September 12, 2022 • 34 mins
Lavinia Fontana was taught painting by her father, and became one of the earliest examples of a woman with an independent career in art that supported her family. She became very well-known for her portraits and her devotional art.
Research:
- Bohn, Babette. “Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna.” Pennsylvania State University Press. 2021.
- Villa, Angelica. “National Gallery of Victoria Acquires Lavinia Fontana Painting to Address ‘Gender Imbalance.’” ARTnews. Feb. 8, 2022. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/national-gallery-of-victoria-lavinia-fontana-acquisition-1234618453/
- National Gallery of Ireland. “Part 1: Introducing the Lavinia Fontana Conservation and Research Project.” Aug. 22, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N0nv40TzEk
- National Gallery of Ireland. “Conservation treatment of Lavinia Fontana's painting.” https://www.nationalgallery.ie/explore-and-learn/conservation-and-research-projects/lavinia-fontana-conservation-and-research-0
- Casoni, Felice Antonio. “Medal.” The British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_G3-IP-370
- Lupi, Livia. “This Day in History: August 11.” Italian Art Society. August 11, 2016. https://www.italianartsociety.org/2016/08/lavinia-fontana-died-on-11-august-1614-in-rome/
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Lavinia Fontana". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lavinia-Fontana
- Sanchez, Francisco Del Rio. “Where did the Queen of Sheba rule—Arabia or Africa?” National Geographic. June 7, 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2021/06/where-did-the-queen-of-sheba-rule-arabia-or-africa
- McIver, Katherine A. “Renaissance Women Painting Themselves.” Art Herstory. June 8, 2019. https://artherstory.net/self-portraits-by-renaissance-women-artists/
- Murphy, Caroline P. “Lavinia Fontana and ‘Le Dame Della Città’: Understanding Female Artistic Patronage in Late Sixteenth-Century Bologna.” Renaissance Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 1996, pp. 190–208. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24412268
- “Mannerism.” National Gallery of Art. https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/mannerism.html
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson. We recently,
not too far back, ran our Georgiova Sarry podcast as
a Saturday classic, and today's topic sort of tangentially touches
(00:25):
him on the timeline, not entirely tangential. Prospero Fontana was
a painter in Bologna, Italy in the sixteenth century, and
he was relatively successful because he was skilled and he
worked quickly. He stayed busy with commissions because he just
had a track record for dependability, particularly in fresco work
and portraiture, and he worked for Giorgiova Sarry on a
(00:48):
number of projects. Prospero va Sary is Germane to today's
topic because he was today's topics father. We were talking
about another painter, Prospero's daughter, Lavinia Fontana, so let's get
into it. Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, Italy in
fifteen fifty two. We don't know the exact date she
(01:11):
was born, As we just mentioned, her father was a painter.
Her mother, Antonia Bartolomeo de Bonardes was from a family
that made its fortune in publishing. The Fontana's were not nobles,
but they did live comfortably, and Lavinia's baptismal sponsors were
men from the Bolognese nobility. Lavinia was one of three
(01:33):
children in the family. She had a sister and a
brother named Amelia and Faminio. Both of them died, though
not in their childhood, but when they were young adults.
One had been a teenager and when I think within
their early twenties. Lavinia studied under her father, who was
a leading member of the painters guild in Bologna, and
he worked in the Mannerist style, which is what he
(01:55):
taught Lavinia. He had also taught his other children, Amelia
and Meno, but Lavinia was the one that was just
most naturally gifted at painting. She was educated beyond art.
She was very well educated in mathematics, Latin and music,
as well as her painting classes with her father. Mannerism,
just as a quick refresher, was very popular in sixteenth
(02:18):
century Italy. It originated in Florence, but it wasn't referred
to as mannerism until much later in the eighteenth century.
This period follows right on the heels of work that
was done by da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael and it
shows a move away from the Classicism and naturalistic beauty
(02:39):
that those artists sought to create in their work. Mannerism
is slightly more stylized. Sometimes it can even be bizarre.
It slightly exaggerates otherwise realistic compositions, so that say, Assiter's
limbs might be a little too long or their head
a little too small. Incredible detail in the four ground
(03:00):
is often combined with a really sparse or unrealistically simple background.
As she reached her twenties, Lavinia transitioned into a painting career,
which was an unusual step for a woman in Bologna
in the fifteen seventies. She is often referred to as
the first woman painter in Western Europe to have a
successful career. It's a little more nuanced than that. There
(03:24):
were other women in Italy making a living in the arts,
most famously sofonisba Ala, who was about twenty years older
than Lavinia. These two women are often discussed in tandem
when considering art of the period, and they were also
compared to one another at the time by their contemporaries.
So Fanisba, who could and probably will be her own
episode at some point, was born into the nobility, although
(03:47):
at a low level that did not come with wealth,
and she became a court painter other women artists who
managed to make a living at it before Fontana worked
exclusively at convents creating devotional art. So what sins Lavinia
apart is that she was not noble by birth, and
as she advanced her art career, she made her living
through commissions from a variety of clients. Like her father had,
(04:11):
the groundwork for this career had been laid very carefully
by Prospero. He encouraged clients to commission Lavinia's first professional works.
He had also given away small pieces she painted to
help establish her reputation. So while she was unique as
a professional, she benefited from her father serving as her supporter,
(04:33):
both technically as a painter and as sort of an
early public relations manager. Yeah, he made some other very
significant moves in her life. We'll talk about um. The
first signed work that we know of by Lavinia is
a portrait of a boy from fifty There isn't a
record of who this child was. He is dressed in
(04:53):
rather fancy clothes, so he was likely the son of
a wealthy family. Although it is a very early work,
many of the hallmarks of Lavinia's painting style are already present.
For example, the fabrics of the boy's clothing are rendered
in just incredible detail. The pose is quite formal, the
boy does not look relaxed in his body posture, and
(05:14):
he makes direct eye contact with the viewer. In a
painting estimated to have been created in fifteen seventy five
titled Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine. St. Catherine of Alexandria
is shown having a vision of Christ. There are numerous
works by many artists that have this title or a
similar one that depicts the same basic idea, although sometimes
(05:38):
that St. Catherine of Alexandria and others St. Catherine of
Sienna both show the moment when one or in some
cases rarely both of these women pledged their lives to Christ,
using the framework of marriage that is frequently invoked as
part of describing a woman becoming a nun. In Fontana's
(05:58):
version of this moment, Catherine is shown in a soft
golden yellow gown with a red cape that straped around
her shoulders. She is kneeling with her hands posed as
in prayer before the infant Jesus, who is being held
by his mother Mary and appears to be blessing her.
Above the main scene is an entire secondary group of
angels in the clouds. They are all rendered in very
(06:20):
dreamy pastel's. In February seventies seven, when she was twenty five,
Lavinia married a man named Giovanni Paolo Zappi, often also
named as Jean Paulo. He had been a student under
her father. This marriage was unusual and that although Zappy
was a painter, his work didn't become the priority. It
(06:42):
was quite the opposite. Jean Paulo supported Lavinia's career and
even became her agent. That arrangement is often pointed at
for its progressive and unusual nature, and it was that,
but it was also arranged to be that way by
Lavinia's father, Prospero. Giovanni was the son of a noble.
