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
4 - Sofonisba Anguissola, a Painter and a Lady-in-Waiting
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
Relying on primary source documents, Cecilia Gamberini outlines the reality of Sofonisba Anguissola's experiences in the Household of Queen Isabel of Valois following the artist's appointment to the Spanish court in 1559. Anguissola's position is generally credited to her two roles there: painter and lady-in-waiting. The author argues that while Anguissola's appointment was due in part to her remarkable painted self-representations, it was also facilitated by a largely overlooked network of familial contacts and the political climate of the time. Analyses of Anguissola’s behaviour in the Queen's Household also offers a glimpse into the young woman’s personality, which was at times irreverent and rebellious, and the opportunity for new attributions.
Keywords: Spanish court, household of the queen, portraiture, women, gender studies, sixteenth-century history
Reconstructing Sofonisba Anguissola's (1532?–1625) life and oeuvre entails consideration of both historical context and the artist's position as a sixteenth-century noblewoman. As is well known, Sofonisba left her natal city of Cremona in 1559 to serve as a lady-in-waiting and a painter at the court of Philip II of Spain (1527–1598). There she was appointed as a dama (lady-in-waiting) to Philip's third wife, Queen Isabel of Valois (1545–1568). Sofonisba's position at the Spanish court represented the acceptance of a female member of the Anguissola family into a royal environment, certainly one of the most coveted positions available to a young woman at the time. The appointment offered, as well, an opportunity for the Anguissola family to gain privileges, mercedes (favours) from the king, as well as to establish relationships that would raise the family's nobility. Numerous publications over the last three decades have advanced study of Sofonisba Anguissola from a position of relative anonymity, with attention focusing largely on stylistic analysis and attribution of works to the artist. Even so, areas of uncertainty regarding Sofonisba's career remain. This is due, in part, to the absence of documented payments for the paintings she produced at the court; further, the artist stopped signing paintings while in Spain. It is still not possible, therefore, to clearly identify the scope of Sofonisba’s pictorial production at the court in the years between 1560 and 1573. Indeed, many of the paintings she produced there were long attributed to the official court painter and retratador (portraitist), Alonso Sanchéz Coello.
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- Women Artists in the Early Modern Courts of Europec. 1450-1700, pp. 91 - 112Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021