THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
This Century rich in great Painters.--Not poor in female
Artists.--Memorable Period both in Poetry and Painting.--Fruits
of the Labor of preceding Century now discernible.--Female
Disciples in all the Schools of Italian Art.--Superiority of the
Bolognese School.--Properzia Rossi.--Her Beauty and finished
Education.--Carving on Peach-stones.--Her Sculptures.--The famous
Bas-relief of Potiphar’s Wife.--Properzia’s unhappy Love.--Slander and
Persecution.--Her Works and Fame.--Visit of the Pope.--Properzia’s
Death.--Traditional Story.--Isabella Mazzoni a Sculptor.--A female
Fresco Painter.--Sister Plautilla.--Her Works for her Convent
Church.--Other Works.--Women Painters of the Roman School.--Teodora
Danti.--Female Engravers.--Diana Ghisi.--Irene di Spilimberg.--Her
Education in Venice.--Titian’s Portrait of her.--Tasso’s Sonnet
in her Praise.--Poetical Tributes on her Death.--Her Works and
Merits.--Vincenza Armani.--Marietta Tintoretto.--Her Beauty and
musical Accomplishments.--Excursions in Boy’s Attire with her
Father.--Her Portraits.--They become “the Rage.”--Invitation from
the Emperor.--From Philip of Spain.--The Father’s Refusal.--Her
Marriage and Death.--Portrait of her.--Women Artists of Northern
Italy.--Barbara Longhi and others.--The Nuns of Genoa.
The sixteenth century, rich beyond precedent in great men, was not
poor in female artists whose works are worthy of notice. Both in
poetry and painting the period was memorable and glorious. The labors
of the preceding age had promoted civilization and education in moral
and mental acquirements, the fruits of which were discernible even
in Germany, while in Italy the harvest was most abundant. The period
produced Victoria Colonna, Veronica Gambara, Gaspara Stampa, and other
women of literary eminence; while the works in art of Michael Angelo,
Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, etc., became monuments for the
admiration of succeeding generations. Dr. Guhl aptly remarks, “The
fifteenth century was the time of work; the sixteenth the season of
harvest.”
None of the numerous schools of Italian art were without female
disciples. The Bolognese rose above all others, and at this period gave
laws to art. Here we find
PROPERZIA, THE SCULPTRESS.
The first woman who gained reputation as a sculptor in Italy was
Properzia di Rossi. She was born in Bologna in 1490, and possessed
not only remarkable beauty of person, with all the graces a finished
education could graft upon a refined nature, but various feminine
accomplishments, excelling particularly, Vasari tells us, in her
orderly disposal of household matters. She sang and played on several
instruments “better than any woman of her day in Bologna,” while in
many scientific studies she gained a distinction “well calculated,”
says the Italian historian, “to awaken the envy not of women only,
but also of men.” This maiden of rich gifts was endowed with a
peculiar facility in realizing the creations of fancy, and took at
first a strange way of doing so. She undertook the minute carving of
peach-stones, and succeeded so well as to render credible what had
been recorded of two sculptors of antiquity. Mirmecide is said to
have carved a chariot drawn by four horses, with the charioteer, so
small that a fly with his wings spread covered the whole. Callicrate
sculptured ants with the minutest exactness. Properzia carved on a
peach-stone the crucifixion of our Saviour; a work comprising a number
of figures--executioners, disciples, women, and soldiers--wonderful
for the delicate execution of the minutest figures, and the admirable
distribution of all. A series of her intaglios is in the possession of
Count Grassi of Bologna. In a double-headed eagle, in silver filagree
(the Grassi coat of arms), are imbedded eleven peach-stones, and on
each is carved, on one side, one of the eleven apostles, each with an
article of the creed underneath; on the other, eleven holy virgins with
the name of the saint on each, and a motto explanatory of her special
virtue. In the cabinet of gems in the gallery of Florence is preserved
a cherry-stone on which is carved a chorus of saints in which seventy
heads may be counted.
It was not long before Properzia began to think, with those who
witnessed her success, that it was a pity to throw away so much labor
on a nut! At that time the façade of San Petronio, in Bologna, was
being ornamented with sculpture and bas-relief. The young girl had
studied drawing under Antonio Raimondi, and when the three doors of
the principal façade were to be decorated with marble figures she made
application to the superintendents for a share in the works. She was
required to furnish a specimen of her talent. The young sculptress
executed a bust from life, in the finest marble, of Count Alessandro
de’ Pepoli; this pleased the family and the whole city, and procured
immediate orders from the superintendents.
