LAVINIA FONTANA; AN ARTIST AND HER SOCIETY IN LATE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BOLOGNA by Caroline Patricia Murphy Submitted for a Phi) in the History of Art, University College, London, March, 1996 I u' H.) 11 2 Abstract This thesis is a study of the career of one of Europe's first truly successful female painters with the largest attributable oeuvre of any woman artist before the 18th century. It incorporates an analysis of the tastes and consumption patterns, lifestyles and mentalities of the patriciat clergy and scholars of Counter Reformation Bologna who were her patrons. The intent is to identify and categorise her patrons and to explore her artistic appeal to them and to explain the work opportunities created by Counter Reformation initiatives including church refurbishment and charity institutions. It breaks down into six chapters: the first concerns family background, how and why Fontana's painter father Prospero trained her as a painter, the circumstances surrounding her marriage and how it contributed to her career: The second is about her initial clientele of scholars and intellectuals connected with the University at Bologna whose portraits she painted and the Europe-wide cult of collections of images of uomini famosi which helped to give her an international reputation. The three middle chapters deal with the group of Bolognese noblewomen who were undoubtedly Fontana's most significant and high spending patrons, for whom she painted altarpieces, portraits and private devotional works and to whom she became personally connected through godparentage (she had eleven children). One of these chapters looks at these patrons in general terms, the next concerns Laudomia Gozzadini, for whom Fontana painted an enormous family portrait that had very special significance and resonance in the lives of both patron and painter. The fifth chapter considers the work Fontana produced for wealthy widows in Bologna. By identifying some of the widows in question it has been possible to pursue their particular family circumstances to see what kind of widow sought to commemorate her state and what options for interpretation were offered within predicative literature. The sixth and final chapter looks at work intended for the youth of Bologna and pictures that involved children from the moment of conception until their late adolescence. The diversity of her patrons and their artistic needs demonstrates the expansion and success of Fontana's business. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Society and Culture in 16th Centuiy Bologna p.6 Chapter 1: The Making of a Woman Artist p.32 Chapter 2: Painting for the Illustrious Man p.70 Chapter 3: "Gentildaine and Honeste Matrone" p.102 Chapter 4: Laudomia Ciozzadini and her Family Portrait p.156 Chapter 5: 0La Vita Vedovile"; The Art of Widowhood p.196 Chapter 6: Putti, Pictures and Pedagogy p.240 Conclusion p.285 Appendix of documents p.291 Bibliography p.299 Vol II, Illustrations List of Illustrations (paintings by Lavinia Fontana unless otherwise stated) Fig. I Lavinia Fontana, Self-Portrait Fig.2 Small Boy with a Carnation Fig.3 Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine Fig.4 Annunciation Fig.5 Christ and the Canaanite Woman Fig.6 Self-Portrait at Clavichord Fig.7 Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait at Clavichord Fig.8 Assumption of the Virgin with Saints Cassiano and Petrus Chrisologus Fig.9 Bartolomeo Passerotti, Portrait of Iganzio Danti Fig.10 Tiburzio Passerotti, Portrait of (laspare Tagliacozzi Fig. 11 Portrait of Carlo Sigonlo Fig. 12 Portrait of an unknown Scholar Fig.! 3 Self-Portrait in Studiolo Fig.14 Portrait of Girolamo Mercuriale Fig. 15 Portrait of Fra Aurelio Menochi Fig.! 6 Portrait of Francesco Panigarola Fig. 17 Virgin with Sts. Catherine, Cosma and Damian and Scipione Calcina Fig. 18 Crucifixion with the Women at the Foot of the Cross Fig. 19 Portrait of a "Principessa" Fig.20 Portrait of a Woman from the Bentivogho Family? Fig.21 Portrait of Giovanna Oretti Gozzadini? Fig.22 Portrait of a Young Noblewoman Fig.23 Portrait of a Young Noblewoman 4 Fig.24a Portrait of Costanza Alidosi Isolani Fig.24b Portrait of Costanza Alidosi Isolani Fig.25 Portrait of Isabella Rwni Fig.26 Venus and Cupid Fig.27 Venus and Cupid Fig.28 Portrait of Costanza Sforza Boncompagni Fig.29 The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon Fig.30 Portrait of the Gozzadini Family Fig.31 Orazio Sainmachini, Crucifixion with Ulisse Gozzadini Fig.32 Ercole Costa, Madonna and Child with the Bentivoglio Family Fig.33 Sketch of Annibale Gozzadini Fig.34 Bartolomeo Passerotti, Portrait of a Widow Fig.35 Ludovico Carracci, Portrait of a Widow Fig.36 Portrait of a Widow Fig.37 Portrait of Ginevra Aidrovandi Hercolani Fig.38 Portrait of a Widow and her Daughter Fig.39 Portrait of Flaminia Gozzadini Caccianemici Fig.40 Portrait of a Widow Fig.41 Portrait of a Widow