Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:15:22.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Mary D. Garrard
Mary D. Garrard*
Affiliation:
American University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

An Unusual Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola has gained new prominence from its illustration in color in a recent publication. In her Women, Art, and Society (1990), Whitney Chadwick claims of the portrait in question, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola (fig. 1), that in presenting herself in the guise of a portrait being painted by her teacher, Anguissola produced “the first historical example of the woman artist consciously collapsing the subject-object position.” Chadwick's succinct observation opens up the possibility of understanding the painting in a new way, for she points to the peculiar conflation of subject and object that uniquely befell women artists in the Renaissance and complicates their art, especially their self-portraits. From this starting point, I will here explore the form of self-presentation offered by Anguissola in the Siena portrait and several other works in the context of what was a fundamental problem for the Renaissance female artist: the differentiation of herself as artist (the subject position) from her self as trope and theme for the male artist (the object position).

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1994 , pp. 556 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This article is dedicated to the memory of Eleanor Tufts, whose pioneering reappraisal of Sofonisba Anguissola is a cornerstone of feminist scholarship. In preparing this manuscript I am indebted to Norma Broude and Pamela Askew for their insightful readings of the text and helpful suggestions and to Mary Pardo, who read it for this journal and offered wise advice.

References

Baldinucci, Filippo Notizie de’ projessori del disegno da Cimabue in Qua. 14 vols. Milan, 1811.Google Scholar
Barker, Virgil American Painting, History and Interpretation. New York, 1950.Google Scholar
Bell, C Of the Beauty of Women: Dialogue by Messer Agnolo Firenzuola Florentine. London, 1892.Google Scholar
Bentivegna, FerrucciaCappi Abbigliamento e costume nella pittura Italiana. Rome, 1962.Google Scholar
Bonetti, Carlo “Varietà, Nel centenario di Sofonisba Anguissola.” Archivio storico lombardo 55 (1928), part I: 285-306.Google Scholar
Bradley, John W. The Life and Works of Giorgio Giulio Clovio, Miniaturist, 1495-1578. Amsterdam, 1971 (orig. ed. 1891).Google Scholar
Brown, David A. and Oberhuber, Konrad. “Monna Vanna and Fornarina: Leonardo and Raphael in Rome.” In Essays Presented to Myron P. Gilmore, ed. S. Bertelli and G. Ramakus, vol. 2: 25-86. Florence, 1977.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lome Renaissance Portraits, European Portrait Painting in the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. New Haven and London, 1990.Google Scholar
Cantaro, Maria Teresa. Lavinia Fontana bolognese, “pittora singolare,” 1552—1614. Milan and Rome, 1989.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibale Lettere Familiare. Ed. A. Greco. Florence, 1959.Google Scholar
Caroli, Flavio Lorenzo Lotto e la nascita delta psicologia moderna. Milan, 1980.Google Scholar
Caroli, Flavio Sofonisba Anguissola e le sue sorelle. Milan, 1987.Google Scholar
Caroli, Flavio “La Fisiognomica e il ritratto cinquecentesco. Una ‘finestra sull'anima’ della modernità.” In Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo, 53-58. Milan, 1990.Google Scholar
Castiglione, Baldassare The Book of the Courtier. Trans. C. S. Singleton. Garden City, NY, 1959.Google Scholar
Chadwick, Whitney Women, Art, and Society. London, 1990.Google Scholar
Chojnacki, Stanley “Patrician Women in Early Renaissance Venice.” Studies in the Renaissance 21 (1974): 176-203.Google Scholar
Connolly, T. “The Cult and Iconography of Saint Cecilia Before Raphael.” Indagini per un dipinto: La Santa Cecilia di Raffaello, ed. A. Emiliani. Bologna, 1983.Google Scholar
Contini, Roberto and Gianni Papi. Artemisia. Exhibition catalogue. Rome, 1991.Google Scholar
Cook, Herbert “More Portraits by Sofonisba Anguissola.” Burlington Magazine 26 (1915): 228-36.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. P. “Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement by Great Landowners from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries.” In Jack Goody et al., Family and Inheritance, 192-312. Cambridge, 1976.Google Scholar
Cropper, Elizabeth “ On Beautiful Women: Parmigianino, Petrarchismo and the Vernacular Style.” Art Bulletin 58 (1976): 374-94.Google Scholar
Cropper, Elizabeth “The Beauty of Woman: Problems in the Rhetoric of Renaissance Portraiture.” In Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe, ed. Margaret W. Ferguson, Maureen Quilligan and NancyJ. Vickers, 175-90. Chicago and London, 1986.Google Scholar
