Elisabetta Sirani

Bibliography on early modern women artists, mainly in Italy and the Netherlands; a sporadic compilation of 45+ pages. Updated 29 April 2020. BUT see now my Bibliography_Premodern Women Artists (posted on 14 May 2020), which has expanded geographically and chronologically, to include medieval women, and female artists and patrons working in China, Japan and Islamic cultures.
AS OF 29 MAY 2020 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY IS NOW A GOOGLE DOC OF 130+ PAGES. IT IS OPEN ACCESS AND COMMENTS ARE WELCOME.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qciG2ndN2dOfg4KDgL9LwCOl8HUZP5liSKtwRcJ_Ah4/edit?usp=sharing

WONDER WOMEN: SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA, LAVINIA FONTANA AND ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE SELF-PORTRAIT PAINTING BY FEMALE ARTISTS

by Rosa Lena Reed Robinson

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts in Art History at
Studio Art Centers International
Florence, Italy

2017


This  thesis is focused on the self-portrait painting practice by three female artists from the Renaissance and the Baroque periods: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Artemisia Gentileschi. Chapter I introduces the self-portrait as it developed specific to the Renaissance and in relation to a Greco-Roman classical ideal. The chapter focuses on Renaissance concepts of art and the very role of the artist. Chapter II studies the numerous self-portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, the first great Renaissance female artist to have an international career. The artist’s self-portraits both became a foundation for those of later female artists and self-consciously expressed the new elite status achieved by this Lombard artist of noble lineage who worked as court portraitist for the Spanish monarchy. Chapter III examines the self-portraits and innovative identity self-portraiture of Lavinia Fontana of Bologna. It is demonstrated how her two early self-portraits built on the precedent established by Sofonisba, and yet, are of somewhat greater iconographic complexity. While in her maturity the artist developed self-portraiture into the identity self-portrait through the subject of Judith and Holofernes. Within her treatments of the theme in some examples she put herself into the figure of Judith and in others into Judith’s maid Abra. Lavinia Fontana’s final masterpiece, the improbable painting Minerva Dressing done at the end of her extensive career was likewise arguably an identity self-portrait. Minerva Dressing constitutes the first female fully nude figure painted by a female artist. Chapter IV focuses on Artemisia Gentileschi. This thesis designates the artist’s Pommersfelden Susanna and the Elders as both Artemisia’s first exact self-portrait and the first female full-length nude self-portrait painted by a female artist. The work is also an identity self-portrait. This chapter continues with a discussion of both versions of Artemisia’s infamous Judith and Holofernes (Capodimonte/Uffizi). Both works are arguably exact self-portrait paintings and identity self-portraits. Artemisia’s Allegory of Painting in London, often referred to as a self-portrait in scholarship, is suggested a perhaps better understood as an ideal identity self-portrait rather than a literal self-representation. The Allegory of Painting is considered together with other attributed self-portraits and portraits of the artist. A major theme in Chapter IV is the transition from literal self-representation to allegorical and ideal portrayal of the self. This thesis suggests that, as the artist’s career advanced, Artemisia Gentileschi did continue to paint both the exact and the ideal self-portrait. Finally, in the Conclusion, the legacy of the self-portraits of the Wonder Women, to adopt a phrase from Giorgio Vasari, is considered in reference to future female artists such as Elisabetta Sirani, Angelica Kauffmann, Elisabeth Vigée Le-Brun and Paula Modersohn-Becker.

Abstract. The purpose of the monograph section. On the basis of anthropocentric approach to the analysis of visual self-presentations of Italian women artists of the Renaissance and Baroque period fill in the gaps that exist in domestic art history regarding the works of Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Arcangela Paladini, Giovanna Garzoni, Elisabetta Sirani and the sculptor Properzia de’ Rossi.

Theoretical basis. The principles and methods of philosophical and anthropological research in combination with biographical, historical, comparative, iconographic and figurative and stylistic methods were used in writing the monograph.

The scientific novelty lies in the author's method of analyzing works of visual art from the point of view of anthropocentric approach, as well as in considering the creativity of women artists of Renaissance and Baroque period in Italy as their self-objectifications, which give rise to a new cultural reality.

Conclusions. Creativity by Italian women artists Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Arcangela Paladini, Giovanna Garzoni, Elisabetta Sirani and the sculptor Properzia de’ Rossi in diachronic view can be expanded. During 16th–17th centuries, several talented female painters and one female sculptor worked in Italian fine arts. Against the background of the cultural realities of the time, this phenomenon can be considered an indicator of paradigmatic changes in the public consciousness in relation to the social significance of talented women.

Keywords: Women artists, Renaissance, Baroque, Italy, early modern period, Italian culture, Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Arcangela Paladini, Giovanna Garzoni, Elisabetta Sirani, Properzia de’ Rossi, female, artist, painter, sculptor, woman, painting, sculpture, museum, art gallery, exhibition, self-objectification of the artist, visual self-presentation in the works of painting, anthropocentric approach, cultural studies, discourse.

