Summary

In sixteenth-century Ravenna, Barbara Longhi (1552-1638) was the first female painter to concentrate in her oeuvre on small devotional paintings associated with the concepts of love and tenderness between the Mother of God and Christ (Madonna and Child). These Marian paintings reveal a fusion between physical motherly love and spiritual devotion and are steeped in the culture of Ravenna and the Counter-Reformation’s artistic patronage. Working in the late sixteenth century in Italy, Barbara paved the way for mystical devotion or maniera devota (energeia), which would later be interpreted by female painters in the seventeenth century.

Background of the Book

Barbara Longhi of Ravenna: Art, Grace and Piety aims to give new impetus to the study of female art in regional areas. It strives to expand research beyond the studies of women’s lives, careers, socio-political patronage, and specific gender issues to look at the emblematic, historical, and spiritual aspects of their work. The goal is to reveal more fully the importance of devotional art and the ample creativity of female painters—as demonstrated in the paintings of Barbara Longhi.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of Barbara Longhi’s artistic contributions to the study of Mariology and Marian iconography and iconology in Italian art of the sixteenth century. Although there is limited information about her personal life, through the records of her two Wills and Testaments we learn about her administrative ability, family dedication, and most of all about her Christian religiosity and devotion to the Virgin Mary (La Madonna).

Thus, my study on Barbara Longhi—to whom I refer in this text by her first name, Barbara, and not her last name, Longhi, so as not to confuse her with her father, Luca Longhi, and her brother, Francesco Longhi—commenced years ago during my graduate studies and with presentations at conferences in the USA and then abroad. I first presented the results of my investigations on Barbara at conferences hosted by universities in the USA and abroad. This academic research resulted in the publication of articles about Barbara’s self-portraits: in the Visual Resources Association Journal (Getty Publications) in 1996, the Woman’s Art Journal in 1988, a biographical entry (vita) in the Dictionary of Women Artists for Fitzroy Dearborn in 2000, a book on Self-Portraits by Women Painters in 2000 for Ashgate Publishing (revised in 2009 for New Academia of Washington, DC), and recently in 2022 with single articles in the Journal of Literature and Art Studies, the Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies, and the Journal of Arts and Humanities.

Focus of Each Chapter

Chapter One of this book, Barbara Longhi of Ravenna: Art, Grace and Piety, describes the cultural milieu of Ravenna, the city where Barbara was born and lived all her life. Chapter Two discusses Barbara’s life, career, and her family of artists, drawing particular attention to fundamental issues relating to the artistic formation of female painters during the sixteenth century in Italy. This also includes a closer examination of the cultural milieu in Ravenna at the time, looking at issues including historical influences (classical Greek and Roman, medieval, and Renaissance), literary sources, and patronage as revealed in religious tradition and transformation during the Tridentine period of the Roman Catholic Church Reformation and the Counter-Reformation decrees (1545-1563).

Chapter Three specifically deals with Barbara’s small devotional paintings, focusing on the theme of Madonna and Child (Mariology; Marian iconography and iconology), comparing her religious imagery with that of other female and male artists of the time, for example Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625), Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), and Fede Galizia (1578-1630), as well as Barbara’s father, Luca Longhi (1507-1580), who trained her. The meaning of devotional painting and religious issues is discussed, considering views on the place and content of art as promoted by the Counter-Reformation movement and those espoused by Gabriele Paleotti, Archbishop of Bologna from 1582 to 1597. This chapter concludes with an analysis of Barbara’s Madonna Purissima (Immaculate Conception) that represents the culmination of her artistic explorations of Marian iconography.

Chapter Four continues with the study of devotional paintings, specifically those created for public altarpieces and private altars. Barbara’s style evolves from her early single or solo depictions of the Madonna and Child to the inclusion of intimate scenes of the Holy Family with patrons and saints as the theme of holy conversation (sacra conversazione). Through these religious depictions, Barbara’s artistic style can be seen as maturing to include different treatments of compositional space, atmospheric light, color, and figure type.

Chapter Five focuses on concepts of portraiture and self-imaging in Barbara’s portrayal of personages, including prelates, biblical figures, renowned worshipped saints, and self-portraits, again comparing them with other contemporary female and male painters such as Anguissola, Fontana, Galizia, Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola, 1503-1540), Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), and her father.

A short Chapter Six centers on Barbara’s ingenious interpretation of a mythical painting, the lady of the unicorn. Like Barbara’s religious paintings, this secular subject offers an exemplar of moral virtue. The Conclusion briefly summarizes Barbara’s artistic place in history. The Appendices are significant because they provide documentation about her cultural upbringing as indicated by her ability to read and write, which was not a common skill in women at this time. They also provide more understanding into Barbara’s disposition and religious sentiments.

Methodology

This book’s approach is iconographic and iconological: that is, it provides a careful study of meanings and religious symbolisms found in the paintings created by Barbara Longhi. Hence, this book is primarily a thematic study on the representation of Marian devotional paintings during the Counter-Reformation in Ravenna. Longhi depicted innovative representations on the themes about the nursing Madonna (Virgin Mary), holy conversations with saints (sacra conversazione), and female saints’ heroism (SS Agatha of Rome, Catherine of Alexandria, and Justine of Padua). This first book on Barbara Longhi, an Italian female painter of the sixteenth-century intends to bring to light Longhi’s oeuvre not as a catalogue raisonné but a careful study of her religious visualization of the Madonna (Virgin Mary) and her culture in Ravenna. Barbara’s unique artistic career as a female painter includes writing of two wills (first English translation), administering her family estate, atelier, and farms.

I have raised questions about Italian culture during the sixteenth century: why did a female painter create images to arouse spiritual feelings in viewers? Why did an artist from a regional area of Italy, Ravenna, devote her life to creating art? Was there an artistic advantage for a female painter—like Lavinia Fontana of Bologna and Barbara Longhi—to have come from a family of artists? How often did women artists write wills? How often did women painters administer agricultural estates and family artistic workshops? The book aims to reflect on Barbara’s sentiments about motherly love, family, and sainthood as the outgrowth of her private devotion and meditation.

The book is intended first and foremost for students of the humanities (classical, emblematic, and religious studies), art and literary criticism, and lovers of Italian culture. The student and interested reader may use the book for specific research into paintings by Italian female artists and culture, as well as for larger issues in sixteenth century painting and the history of female patronage and taste. Omnibus survey books on female paintings tend to opt for one, or at best a couple, of the artistic endeavors of each period. This book will provide an essential complement to any study of sixteenth century Italian paintings or art.

Liana De Girolami Cheney is Professor of Art History Emerita at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Visiting Researcher in Art History at the University of Aldo Moro Bari, Italy. She received her MA in Art History and Aesthetics from the University of Miami and her PhD in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art from Boston University in Massachusetts. She is a Renaissance and Mannerist scholar and author and coauthor of numerous books and articles, including Botticelli’s Neoplatonic Images; Giorgio Vasari’s Teachers: Sacred and Profane Art; Giorgio Vasari’s Prefaces: Art and Theory; Giorgio Vasari’s Artistic and Emblematic Manifestations; Giuseppe Arcimboldo; Agnolo Bronzino: The Muse of Florence; Self-Portraits by Women Painters; and Lavinia Fontana: Mythological: Art, Beauty, and Wisdom, among others.

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