The one of her productions which has become most celebrated is a
bas-relief, in white marble, of Potiphar’s wife seeking to detain
Joseph by holding his garment. The perfection of the drawing, the
grace of the action, and the emotion that breathes from the whole
face and form, obtained high praise for this performance. Vasari
calls it “a lovely picture, sculptured with womanly grace, and more
than admirable.” But envy took occasion to make this monument of
Properzia’s genius a reproach to her memory. It was reported that she
was profoundly in love with a young nobleman, Anton Galeazzo Malvasia,
who cared little for her; and that she depicted her own unhappy passion
in the beautiful creation of her chisel. It was probably true that her
life was imbittered by this unreturned love. One of her countrymen
says the proud patrician disdained to own as his wife one who bore a
less ancient name; and that he failed in his attempt to persuade her
to become his on less honorable terms. Professional jealousy aided in
the attempt to depress the pining artist. Amico Albertini, with several
men artists, commenced a crusade against her, and slandered her to the
superintendents with such effect that the wardens refused to pay the
proper price for her labors on the façade. Even her alto-relief was not
allowed to have its appointed place. Properzia had no heart to contend
against this unmanly persecution; she never attempted any other work
for the building, and the grief to which she was abandoned gradually
sapped the springs of life.
There are two angels in bas-relief, exquisitely sculptured by her, in
the church of San Petronio; and another work by her hand, representing
the Queen of Sheba in the presence of Solomon, is preserved in what
is called “the revered chamber.” Other works of hers have been
pronounced to be in the highest taste. She is said to have furnished
some admirable plans in architecture. In copper-plate engraving she
succeeded to admiration, and many of her pen-and-ink etchings from
Raphael’s works obtained the highest praise. “With this poor loving
girl,” Vasari says, “every thing succeeded save her unhappy passion.”
The fame of her noble genius spread throughout Italy; and Pope Clement
VII., having come to Bologna to officiate at the coronation of the
Emperor Charles V., inquired for the fair sculptress of whom he had
heard such marvelous things. Alas! she had died that very week--on the
14th of February, 1530--and her remains had been buried, according to
her last request, in the Hospital della Morte. She was lamented by
her fellow-citizens, who held her to have been one of the greatest
miracles of nature. But what availed posthumous praises to the victim
of injustice and calumny?
A story has been told of an interview between Properzia and the Pope;
that, declining his offer to settle her in Rome, she knelt to take
leave, when her veil falling disclosed a face of unearthly beauty, sad
enough to move the pontiff’s sympathy. But it is more probable that she
died before his coming.
SISTER PLAUTILLA AND OTHERS.
Isabella Mazzoni was also known at this period as a sculptor. We
hear, too, of Maria Calavrese, who painted in fresco; and Plautilla
Nelli--Suor Plautilla, as she is usually called--deserves more than a
passing mention. Lanzi tells us she was of a noble Florentine family,
and born in 1523. She had no assistance in developing her remarkable
talent but her study of the designs of Fra Bartolomeo, one of the best
masters of the Florentine school. She became a nun of the Dominican
convent of St. Catherine of Sienna in Florence, and having acquired
considerable reputation by her skill in painting, finished for the
church a Descent from the Cross, said to be from a design by Andrea
del Sarto; and a picture of her own composition, the Adoration of the
Magi--a work that won great praise. In the first may be noticed the
same purity of contour, the same harmony of light and shade, grace of
drapery, and confident repose that characterize the works of Andrea.
In the choir of the Convent of Santa Lucia, at Pistoja, was her large
picture of the Madonna holding the child, surrounded by saints; and
in the convent at Florence a large painting of the Last Supper. We
do not attempt to enumerate the works credited to her, including her
copies of the best masters, particularly Fra Bartolomeo, whom it was
not easy to imitate, since he was superior to Raphael in color, and
rivaled Vinci in chiaro-oscuro. Some pictures in Berlin, attributed to
her, are marked by his purity and careful execution, with his depth
and earnestness. She was also a miniature painter. She was prioress of
the convent, and lived to the age of sixty-five. One of her successful
pupils was Agatha Traballesi.
There were no noted women painters of the Roman school, but we may
mention Teodora Danti, who painted several pictures of interiors after
the style of Perugino. The heads of her figures were remarkable for
grace, and she had much ease of action and freshness of coloring, but
there was a certain dryness in the forms and poverty in the drapery.
The wife of the famous engraver, Mare Antonio Raimondi, also engraved
on copper; and Diana Ghisi copied in her engravings works both of
Raphael and Giulio Romano. Vasari says of her: “She engraves so
admirably, the thing is a perfect miracle. For my own part, who have
seen herself--and a very pleasing and graceful maiden she is--as well
as her works, which are most exquisite, I have been utterly astonished
thereby.”
IRENE DI SPILIMBERG.
