Sofonisba Anguissola
Active in: Italy and Spain
Alternate names: Sophonisba Anguissola, Sophonisba Angussola, Sophonisba Anguisciola
Biography
Sofonisba Anguissola–painter, draftswoman, courtier at the court of King Philip of Spain, and teacher–has been called the first great woman artist of the Renaissance. The Milanese painter and writer Gan Paolo Lomazzo (1538–1592) called Anguissola’s portraits “miracles” that “astonished every prince and wise man in all of Europe.” The Florentine writer and painter Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), who traveled to Cremona to see Anguissola’s paintings, praised her work in his Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori. The admiration Anguissola inspired through her work became part of the epitaph her second husband, Orazio Lomellini, affixed to her tomb. His paean to Anguissola declared that, among her other virtues, she was “so outstanding in the representation of the human portrait that no one in her time was held in the same esteem.”
During her long career, which began around 1550 and ended with her failing eyesight in the 1620s, Anguissola specialized in portraits. She recorded the faces of her family and visitors to her home, others she met on her travels, and after 1559, when she became lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabel de Valois, members of the Spanish court. Many of Anguissola’s portraits of clerics, artists, humanists, nobles, and Spanish royals survive but the full scope of her work can only be pieced together by noting the many works (still to be found) mentioned by contemporary sources. Anguissola also painted sacred subjects, often depicting the Madonna and Child or Holy Family, some of which survive.
Anguissola’s career can be defined by six phases: her childhood, education, and artistic training (ca. 1532–50); her early career in Cremona (1550–59); her activity in the Spanish court (1559–73); her first marriage and their life in Palermo and Paterno (1573–ca. 1578); her second marriage and their life in Genoa (ca. 1579–1615); and the final years until her death in Palermo (1615–25).
For the first twenty-seven years of her life, Anguissola was based in Cremona, where she studied and produced art and built a growing reputation as an artist. She born into a noble family around 1532, the eldest of seven children. Four of her sisters–Elena, Lucia, Europa, and Anna Maria–also became painters. Several of the portraits and self-portraits she made during this early period of her career rank among her best known and most highly regarded works, many of which were part of her father’s campaign to educate and promote his daughters. Anguissola studied with both Bernardino Campi (1522–1591) and Bernardino Gatti (c. 1495–1576), better known as Il Sojaro. She also met and exchanged drawings with Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564), who became a trusted teacher via their continued correspondence.
Anguissola’s fourteen years in Spain are well documented. In 1558, she became lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabel de Valois (1545–1568), the third wife of King Philip II of Spain (1527–1598). She later attended to Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633) until Anguissola’s marriage to Fabrizio Moncada Pignatelli (d. 1578/79) in 1573. The match was arranged by King Philip II himself and accompanied by a large dowry.
Anguissola and Moncada left Spain in 1573 and lived Paterno and Palermo until his unexpected death in 1578 or 1579. It is unclear how much time Anguissola had to paint and what kind of work she created during this period; little of the work she produced during her five-year stay in Palermo has been identified. After her first husband’s death, Anguissola married Orazio Lomellino in 1584. For the next thirty, the couple lived together in Genoa, where Anguissola’s activities as an artist can only be traced by a few works, most of them religious in nature. No self-portraits can be securely placed in those three decades. In 1615, Lomellino relocated to Palermo, which became Anguissola’s home for the final decade of her life. By then she suffered from failing eyesight and had evidently stopped working, although acquaintances wrote that she kept a sharp mind until the end of her life. The young Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) visited her in 1624 and made a portrait of her. Anguissola died on November 16, 1625, at the age of 93.
Selected Works
Sofonisba Anguissola, The Game of Chess, 1555. Oil on canvas, 72 x 97 cm. National Museum, Poznań.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Double Portrait of a Boy and Girl of the Attavanti Family, 1580s. Oil on panel, 40 cm. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Prince Alessandro Farnese, ca. 1560. Oil on canvas, 107 x 79 cm. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Felipe II, 1573. Oil on canvas, 88 x 72 cm. Museo del Prado.
Sofonisba Anguissola, The Holy Family with Saints Anne and John the Baptist, 1592. Oil on canvas, 125.7 x 110.5 cm. Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Juana of Austria and a Young Girl, 1561–62. Oil on canvas, 194 x 108.3 cm. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
Sofonisba Anguissola, La Reina Ana de Austria, 1573. Oil on canvas, 86 x 67.5 cm. Museo del Prado.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 1556. Oil on canvas, 66 x 57 cm. Łańcut Castle, Poland.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, about 1556. Oil (?) on parchment, 8.3 x 6.4 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Massimiliano Stampa, 1557. Oil on canvas, 136 x71.5 cm. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Circle
Wife of
Fabrizio Moncada Pignatelli (d. 1578/79)
Wife of
Orazio Lomellino
Sister and teacher of
Lucia Anguissola (ca. 1536 or 1538–ca. 1565–1566)
Sister of
Elena Anguissola (c. 1532–1584)
Sister of
Europa Anguissola (b. 1536)
Sister and teacher of
Anna Maria Anguissola (c. 1555–c.1611)
Sister of
Minerva Anguissola (c. 1539–1566)
Student of
Bernardino Campi (1522–1591)
Student of
Bernardino Gatti, Il Sojaro (c. 1495–1576)
Student and friend of
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564)
Acquaintance of
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Acquaintance of
Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574)
Lady-in-waiting for
Queen Isabel de Valois (1545–1568)
Attendant to
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633)
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Entry Notes
In memory of Ann Sanderson, Advisory Board member and supporter of women artists. Thanks to Ann the museum has a wonderful painting by a pioneering modern woman artist: Gabriele Münter, and so I dedicate to her memory this entry on a wonderful woman artist who helped pave the way.—Heidi Gealt