapes, contrasting the citrons' rough skin and rounded weightiness with the sharp-edged branches, the glistening, green leaves, and the delicate, star-like blossoms.Scientific research and illustration were of great interest to those who participated in court life in the 1600s. As a result, paintings of natura sospesa, "nature suspended," were quite fashionable. Garzoni's skillful depictions of natural objects, usually fruits and insects arranged in pleasing ensembles, were among the paintings most coveted by wealthy patrons.

Caterina van Hemessen (1528-after 1565), Self-Portrait, 1548

Self-Portrait is a small painting executed in oil on oak in 1548 by the Flemish Renaissance artist Catharina van Hemessen when she was 20 years old. The painting earned her a considerable reputation and is significant not only for being an early modern female portrait but also for representing an artist in the act of painting.[1] This was very unusual for the time; although self-portraits were common, only a few, like those of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), showed the artist's everyday life.[1] Artists of the time rarely directly referred to, much less showed the tools of their profession.[1] It is assumed Hemessen's portrait is one of the earliest ones to show a painter with a brush together with a palette and an easel.[1] She inscribed it in Latin: "I Caterina van Hemessen have painted myself / 1548 / Her age 20".[2]A number of obstacles stood in the way of contemporary women who wished to become painters. Chief amongst these was the fact that their training would involve both the dissection of cadavers and the study of the nude male form. In addition, the system of apprenticeship meant that the aspiring artist would need to live with an older artist for 4-5 years, often beginning from the age of 9-15. For these reasons, female artists were extremely rare, and those that did make it through were typically trained by a close relative, in van Hemessen's case, by her father.[

Plautilla Nelli

Sister Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588) was a self-taught nun-artist and the first ever known female Renaissance painter of Florence.[1] She was a nun of the Dominican convent of St. Catherine of Siena located in Piazza San Marco, Florence, and was heavily influenced by the teachings of Savonarola and by the artwork of Fra Bartolomeo. Though she was self-taught, she copied works of the mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino and high Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto. Her primary source of inspiration came from copying works of Fra Bartolomeo, which mirrored the classicism-style enforced by Savonarola's artistic theories. Nelli signed her paintings as "Pray for the Paintress" after her name, confirming her role in spite of her gender.[4] Her work is distinguished from that of her influencers by the heightened sentiment she added to each of her characters' expressions.[5] Author Jane Fortune referred to her Lamentation with Saints and the "raw emotional grief surrounding Christ's death as depicted through the red eyes and visible tears of its female figures" as a case in point.[1] Nelli's Lamentation, which is now in the Museum of San Marco, Florence, is also discussed in The Painter-Prioress of Renaissance Florence, by Jonathan K. Nelson.[6][7] Most of Nelli's works are large-scale, which was most uncommon for a woman to paint, in her era.[8] She is one of the few female artists mentioned in Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.[9] Her work is characterized by religious themes, with vivid portrayals of emotion on her characters' faces. Nelli lacked any formal training and her male figures are said to have "feminine characteristics", as her religious vocation prohibited study of the nude male.

Illuminata Bembo, Saint Catherine of Bologna (Caterina Vigri)'s Le Armi Spirituale, 1466. ink, paint, and gold on parchment. Folio 14.5 x 10.3cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

St. Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463), also known as Catherine de' Vigr, was an Italian nun from the order of the Poor Clares. She was born to a fairly wealthy family and spent time as a young woman at the court of Niccolò III d'Este (1383-1441), the Marquess of Ferrara. Catherine became jaded with court life after Niccolò had his wife Parisina executed for adultery in 1425. In In 1455 she left Ferrara to become the abbess of a new convent, Corpus Domini in Bologna. Her most famous work is Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare (Le Sette Armi Spirituali), which she wrote in 1438, then edited between 1450 and 1456. The text encourages the reader to take up the cross as a kind of spiritual arms. According to the colophon on fol. 62r-v, the Walters copy was written in 1466 at the monastery of Corpus Christi in Ferrara by the nun Beata Illuminata Bembo, a companion of St. Catherine. It was copied from St. Catherine's own manuscript found in her cell at the time of her death in 1463 by Father Batista da Modena. Especially wonderful is the sensitively painted portrait of St. Catherine on fol. 1v, which was created in her memory shortly after her death by her friend Beata, and which may therefore offer a lovingly personalized portrait of the saint by someone who knew her well. Title: Le Armi Spirituale Author: Bologna, Catherine of, Saint, 1413-1463

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625), Game of Chess with Portraits of the Painter's Three Sisters and a Servant, 1555

