Lavinia Fontana

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Self-portrait by Lavinia Fontana

Lavinia Fontana (* 24. August 1552 in Bologna , † 11. August 1614 in Rome ) was an Italian painter of Mannerism .

Life

Lavinia was the daughter of the painter Prospero Fontana (1512–1597) and his wife Antonia de Bonardi. He trained her as an artist in her father's studio, who had previously worked in Rome and Florence. In the absence of male heirs in the family, she was to continue the father's business. Her thorough and liberal education put her on an equal footing with the first academically trained painters. In her first self-portrait (1577), which, according to the signature, she painted after her mirror image, she refers to a portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola , her great role model. The portrayal as a spinet player demonstrates her exemplary courtly upbringing, the studio shown in the background refers to art. The picture was intended for her future father-in-law, a wealthy merchant from Imola. Fontana then probably studied with the Dutch painter Denys Calvaert , who had also learned from her father.

Their portraits and historical representations in particular became well known. In the 1570s Fontana was considered one of the most important portrait painters in Bologna. Their accurate style corresponded to the taste of the nobility, influenced by fashion, it showed the mostly richly decorated clothing and shows rather aloof, emphatically elegant people.

Lavinia married the painter Gian Paolo Zappi (or: Paolo Fappi) in 1577 . She gave birth to eleven children, only three of whom survived. Her husband, who was also trained as an artist, supported his wife by doing housework and is said to have also done small jobs on her paintings, including clothes.

Through Pope Gregory XIII. , who also came from Bologna, she received support in the first phase of her career. The portrait of her patron (1580) is one of her best works. This work enabled her to have long-term relationships with church clients. She received generous fees for her individual or group portraits, like a van Dyck later. One of their largest commissions is likely to have been the group portrait of the Gozzadini family in the format of two by two meters. Lavinia Fontana painted portraits of members of the influential society of Bologna, group portraits, but also religious motifs, and from the 1580s also large-format altarpieces. In 1589 the Spanish king commissioned her to paint the Holy Family for the Escorial, which had recently been completed .

Lavinia moved with her family to Rome in 1603 at the invitation of Pope Pope Clement VII, and further orders for altar paintings and private history paintings followed. In honor of her 60th birthday, the artists of Rome had a medal minted for Lavinia in 1611, which shows on one side a qualified lady with a hood and on the other an ancient woman with wildly loosened hair in front of an easel as a symbol of creativity.

Unusually for a woman of the time, she also dared to do nudes . Her picture Minerva dresses from 1613, which she made for Cardinal Scipione Borghese , is also her last known painting. Lavinia was very successful, elected to the Academy of Rome, and was one of the best painting personalities of her time. There are more than 100 works documented by early sources, but only 32 are signed. Another 25 preserved works are attributed to her, which makes her work the most extensive by a painter before the 17th century.

Works

literature

  • Whitney Chadwick: Women, Art, and Society . Thames and Hudson, London 1990, ISBN 978-0500181942 , p. 93.
  • Ulrike Müller Hofstede : Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) . In: Irmgard Osols-Wehden (Ed.): Women of the Italian Renaissance. Poets, painters, patrons . Primus, Darmstadt 1999, ISBN 978-3896781154 , pp. 163-177.
  • Caroline P. Murphy: Lavinia Fontana. A Painter and Her Patrons in Sixteenth-Century Bologna . Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-09913-4 .
  • Leticia Ruiz Gómez (Ed.): A tale of two women painters. Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana . Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid 2019, ISBN 978-84-8480-537-3 .
Popular science
  • Christina Haberlik, Ira Diana Mazzoni : 50 classics - artists, painters, sculptors and photographers . Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 978-3-8067-2532-2 , pp. 15-20.
  • Christiane Weidemann, Petra Larass, Melanie Klier: 50 women artists you should know . Prestel, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7913-3957-3 , pp. 18-19.
  • Debra N. Mancoff: Women Who Changed Art . Prestel, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3791347325 , pp. 8-9, 12, 66-67.

Remarks

  1. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica .
  2. ^ Fontana in the National Museum of Women in the Arts ; Fontana in the Metropolitan Museum of Art .
  3. ^ Haberlik et al: 50 classics - women artists, painters, sculptors and photographers . Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 978-3-8067-2532-2 , p. 16.
  4. ↑ Catalog of the Uffizi Gallery .
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 9, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalgallery.ie

Web links

Commons : Lavinia Fontana  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Fontana, Lavinia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1552
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1614
Place of death Rome