Dizionario biografico italiano. Google Scholar
Eales, Richard Chess: The History of a Game. New York and Oxford, 1985.Google Scholar
Einstein, Alfred The Italian Madrigal. Princeton, 1949.Google Scholar
Firenzuola, Agnola Opere. Ed. A. Seroni. Florence, 1971.Google Scholar
Garb, Tamar “ ‘Unpicking the Seams of Her Disguise': Self-Representation in the Case of Marie Bashkirtseff.” Block 13 (Winter 1987/88): 79–86.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D. “Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting.” Art Bulletin 62 (1980): 110-12.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D. “Re-view of Laura M. Ragg, The Women Artists of Bologna.” Woman's Art Journal 1 (1980/81): 58–64.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D. Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Painting. Princeton, 1989.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D. “Leonardo da Vinci: Female Portraits, Female Nature.” In The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, ed., Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, 5 8 - 85. New York, 1992.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D. “Renaissance Innovator.” Rev. of Sofonisba Anguissola by Ilya Sandra Perlingieri. Art in America 80 (September 1992): 33–35.Google Scholar
Golombek, Harry A History of Chess. London, 1976.Google Scholar
Grafton, Anthony and Lisa Jardine, “Women Humanists: Education for What?” In Grafton and Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth- Century Europe, chap. 2. London, 1986.Google Scholar
Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self- Fashioning, from More to Shakespeare. Chicago and London, 1980.Google Scholar
Greer, Germaine. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. New York, 1979.Google Scholar
Haraszti-Takács, Marianne. “Nouvelles Données relatives a la vie et a l'oeuvre de Sofonisba Anguissola.” Bulletin du Muée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 31 (1968): 53-67.Google Scholar
Harris, Ann Sutherland. “Painting a Flawed Portrait.” Rev. of Sofonisba Anguissola by Ilya Sandra Perlingieri. Women's Review of Books 10 (November 1992): 20-21. and Linda Nochlin. Women Artists: 1550-1950. New York, 1976.Google Scholar
Hirst, Michael Michelangelo and His Drawings. New Haven and London, 1988.Google Scholar
Hope, Charles Titian. New York, 1980.Google Scholar
Hughes, Diane Owen. “From Bridepiece to Dowry in Mediterranean Europe.” Journal of Family History 3 (1978): 262-296.Google Scholar
Hughes, Diane Owen. “Representing the Family: Portraits and Purposes in Early Modern Italy.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 17(1986): 7-38.Google Scholar
I Campi: Cultura artistica cremonese del Cinquecento. Milan, 1985.Google Scholar
I pittori bergamaschi. Vol. 3, II Cinquecento. Bergamo, 1979.Google Scholar
Irigaray, Luce “Pouvoir du discours, subordination du féminin.” In Luce Irigaray, Ce sexe qui n'en est pas un. Paris, 1977.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Fredrika “Woman's Capacity to Create: The Unusual Case of Sofonisba Anguissola.” Renaissance Quarterly 47 (1994): 74-101.Google Scholar
Jacobus, Mary “The Question of Language: Men of Maxims and The Mill on the Floss.” Critical Inquiry 8 (1981): 207-22.Google Scholar
Janson, H. W. The Sculpture of Donatello. Princeton, NJ, 1963.Google Scholar
Jardine, Lisa Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age ojShakespeare. Sussex, 1983.Google Scholar
Jordan, Constance Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. Ithaca and London, 1990.Google Scholar
Kamuf, Peggy Signature Pieces: On the Institution of Authorship. Ithaca and London, 1988.Google Scholar
King, Margaret L. “Book-Lined Cells: Women and Humanism in the Early Italian Renaissance.” In Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past, ed. Patricia H. Labalme, 66-90. New York and London, 1980.Google Scholar
Kiihnel-Kunze, Irene “ZurBildniskunstder Sofonisba und Lucia Anguisciola.” Pantheon 20 (1962): 83-96.Google Scholar
Labalme, Patricia H. “Venetian Women on Women: Three Early Modern Feminists.” Archivio veneto, 5th ser., 112 (1981): 81–109.Google Scholar
Lamo, Alessandro Discorso intorno alia scolari, epittura, dove ragiona delta vita, ed opere in molti luoghi, ed a diversiprincipi, epersonaggifatte dall'ecceHentissimo, e nobile pittore cremonese M. Bernardino Campo. Cremona, 1584.Google Scholar
Lancetti, Vincenzo Biografia Cremonese ossia Dizionario storico dellefamiglie e persone per qualsivoglia titolo memorabili e chiare spettanti alia città di Cremona, dai tempi più remotifino all'età nostra. 3 vols. Milan, 1819.Google Scholar
Longhi, Robert “Antologia di artisti: Indicazioni per Sofonisba Anguissola.” Paragone 14 (1963): 50-52.Google Scholar
Maclean, Ian The Renaissance Notion of Woman. Cambridge and New York, 1980.Google Scholar
Marcuse, Sibyl Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. New York, 1975.Google Scholar