The Game of Chess (or Portrait of the artist's sisters playing chess) is an oil-on-canvas painting executed ca. 1555 by Italian Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola. Anguissola was 23 years old when she painted it. The painting is signed and dated on the edge of the chessboard, where Anguissola left this Latin inscription: SOPHONISBA ANGUSSOLA VIRGO AMILCARIS FILIA EX VERA EFFIGIE TRES SUAS SORORES ET ANCILLAM PINXIT MDLV - "Sofonisba Angussola virgin daughter of Amilcare painted from life her three sisters and a maid 1555."Giorgio Vasari, visiting Cremona, was a guest in the house of Amilcare Anguissola and there admired paintings by Amilcare's daughters. About The Game of Chess he wrote, "I have seen this year in Cremona, in the house of her father a painting made with much diligence, the depiction of his three daughters, in the act of playing chess, and with them an old housemaid, done with such diligence and facility, that they appear alive, and the only thing missing is speech." This is the oldest document that mentions this painting, which remained hanging in the Anguissola family house for several years.[1] The painting later arrived in Rome, together with the Self Portrait at a Spinet, and two of Anguissola's drawings (Child Bitten by a Lobster and another unidentified drawing) in the holdings of the humanist and collector Fulvio Orsini. They were then inherited by Cardinale Odoardo Farnese. The Game of Chess then turned up in Naples, after the Farnese inheritance had passed to the Bourbons, and it was eventually acquired by Luciano Bonaparte. It changed hands once more after this and arrived in the collection that today forms part of the National Museum in Poznań, Poland. Three engravings based on this painting are known. The painting has undergone evident repaintings.

Interior, San Maurizio, Milan, nuns' choir. Bernardino Luini, landscape, c. 1520s

The complex was founded in Lombard times, partially re-using ancient Roman edifices. Of these, there remain a polygonal tower, a relic of the ancient Maximian walls, and a square one, originally part of the lost Hippodrome and later adopted as the church's bell tower. The monastery is now home to Milan's Archaeological Museum. The Benedictine Monastery is documented starting from the 8th-9th century. The monastery and its church were initially dedicated to Mary. In 964, the emperor Otto I, donated a relic of St. Maurice to the monastery. There were vast vegetable gardens surrounding the religious complex.[2] St. Luke, from fresco by Vincenzo Foppa The church was completely rebuilt, starting in 1503, under the design of Gian Giacomo Dolcebuono in collaboration with Giovanni Antonio Amadeo. The edifice was finished fifteen years later by Cristoforo Solari, divided into two parts: one for the faithful, one for the nuns.[3] In 1864 the monastery became the property of the Municipality

Clara Peeters, Still-life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit and Pretzels, 1611

The composition of this painting carefully balances two principles. The objects appear casually laid on the table in apparently random order. The goal of the artist is to make the scene look lifelike. Simultaneously, the painter has labored to provide a clear and frontal view of all that is displayed. This paradoxical combination is heir to late sixteenth-century artists such as Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1601), who created hybrid images where the didactic goals of scientific illustrations were mixed with a more aesthetic approach. The flowers in this painting are another reminder of the connections of still life paintings to early scientific illustrations. By about 1550, prints reproducing animals and plants made with a didactic intention had become a specialty of Antwerp. Painters making still lifes in the early seventeenth century sometimes used these images as sources for their works.Peeters may well have based her flower on that image. On the gilt goblet and the pewter flagon, both of which are similar to vessels in other works by Peeters, the artist painted her self-portrait - three times in the goblet and four on the pewter jug. The abundance of signatures and reflected self-portraits in paintings by Peeters is a form of assertion, perhaps explained because she was a woman in a profession dominated by men. By painting herself she also emphasises the illusionism of the painting; we have a sense that we actually see her as she paints. Aside from the self-portraits, painting reflections was a challenge to artists that was part of artistic tradition and was recorded in the literature. The shiny, mirroring surfaces that we see in this painting demonstrate that Peeters enthusiastically accepted this challenge

