Self-Portrait at an Easel Painting a Devotional Panel, late 1550s, by Sofonisba Anguissola. As well, she taught Isabella how to draw, and she was unofficially a court painter for a portion of the reign of Philip II. Given her social status, Anguissola could not be paid in cash for her royal portraits and small devotional paintings rather she accepted gifts of clothing and jewels.įigure 1. But she could become a lady-in-waiting to Isabella de Valois, Queen of Spain, which she did, in 1559. As a member of a minor, somewhat impoverished, noble family from Cremona, she could not call herself a professional. Sofonisba Anguissola’s self-fashioning as an artist is significant. Each woman, one a noblewoman and the other a professional artist, chose portraiture as a means to present personal messages to all who viewed them. In an era with many restrictions limiting what women could do, Anguissola and Fontana showed the world how women could excel against great odds. Self-portraits are about self-promotion, self-fashioning-advertising one’s talent. Thinking about the upcoming exhibition at the Prado, Madrid (October 2019) celebrating the Renaissance women artists Sofonisba Anguissola (1532–1625) and Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) prompted me to revisit the self-portraits painted by these two women. Self-portraits can tell us so much about the artist, how they saw themselves and (in the case of these two, both as women and as artists) how they wanted the world to see them-always with a message, a story to tell. McIver, Professor Emerita of Art History, University of Alabama at Birmingham
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