Lavinia Fontana

Lavinia Fontana (24 August 1552 – 11 August 1614) was an Italian Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious painting. She was trained by her father, Prospero Fontana. She is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe, as she relied on commissions for her income. Her family relied on her career as a painter, and her husband served as her agent and raised their 11 children. She was perhaps the first female artist to paint female nudes, but this is a topic of controversy among art historians.

Biography

Education and career in Bologna

Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna in 1552 to Antonia de' Bonardis and Prospero Fontana. She was baptized on 24 August 1552, at the cathedral of San Pietro. Her elder sister Emilia died in 1568 when Lavinia was sixteen. Prospero was a prominent painter of the School of Bologna and served as her teacher. Caroline P. Murphy suspects that financial issues may have prompted Prospero to train Lavinia as a painter. She later studied under the Netherlandish artist Denis Calvaert, who had once been a pupil of Prospero and who ran an influential painting school in Bologna.

Being the daughter of a painter allowed Fontana to become an artist in a time where female artists were not widely accepted, and Bolognese society at large was supportive of Fontana's artistic career, providing opportunities and connections that were not available to women in other locales. She began her commercial practice by painting small devotional paintings on copper, which had popular appeal as papal and diplomatic gifts, given the value and lustre of the metal. Instead of offering a dowry as would have been widely accepted in this time, Fontana painted to earn an income. The couple moved into Prospero's house in Bologna and Lavinia added Zappi to her signature. She gave birth to 11 children, though only 3 outlived her: Flaminio, Orazio, and Prospero. Zappi took care of the household and served as an agent and painting assistant to his wife, including painting minor elements of paintings such as draperies. Fontana attended classes at the University of Bologna, and was listed as one of the city's Donne addottrinate (women with doctorates) in 1580.

In the 1580s, she gained renown as a portraitist of Bolognese noblewomen, who competed for her services. The high demand for portraits painted by Fontana was reflected in the large sums of money she earned during this period. Her relationships with female clients were often unusually warm; multiple women who sat for portraits, such as Costanza Sforza, Duchess of Sora, later served as namesakes or godmothers for Fontana's children.

File:Tognina.jpg|Portrait of Antonietta Gonsalvus, daughter of Petrus Gonsalvus, 1595, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Blois.

File:Lavinia Fontana - Portrait of a Lady with a Dog - Google Art Project.jpg|Portrait of a lady with a dog, 1590s, Auckland Art Gallery.

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Roman period (1603–14)

thumb|upright|Assunzione della Vergine, 1593, [[Pieve di Cento, Collegiata di Santa Maria Maggiore, Bologna.]]

Fontana and her family moved to Rome in 1604 at the invitation of Pope Clement VIII. She gained the patronage of the House of Boncompagni, of which Pope Gregory XIII was a member. She was subsequently appointed as Portraitist in Ordinary at the Vatican. Fontana thrived in Rome as she had in Bologna and Pope Paul V was among her sitters.

Along with portraits, Fontana created a substantial number of extensive altar pieces, and it is believed that she may be one of the first female painters to have done this. Fontana followed Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti's Counter-Reformation principles in art theory. In 1593, Cardinal Paleotti commissioned the Assumption of the Virgin, created by Fontana for the chapel altarpiece of Bologna Cathedral. Fontana painted another Assumption of the Virgin in 1593 at the church of San Francesco Oltre Reno at Pieve di Cento, which was commissioned by the Bentivoglio family and placed in the family chapel.

Fontana also produced paintings on mythological allegorical themes, sometimes "highly sensuous paintings with female nude figures—an unheard-of and risky venture which to date no female artist had permitted herself to attempt." and was the recipient of numerous honors, According to Jean Owens Schaefer, the reverse side of the medal depicts Pittura, an allegorical figure representing painting. He also posits that this is the first visual rendition of Cesare Ripa's 1603 description of Pittura.

She died in the city of Rome on 11 August 1614, at the age of 61, and was buried at Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Artistic influences, style

thumb|Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Her Children, c. 1604–5, [[Legion of Honor (museum)|Legion of Honor, San Francisco.]]

Fontana's youthful style resembled that of her father, Prospero. As a student of Ludovico Carracci, she gradually adopted the Carracciesque style, with strong quasi-Venetian colouring.

The Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent's recommendations for religious art defined Fontana's treatment of subjects and themes in her paintings. Excellent status as a daughter, wife, and mother was a prerequisite to her career due to the moral standards of the day.

The influence of Mannerism is noticeable in Fontana's close attention to detail in her paintings and the significance of the materials surrounding the subject. Her close attention to detail displayed the wealth of the sitter, which made her popular among the rich.

Fontana's self-portraiture strikes a balance between presenting the artist as a distinguished lady and as a professional artist. This depiction of two coexisting roles was common for sixteenth-century women artists.

Legacy

thumb|right|upright|Self-Portrait at the Virginal with a Servant, 1577, [[Accademia di San Luca, Rome.]]

Fontana has been called "the most significant and prolific female artist of the 16th century."

Fontana's mythology paintings with nude figures are being increasingly studied by art historians. Roman gods such as Minerva, Mars, and Venus are depicted in various forms of undress in these paintings. There is little or no evidence that contemporary women artists depicted nude figures in such a way. It has been said that Fontana's depictions of mythology may be the first involvement of a female artist in the genre. Fontana "excelled in composing a new theme for female painters of her time to follow, that is, the depiction of mythological subjects, in particular the portrayal of nude female figures, as seen in her nude Minervas and Venuses. Fontana's new genre paved the way for Artemisia Gentileschi's depictions of female nudes in the seventeenth century.

Fontana influenced Alberto de' Rossi and Alessandro Tiarini. Aurelio Bonelli may have studied under her.

Controversy

thumb|upright|[[Minerva Dressing, 1613, Galleria Borghese, Rome.]]

Nudity

Among art historians, there is a controversy regarding the means and models used by Fontana to depict male and female nudes in her paintings. Linda Nochlin writes that art academies barred women from viewing any nude body, despite this being a crucial part of an artist's training.

In museums

thumb|Two paintings of Lavinia Fontana exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts: Portrait of Costanza Alidosi and Marriage Portrait of a Bolognese Noblewoman.

Self-Portrait at the Virginal with a Servant, 1577 – Accademia di San Luca, Rome
Portrait of a Noblewoman, – National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Portrait of a Couple, 1580–1585 – Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
The Dead Christ with Symbols, 1581 – Cornell Fine Arts Museum,