Miramonde, A. Sainte-Cécile: Metamorphosis d'un thème musical. Geneva, 1974.Google Scholar
Mossakowski, Stanislaw “Raphael's ‘St. Cecilia.’ An Iconographical Study.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 31 (1968): 1-26.Google Scholar
Murray, Jacqueline “Agnolo Firenzuola on Female Sexuality and Women's Equality.” Sixteenth Century Journal 20:2 (1991): 199-213.Google Scholar
Painters by Painters, exhibition catalogue. Florence: Uffizi Gallery, and New York: National Academy of Design, 1988.Google Scholar
Pardo, Mary Paolo Pino's ‘Dialogo diPittura': A Translation with Commentary. Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1984.Google Scholar
Pardo, Mary “The Subject of Savoldo's Magdalene.” Art Bulletin 71 (1989): 67-91.Google Scholar
Perlingieri, IlyaSandra. Sofonisba Anguissola The First Great Woman Artist of the Renaissance. New York, 1992.Google Scholar
Perotti, Aurelia I Pittori Campi da Cremona. Milan, 1959.Google Scholar
Pignatti, Terisio Veronese. Venice, 1976.Google Scholar
Pisetzky, Rosita Levi. Storia del Costume in Italia. Milan, 1966.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna Fenichel. Fortune Is a Woman: Gender and Politics in the Thought of NiccoId Machiavelli. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984.Google Scholar
Posner, Donald “Caravaggio's Homoerotic Early Works.” Art Quarterly 34 (1971): 301-24.Google Scholar
Reilly, Patricia L. “The Taming of the Blue: Writing Out Color in Italian Renaissance Theory.” In The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, 86-99. New York, 1992.Google Scholar
Ridolfi, Carlo The Life of Tintoretto, and of His Children Domenico and Marietta. Trans, and intro. Catherine Enggass and Robert Enggass. University Park and London, 1984.Google Scholar
Rogers, Mary “The Decorum of Women's Beauty: Trissino, Firenzuola, Luigini and the Representation of Women in Sixteenth- Century Painting.” Renaissance Studies 2 (1988): 47–87.Google Scholar
Rosand, David “Ermeneutica Amorosa: Observations on the Interpretation of Titian's Venuses.” In Tiziano e Venezia: Convegno internazionale di sludi. Venice, 1980.Google Scholar
Roskill, Mark W. Dolce's “Aretino” and Venetian Art Theory of the Cinquecento. New York, 1968.Google Scholar
Sacchi, Rossana “Documenti per Sofonisba Anguissola.” Paragone 39 (1988): 73-89.Google Scholar
Sadie, Stanley ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. London, 1984.Google Scholar
Schaefer, Jean Owens. “A Note on the Iconography of a Medal of Lavinia Fontana.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 47 (1984): 232-34.Google Scholar
Schleiner, Winfried “Divina virago: Queen Elizabeth as an Amazon.” Studies in Philology 75 (1978): 163-80.Google Scholar
Schneider, Jane “Peacocks and Penguins: The Political Economy of European Cloth and Colors.” American Ethnologist 5 (1978): 413-47.Google Scholar
Schutte, Anne Jacobson. “Irene di Spilimbergo: The Image of a Creative Woman in Late Renaissance Italy.” Renaissance Quarterly 44:1 (Spring 1991): 42–61.Google Scholar
Simon, Robert B. “The Identity of Sofonisba Anguissola's Young Man.” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 44 (1986): 117-22.Google Scholar
Stefaniak, Regina “Raphael's Santa Cecilia: A Fine and Private Vision of Virginity.” Art History 14 (1991): 345-71.Google Scholar
Summers, David Michelangelo and the Language of Art. Princeton, NJ, 1981.Google Scholar
The Age of Caravaggio. Exhibition catalogue. New York and Milan, 1985.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Charles de. “Sofonisba Anguissola and Her Relations with Michelangelo.” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 4 (1941): 115-19.Google Scholar
Torriti, Pietro La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena: I dipinti dal XV al XVIII secolo. Genoa, 1978.Google Scholar
Van Marie, Raimond. Iconographie de L'Art Profane au Moyen-Âge et à la Renaissance. The Hague, 1931-32.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio Le vite de’ più eccellentì pittori, scultori ed architettori. Ed. Gaetano Milanesi. 9 vols. Florence, 1875-85.Google Scholar
Vos, Rik Lucas van Ley den. Bentveld, 1978.Google Scholar
Wallace, William E. “Un Retrato por Sofonisba Anguissola en el Museo Lazaro Galdiano.” Goya, no. 207 (November- December 1988).Google Scholar
Wetenhall, John “Carracci's Self-portrait on an Easel.” Art International 27 (1984): 52-53.Google Scholar
Wind, Barry “Vincenzo Campi and Hans Fugger: A Peep at Late Cinquecento Bawdy Humor.” Arte Lombarda 47/48 (1977): 108-14.Google Scholar
Winternitz, E. Musical Instruments and Their Symbolism in Western Art: Studies in Musical Iconography. New Haven and London, 1979.Google Scholar
Yates, Frances Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century. London and Boston, 1975.Google Scholar
Zaist, Giambattista Notizie istoriche de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti cremonese. Cremona, 1774.Google Scholar