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Holofernes, c. 1612-1613

The picture is considered one of her iconic works. The canvas shows Judith beheading Holofernes. The subject takes an episode from the apocryphal Book of Judith in the Old Testament, which recounts the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by the Israelite heroine Judith. The painting shows the moment when Judith, helped by her maidservant Abra, beheads the general after he has fallen asleep in a drunken stupor. She painted a second version now in the Uffizi, Florence, somewhere between 1613 and 1621.[2][3][4] Early feminist critics interpreted the painting as a form of visual revenge following Gentileschi's rape by Agostino Tassi in 1611; similarly many other art historians see the painting in the context of her achievement in portraying strong women.[4] Gentileschi draws upon the most climactic part of the Book of Judith where the beheading takes placeThe painting is relentlessly physical, from the wide spurts of blood to the energy of the two women as they perform the act.[1] The effort of the women's struggle is most finely represented by the delicate face of the maid, who is younger than in other treatments of the same theme, which is grasped by the oversized, muscular fist of Holofernes as he desperately struggles to survive. Judith Slaying Holofernes utilises deeper primary colours in comparison to the Florentine version.[7] Judith is shown wearing a cobalt blue dress with gold accents and her maidservant wears a red gown. Both women have their sleeves rolled up. As a follower of Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi makes use of chiaroscuro in the painting, with a dark background contrasting with the light shining directly on the scene of Judith beheading Holofernes.

Lavinia Fontana, Laudomia Gozzadini and her the Gozzadini Family, 1584. oil on canvas, 8' x 5'

This Mannerist painting depicts Laudomia Gozzadini, the painting's commissioner, and her sister Ginevra in the foreground, their father Senator Ulisse Gozzadini seated with them, and their husbands Camillo and Annibale standing behind. Ulisse and Ginevra, who are linked by his hand on her arm, were deceased at the time of the painting. Between her and her late family, Laudomia's hand rests on a dog, a symbol of fidelity, perhaps symbolizing her loyalty to their memory. In the back of the portrait, another small black dog reflects the masculine wandering of the sisters' husbands. The two women are dressed in full wedding regalia, Laudomia in a bold red that sets her apart from the other more neutrally attired subjects. Camillo's sword and cross signify his identity as a knight of the Portuguese Order of Christ, while the paper in Annibale's hand may allude to his control over the sisters' finances. In an unusual choice for the time period, Laudomia left special instructions for care of the portrait in her will. The first draft of the will included a note reading: "great and beautiful painting of the father of the testator, the testator herself, her sister and their husbands, by the hand of the excellent painter, Lavinia Fontana."[1] She instructed that the painting be given to Camillo and thereafter kept in the Gozzadini family, rather than being taken by her daughter's husbands. She also requested that whoever should inherit the portrait would pray to Saint Jerome for the souls of the people depicted in the portrait. A second draft of the will included the note: "a great and beautiful picture with the image of the father of the testator, the testator herself, her sister, their husbands, by the hand of Lavinia Fontana, the famous painter, honourable in everything."

Lavinia Fontana

an Italian Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious painting. She was trained by her father, Prospero Fontana. She is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe, as she relied on commissions for her income.[1][2] Her family relied on her career as a painter, and her husband served as her agent and raised their 11 children.[3] She was perhaps the first female artist to paint female nudes, but this is a topic of controversy among art historiansBeing the daughter of a painter allowed Fontana to become an artist in a time where female artists were not widely accepted,[10] and Bolognese society at large was supportive of Fontana's artistic career, providing opportunities and connections that were not available to women in other locales.[11] She began her commercial practice by painting small devotional paintings on copper, which had popular appeal as papal and diplomatic gifts, given the value and lustre of the metal.[1] Fontana married the Count of Imola, Gian Paolo Zappi, (alternate spellings include Giovan and Fappi), one of her father's pupils, in June 1577. Unusual for the time, their marriage contract specified that she would continue her career and would not be responsible for housekeeping.[12] Instead of offering a dowry as would have been widely accepted in this time, Fontana painted to earn an income.[13] The couple moved into Prospero's house in Bologna and Lavinia added Zappi to her signature.[14] She gave birth to 11 children, though only 3 outlived her: Flaminio, Orazio, and Prospero.[15] Zappi took care of the household and served as an agent and painting assistant to his wife, including painting minor elements of paintings such as draperies.

Sofonisba Anguissola

known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola,[2][3] 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. Her contemporary Vasari wrote that Anguissola "has shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in her endeavors at drawing

