Summary

This book investigates one aspect of the emblematic and art historical oeuvre of Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614), an Italian painter of the sixteenth century: her mythological paintings, in which she developed conceits about female beauty with the depiction of mythical personages such as Galatea and Venus. Fontana was the first female painter of the sixteenth century in Italy to depict female nudes, as well as mythological and emblematic paintings that not only interpret a beautiful form, but also manifest metaphorically the meaning of knowledge—as in her depictions of Minerva and Prudence. Her paintings reveal an appropriation of imagery and literature from Antiquity, a fusion between patronage and culture, and a humanistic pursuit of Mannerist conceits. Fontana’s secular imagery provides a challenging paragone (comparison) with the male tradition of history painting during the sixteenth century, and her work paved the way for new subjects to be depicted and interpreted by female and male painters of the seventeenth century.

Background of the Book

The purpose of this study is to call attention to the importance of Fontana’s artistic contribution to the study of art and nature. Not only was she the first sixteenth century female painter to engage in the study of the nude form in painting, but she furthermore portrayed herself as a pregnant woman. Extensive modern scholarship by Romeo Galli, Maria Teresa Cantaro, Vera Fortunati, and Caroline Murphy has focused on Fontana’s life and career: extant documents and inventories; the catalogue raisonné of her attributed and known drawings and paintings; and, in particular, her portraits and religious paintings. Recently, studies by Daniele Bemati, Fausto Gozzi, Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo, and Stefania Vai have focused on specific mythological paintings, shedding new light on Fontana’s artistic career. The most recent exhibition and comparative catalogue between Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, curated by Leticia Ruiz Gómez, will stimulate further research on the art of Lavinia Fontana.

My studies on Lavinia Fontana began in 1987, focusing on her self-portraits, including one discovered in Seattle (now in a private collection) and a religious painting of the Holy Family with SS. Francis and Margaret discovered in Boston in a private collection (now at the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA; hereafter Holy Family). More recently, my research on Fontana has turned toward her mythological paintings. I have presented papers on this topic at conferences of the College Art Association, the Renaissance Society of America, the Southeastern College Association, the South-Central Renaissance Association, and the Symposia on Female Artists in Boston, MA, and Oxford, UK. This book complements the scholarship of Cantaro, Fortunati, Murphy, Benati, Dal Pozzolo, and Vai on Fontana. Hopefully it will generate new impetus into the study of female artists of other centuries—not just in terms of their lives, careers, socio-political patronage (Whitney Chadwick), and specific gender issues (Mary Garrard and Linda Nochlin), but also in terms of emblematic historicism and mythological manifestations, capturing the ample creativity of female painters in their respective cultures.

Focus of Each Chapter

The first chapter of this book lays out the emblematic sources that Lavinia Fontana employed in her work. Chapter 2 provides a brief overview of Fontana’s life and career, drawing the reader’s attention to fundamental issues of the artistic status of a female painter during the sixteenth century, as well as to socio-political circumstances. The next chapter deals with Fontana’s self-portraits and poetical inspirations in her self-imaging in relation to her male and female contemporaries (Parmigianino, Giorgio Vasari, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Barbara Longhi). Chapter 4 focuses on Fontana’s mythological images of Venus as a celestial and terrestrial manifestation of the concept of beauty. This section considers the mythological theme of Venus and its stylistic and iconographic sources, discussing the paintings held at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, in private collections in Bologna and Venice, at Fundación Casa de Alba in Madrid, and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. Concepts of beauty and application of these literary influences are examined with reference to Antiquity, folklore, and mythology. The following chapter elaborates on the mythological representation of Galatea as an image that emblematically personifies Fortune and Venus. The sixth chapter considers an interpretation of the Roman Goddess Minerva with a dual symbolism as a manifestation of peace and moral virtue. This chapter also explores the mythological theme of Minerva, discussing the paintings held at the Pavirani Collection in Bologna and at the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Concepts of wisdom are analyzed both in terms of Antiquity and as emblematic sources. Chapter 7 discusses an allegorical symbolism of wisdom not manifested by the Roman Goddess Minerva, but visualized through an emblematic depiction of a human virtue, prudence. This chapter also focuses on the theme of moral virtues as personified by female imagery. It integrates a study on Fontana’s female patronage of allegorical subjects in Monte Carlo (Maison d’Art à Monaco) and Bologna (Pinacoteca Nazionale), viewing them not only in terms of theory of art—beauty, aesthetics, and taste—but also as ethical responses to the Counter-Reformation. The eighth chapter interprets an enigmatic painting, Cleopatra, in which Fontana fused both conceits of beauty and wisdom in a historical personage. A Coda reflects upon Fontana’s fascination for the nude body in the depiction of mythological figures. Also included in the book is a substantial bibliography.