and her Family Fig.42 Bartolomeo Passerotti, Portrait of a Widow and her Family Fig.43 Bartolomeo Passerotti, Madonna and Child with Saints and donor Fig.44 Ercole Procaccini, Conversion of Saul Fig.45 Denis Calvaert, Sts. Catherine and Lucia and Blessed Riniero Fig.46 Prospero Fontana, Annunciation Fig.47 Ludovico Carracci, the Bargellini Madonna Fig.48 Crucifixion with St. Jerome and donors Fig.49 Sketch for Crucifixion with St. Jerome and donors Fig.50 Judith and Holofernes Fig.51 Judith and Holofernes Fig.52 Sketch of Tognina Gonzales Fig.53 Holy Family with Sleeping Christ Child Fig.54a Holy Family with Sleeping Christ Child Fig.54b Holy Family with Sleeping Christ Child Fig.54c Holy Family with Sleeping Christ Child Fig.55 Madonna with Sleeping Christ Child Fig.56 St. Francis di Paola blessing a Child Fig.57 Portrait of a Baby in a Crib Fig.58 Portrait of a small boy with a dog Fig.59 Portrait of Ippolita Savignani at 12 months Fig.60 Portrait of Antonia Ghini Fig.6lPortrait of a boy with his father Fig.62 Portrait of a boy Fig.63 Sketch of the head of a boy Fig.64 Birth of the Virgin Fig.65 Christ in the House of Martha and Maiy Fig.66 Consecration of the Virgin 5 Acknowledgements Travel funds for researching this thesis were made available by the Graduate School Research Fund at University College and London University Central Research Fund. I would like to thank Dr. Bruce Boucher for his continued enthusiasm for my work on Lavinia Fontana over the last years. Dr. Sara Matthews-Grieco gave me my first opportunity to discuss my work in a public forum and has always shared my excitement in new archival finds. I would also like to thank Professor Gabriella Zarri, whose work on Bolognese women in the sixteenth-century has been a tremendous resource and inspiration and who took the trouble to explain to me the labyrinth of the Bolognese archival system. My time in Bologna was enhanced by the friendship and hospitality of Corinna Rinaldi, Paola Goretti and Myriam Chiozza, in whom the spirit of the Dame della Cilia is alive and well. Patricia McNulty disentangled several documents in notarial Latin for me and in so doing gave important aspects of this thesis much greater resonance. I greatly appreciate Brian Murphy's thoughtful reading of my finished text. The contributions of Henry Dietrich-Fernández to this thesis are multi-fold and include our many conversations on Lavinia's life and work, and his finding of numerous invaluable books and articles. This work would not have been possible without the support of my mother. 6 INTRODUCTION This thesis is a study of the career of Lavinia Fontana in Bologna. She was born in that city, baptised on August 24, 1552 and lived there until 1604. Then she moved to Rome, where she died on August 11, 1614. Fontana can be described as the first truly professional woman painter, not only in Italy, but in Western Europe to receive real acclaim. In her native city, she received many of the same kinds of commissions as her male colleagues obtained: she produced portraits of prominent members of Bolognese society, painted small private devotional works and large scale altarpieces for churches and confraternities. She also executed paintings depicting mythological subjects and, in so doing, Fontana appears to have been the first early modern female artist to paint female nudes. Her oeuvre constitutes an extremely large and varied corpus for which she was widely recognized in her own time. Despite the exceptional nature of Lavinia Fontana's life and work she has been at best neglected and at worst little esteemed by historians of women artists 1. Indeed, her very success has probably contributed to this lack of regard. To those who prefer to see women experiencing struggle and crisis in their endeavours to become artists, Laviia's life must seem suspiciously effortless. She has the largest known oeuvre of any woman artist before the eighteenth-century and at the same time she seems to have been happily married. Certainly she was constantly lauded with praise. In contrast, to peruse a collection of the biographies of the women artists of the Renaissance and Baroque ages, is to read a series of The only notable exception is Eleanor Tufts, who published a general book on women artists, Our Hidden Heritage (London/New York, 1974) and also wrote two articles on Lavinia Fontana. E. Tufts, "A Successful 16th Century Portraitist. Ms Lavinia Fontana from Bologna, Art News, LXXVII, 1974, pp.60-64 and E. Tufts, "Lavinia Fontana, Bolognese Humanist" in Le arli a Bologna e in Emilia dal XVI a! XVII secolo, ed. A. Emiliani (C.I.H.A., Bologna, 1982), pp.129-!34. 7 trials, tribulations and tragedies. For example, one reads of the saintly Caterina Vigri, the "painter nun" of Quattrocento Bologna, who produced works of art for her convent, and was later beatified for her holiness and self-sacrifice, dying, as she did, nursing another nun back to health2.