He was not first in line to inherit, but his
(07:05):
status was going to elevate Lavinia's social rank, so you
might think that the marriage agreement would favor him considerably,
But in fact it laid out some pretty unusual terms. First,
there would be no dowry that was in light of
Lavinia's earnings potential. That was a condition that may have
been stipulated by Prospero because he would have had difficulty
(07:26):
coming up with a sum that would set this new
couple up in a household of their own. He was
in many ways successful, but he still struggled when it
came to managing his money. Second, the couple had to
live with Prospero, who would support them in exchange for
Lavinia continuing to work with him. Basically, Prospero, who saw
his daughter's earning potential, promised the Zoppie family that she
(07:48):
could be the breadwinner. There was also language in the
contract that gian Paolo would also paint, and money that
he brought in would be kind of part of this
family collective. But it appears he was just not really
at the same level of Lavinia, and he stopped trying
to have an art career pretty early on. While this
arrangement undoubtedly benefited Prospero Fontana by keeping his daughter as
(08:11):
his assistant in the long term, it also meant that
she was supported in her artistic career by her spouse
Giovanni handled all our business deals, something that would have
been difficult or impossible for her to do herself as
a woman. He was also a stay at home father
to their children, and they had a lot over the
(08:31):
course of their marriage. They had eleven kids, although sadly
only three of them survived past childhood. We're going to
talk more about Lavinia's painting after we take a quick
break to hear from the sponsors to keep stuff you
missed in history class going. Even before her marriage, Lavinia's
(08:57):
skills as a portraitist were why recognized her father in law,
Severozapi noted her work in a letter that he wrote
her before she and Giovanni were married. Lavinia had sent
him to portraits and he was quite pleased with them.
And in addition to portraits of other people, Lavinia painted
self portraits, so not very many, and those self portraits
(09:18):
offer an interesting window into how she saw herself and
how she presented herself to the world. And as noted
in a piece of writing by Catherine A. Mcgiver, Professor
Emerita of Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
what's really really interesting is that Lavinia did not paint
herself as an artist in her fifteen seventies seven painting
(09:41):
self portrait at the Virginal, which was one of the
portraits she sent to her future father in law. She
seated at a small harpsichord. An attendant is standing behind
her holding a music book. Her painting easel is in
the image, but it's sitting empty in the background, and
she's dressed in layered jeweled clothes that would have been
(10:02):
popular with the nobility of the day and Latin. At
the top left of the image is the note Lavinia,
the unmarried daughter of Prospero Fontana, took this her image
from the mirror seventy seven. Art historians have interpreted this
painting as being Lavinia's assurance to her future relatives that
(10:23):
she's a lady of refinement with a career that can
support her family. As an aside, this was a time
when Bologna was kind of ahead of a lot of
other places in terms of women's education. Women were allowed
to enroll with the university, although they couldn't study all
of the same subjects as men. Law, medicine, and theology
courses were only permitted for male students. But in showing
(10:46):
herself In this portrait with the harpsichord as musically accomplished
and including a Latin inscription, Lavinia was very carefully and
clearly showing her own level of intellect and knowledge, in
line with the culturally held values of education at the time.
In fifteen seventy nine, she painted the Tiny Self Portrait
in the Studiolo, which is a circular portrait six inches
(11:09):
in diameter, showing her in her study. This is a
commissioned piece. Collector Alfonso Calcionio already had a self portrait
of sophonisba Angui Sola, and he wanted one of Lavinia
to go with it. In the portrait, she's wearing fine
court dress with a stiff ruffled collar, and she's seated
(11:29):
at a desk with books and sculptures, holding a pen.
She also wears a large gold cross, and her gaze
is fixed on the viewer, although her head is in
a quarter profile so that she's not actually facing the
viewer directly. In the fifteen eighties, Lavinia became very popular
with women clients in particular. Carlos ces Armaza was a
(11:52):
historian in the seventeenth century who wrote a book on
Bologna's famous artists, and this is often referenced as an
import source when it comes to studying Fontana, although he
wrote it in six seventy eight, which was more than
sixty five years after Lavinia's death, so keep in mind
he does not always have firsthand accounts in it. He writes, quote,
(12:14):
for some time, all the ladies of the city would
compete in wishing to have her close to them, treating
her and embracing her with extraordinary demonstrations of love and respect.
Considering themselves fortunate to have seen her on the street,
or to have meetings in the company of the curious
young woman. The greatest thing they desired would be to
(12:34):
have her paint their portraits, prizing them in such a
way that, in our day no greater prices could be
charged by a van Dyke or justice Susterman's his point
was that this popularity among the ladies of Bologna's upper
class had actually pretty steeply driven up the prices of
Fontana's work. There have been scholars over the years who
(12:55):
have made the case that the fact that Lavinia was
a woman was part of her success with Bologna's women,
because they felt more comfortable sitting for a woman artist,
she clearly became friends with some of them. Several became
godmothers to her children. Before the fifteen eighties, Fontana also
had a lot of clients who were members of the intelligentsia.
(13:17):
Academics of the day often turned to her to capture
their likenesses. But as this increase in demand for fashion
portraits from the society ladies increase, the prices rose too
high for scholars, she painted fewer and fewer portraits of
Italy's great thinkers. There's one woman in particular who's often
(13:38):
seen as the true turning point in Fontana's career, and
that is Laudomia Gozzadina. In four Laudomia commissioned Fontana to
paint her family, and after that the artist popularity rose
very rapidly. That portrait, which is simply called Portrait of
the Gotzdini Family, features Laudomia and her sister Geneva, as
(13:59):
well as their spins. The women are in their wedding gowns.