All of these short essays relate to Fontana’s artistic and cultural environment in Bologna and Rome. These cultural issues are connected to the influences of classical, medieval, Renaissance, and Mannerist traditions on literary sources, as well as the gender patronage revealed in the humanistic, emblematic, mythological, and theorical artistic writings of the likes of Andrea Alciato (1492–1550), Achille Bocchi (1488–1562), Vincenzo Cartari (1531–1569), Gabriele Paleotti (1522–1597), Pierio Valeriano (1477–1558), and Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574).

Fontana’s criteria of art and beauty and wisdom are inherited from the Mannerist conception of beauty, in particular based on that of her father Prospero’s fellow painter Giorgio Vasari. In his prefaces to the Vite (Lives of the Artists), Vasari explained what he meant by beauty, which consists of the study of nature, the capturing of nature through its imitation, and the surpassing of nature by improving on it. His ideals on beauty derive jointly from the classical conception of physical beauty and from the Neoplatonic notion of spiritual beauty. That is to say, for Vasari, the classical concept of beauty means a creation of a beautiful image from the combination of parts of the body commensurately and proportionately arranged as a whole, as represented in a disegno (drawing), which reveals the first sign of artistic creativity. For Vasari, Neoplatonic spiritual beauty means the manifestation of vivacity, radiance, and grace in the image, which is conceived through the mind (intellect) and the visual perception (sight). Thus, in this disegno, Vasari honors the artists for creating beauty, elevating them into intellectual and celestial realms.

Disegno is the imitation of the most beautiful parts of nature in all figures, whether in sculpture or in painting, and, for this, it is necessary to have a hand and a brain able to reproduce with absolute accuracy and precision (Giorgio Vasari, Preface III, Vite). Thus, Fontana’s mythological paintings incorporate not only Mannerist aesthetics, but also the sense of humor and enjoyment of inventing a Mannerist conceit under the cloud of the controversial visual and moral reforms.

Methodology

This book’s approach is iconographic and iconological, that is, it provides a careful study of meanings and symbolisms of the paintings created by Fontana. Hence, this book is primarily a thematic study on the representation of some mythological figures (Venus, Galatea, and Minerva), considering also some allegorical moral and practical virtues visualized in the imagery of Prudence and Cleopatra by a female painter, Lavinia Fontana. This study does not intend to be a catalogue raisonné of Fontana’s mythological paintings or her oeuvre. It does not address issues of connoisseurship, dating, disputations among scholars regarding attributions, and all scholarship associated with Fontana. The book is merely a short interpretative iconographical and iconological study on an aspect of Fontana’s inventiveness as revealed in some of her mythological paintings.

The book is intended first and foremost for students of the humanities (classical, emblematic, and mythological 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 Mannerist paintings or art.

Liana De Girolami Cheney, PhD, is an Emerita Professor in Art History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a Visiting Scholar in Art History at the Università di Aldo Moro, Italy, and Investigadora de Historia de Arte at the Universidad de Coruña, Spain. She received her MA in History of Art and Aesthetics from the University of Miami, Florida, and her PhD in Italian Renaissance and Baroque from Boston University, Massachusetts. She is a Renaissance and Mannerist scholar and is the author and co-author of numerous articles and books, including Botticelli’s Neoplatonism in His Mythological Paintings; Giorgio Vasari’s Teachers: Sacred and Profane Love; Giuseppe Arcimboldo: The Magic Paintings; Readings in Italian Mannerism I and II; Giorgio Vasari’s Art and Art Theory; and Giorgio Vasari’s Artistic and Emblematic Manifestations, among others.

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