Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Women Artists in the Early Modern Courts of Europe, c. 1450–1700
- 2 Female Court Artists: Women's Career Strategies in the Courts of the Early Modern Period
- 3 Caterina van Hemessen in the Habsburg Court of Mary of Hungary
- 4 Sofonisba Anguissola, a Painter and a Lady-in-Waiting
- 5 Creative Reproductions: Diana Mantuana and Printmaking at Court
- 6 ‘Una persona dependente alla Serenissima Gran Duchessa’ : Female Embroiderers and Lacemakers between the courts of Florence and France
- 7 Life at Court: Luisa Roldán in Madrid 1689–1706
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Female Court Artists: Women's Career Strategies in the Courts of the Early Modern Period
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Women Artists in the Early Modern Courts of Europe, c. 1450–1700
- 2 Female Court Artists: Women's Career Strategies in the Courts of the Early Modern Period
- 3 Caterina van Hemessen in the Habsburg Court of Mary of Hungary
- 4 Sofonisba Anguissola, a Painter and a Lady-in-Waiting
- 5 Creative Reproductions: Diana Mantuana and Printmaking at Court
- 6 ‘Una persona dependente alla Serenissima Gran Duchessa’ : Female Embroiderers and Lacemakers between the courts of Florence and France
- 7 Life at Court: Luisa Roldán in Madrid 1689–1706
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Based on a survey of the careers of forty-three female artists who worked at European courts c. 1500–1800, Christina Strunck argues that female court artists’ roles, obligations, and career strategies differed significantly from those of their male colleagues. Women artists at court were often regarded as mirabilia (marvels) – a notion many actively encouraged by cultivating unusual artistic techniques. Nevertheless, the reduced range of artistic activities permitted women at court reflected the general hierarchy of the sexes there. Thus, the courts perpetuated a situation in which only men could achieve the status of ‘genius’ while, it is suggested, commissions from the middle class ultimately helped ambitious female painters gain greater autonomy.
Keywords: Sofonisba Anguissola, Angelika (Angelica) Kauffmann, Artemisia Gentileschi, Rachel Ruysch, Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun (Le Brun), Elisabetta Sirani
The gallery of the Casa Buonarroti in Florence clearly demonstrates the high social prestige prominent artists could achieve during the Early Modern period. Between 1615 and 1628, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger created a gallery in memory of his famous great-uncle, where Michelangelo appeared above all else as a court artist, raised to honour through the favour of powerful patrons. One of the paintings proudly recalls how the Prince Francesco de’ Medici offered his own seat to Michelangelo and hung on every word the master spoke, in a stark reversal of the accepted court hierarchy. The special position of the court artist could hardly be made more apparent. Artists who managed to secure the favour of a sovereign were like the pop stars of their time. They formed the highest rank of their profession and were objects both of esteem and envy for their less successful colleagues.
The standard work on this topic has long been Martin Warnke's monograph Hofkünstler, a classic in the field of art history first published in 1985 and reissued in a new edition in 1996. Although the Trier University unit for the Social History of the Artist has ensured constant and increasingly focused research on the situation of the court artist in recent years, there have been very few publications on the topic of female court artists to date.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Women Artists in the Early Modern Courts of Europec. 1450-1700, pp. 35 - 70Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021