In the center of the portrait is the sister's father,
Senator Ulisa Gottadina, who died twenty three years before this
painting was created. Laudomia's sister Geneva was also dead when
the painting was commissioned, although she had passed just a
few years before in as Ulsa. Gotzadini had arranged both
(14:21):
of the marriages pictured in the portrait when the girls
were still small children. This sort of appears to be
a representation of the family that he created through those
marriage arrangements. There are additional interpretations of this painting, some
of which are kind of fun that we can talk
about on Friday. This painting is really interesting, both in
composition and in the ways people have interpreted it over
(14:45):
the centuries. There are some obvious elements and tended to
convey meaning each person and it is reaching out to
touch one of the others. Listen. The patriarch has a
hand wrapped around the forearm of the deceased daughter Generva,
indicating their shared status. Additionally, both of the dead members
of the family and the image face to the viewers right,
(15:08):
those who were alive when it was painted face to
the viewers left. The Doomia is stroking a tiny dog
which sits on the table at the center of the image,
and that served as a symbol of devotion. Such dogs
were also very popular among the wealthy of the time,
and Laudomia Gozzadini was one of the women who became
a godmother to one of Lavinia's children. That was a
(15:30):
son named Several. Lavinia's next daughter that was born after Several,
was named Laudomia, presumably after this friend. The Gozzini family
also became very closely intertwined with the finances of Lavinia
and her husband Jampaolo. It appears that they made a
lot more commissions for portraits, as records indicate multiple sums
(15:52):
of money transferring from the Gotzdini family to Lavinia's. There
were many other women with which Lavinia had clothed and
ongoing relationships, both as patrons and as friends, but in
the case of Vadomio Gozzadini we have a lot more
detailed records and most of the others. There are many
portraits painted by Fontana in which the sitter remains unidentified,
(16:14):
but in the case of Gotzedini, there are notations on
the back, particularly of that famous family portrait, as to
each person in the painting, as well as those records
of the financial ties that the two families had. In
addition to the portraits, Fontana was commissioned by many households
to paint religious subjects. She had started doing this early
(16:34):
in her career. There are instances where she signed some
of them with her maiden name, so they we know
that they predate her marriage. One thing of note in
the progression of both subject and tone of her religious
paintings that's been noted by historians is that as Lavinia
matured into life as a mother, her paintings of Mary
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and the infant Jesus reflect a sweetness that was unique
among depictions by other artists. In the fifteen eighties, Lavinia
achieved another milestone for women artists. She was the first
woman commissioned to create an altarpiece. She did several of these,
and one such commission came from the Commune of Imola,
which is where her husband was from. The resulting work,
(17:18):
which is titled Assumption of the Virgin, features Sat. Cassian
and St. Peter chrystals. Those are both patron saints of Imola.
The significance of being commissioned for alterpieces is really clear
when you consider time and place. While Bologna wasn't an
epicenter of art patronage in the early part of the
sixteenth century, it was heavily invested in devotional art. One
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of Bologna's points of pride was another altarpiece in the
city that had been painted by Raphael in the early
fifteen hundreds, so for Fontana to be commissioned to make
one was a really big deal. We should also note
that there are some altarpieces that remain a little bit
unclear that she has in her her body of work,
(18:01):
that are unclear in terms of their attribution. Because that
was an area where her father, Prospero Fontana, had specialized
and one in which Lavinia often assisted. There have been
a number of questions over the years about how much
either of them worked on each other's commissions and who
should get primary credit, and Prospero was part of the
(18:23):
reason that Lavinia became favored by figures in the church
and ended up with public commissions. Prospero had painted quite
a few works for churches and had long term friendships
and patronages with some of them. In turn, those relationships
helped build similar opportunities for Lavinia. The Archbishop of Bologna,
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Cardinal Gabrielle Pelotti, had known Lavinia as she was her
father's assistant, and it was through him that she received
some of her commissions for public devotional paintings. And though
she was born and raised in Bologna and was very
successful there, Lavinia also came celebrated in Rome, and we
will talk about her first visit to that city. After
(19:04):
a sponsor break, Lavinia visited Rome for the first time
in six While she was there, she expanded her client
base to include Cardinal Francisco Patchaco of Spain, which garnered
(19:25):
her a commission for King Philip the Second of Spain,
so very high profile. A subsequent visit to Rome in
six led to a similarly momentous commission when Lavinia was
asked to paint a chapel altarpiece in the city around
though that date is uncertain, Lavinia painted the first of
only a few paintings we know of covering mythological figures.
(19:48):
This painting is Mars and Venus, and it was groundbreaking. First,
this may have been the first time a woman painter,
and certainly one of high stature, took on this genre. Uh,
mythological paintings had always been the domain of men, and
a lot of men have painted Mars and Venus. Second,
the figure of Mars is covered only by a cloth
(20:11):
which wraps around his body at the groin level, and
Venus is totally naked. For a woman, even a woman
painter at the time, it would have been completely scandalous
to paint from referencing a live nude model. We don't
actually know if Livinia ever had nude models, or if
she was painting nudes by referencing the work of male artists. Yeah,
(20:34):
there's also been uh some indication that she said it
was from painting the women she had known in her life, uh,
to to avoid any of that. But it doesn't explain
why she does a nude man quite so perfectly. Uh.
It's um, I love that painting desperately, and I'll talk
a little bit about why and are behind the scenes.
(20:55):
On Friday in she painted the Visit of the Queen
of Sheba to Solomon. If you take a quick look
at this work when you're considering that title, one thing
is blazingly obvious. These are all very white Europeans in
Renaissance dress. Though there is still hardy debate today about
(21:15):
whether the biblical land of Sheba would be in present
day Africa, specifically Ethiopia, or in the Arabian Peninsula. Specifically Yemen.
Many depictions of the Queen of Sheba created by European
artists do definitely whitewash her. There is a little bit
of additional nuance to consider. In the case of Fontana's painting.
It is widely accepted that she created this work as
(21:38):
a sort of portrait allegory, she was casting too contemporary
Italian nobles in the roles of Solomon and the visiting Queen.
There is additional debate about exactly who those Italian nobles are.
The most popular theory for a long time was that
it is Vincenzo the first of Gonzaga and Eleonora de Medici,
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who were then Duchess of Mantua in the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries. That aligns with when the painting
was created. However, recent developments have introduced an alternate theory.
We're going to talk about that later in the episode.
Part of the trouble in identifying the models for this
piece is that it doesn't appear in any records until
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the seventeen hundreds, when it was noted as being in
Bologna's Palazzo Zambacari. The work was presumably commissioned but there's
no clear evidence as to who may have contracted Leviny
It's to paint it. After that, it traveled to Paris
in eighteen fifty nine and was purchased by Napoleon the
third cousin. Then it was one of only a few
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paintings saved when the Palais Royal burned during the uprising
of the Paris Commune, which means this crosses paths ever
so briefly with that recent podcast on Gustave Courbet. At
that point the painting moved to London before we being
purchased by the National Gallery of Ireland. Because she had
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made connections to so many religious figures in Rome. After
her father Prospero died in sixteen oh three, Lavinia was
invited to move to Rome permanently by Pope Clement the eighth.
She had enjoyed the favor of Pope before him, Pope
Gregory the thirteenth, who had been pope from fifteen seventy
two until his death in fifty five, had been a patron,
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and when Pope Paul the fifth became the two d
thirty third Pope in May of sixteen o five, after
the very brief papacy of Leo the eleventh. He not
only was her patron, but he also gave her the
very prestigious position of portraitist in ordinary i e. The
primary portraitist at the Vatican. Lavinia's largest work was complete
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while she lived in Rome. That was the Martyrdom of St.
Stephen or the Stoning of St. Stephen, which she completed
in sixteen o four for the Basilica of sam Paolo
foury le Mura in Rome. Fortunately we don't have images
of this because the work was lost in a fire
in eighteen twenty three, which destroyed the whole basilica. That means,
(24:08):
the painting The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to
Salomon is Fontana's largest surviving work. It's two hundred fifty
six by five centimeters or eight point four by ten
point seven feet. Fantana was elected to the Roman Academy
of Painters Academia disson Luca. This was rare, not just
for a woman, but it was an honor that wasn't
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given to many male artists either, and this falls in line,
though with her status as the Pope's primary portraitist, as
the papacy was very influential on the Academy's leadership. During
Lavinia's time in Rome, she achieved just an incredible level
of success that any painter, man or woman would have envied.