Plautilla Nelli, Last Supper, c. 1568. oil oncanvas, 200 x 700 cm/6.5 x 21 feet, Santa Maria Novella Museum, Florence

one of only four women artists mentioned in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.[1] Nelli was a nun at the Dominican monastery of Santa Caterina in Florence and painted The Last Supper for its refectory.[1] The painting was largely ignored until the 1990s; it was restored in the 2010s. Nelli's painting depicts the Last Supper—the moment Christ announces to his apostles that one of them has betrayed him, a popular subject for Renaissance refectories in which monastic members would take their communal meals. Shock and dismay reverberate around the group as the haloed men react to the news. Nelli provided visual and iconographic clues to help identify some of the apostles. Notice, for example, that a halo-less figure sits alone on the front side of the table, physically and morally separating him from the rest of the apostles and thus identifying him as the betrayer, Judas. We also see that the traitor clutches a purse of coins in one hand, a reference to Judas's reward of 30 pieces of silver for betraying Christ to the Romans (John 13:29). With his other hand, the informer reaches for Christ's proffered piece of bread, another biblical reference alluding to his role in Christ's inevitable death (John 13:26). In contrast, to the right of Christ, John is so troubled by the pronouncement he leans into the Lord's breast with his eyes closed, seeking comfort. During this last meal, Christ also instructed his disciples to partake of the blessed wine and bread as surrogates for his blood and body to nourish themselves spiritually while awaiting his return via resurrection. This was the foundation for the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, in which followers consume sanctified wine and bread to commemorate Christ's sacrifice, and to join them physically with the source of life.

Clara Peeters

was a Flemish still-life painter from Antwerp who worked in both the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic. Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists working professionally in seventeenth-century Europe, despite restrictions on women's access to artistic training and membership in guilds.[2][3] Peeters specialized in still-life paintings with food and was prominent among the artists who shaped the traditions of the Netherlandish ontbijtjes, "breakfast pieces," scenes of food and simple vessels, and banketjes, "banquet pieces" with expensive cups and vessels in precious metals.Peeters' first-known painting, signed and dated 1607, reflects the technical and compositional skill of a trained artist.[5] Her style suggests training in Antwerp, an early center of still-life specialization.[5] While most artists and apprentices were included in records of the local Guild of Saint Luke, no record of Peeters' has been found in Antwerp or centers of art in the Dutch Republic.[6] Scholars speculate that she may have been the daughter of a painter, and thus not required to be included in the apprenticeship records. Many scholars believe her work closely resembles that of Osias Beert and suggest she may have been his pupil. Beert began his career as a still-life painter when he became a master of the Antwerp guild in 1602.[10] However, none of his works are dated, although some of the copper plates were stamped with dates from 1606 to 1609 by their supplier. Although she was not in its records, at least one painting of Peeters bears the stamp of the Antwerp Guild on its back, indicating she may indeed have been a member, or at least worked on panels made by members of the Antwerp Guild

Maria Sibylla Merian

was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to document observations about insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family. Merian received her artistic training from her stepfather, Jacob Marrel, a student of the still life painter Georg Flegel. Merian published her first book of natural illustrations in 1675. She had started to collect insects as an adolescent. At age 13, she raised silkworms. In 1679, Merian published the first volume of a two-volume series on caterpillars; the second volume followed in 1683. Each volume contained 50 plates that she engraved and etched. Merian documented evidence on the process of metamorphosis and the plant hosts of 186 European insect species. Along with the illustrations Merian included descriptions of their life cycles.In 1699, Merian travelled to Dutch Guiana to study and record the tropical insects native to the region. In 1705, she published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Merian's Metamorphosis has been credited with influencing a range of naturalist illustrators. Because of her careful observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly, Merian is considered by David Attenborough to be among the more significant contributors to the field of entomology.[2] She discovered many new facts about insect life through her studies.[3] Until her careful, detailed work, it had been thought that insects were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation. Her pioneering research in illustrating and describing the various stages of development, from egg to larva to pupa and finally to adult, dispelled the notion of spontaneous generation and established the idea that insects undergo distinct and predictable life cycles.

Artemisia Gentileschi

was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of 15.[3] In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and she had an international clientele.[4][5] Many of Gentileschi's paintings feature women from myths, allegories, and the Bible, including victims, suicides, and warriors.[6] Some of her best known subjects are Susanna and the Elders (particularly the 1610 version in Pommersfelden), Judith Slaying Holofernes (her 1614-1620 version is in the Uffizi gallery), and Judith and Her Maidservant (her 1625 work is in the Detroit Institute of Arts). Judith and her Maidservant, 1625, Detroit Institute of Arts Gentileschi was known for being able to depict the female figure with great naturalism and for her skill in handling colour to express dimension and drama.[7][8][9][10] Her achievements as an artist were long overshadowed by the story of Agostino Tassi raping her when she was a young woman and Gentileschi being tortured to give evidence during his trial.[11] For many years Gentileschi was regarded as a curiosity, but her life and art have been reexamined by scholars in the 20th and 21st centuries, with the recognition of her talents exemplified by major exhibitions at internationally esteemed fine art institutions, such as the National Gallery in London.[