**This class will be taught In-Person**
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio are among the most well-known Renaissance artists. They flourished due to the patronage of notable individuals, powerful rulers and civic organizations who commissioned their works. But what about the female half of the population? The Renaissance saw the rise of women artists who navigated many obstacles to succeed in the male-dominated Italian art world. Confident self-portraits, realistic still lifes, portraits of noted individuals and their families all reveal the women’s technical skill and ingenuity. By exploring works made by women, this course aims to reconsider a period of creative ingenuity and artistic excellence from their often-overlooked perspective.
Week One: Background to women artists in the Renaissance
Much of Renaissance art revolves around learning – about classical antiquity, philosophy, anatomy, or mathematics, not to mention the skills learned as an apprentice in a professional art studio. But gender norms of the time meant women’s education rarely exceeded what was needed to be wives and mothers. With almost no opportunities for apprenticeships with master/male artists, women were at a disadvantage. Talented women did become artists under certain circumstances, such as being born in a family of artists or being a nun trained as a manuscript illuminator or painter in a convent. In all cases, the public personae of women artists were closely tied to gendered ideas that expected a respectable woman to be virtuous, pious, and obedient to God and her father/husband.
Week two: Sofonisba Anguissola
Born into a noble family in Cremona, Anguissola’s family made the unprecedented decision to have her trained as a painter outside the family house. She moved to Spain at the height of her career and remained there for fourteen years. She became official court painter to Queen Isabel de Valois, an amateur artist to whom she gave painting lessons, as well as King Philip II. Returning to Italy, she continued to practice as a leading portrait painter until her late 80s. Anguissola's great success opened the way for larger numbers of women to pursue serious careers as artists. Some of her well-known successors include Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Gentileschi.
Week three: Sister Plautilla Nelli
Sister Plautilla Nelli was a self-taught Dominican nun and the first known woman artist of the Renaissance in Florence. Like many daughters of wealthy families, she was placed in a convent which encouraged its nuns not only to pray but also to learn and draw. She became a prolific artist, overseeing a convent studio with perhaps as many as eight female nun followers. Nelli produced large-scale devotional paintings and manuscript illuminations for church and private commissions, including the largest and earliest known painting of the Last Supper by a woman.
Week four: Properzia de’ Rossi
Properzia de’ Rossi was a sculptor from Bologna, defying the stereotype that this art form should be reserved for men because it was seen as more masculine. She worked in a variety of mediums and taught herself to carve by working with peach stones. She was selected as one of several artists commissioned to create carved reliefs for the Cathedral of San Petronio in Bologna. She was also the only woman included in Giorgio Vasari's 1550 artistic biographical work Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.
Week five: Lavinia Fontana
Lavinia Fontana was taught to paint and draw by her father, a prominent painter in Bologna. She was highly in demand as a portraitist by Bolognese noblewomen. She is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe as she relied on commissions for her income. She married a fellow artist and gave birth to 11 children (only three outlived her). Her husband took care of the household and served as an agent and painting assistant to his wife. The family relocated to Rome where she received commissions by many notable figures, including Pope Clement VIII, Pope Paul V and Pope Gregory XIII.
Week six: Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi is the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, her training by her father, Rome-based painter Orazio Gentileschi, provided her with the background to pursue an international clientele. Artemisia became a successful court painter in Florence, enjoying the patronage of the House of Medici and playing a significant role in courtly culture of the city. She subsequently spent many years working in Rome, Venice, Naples, and London, for the highest echelons of European society.