She was so well regarded that in sixteen eleven, flee
(24:52):
ch Antonio Cassoni, who was a well known sculptor at
the time, honored Fontana with a bronze medal featuring her
m On one side of the metal is a bust
likeness of the artist in profile wearing a veil. The
opposite side of the metal shows her in a very
different way. She sets at her easel, depicted in full figure.
(25:13):
Her hair is loose and wild, and she's painting, and
paint brushes and a palette litter the area around her feet.
An inscription on this side of the metal translates to
through you joyous state I am maintained. In sixteen thirteen,
Fontana completed another nude. This one is titled Minerva Dressing,
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and it features the Roman goddess of Wisdom preparing to
pull on a very very expensive looking garment. She's in
three quarter profile with her head turned to look at
the viewer, and her armor is scattered on the floor St.
Peter's Basilica is visible in the background. Like Mars and Venus,
this one continues to raise the question of whether Fontana
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flouted social moraise to work with a nude model. If
she did, or even if people thought she did, it
didn't really seem to have much of an impact on
her work or her social standing. Lavinia died at the
age of sixty two in Rome on August eleven, six fourteen.
Her three sons, Flaminio, Arazzio and Prospero, which were her
(26:17):
only surviving children, had it noted on her memorial stone
that she had become famous beyond the womanly sphere. So
we have talked about a wide range of painting categories
that Fontana worked in at a time when portraiture was
really considered the appropriate painting style for women. In the
book Women Artists, Their Patrons and their Publics in Early
(26:39):
Modern Bologna, which came out in one author Bubbett Bone
breaks down the number of surviving Fontana works into a
small table by type, based on that fortent were portraits,
were private devotionals, eighteen percent were public devotionals. Mythological and
genre slash landscape painting, each makeup fo and ancient history
(27:02):
makes up just one percent. If you do the mad
there it adds up two one, but that's because all
of the percentages were rounded up, which is notated on
the table. This really speaks to Lavinia's breadth of work,
although portraits were obviously her bread and butter. In eighteen
the National Gallery of Ireland received a grant for a
conservation and research project from the Bank of America Global
(27:25):
Art Conservation Project Fund. That grant was given to help
the museum conserve Fontana's painting the Visit of the Queen
of Sheba to King Solomon, and to conduct deeper research
into Lavinia's life and works. The gallery has had the
painting for a long time. It was acquired in eighteen
seventy two, just eight years after the National Gallery of
(27:45):
Ireland opened. This project did not mark the first conservation efforts,
not biologue shot. Now, this painting has had a lot
of touching years. We mentioned the series of events that
we know transpire to eventually land the painting in Ireland.
When it was rescued from that fire in Paris, it
had been cut from its frame because it is obviously
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too large to have been moved quickly otherwise, so it
was reframed at some point in the late eighteen hundreds.
That frame has also been recently conserved. It has received
reinforcement to the frame to support the way to the painting.
That frame was also carefully cleaned to reveal the really
beautiful gold leaf that was original to the framing. As
varnish was removed from the painting under the supervision of
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conservators Maria Canavan and Latitzia Marcatelli. It revealed the color
and detail of the painting and new and then offered
an opportunity to compare the faces long believed to be
the Duke and Duchess of Mantua. To compare those with
other paintings of the couple, it became apparent that the
likenesses were not as close as had been thought. The
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conservators and researchers believe these images are a closer match
to a different couple, Alfonso the second death Day and
Marguerite to Gonzaga, who were the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara.
In addition to the likeness. To support this theory, the
Duke would have died around the same time the painting
was being completed, and that may account for why it
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doesn't appear on any documentation, it never would have been
delivered to the original commissioner. There's no way to be sure,
but it does make sense this explanation. It also explains
why there are some gaps in the information about its origination.
The conservation work on this piece is really really fascinating,
and it included several stages, each of which of course
(29:35):
had to be completed with incredible care. First, the painting
had to be stabilized, meaning that paint that was pulling
away from the surface had to be adhered back to it,
and the canvas had to be inspected and repaired in
any areas that showed evidence of degradation. Then came that
varnish removal we mentioned just a moment ago. There had
(29:55):
also been some conservation retouching performed in the mid twentieth
century that had discover and over time that had to
be removed as well. The next steps really interesting. It
was a layer of varnish that means that any retouching
that's part of this conservation effort can be removed at
a later date. This will serve as a barrier between
the old and the new pigment to avoid any confusion
(30:18):
in the future. This and all other applications to the
painting are intended to be reversible. The retouching technique used
to fill in areas of the painting where color has
flaked away is also intended to complete the painting without
creating any question of what was original versus what was new.
So this retouched painting is done using tiny dots and lines.
(30:41):
If you're standing back from the painting, it looks complete,
but if you get up really close you can see
that these sections aren't part of the original painting. This
was all part of the research the gallery conducted through
the Lavinia Fontana Conservation and Research Project, and that conservation
has been completed. The painting is back on you now,
which makes me want to go to Ireland soon. Lavinia
(31:02):
Fontana's high profile as one of the first women in
Europe to make a living as an artist has continued
to be important to the discussion of representation equity in
the art world. In February of the National Gallery of
Victoria in Melbourne, Australia acquired one of Lavinia's paintings as
part of an ongoing effort on the part of the
(31:24):
museum to address quote historical gender imbalance. The painting added
to the m GVS collection is Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.
So many paintings. Um I am. I am very very
into her work. Like I said, we're going to talk
(31:46):
about Mars and Venus behind the scenes, okay uh. In
the meantime, I have a listener mail about Evangelista Toricelli,
just from our listener Alyssa, right, Till and Tracy. I've
been meaning to write this email for quite a while now,
but hearing Evangelista Toricelli's name pop up on your episode
on hypertension gave me the push I needed to finally
(32:08):
do it. I'm a PhD candidate in chemistry, which also
means I occasionally teach general chemistry courses. In a very
impressive coincidence, I happened to listen to your episode about
Evangelista Toricelli on the way to campus the day my
students were covering the ideal gas Law. I entered the
room to find a very frustrated group of students. They
had read the next section of the textbook the night before,
(32:31):
and they didn't know why pressure could have such weird
units in the equations, such as millimeters of mercury or
a unit called tour. I knew the reason for the
millimeters of mercury, but I had completely forgotten about Toricelli
being the reason why we also call a millimeter of
mercury a tour. They're exactly the same unit. Telling them
the history behind the naming seemed to really get them
(32:53):
interested in the material, but just more than I can
often say about general chemistry classes. Thanks for helping me
be the cool ta for the day A. My now
husband introduced me to the podcast at the start of
the pandemic, and it has become one of my go
to listening pleasures for my one point five hour commute
to work. That has given me plenty of time to
listen to your current episodes while also working backward to
catch what I've missed over the years. It's been a blast.
