User:Cfbird1008/Miniature Self-Portrait (Anguissola, Boston
Miniature Self-Portrait is the smaller of two known miniature self-portraits by Sofonisba Anguissola (1535-1625) to survive.[1] Painted around 1556, this small oil on parchment on cardboard is set in a metal frame with a scroll surmount.[2] The choice of format is based on Anguissola's knowledge of the works of the celebrated Italian Renaissance miniaturist Giulio Clovio (1498-1578). The painting is in permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston.[2]
[edit]Description
[edit]This complex miniature portrait depicts a three-quarter self portrait of Anguissola holding a prominently featured roundel in the lower two-thirds of the painting. This composition was unique among contemporary miniatures which incorporated the sitter's head and shoulders but rarely, objects.[1] As the artist commonly depicted herself, she is dressed in an austere black dress with a raised white embroidered collar, her hair is in tresses and gathered around her head. Circling the monogram there is the following inscription, painted in Latin in capital letters: «SOPHONISBA ANGUSSOLA VIR(GO) IPSIUS MANU EX (S)PECULO DEPICTAM CREMONAE» English translation: "The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, at Cremona."[3]
The portrait is painted with the tip of the brush on a weathered green background. The physiognomy of the face is typical of the self-portraits of Anguissola: wide black eyes, small fleshy lips, and an austere hairstyle and clothing suitable for a woman from a good family who wishes to present herself as a virgin, as well as literate and well educated. The raised collar, in the Venetian style, is left open to allow a glimpse of the white shirt underneath.
History
[edit]Father's encouragement: Education with Campi
[edit]Castiglione's Cortegiano -- standards of a lady, eyes of an ox... [4] Importance of beauty
"Virgo", pure status, self-fashioning and importance of keeping with the accepted notion of the 'noble lady." Family standing and honor
Symbolism
[edit]The monogram confounds scholars, with differing opinions about what it means.[1] (p.55)
letters that make the name of her father Amilcare: ACEILMR. (copied/pasted from above)[1]
In the small dimensions of the cameo, the body of the young woman is hidden behind the monogram of her father. He was the probable recipient of the painting, to whom Anguissola felt herself in debt, since he had given her the chance to study painting under Bernardino Campi. (copied/pasted from above, no source)
Scholarly Debate
[edit]There has been much scholarly debate regarding the year in which the work was completed, with the consensus landing on 1556, the year Anguissola probably met Clovio.[1]
Anguissola's skill in Miniature Painting.
[edit]Because there are only two surviving miniatures by Anguissola, the other is held at the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, little is known for certain about Anguissola's miniature works.[1] Documents suggest she was a miniature painting educator while she was in Palermo.[1] It is known for certain that Anguissola taught her sisters to paint before she was sent to the Spanish court to be a lady-in-waiting to the young Queen, Isabel de Valois.
Provenance
[edit]While the provenance is incomplete, here is what is known:
1801: Purchased by Richard Gough (b.1735 - d.1809), London. Sold in 1810 through dealers Leigh and Sotheby, July 19-21, lot 322.
1862: Henry Danby Seymour (b. 1820- d. 1877), Ashridge, Hertfordshire. (On loan to the South Kensington Museum 1862-) and descent to his niece Jane Margaret Seymour (b. 1973- d.1943), Knoyle, Wiltshire. (On loan to Victoria and Albert Museum, London,1912-1928.)
May 9, 1928: Seymore sale, anonymous, Sotheby’s London, lot 61.
November 9, 1959, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s London, lot 28, to F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York (stock no. F1375).
1960: Sold to Boston Museum of Fine Arts by Kleinberger for $3000. (Accession date: March 10, 1960).
References
[edit]- Buonarroti Archives, Florence. From Ilya Sandrea Perlingieri, Sofonisba Anguissola, The First Great Woman Artist of the Renaissance (New York: NY, Rizzoli, 1992), p. 67.
- Costa, Patrizia. “Sofonisba Anguissola’s Self-portrait in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.” Arte Lombarda, Nuova Serie, no. 125 (1) (1999): 54–62.
- Garrard, Mary D. "Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist." Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3 (1994): 556-622.
- Kilroy-Ewbank, Lauren. "Sofonisba Anguissola," in Smarthistory, May 3, 2016, accessed October 1, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/sofonisba-anguissola/.
- “Third Book of the Courtier,” from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, trans. Leonard Eckstein Opdycke (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903), p. 180.
- Vasari, Giorgio, The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. de Vere (London: Philip Lee Warner, 1912–4), pp. 127–8.
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h Costa, Patrizia (1999). "Sofonisba Anguissola's Self-portrait in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts". Arte Lombarda. Nuova serie (125): 54–62 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c "Self-Portrait". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
- ^ Kilroy-Ewbank, Lauren (accessed October 1, 2024). "Sofonisba Anguissola". smarthistory.org. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Burke, Jill (2024). How to be a Renaissance Woman. New York: Pegasus Books. p. 151.