Women Artists in Early Modern Italy Careers, Fame, and Collectors ISBN: 9781909400351 (hb) edited by Sheila Barker PRICE: DESCRIPTION: $111.00 (hb) In ten chapters spanning two centuries, this collection of essays examines the relationships between women artists and their publics, both in early modern Italy as well as across Europe. Drawing upon PUBLICATION DATE: archival evidence, these essays afford abundant documentary evidence about the diverse strategies 20 December 2016 (hb) that women utilized in order to carry out artistic careers, from Sofonisba Anguissola's role as a lady- in-waiting at the court of Philip II of Spain, to Lucrezia Quistelli's avoidance of the Florentine market BINDING: in favor of upholding the prestige of her family, to Costanza Francini's preference for the steady but Hardback humble work of candle painting for a Florentine confraternity. Their unusual life stories along with their outstanding talents brought fame to a number of women artists even in their own lifetimes - so PAGES: much fame, in fact, that Giorgio Vasari included several women artists in his 1568 edition of artists' 181 biographies. Notably, this visibility also subjected women artists to moral scrutiny, with consequences for their patronage opportunities. Because of their fame and their extraordinary (and ILLUSTRATIONS: often exemplary) lives, works made by women artists held a special allure for early generations of 32 b/w illus, 25 col illus. Italian collectors, including Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici, who made a point of collecting women's self-portraits. In the eighteenth century, British collectors wishing to model themselves after PUBLISHER: the Italian virtuosi exhibited an undeniable penchant for the Italian women artists of a bygone era, Brepols Publishers even though they largely ignored the contemporary women artists in their midst. IMPRINT: TABLE OF CONTENTS: Harvey Miller 1. Editor's Preface. Sheila Barker (The Medici Archive Project) 2. 'Piu che famose': Some Thoughts on Women Artists in Early Modern Europe. Sheila Ffolliott (George Mason University, emerita) 3. SERIES: Sofonisba Anguissola at the Court of Philip II. Cecilia Gamberini (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid The Medici Archive Project Felsina Cattòlica) 4. Sofonisba Anguissola, 'Pittora de Natura': A Page from Van Dyck's Italian Sketchbook. Barbara Tramelli (Max Planck Institute, Berlin) 5. Lucrezia Quistelli (1541-1594). A READER INTERESTS: Noblewoman and Artist in Vasari's Florence. Sheila Barker (The Medici Archive Project) 6. Art & Art History Arcangela Paladini and the Medici. Lisa Goldenberg Stoppato (Independent Scholar) 7. Costanza Renaissance Studies Francini. A Painter in the Shadow of Artemisia Gentileschi. Julia Vicioso (Archivio Storico dell'Arciconfraternita dei Fiorentini) 8. A Newly Discovered Late Work by Artemisia Gentileschi: Susanna and the Elders of 1652. Adelina Modesti (La Trobe University) 9. The Medici's First Woman Court Artist: The Life and Career of Camilla Guerrieri Nati. Eve Straussman-Pflanzer (The Davis Museum, Wellesley College) 10. Female Painters and Cosimo III de' Medici's Art Collecting Project. Roberta Piccinelli (Univerity of Teramo) 11. The English Collectors of Italy's Female Old Masters, 1700-1824. Nicole Escobedo (Independent Scholar) CONTRIBUTORS BIOGRAPHIES: Sheila Barker (Ph.D., Columbia University, 2002), directs the Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists at the Medici Archive Project, the first archival program of its kind. Her publications of documentation on women artists have shed light on Lucrezia Quistelli, Artemisia Gentileschi, Irene Parenti Duclos, and the phenomenon of female copyists. .