(33:15):
Thank you for making my commute much easier. I have
attached photos of my pair of kiddies for your enjoyment
as a good and proper chemist. Their names are Xenon
and Copper year old Torby girl and Copper is my
four year old black Tabby boy. I love them dearly
and hope their antics give you a smile. These cats
are so stink and cute. There's one where they're grooming
(33:35):
each other in front of a window, and it's a
gorgeous little picture, and I may soon want to hug
and kiss their faces. Thank you, my love a little
uh cats grooming each other, It's one of my favorite things.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. A lista. I'm glad
we could help UH make a little more sense for
the day. I wish I had had fun things like
(33:55):
that happened in my chemistry classes when I was younger.
I probably would have chemistry a lot more. I would
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(34:21):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson. We recently,
not too far back, ran our Georgiova Sarry podcast as
a Saturday classic, and today's topic sort of tangentially touches
(00:25):
him on the timeline, not entirely tangential. Prospero Fontana was
a painter in Bologna, Italy in the sixteenth century, and
he was relatively successful because he was skilled and he
worked quickly. He stayed busy with commissions because he just
had a track record for dependability, particularly in fresco work
and portraiture, and he worked for Giorgiova Sarry on a
(00:48):
number of projects. Prospero va Sary is Germane to today's
topic because he was today's topics father. We were talking
about another painter, Prospero's daughter, Lavinia Fontana, so let's get
into it. Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, Italy in
fifteen fifty two. We don't know the exact date she
(01:11):
was born, As we just mentioned, her father was a painter.
Her mother, Antonia Bartolomeo de Bonardes was from a family
that made its fortune in publishing. The Fontana's were not nobles,
but they did live comfortably, and Lavinia's baptismal sponsors were
men from the Bolognese nobility. Lavinia was one of three
(01:33):
children in the family. She had a sister and a
brother named Amelia and Faminio. Both of them died, though
not in their childhood, but when they were young adults.
One had been a teenager and when I think within
their early twenties. Lavinia studied under her father, who was
a leading member of the painters guild in Bologna, and
he worked in the Mannerist style, which is what he
(01:55):
taught Lavinia. He had also taught his other children, Amelia
and Meno, but Lavinia was the one that was just
most naturally gifted at painting. She was educated beyond art.
She was very well educated in mathematics, Latin and music,
as well as her painting classes with her father. Mannerism,
just as a quick refresher, was very popular in sixteenth
(02:18):
century Italy. It originated in Florence, but it wasn't referred
to as mannerism until much later in the eighteenth century.
This period follows right on the heels of work that
was done by da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael and it
shows a move away from the Classicism and naturalistic beauty
(02:39):
that those artists sought to create in their work. Mannerism
is slightly more stylized. Sometimes it can even be bizarre.
It slightly exaggerates otherwise realistic compositions, so that say, Assiter's
limbs might be a little too long or their head
a little too small. Incredible detail in the four ground
(03:00):
is often combined with a really sparse or unrealistically simple background.
As she reached her twenties, Lavinia transitioned into a painting career,
which was an unusual step for a woman in Bologna
in the fifteen seventies. She is often referred to as
the first woman painter in Western Europe to have a
successful career. It's a little more nuanced than that. There
(03:24):
were other women in Italy making a living in the arts,
most famously sofonisba Ala, who was about twenty years older
than Lavinia. These two women are often discussed in tandem
when considering art of the period, and they were also
compared to one another at the time by their contemporaries.
So Fanisba, who could and probably will be her own
episode at some point, was born into the nobility, although
(03:47):
at a low level that did not come with wealth,
and she became a court painter other women artists who
managed to make a living at it before Fontana worked
exclusively at convents creating devotional art. So what sins Lavinia
apart is that she was not noble by birth, and
as she advanced her art career, she made her living
through commissions from a variety of clients. Like her father had,
(04:11):
the groundwork for this career had been laid very carefully
by Prospero. He encouraged clients to commission Lavinia's first professional works.
He had also given away small pieces she painted to
help establish her reputation. So while she was unique as
a professional, she benefited from her father serving as her supporter,
(04:33):
both technically as a painter and as sort of an
early public relations manager. Yeah, he made some other very
significant moves in her life. We'll talk about um. The
first signed work that we know of by Lavinia is
a portrait of a boy from fifty There isn't a
record of who this child was. He is dressed in
(04:53):
rather fancy clothes, so he was likely the son of
a wealthy family. Although it is a very early work,
many of the hallmarks of Lavinia's painting style are already present.
For example, the fabrics of the boy's clothing are rendered
in just incredible detail. The pose is quite formal, the
boy does not look relaxed in his body posture, and
(05:14):
he makes direct eye contact with the viewer. In a
painting estimated to have been created in fifteen seventy five
titled Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine. St. Catherine of Alexandria
is shown having a vision of Christ. There are numerous
works by many artists that have this title or a
similar one that depicts the same basic idea, although sometimes
(05:38):
that St. Catherine of Alexandria and others St. Catherine of
Sienna both show the moment when one or in some
cases rarely both of these women pledged their lives to Christ,
using the framework of marriage that is frequently invoked as
part of describing a woman becoming a nun. In Fontana's
(05:58):
version of this moment, Catherine is shown in a soft
golden yellow gown with a red cape that straped around
her shoulders. She is kneeling with her hands posed as
in prayer before the infant Jesus, who is being held
by his mother Mary and appears to be blessing her.
Above the main scene is an entire secondary group of
angels in the clouds. They are all rendered in very
(06:20):
dreamy pastel's. In February seventies seven, when she was twenty five,
Lavinia married a man named Giovanni Paolo Zappi, often also
named as Jean Paulo. He had been a student under
her father. This marriage was unusual and that although Zappy
was a painter, his work didn't become the priority. It
(06:42):
was quite the opposite. Jean Paulo supported Lavinia's career and
even became her agent. That arrangement is often pointed at
for its progressive and unusual nature, and it was that,
but it was also arranged to be that way by
Lavinia's father, Prospero. Giovanni was the son of a noble.
He was not first in line to inherit, but his
(07:05):
status was going to elevate Lavinia's social rank, so you
might think that the marriage agreement would favor him considerably,
But in fact it laid out some pretty unusual terms. First,
there would be no dowry that was in light of
Lavinia's earnings potential. That was a condition that may have
been stipulated by Prospero because he would have had difficulty
(07:26):
coming up with a sum that would set this new
couple up in a household of their own. He was
in many ways successful, but he still struggled when it
came to managing his money. Second, the couple had to
live with Prospero, who would support them in exchange for
Lavinia continuing to work with him. Basically, Prospero, who saw
his daughter's earning potential, promised the Zoppie family that she
(07:48):
could be the breadwinner. There was also language in the
contract that gian Paolo would also paint, and money that
he brought in would be kind of part of this
family collective. But it appears he was just not really
at the same level of Lavinia, and he stopped trying
to have an art career pretty early on. While this
arrangement undoubtedly benefited Prospero Fontana by keeping his daughter as
(08:11):
his assistant in the long term, it also meant that
she was supported in her artistic career by her spouse
Giovanni handled all our business deals, something that would have
been difficult or impossible for her to do herself as
a woman. He was also a stay at home father
to their children, and they had a lot over the
(08:31):
course of their marriage. They had eleven kids, although sadly
only three of them survived past childhood. We're going to
talk more about Lavinia's painting after we take a quick
break to hear from the sponsors to keep stuff you
missed in history class going. Even before her marriage, Lavinia's
(08:57):
skills as a portraitist were why recognized her father in law,
Severozapi noted her work in a letter that he wrote
her before she and Giovanni were married. Lavinia had sent
him to portraits and he was quite pleased with them.
