- Self-Portrait at the Spinet, Lavinia Fontana, Oil on canvas,1577; Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca
In Bologna and subsequently in Rome, Lavinia Fontana primarily devoted her activities to portraiture, a genre in which she was notable for the variety of typologies she employed.
Fontana was undoubtedly the preferred choice of female sitters, whose pretensions to sophistication and luxury are extremely well reflected in her works. Above all, she revealed all her skills in visually expressing the opulence of the clothing, the different textiles, wealth of jewels and exquisite lace, as well as the almost obligatory lapdog. Fontana also included portraits of the children of the city’s leading families in religious compositions painted for private chapels. They are shown alongside their father or mother or as part of a family group.
As a “narrative portrait” of a family group captured with a degree of everyday informality, Portrait of a Family from the Pinacoteca di Brera offers an excellent example of Fontana’s evolution at the end of the 16th century. This idea persists in Lady with four young Women which captures a domestic moment probably associated with the principal figure’s marriage.
- Noli me tangere, Lavinia Fontana, Oil on canvas, 1581; Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria delle statue e delle pitture
All of Anguissola’s few known religious works are present in the exhibition with the exception of the Madonna dell’Itria in Paternó (Sicily). These are small-format works intended for private devotional spaces and their compositions are always inspired by the work of other artists.
During her formative years in Cremona, Fontana was influenced by the work of her masters Bernardino Campi and Bernardino Gatti and by that of Camillo Boccaccino (ca.1504-1546). These small scenes are notable for their tender, pleasing sensibility and a style close to Correggio (ca.1489-1534) and Parmigianino (1503-1540) that was generally characteristic of Cremonese painters. In Genoa, Anguissola’s religious works repeat formulas and models devised by Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585).
Lavinia Fontana produced an extremely professional body of religious work ranging from small-scale devotional paintings on different supports (copperplate, panel and canvas) to large canvases intended as altar paintings. These are works marked by the spirit of the Counter-Reformation which reveal the influence of Correggio, Denys Calvaert (ca.1540-1619), Niccolò dell’Abbate (ca.1509/12-1571) and the Carracci.
- Mars and Venus, Lavinia Fontana,Oil on canvas, 1600 - 1610; Madrid, Fundación Casa de Alba
Lavinia Fontana was the first female artist to paint mythological compositions. Works of this type required her not only to make use of her powers of invention but also to focus on the depiction of the nude, a subject banned to women.
Bologna’s sophisticated society was capable of reconciling adherence to the postulates of the Counter-Reformation and an enjoyment of mythological images in which the nude (generally female) was the principal motif. This collecting mode extended to Rome where patrons associated with the Papacy commissioned works of this type from Fontana. The few known examples comprise an eloquent testimony to the artist’s ability to pursue the suggestive eroticism characteristic of the schools of Prague and Fontainebleau.
The arrangement of the nude figures in her works, which include details that go beyond the standard mythological account in addition to the jewels, veils and transparent fabrics that heighten and draw attention to the sensuality of the bodies, clearly demonstrate Fontana’s powerful capacity for invention, considered the touchstone of art at this period.
The final section in the exhibition includes various works that demonstrate the fame achieved by the two painters.
Eulogistic biographical accounts of these two illustrious women became a flourishing literary genre from the 16th century onwards. A good example is Glorias inmortales, triunfos y heroicas hazañas de ochocientas cuarenta y cinco mujeres, antiguas y modernas [...] by the Valencian author Pedro Pablo de Ribera, published in 1609. It includes an extensive account of Sofonisba Anguissola and shorter ones of Lavinia Fontana and other female artists of the period.
A further proof of the level of fame achieved by Anguissola is the visit that she received from Anthony van Dyck in Palermo a few months before her death. A page in his travel journal and his portrait of the elderly artist recall their moving meeting.
Fontana also inspired laudatory texts and works and the exhibition includes one of the most eloquent: a medal struck in Rome in 1611 with her effigy associated with the practice of painting on one side and an allegory of Painting on the other.
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