Sofonisba Anguissola

Name

Sofonisba Anguissola

Life Dates

1532 - 1625

Country

Italy

Movement

High Renaissance

Sofonisba Anguissola Biography

Sofonisba Anguissola was a pioneering woman painter of the Italian Renaissance, eventually rising to the status of court painter to the Spanish crown. Her fame and wealth during her lifetime was extremely important in opening the doors of the world of fine art to women.

She was born c. 1532, into the family of Amilcare Anguissola, a minor noble from Cremona, Lombardy. With a total of six daughters and one son to care for, the practical Amilcare decided to raise them all similarly instead of following traditional gender-based upbringing practices, and provided them with a good general education, which included painting. In doing so, he hoped to lower the dowry he would be required to pay any potential suitors.

Sofonisba proved to be the most adept amongst her siblings at painting, and would ultimately be the only one to pursue a true artistic career. In 1546, at the age of around 14, she and her sister, Elena, were sent to study at the workshop of local master Bernardino Campi. When he left the city in 1549, the girls continued their studies with Bernardino Gatti (also known as Il Sojaro) for another three years. The Anguissolas' apprenticeship not only taught them to paint at professional level, but also set a precedent for female artists to be trained in the same manner as men.

While still a child, Sofonisba's paintings were promoted by her father as the masterful works of a child prodigy, which accrued her much fame at an early age and caught the attention of numerous prominent painters of the time, including Michelangelo and Vasari. After the end of her apprenticeship, around 1554, she travelled to Rome, where she got to meet Michelangelo through a mutual acquaintance. The artist was impressed...