And in addition to portraits of other people, Lavinia painted
self portraits, so not very many, and those self portraits
(09:18):
offer an interesting window into how she saw herself and
how she presented herself to the world. And as noted
in a piece of writing by Catherine A. Mcgiver, Professor
Emerita of Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
what's really really interesting is that Lavinia did not paint
herself as an artist in her fifteen seventies seven painting
(09:41):
self portrait at the Virginal, which was one of the
portraits she sent to her future father in law. She
seated at a small harpsichord. An attendant is standing behind
her holding a music book. Her painting easel is in
the image, but it's sitting empty in the background, and
she's dressed in layered jeweled clothes that would have been
(10:02):
popular with the nobility of the day and Latin. At
the top left of the image is the note Lavinia,
the unmarried daughter of Prospero Fontana, took this her image
from the mirror seventy seven. Art historians have interpreted this
painting as being Lavinia's assurance to her future relatives that
(10:23):
she's a lady of refinement with a career that can
support her family. As an aside, this was a time
when Bologna was kind of ahead of a lot of
other places in terms of women's education. Women were allowed
to enroll with the university, although they couldn't study all
of the same subjects as men. Law, medicine, and theology
courses were only permitted for male students. But in showing
(10:46):
herself In this portrait with the harpsichord as musically accomplished
and including a Latin inscription, Lavinia was very carefully and
clearly showing her own level of intellect and knowledge, in
line with the culturally held values of education at the time.
In fifteen seventy nine, she painted the Tiny Self Portrait
in the Studiolo, which is a circular portrait six inches
(11:09):
in diameter, showing her in her study. This is a
commissioned piece. Collector Alfonso Calcionio already had a self portrait
of sophonisba Angui Sola, and he wanted one of Lavinia
to go with it. In the portrait, she's wearing fine
court dress with a stiff ruffled collar, and she's seated
(11:29):
at a desk with books and sculptures, holding a pen.
She also wears a large gold cross, and her gaze
is fixed on the viewer, although her head is in
a quarter profile so that she's not actually facing the
viewer directly. In the fifteen eighties, Lavinia became very popular
with women clients in particular. Carlos ces Armaza was a
(11:52):
historian in the seventeenth century who wrote a book on
Bologna's famous artists, and this is often referenced as an
import source when it comes to studying Fontana, although he
wrote it in six seventy eight, which was more than
sixty five years after Lavinia's death, so keep in mind
he does not always have firsthand accounts in it. He writes, quote,
(12:14):
for some time, all the ladies of the city would
compete in wishing to have her close to them, treating
her and embracing her with extraordinary demonstrations of love and respect.
Considering themselves fortunate to have seen her on the street,
or to have meetings in the company of the curious
young woman. The greatest thing they desired would be to
(12:34):
have her paint their portraits, prizing them in such a
way that, in our day no greater prices could be
charged by a van Dyke or justice Susterman's his point
was that this popularity among the ladies of Bologna's upper
class had actually pretty steeply driven up the prices of
Fontana's work. There have been scholars over the years who
(12:55):
have made the case that the fact that Lavinia was
a woman was part of her success with Bologna's women,
because they felt more comfortable sitting for a woman artist,
she clearly became friends with some of them. Several became
godmothers to her children. Before the fifteen eighties, Fontana also
had a lot of clients who were members of the intelligentsia.
(13:17):
Academics of the day often turned to her to capture
their likenesses. But as this increase in demand for fashion
portraits from the society ladies increase, the prices rose too
high for scholars, she painted fewer and fewer portraits of
Italy's great thinkers. There's one woman in particular who's often
(13:38):
seen as the true turning point in Fontana's career, and
that is Laudomia Gozzadina. In four Laudomia commissioned Fontana to
paint her family, and after that the artist popularity rose
very rapidly. That portrait, which is simply called Portrait of
the Gotzdini Family, features Laudomia and her sister Geneva, as
(13:59):
well as their spins. The women are in their wedding gowns.
In the center of the portrait is the sister's father,
Senator Ulisa Gottadina, who died twenty three years before this
painting was created. Laudomia's sister Geneva was also dead when
the painting was commissioned, although she had passed just a
few years before in as Ulsa. Gotzadini had arranged both
(14:21):
of the marriages pictured in the portrait when the girls
were still small children. This sort of appears to be
a representation of the family that he created through those
marriage arrangements. There are additional interpretations of this painting, some
of which are kind of fun that we can talk
about on Friday. This painting is really interesting, both in
composition and in the ways people have interpreted it over
(14:45):
the centuries. There are some obvious elements and tended to
convey meaning each person and it is reaching out to
touch one of the others. Listen. The patriarch has a
hand wrapped around the forearm of the deceased daughter Generva,
indicating their shared status. Additionally, both of the dead members
of the family and the image face to the viewers right,
(15:08):
those who were alive when it was painted face to
the viewers left. The Doomia is stroking a tiny dog
which sits on the table at the center of the image,
and that served as a symbol of devotion. Such dogs
were also very popular among the wealthy of the time,
and Laudomia Gozzadini was one of the women who became
a godmother to one of Lavinia's children. That was a
(15:30):
son named Several. Lavinia's next daughter that was born after Several,
was named Laudomia, presumably after this friend. The Gozzini family
also became very closely intertwined with the finances of Lavinia
and her husband Jampaolo. It appears that they made a
lot more commissions for portraits, as records indicate multiple sums
(15:52):
of money transferring from the Gotzdini family to Lavinia's. There
were many other women with which Lavinia had clothed and
ongoing relationships, both as patrons and as friends, but in
the case of Vadomio Gozzadini we have a lot more
detailed records and most of the others. There are many
portraits painted by Fontana in which the sitter remains unidentified,
(16:14):
but in the case of Gotzedini, there are notations on
the back, particularly of that famous family portrait, as to
each person in the painting, as well as those records
of the financial ties that the two families had. In
addition to the portraits, Fontana was commissioned by many households
to paint religious subjects. She had started doing this early
(16:34):
in her career. There are instances where she signed some
of them with her maiden name, so they we know
that they predate her marriage. One thing of note in
the progression of both subject and tone of her religious
paintings that's been noted by historians is that as Lavinia
matured into life as a mother, her paintings of Mary
(16:55):
and the infant Jesus reflect a sweetness that was unique
among depictions by other artists. In the fifteen eighties, Lavinia
achieved another milestone for women artists. She was the first
woman commissioned to create an altarpiece. She did several of these,
and one such commission came from the Commune of Imola,
which is where her husband was from. The resulting work,
(17:18):
which is titled Assumption of the Virgin, features Sat. Cassian
and St. Peter chrystals. Those are both patron saints of Imola.