A bright example, and the pride of the Venetian school in her day, was
Irene di Spilimberg, born at Udina in 1540, of a noble and illustrious
family, originally of German origin. She exercised her art at its most
flourishing period. She was educated in Venice, surrounded by all
the luxury of external and intellectual life, and she had Titian for
her master. Her fame, however, rests rather on the testimony of her
contemporaries than on her own works. Titian, ever alive to female
loveliness and artistic merit, has immortalized her by a beautiful
portrait; and Tasso has celebrated her charms in one of his sonnets.
She died in the opening of her blossom of fame, in the flush of youth
and beauty, having scarcely attained the age of nineteen. Her death was
deplored in poems and orations, a collection of which was published in
Venice twenty years after the event, to set forth the splendid promise
which the destroyer had thus untimely nipped.
Among her works still extant are the Bacchanals in Monte Albedo, and
small pictures from religious subjects said to be in the possession of
the Maniago family. Lanzi remarks: “The drawing is careless, but the
coloring is worthy of the best age of art. We see the reflected rays
of her great master’s glory, the soft yet rapid gradations of tint,
the clear touches, the repeated applications of color, which give a
veiled transparency to the tints; the judicious grouping, the combined
majesty and grace in the figures, which constitute some of the merits
of Titian.” Irene is said to have been a woman of the highest mental
culture. Rudolphi includes her among the few women artists he mentions.
The sixteenth century was not only remarkable for the production of
talent, but for its recognition. Another artist belonging to the
Venetian school was Vincenza Armani, who was accomplished in engraving
and modeling in wax, and was also celebrated as a poet and musician.
MARIETTA TINTORETTO.
Marietta Robusti, the daughter and pupil of the great painter
Tintoretto--him who was called “the thunder of art,” and excelled
in the powerful and terrible--was born in 1560. She had a lively
disposition and great enthusiasm; she was very beautiful in person, had
a fine voice, and was an accomplished performer on the lute and other
instruments. It is no wonder that she was the object of her father’s
pride and affections. She accompanied him every where, dressed as a
boy; and he developed her genius for art less by precept than by the
living example of his own labor. His pictures nourished and fertilized
her imagination, and, step by step, she followed him faithfully.
Whether he labored at his models or studied the antique statues, or
casts from Michael Angelo, the coloring of Titian or the nude figure,
she was by his side. She noted his first sketch in the feverish moment
of creation, and watched the progress of its execution. His marvelous
freedom in handling the brush, his strength and precision in drawing
and richness of coloring became hers. She learned his secret of
giving proportion and unity to many figures, and the difficult art of
foreshortening; then, after copying his pictures, she could say, “I,
too, am an artist.” She chose the kind of painting suited to her sex.
Historical pieces demanded too much study and application, and it was
wearying to design nude figures in imitation of the antique. Portrait
painting was easier, and promised more immediate results.
Her first portrait was that of Marco dei Vescovi. It was greatly
admired, particularly the beard, and some ventured to say she had
equaled her father. Ere long she became famous, and it was all the rage
among the Venetian aristocracy to be painted by Marietta. Her father
was in raptures at her astonishing progress and success.
Jacopo Strada, antiquarian to the Emperor Maximilian, had his portrait
taken by her, and gave it as a curiosity to his imperial master. This,
and one she painted of herself, gained her a great reputation. The
emperor placed them in his chamber, and invited her to be the artist
of his court. The same proposition was made to her by Philip II. of
Spain and the Archduke Ferdinand. She was a dutiful daughter and
obeyed the wishes of Tintoretto, who refused to part with her, even
that she might grace a court. To secure her against the acceptance of
such alluring offers, he bestowed her hand on Mario Augusti, a wealthy
German jeweler, on the condition that she should remain under the
paternal roof. She completed several original designs and painted many
portraits. Her exquisite taste, her soft and gentle touch, and her
skill in coloring were remarkable, both in works of her own invention
and those due to her father’s genius.
Tintoretto was not destined long to rejoice in the progress of his
lovely daughter. In the flower of her age, in 1590, she departed this
life, leaving her husband and father mourners for the rest of their
days. She was buried in the church of Santa Maria dell’ Orto. Another
artist made a picture of Tintoretto transferring to the canvas the
features of his child, still beautiful in death. Several of her works
are in Venice. One, at the Palais Royale, represents a man in black,
sitting, his hand on an open book lying on a table, where is also an
escritoir with papers, a watch, and crucifix.
Decampes has published an engraving of Marietta’s portrait. The
expression is very soft and meek; a braid of hair encircles the top of
her head, and a rouleau is put back from the forehead. A handkerchief
is crossed on the bosom, and around her neck is a string of large beads.
Some fair artists of the schools of northern Italy deserve mention.
Vasari speaks of Barbara, daughter of the painter Lucas Longhi, of
Ravenna, as possessing great talent. In Genoa, Tommasa Fiesca was known
as a painter and engraver, as well as a writer of mystical tracts. She
and her sister Helen were Dominican nuns, and died in 1534.