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SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA’S BERNARDINO CAMPI PAINTING SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA AND THE IDEAL CORTEGIANA By Claire E. Sandberg Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In Art History Chair: Dr. Kim Butler Wingfield, Ph.D. Dr. Andrea Pearson, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences April 29, 2020 Date 2020 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 © COPYRIGHT by Claire E. Sandberg 2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA’S BERNARDINO CAMPI PAINTING SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA AND THE IDEAL CORTEGIANA BY Claire E. Sandberg ABSTRACT Italian Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola is well-known for the array of self- portraits she painted during her early career. Through her self-portraits created between 1548 and 1559, Sofonisba constructed her identity as a virtuous young noblewoman and skilled artist. One key to Sofonisba’s portraiture was her adaptation of the ideas prescribed by humanist Baldassar Castiglione in his famous text The Courtier in order to depict herself as the ideal female courtier. Sofonisba’s courtly self-fashioning reached its pinnacle with her 1559 self-portrait Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola, which was among the last works Sofonisba completed before she was invited to join the Spanish court of Philip II as a lady-in-waiting-cum-painter. This thesis examines the means by which Sofonisba strategically shaped her identity for a court position in her 1559 portrait. I argue she utilized accepted principles for 16th century noble portraiture and costuming, the secondary figure of her former painting teacher, and courtly wit as described by Castiglione, to portray herself as the ideal noblewoman and to firmly secure her position as the first professional female “noble artist” at court. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all the people who made this thesis possible. To my mother, Karon, who raised me with a love for art, and my father, Joel, and brother, Derek, who support everything I do. To my best friends, Rebecca and Justin, for sending me love and support from Chicago throughout this entire process. To my cohort for listening to my frustrations and celebrating my triumphs. To Dr. Kim Butler Wingfield for walking this journey with me and being an outstanding mentor. To Dr. Andrea Pearson, Dr. Joanne Allen, and Dr. Jordan Amirkhani for providing additional guidance and support. To the College of Arts and Sciences for providing me with funding to travel to Madrid to see Sofonisba’s work in person. To Dr. Mary Garrard, for paving the way and inspiring me to pursue what I love. And of course, thank you to Sofonisba Anguissola for allowing me to tell her story and inspiring me to be brave. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .......................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 THE IDEAL CORTEGIANA AND THE CREATION OF THE NOBLE ARTIST .......................................................................................................... 7 Amilcare Anguissola and Humanist Education ...................................................... 9 The Noble Artist ................................................................................................... 12 Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier ....................................................................... 21 The Self-Fashioning of the Cortegiana ................................................................ 27 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 2 BERNARDINO CAMPI PAINTING SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA AND THE CORTEGIANA’S WIT.............................................................................. 38 The Innovative Double Portrait ............................................................................ 38 Noble Female Portraiture ...................................................................................... 40 The Master and the Student .................................................................................. 47 The Cortegiana’s Wit ............................................................................................ 49 The Restoration ..................................................................................................... 54 Timing and Purpose .............................................................................................. 56 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 61 CONCLUSION THE CORTEGIANA AT COURT ......................................................... 63 ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 70 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Fig. 1: Sofonisba Anguissola, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola. 1559. Oil on canvas. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. ............................................................................... 69 Fig. 2: Parmigianino, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, 1523-24. Oil on convex panel. Kunsthistorische Museum, Vienna. .................................................................................. 69 Fig. 3: Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait. 1554. Oil on panel. Kunsthistorische Museum, Vienna. .............................................................................................................................. 69 Fig. 4: Sofonisba Anguissola, Old Woman Studying the Alphabet with a Laughing Girl. 1550s. Chalk sketch. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. ............................................................................ 69 Fig. 5: Sofonisba Anguissola, Asdrubale Bitten by a Crayfish. 1554. Chalk sketch. Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples................................................................................... 69 Fig. 6: Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portriat. 1548. Chalk sketch. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. ....... 69 Fig. 7: Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait at the Easel. 1556. Oil on canvas. Lancut Castle, Poland. .............................................................................................................................. 69 Fig. 8: Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game. 1555. Oil on canvas. National Museum of Poznan, Poland. ................................................................................................................. 69 Fig. 9: Titian, Portrait of a Lady (La Bella). 1536-38. Oil on canvas. Pitti Palace, Florence. .... 69 Fig. 10: Bronzino, Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and her Son Giovanni. 1545. Oil on canvas. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. ................................................................................................... 69 Fig. 11: Bernardino Campi, Portrait of a Lady (Possibly Ippolita Gonzaga). 1553-54. Oil on canvas. Sotheby’s. ............................................................................................................. 69 Fig. 12: Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait. 1564. Oil on canvas. Chantilly, Musée Conde. ... 69 Fig. 13: Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait. 1610. Oil on canvas. Gottfired Keller Collection, Bern, Switzerland. ............................................................................................................. 69 v INTRODUCTION Artists’ self-portraits became increasingly popular during the Renaissance as artists began using portraits of themselves to display their talent, wealth, or intellect. These fascinating displays of self-fashioning garnered praise from patrons and artists alike. This attention, among contemporaneous and modern-day viewers, increased ten-fold for women artists, such as the Cremonese painter Sofonisba Anguissola. A letter by Renaissance writer Annibale Caro to Sofonisba’s father asserted that Caro took great pleasure in self-portraits by women artists because he could exhibit them as “two marvels;” one being the painting itself, the other the beautiful painter depicted.1 In this thesis, the self-portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola are considered through the lens of how she crafted her identity for public display. In her early portraits, Sofonisba presented herself as a virtuous, educated noblewoman by strategically using the prescribed expectations for noblewomen described by humanists. This self-fashioning helped Sofonisba gain patrons and success during her early career and this thesis concludes that her fashioning ultimately helped her gain a place at the Spanish royal court as a lady-in-waiting. One of the first professional women artists in the period, Sofonisba Anguissola came from a background different from many of her contemporaries and very different from the lives of the women artists who directly followed her. While most artists during this period came from an artisan background, Sofonisba came from nobility. Sofonisba Anguissola was the first child born to Amilcare Anguissola and his wife Bianca
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