The significance of being commissioned for alterpieces is really clear
when you consider time and place. While Bologna wasn't an
epicenter of art patronage in the early part of the
sixteenth century, it was heavily invested in devotional art. One
(17:41):
of Bologna's points of pride was another altarpiece in the
city that had been painted by Raphael in the early
fifteen hundreds, so for Fontana to be commissioned to make
one was a really big deal. We should also note
that there are some altarpieces that remain a little bit
unclear that she has in her her body of work,
(18:01):
that are unclear in terms of their attribution. Because that
was an area where her father, Prospero Fontana, had specialized
and one in which Lavinia often assisted. There have been
a number of questions over the years about how much
either of them worked on each other's commissions and who
should get primary credit, and Prospero was part of the
(18:23):
reason that Lavinia became favored by figures in the church
and ended up with public commissions. Prospero had painted quite
a few works for churches and had long term friendships
and patronages with some of them. In turn, those relationships
helped build similar opportunities for Lavinia. The Archbishop of Bologna,
(18:43):
Cardinal Gabrielle Pelotti, had known Lavinia as she was her
father's assistant, and it was through him that she received
some of her commissions for public devotional paintings. And though
she was born and raised in Bologna and was very
successful there, Lavinia also came celebrated in Rome, and we
will talk about her first visit to that city. After
(19:04):
a sponsor break, Lavinia visited Rome for the first time
in six While she was there, she expanded her client
base to include Cardinal Francisco Patchaco of Spain, which garnered
(19:25):
her a commission for King Philip the Second of Spain,
so very high profile. A subsequent visit to Rome in
six led to a similarly momentous commission when Lavinia was
asked to paint a chapel altarpiece in the city around
though that date is uncertain, Lavinia painted the first of
only a few paintings we know of covering mythological figures.
(19:48):
This painting is Mars and Venus, and it was groundbreaking. First,
this may have been the first time a woman painter,
and certainly one of high stature, took on this genre. Uh,
mythological paintings had always been the domain of men, and
a lot of men have painted Mars and Venus. Second,
the figure of Mars is covered only by a cloth
(20:11):
which wraps around his body at the groin level, and
Venus is totally naked. For a woman, even a woman
painter at the time, it would have been completely scandalous
to paint from referencing a live nude model. We don't
actually know if Livinia ever had nude models, or if
she was painting nudes by referencing the work of male artists. Yeah,
(20:34):
there's also been uh some indication that she said it
was from painting the women she had known in her life, uh,
to to avoid any of that. But it doesn't explain
why she does a nude man quite so perfectly. Uh.
It's um, I love that painting desperately, and I'll talk
a little bit about why and are behind the scenes.
(20:55):
On Friday in she painted the Visit of the Queen
of Sheba to Solomon. If you take a quick look
at this work when you're considering that title, one thing
is blazingly obvious. These are all very white Europeans in
Renaissance dress. Though there is still hardy debate today about
(21:15):
whether the biblical land of Sheba would be in present
day Africa, specifically Ethiopia, or in the Arabian Peninsula. Specifically Yemen.
Many depictions of the Queen of Sheba created by European
artists do definitely whitewash her. There is a little bit
of additional nuance to consider. In the case of Fontana's painting.
It is widely accepted that she created this work as
(21:38):
a sort of portrait allegory, she was casting too contemporary
Italian nobles in the roles of Solomon and the visiting Queen.
There is additional debate about exactly who those Italian nobles are.
The most popular theory for a long time was that
it is Vincenzo the first of Gonzaga and Eleonora de Medici,
(21:59):
who were then Duchess of Mantua in the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries. That aligns with when the painting
was created. However, recent developments have introduced an alternate theory.
We're going to talk about that later in the episode.
Part of the trouble in identifying the models for this
piece is that it doesn't appear in any records until
(22:21):
the seventeen hundreds, when it was noted as being in
Bologna's Palazzo Zambacari. The work was presumably commissioned but there's
no clear evidence as to who may have contracted Leviny
It's to paint it. After that, it traveled to Paris
in eighteen fifty nine and was purchased by Napoleon the
third cousin. Then it was one of only a few
(22:44):
paintings saved when the Palais Royal burned during the uprising
of the Paris Commune, which means this crosses paths ever
so briefly with that recent podcast on Gustave Courbet. At
that point the painting moved to London before we being
purchased by the National Gallery of Ireland. Because she had
(23:04):
made connections to so many religious figures in Rome. After
her father Prospero died in sixteen oh three, Lavinia was
invited to move to Rome permanently by Pope Clement the eighth.
She had enjoyed the favor of Pope before him, Pope
Gregory the thirteenth, who had been pope from fifteen seventy
two until his death in fifty five, had been a patron,
(23:26):
and when Pope Paul the fifth became the two d
thirty third Pope in May of sixteen o five, after
the very brief papacy of Leo the eleventh. He not
only was her patron, but he also gave her the
very prestigious position of portraitist in ordinary i e. The
primary portraitist at the Vatican. Lavinia's largest work was complete
(23:46):
while she lived in Rome. That was the Martyrdom of St.
Stephen or the Stoning of St. Stephen, which she completed
in sixteen o four for the Basilica of sam Paolo
foury le Mura in Rome. Fortunately we don't have images
of this because the work was lost in a fire
in eighteen twenty three, which destroyed the whole basilica. That means,
(24:08):
the painting The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to
Salomon is Fontana's largest surviving work. It's two hundred fifty
six by five centimeters or eight point four by ten
point seven feet. Fantana was elected to the Roman Academy
of Painters Academia disson Luca. This was rare, not just
for a woman, but it was an honor that wasn't
(24:29):
given to many male artists either, and this falls in line,
though with her status as the Pope's primary portraitist, as
the papacy was very influential on the Academy's leadership. During
Lavinia's time in Rome, she achieved just an incredible level
of success that any painter, man or woman would have envied.
She was so well regarded that in sixteen eleven, flee
(24:52):
ch Antonio Cassoni, who was a well known sculptor at
the time, honored Fontana with a bronze medal featuring her
m On one side of the metal is a bust
likeness of the artist in profile wearing a veil. The
opposite side of the metal shows her in a very
different way. She sets at her easel, depicted in full figure.
(25:13):
Her hair is loose and wild, and she's painting, and
paint brushes and a palette litter the area around her feet.
An inscription on this side of the metal translates to
through you joyous state I am maintained. In sixteen thirteen,
Fontana completed another nude. This one is titled Minerva Dressing,
(25:34):
and it features the Roman goddess of Wisdom preparing to
pull on a very very expensive looking garment. She's in
three quarter profile with her head turned to look at
the viewer, and her armor is scattered on the floor St.