For citation:
Goncharova Olena. Women Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque period in Italy: Cultural studies discourse. Integration of traditional and innovation processes of development of modern science: collective monograph. Riga, Latvia; “Baltija Publishing”, 2020. pp. 230-280.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/978-9934-26-021-6-13
http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/omp/index.php/bp/catalog/view/86/2238/4826-1

Olena M. Goncharova,
Doctor of Science in Cultural Studies, Professor,
Professor of Museum Studies and Examination of Historical and Cultural Values Department,
Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts.
Ukraine, Kyiv, 01601, E. Konovalets Str., 36.
ORCID. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8649-9361
Researcher ID: F-6473-2015
Scopus ID 57217102458   
o.m_goncharova@yahoo.com

Entre las piezas de la colección Maratti adquiridas por Felipe V se cuenta una "Toilette de Venus" (Patrimonio Nacional, inv. 10040132) tradicionalmente considerada obra de la artista boloñesa Elisabetta Sirani, hija del también pintor Giovanni Andrea Sirani. En este artículo se exponen pruebas documentales y paralelos formales que permiten atribuir el lienzo a Sirani padre, cuyas pinturas fueron desde muy temprano atribuidas a la hija que le superó en fama.

Among the paintings from Maratta’s collection bought by Philip V there is a Toilette of Venus traditionally attributed to Elisabetta Sirani, the famous daughter of the Bolognese painter Giovanni Andrea Sirani. In this paper we bring to light documentary evidences and compositional parallelisms between this piece and paintings produced at Reni’s workshop which allows us to ascribe the Toilette of Venus to Elisabetta’s father.

Abstract. The purpose of the monograph section. On the basis of anthropocentric approach to the analysis of visual self-presentations of Italian women artists of the Renaissance and Baroque period fill in the gaps that exist in domestic art history regarding the works of Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Arcangela Paladini, Giovanna Garzoni, Elisabetta Sirani and the sculptor Properzia de’ Rossi.

Theoretical basis. The principles and methods of philosophical and anthropological research in combination with biographical, historical, comparative, iconographic and figurative and stylistic methods were used in writing the monograph.

The scientific novelty lies in the author's method of analyzing works of visual art from the point of view of anthropocentric approach, as well as in considering the creativity of women artists of Renaissance and Baroque period in Italy as their self-objectifications, which give rise to a new cultural reality.

Conclusions. Creativity by Italian women artists Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Arcangela Paladini, Giovanna Garzoni, Elisabetta Sirani and the sculptor Properzia de’ Rossi in diachronic view can be expanded. During 16th–17th centuries, several talented female painters and one female sculptor worked in Italian fine arts. Against the background of the cultural realities of the time, this phenomenon can be considered an indicator of paradigmatic changes in the public consciousness in relation to the social significance of talented women.

Keywords: Women artists, Renaissance, Baroque, Italy, early modern period, Italian culture, Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Arcangela Paladini, Giovanna Garzoni, Elisabetta Sirani, Properzia de’ Rossi, female, artist, painter, sculptor, woman, painting, sculpture, museum, art gallery, exhibition, self-objectification of the artist, visual self-presentation in the works of painting, anthropocentric approach, cultural studies, discourse.

For citation:
Goncharova Olena.  Women artists of the Renaissance and Baroque period in Italy: Cultural studies discourse. Integration of traditional and innovation processes of development of modern science: collective monograph. Riga, Latvia; “Baltija Publishing”, 2020. pp. 230-280.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/978-9934-26-021-6-13 http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/omp/index.php/bp/catalog/view/86/2238/4826-1

Olena M. Goncharova,
Doctor of Science in Cultural Studies, Professor,
Professor of Museum Studies and Examination of Historical and Cultural Values Department,
Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts.
Ukraine, Kyiv, 01601, E. Konovalets Str., 36.
ORCID. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8649-9361
Researcher ID: F-6473-2015
Scopus ID 57217102458   
o.m_goncharova@yahoo.com

A partir de mediados del siglo XVI, la figura de la mujer pintora aparece en la escena artística italiana. Casi todas son hijas de artistas, con la excepción del caso peculiar de Sofonisba Anguissola, que se inspiraron en las pintoras flamencas, las cuales ya habían abierto este camino.
Además de las virtudes domésticas, ahora las mujeres debían adquirir un bagaje cultural que también incluía saber pintar. Todas estas facultades nunca dejaron de despertar asombro en la sociedad de la época, que requería, en voz alta, su presentación como mujeres a través del autorretrato. De hecho para ser aceptadas en los ambientes cultos de la época, era necesaria la creación de una imagen que tuviese ciertas características que permitieran ser apreciadas por el público.
Este ensayo propone un recorrido a través de mujeres artistas como Catherina Van Hemessen, Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani y Clara Peeters para analizar el papel del autorretrato en los siglo XVI y XVII. Estas pintoras descubren y eligen diferentes formas de representarse y a pesar de vivir en un mundo dominado por los hombres, consiguen obtener un reconocimiento social.

Elisabetta Sirani biography, plus 4 catalogue entries on works by Elisabetta Sirani, Giovanni Andrea Sirani and Ginevra Cantofoli.
in Les Dames du Baroque, exhibition held at MSK (Museum voor Schone Kunsten), Ghent, Belgium, 19 October 2018-20 January 2019

Eight catalogue entries on works by Elisabetta and Giovanni Andrea Sirani, and Artemisia Gentileschi for the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna complete catalogue of paintings, third volume on their C17th collection:  cat. nn. 215, 218, 220, 221, 222, 265, 267, 331