Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance, one of the first artists to reach fame in Europe.

Biography

Sofonisba was born around 1532 in the noble Piacenza family of Anguissola in Cremona. Unlike other young nobles, Sophonisba did not pursue his painting as a profession. Sofonisba’s first artistic training took place between the ages of eleven and thirteen. She was commissioned by her father to be taught by the Lombard painter Bernardino Campi, her style is inspired by the main representatives of popular Mannerist art in Northern Italy, and had a strong influence on Sophonisba, who transferred its essential features in his favorite field - portraiture.

When Campi left Cremona for Milan, Sofonisba made Bernardo Gatti his second master. The painter died on 16 November 1625 and is a tomb in the church of San Giorgio Novisi, which belongs to the Genoese Nation of Palermo.

The first paintings

Sofonisba’s earliest known works include a portrait of Elena Anguissola (1551), dedicated to her sister who became a nun, and a number of self-portraits made between 1552 and 1558, including Self-Portrait, 1554; Self-Portrait of Spinet, 1555; The Chessboard (1555), in which the sisters Lucy, Minerva and Europa appear in the middle of the game, and other paintings involving family members.

Driven by her father to become an artist, humanist and patron, the young painter participated as a protagonist in the artistic life of the Italian court. Her father introduced her to the Gonzaga family, where she made a portrait for Duchess Margaret and her daughter in-law Helena of Austria, the Este of Ferrara and the Farnese. His artistic skills and abilities are well known both inside and outside the Italian peninsula.

In Spain, at the court of Philip II

In 1559, the Duke of Alba persuaded King Philip II of Spain to summon Sofonisba as his fiancée, Queen Elizabeth of Valois, to teach her to paint.

Sofonisba left Cremona for Milan in early September and met Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, in late January 1560. He attended the wedding of Queen Isabella and Philip II. During the festivities he met Luigi Alessandro's son Ferrante Gonzaga and Piacenza writer Caterina Angelisola.

In a drawing class in court, he met Don Carlos. He later painted a lost portrait of the prince wearing a robe lined with lynx.

Sofonisba has photographed portraits of almost all members of the royal family, but none have his signature. According to some authors, she did not hold the official post of court painter, and her services were paid for nothing but valuable fabrics and jewels; according to others, her annual salary was a hundred gp.

After the Queen's death, she worked for several years at the Spanish court as wife and portrait painter for her two young children, Isabella and Catherine.

A cura di Assinee Sobrun, 4AES

Anno Scolastico 2021/ 2022