Peter's Basilica is visible in the background. Like Mars and Venus,
this one continues to raise the question of whether Fontana
(25:55):
flouted social moraise to work with a nude model. If
she did, or even if people thought she did, it
didn't really seem to have much of an impact on
her work or her social standing. Lavinia died at the
age of sixty two in Rome on August eleven, six fourteen.
Her three sons, Flaminio, Arazzio and Prospero, which were her
(26:17):
only surviving children, had it noted on her memorial stone
that she had become famous beyond the womanly sphere. So
we have talked about a wide range of painting categories
that Fontana worked in at a time when portraiture was
really considered the appropriate painting style for women. In the
book Women Artists, Their Patrons and their Publics in Early
(26:39):
Modern Bologna, which came out in one author Bubbett Bone
breaks down the number of surviving Fontana works into a
small table by type, based on that fortent were portraits,
were private devotionals, eighteen percent were public devotionals. Mythological and
genre slash landscape painting, each makeup fo and ancient history
(27:02):
makes up just one percent. If you do the mad
there it adds up two one, but that's because all
of the percentages were rounded up, which is notated on
the table. This really speaks to Lavinia's breadth of work,
although portraits were obviously her bread and butter. In eighteen
the National Gallery of Ireland received a grant for a
conservation and research project from the Bank of America Global
(27:25):
Art Conservation Project Fund. That grant was given to help
the museum conserve Fontana's painting the Visit of the Queen
of Sheba to King Solomon, and to conduct deeper research
into Lavinia's life and works. The gallery has had the
painting for a long time. It was acquired in eighteen
seventy two, just eight years after the National Gallery of
(27:45):
Ireland opened. This project did not mark the first conservation efforts,
not biologue shot. Now, this painting has had a lot
of touching years. We mentioned the series of events that
we know transpire to eventually land the painting in Ireland.
When it was rescued from that fire in Paris, it
had been cut from its frame because it is obviously
(28:08):
too large to have been moved quickly otherwise, so it
was reframed at some point in the late eighteen hundreds.
That frame has also been recently conserved. It has received
reinforcement to the frame to support the way to the painting.
That frame was also carefully cleaned to reveal the really
beautiful gold leaf that was original to the framing. As
varnish was removed from the painting under the supervision of
(28:30):
conservators Maria Canavan and Latitzia Marcatelli. It revealed the color
and detail of the painting and new and then offered
an opportunity to compare the faces long believed to be
the Duke and Duchess of Mantua. To compare those with
other paintings of the couple, it became apparent that the
likenesses were not as close as had been thought. The
(28:52):
conservators and researchers believe these images are a closer match
to a different couple, Alfonso the second death Day and
Marguerite to Gonzaga, who were the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara.
In addition to the likeness. To support this theory, the
Duke would have died around the same time the painting
was being completed, and that may account for why it
(29:13):
doesn't appear on any documentation, it never would have been
delivered to the original commissioner. There's no way to be sure,
but it does make sense this explanation. It also explains
why there are some gaps in the information about its origination.
The conservation work on this piece is really really fascinating,
and it included several stages, each of which of course
(29:35):
had to be completed with incredible care. First, the painting
had to be stabilized, meaning that paint that was pulling
away from the surface had to be adhered back to it,
and the canvas had to be inspected and repaired in
any areas that showed evidence of degradation. Then came that
varnish removal we mentioned just a moment ago. There had
(29:55):
also been some conservation retouching performed in the mid twentieth
century that had discover and over time that had to
be removed as well. The next steps really interesting. It
was a layer of varnish that means that any retouching
that's part of this conservation effort can be removed at
a later date. This will serve as a barrier between
the old and the new pigment to avoid any confusion
(30:18):
in the future. This and all other applications to the
painting are intended to be reversible. The retouching technique used
to fill in areas of the painting where color has
flaked away is also intended to complete the painting without
creating any question of what was original versus what was new.
So this retouched painting is done using tiny dots and lines.
(30:41):
If you're standing back from the painting, it looks complete,
but if you get up really close you can see
that these sections aren't part of the original painting. This
was all part of the research the gallery conducted through
the Lavinia Fontana Conservation and Research Project, and that conservation
has been completed. The painting is back on you now,
which makes me want to go to Ireland soon. Lavinia
(31:02):
Fontana's high profile as one of the first women in
Europe to make a living as an artist has continued
to be important to the discussion of representation equity in
the art world. In February of the National Gallery of
Victoria in Melbourne, Australia acquired one of Lavinia's paintings as
part of an ongoing effort on the part of the
(31:24):
museum to address quote historical gender imbalance. The painting added
to the m GVS collection is Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.
So many paintings. Um I am. I am very very
into her work. Like I said, we're going to talk
(31:46):
about Mars and Venus behind the scenes, okay uh. In
the meantime, I have a listener mail about Evangelista Toricelli,
just from our listener Alyssa, right, Till and Tracy. I've
been meaning to write this email for quite a while now,
but hearing Evangelista Toricelli's name pop up on your episode
on hypertension gave me the push I needed to finally
(32:08):
do it. I'm a PhD candidate in chemistry, which also
means I occasionally teach general chemistry courses. In a very
impressive coincidence, I happened to listen to your episode about
Evangelista Toricelli on the way to campus the day my
students were covering the ideal gas Law. I entered the
room to find a very frustrated group of students. They
had read the next section of the textbook the night before,
(32:31):
and they didn't know why pressure could have such weird
units in the equations, such as millimeters of mercury or
a unit called tour. I knew the reason for the
millimeters of mercury, but I had completely forgotten about Toricelli
being the reason why we also call a millimeter of
mercury a tour. They're exactly the same unit. Telling them
the history behind the naming seemed to really get them
(32:53):
interested in the material, but just more than I can
often say about general chemistry classes. Thanks for helping me
be the cool ta for the day A. My now
husband introduced me to the podcast at the start of
the pandemic, and it has become one of my go
to listening pleasures for my one point five hour commute
to work. That has given me plenty of time to
listen to your current episodes while also working backward to
catch what I've missed over the years. It's been a blast.
(33:15):
Thank you for making my commute much easier. I have
attached photos of my pair of kiddies for your enjoyment
as a good and proper chemist. Their names are Xenon
and Copper year old Torby girl and Copper is my
four year old black Tabby boy. I love them dearly
and hope their antics give you a smile. These cats
are so stink and cute. There's one where they're grooming
(33:35):
each other in front of a window, and it's a
gorgeous little picture, and I may soon want to hug
and kiss their faces. Thank you, my love a little
uh cats grooming each other, It's one of my favorite things.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. A lista. I'm glad
we could help UH make a little more sense for
the day. I wish I had had fun things like
(33:55):
that happened in my chemistry classes when I was younger.
I probably would have chemistry a lot more. I would
like to write to us. You can do so at
History podcast at iHeart radio dot com. You can also
find us on social media as Missed in History, and
you can subscribe to the podcast on the I heart
Radio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(34:21):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
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Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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