THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
New Ground presented for Progress.--Greater Diversity of
Style.--Naturalism.--The Caracci instrumental in giving to
Painting the Impetus of Reform.--Their Academy.--One opened
by a Milanese Lady.--The learned Poetess and her hundredth
Birthday.--Female Painters and Engravers.--Lavinia Fontana.--The
hasty Judgment.--Lavinia a Pupil of Caracci.--Character of her
Pictures.--Honors paid to her.--Courted by Royalty.--Her Beauty and
Suitors.--A romantic Lover.--Lavinia’s Paintings.--Close of the
Period of the Christian Ideal in Art.--Lavinia’s _Chef-d’Œuvre_.--Her
Children.--Professional Honors.--Her Death.--Female Disciples
of the Caracci School.--Pupils of Domenichino, Lanfranco, and
Guido Reni.--The churlish Guercino a Despiser of Women.--The
Cardinal’s Niece and Heiress.--Her great Paintings.--Founds
a Cloister.--Artemisia Gentileschi, a Pupil of Guido.--Her
Portraits.--Visit to England.--Favor with Charles I.--Luxurious Abode
in Naples.--Her Correspondence.--Judgment of her Pictures.--Elisabetta
Sirani.--Her artistic Character.--Her household Life.--Industry
and Modesty.--Her Virtues and Graces.--Envious Artists.--Defeat of
Calumny.--Her mysterious Fate.--Conjectures respecting it.--Funeral
Obsequies.--Her principal Works.--Her Influence on female
Artists.--Her Pupils.--Other Women Artists of Bologna.
In the seventeenth century the elements of disturbance had in part
subsided, and new ground was presented for the progress of human
intellect. A certain uniformity in art, which was the consequence of a
close academical imitation of the old masters, gave place to a greater
diversity of style, and, in some instances, to a vigorous and somewhat
rude naturalism. The Naturalisti were so called on account of their
predilection for the direct imitation of the common forms and aspects
of nature. Passion was their inspiration, and their imitation was too
often carried to excess, presenting what might be termed the poetry of
the repulsive.
A new spirit of inquiry and a feeling of self-reliance had entered
the popular mind that did not fail to influence the progress both of
literature and art. The masters who were most strikingly instrumental
in giving to painting the impetus of reform were Ludovico, Augustin,
and Annibal Caracci. Amid many difficulties they opened an academy in
their native city, Bologna, where art was taught on the principles then
esteemed essential. In its theoretical and practical departments a
goodly number of students were there permitted to profit by the works
of the early masters. The good example was soon followed, and we hear
of a Milanese lady opening her house for an academy.
Arcangela Palladini excelled in painting, poetry, music, and
embroidery. A piece of her needle-work hung in the ducal gallery at
Pisa, where none but great works were preserved. Beatrice Pappafava, a
paintress, was also a learned lady, and is said to have celebrated her
own hundredth birthday in an original sonnet of much merit. Caterina
Rusca obtained some repute as an engraver on copper; and Augusta
Tarabotti, who studied painting under the direction of Clara Varotari,
was also a poet and the author of “An Apology for the Female Sex,”
which was received with considerable attention. Fede Galizia, the
daughter of a celebrated miniaturist, lived in Milan. In figures and
landscapes she evinced taste, accuracy, and finish. She was devoted to
the ideal, and this tendency appeared in her design and coloring.
LAVINIA FONTANA.
One among the female artists who adopted the style of the Caracci and
helped to introduce a change in art was Lavinia Fontana, one of the
most celebrated women of the century. She was the daughter of that
Prospero Fontana who gave lessons in painting to Ludovico Caracci,
and was wont much to disparage him. He once remarked that his scholar
would do better at mixing colors than as a painter! But Caracci had
his revenge in after years, when Fontana was heard to lament that
he was too old to become the pupil of the great artist who had once
been his own despised scholar! The instruction he could not receive
was the privilege of his daughter Lavinia, who was born in Bologna in
1552. She adopted her father’s manner, and gained great celebrity in
portrait painting; but, in later years, became the disciple of Caracci,
after which she succeeded in giving her pictures so much softness,
sweetness, and tenderness, that some of them have even been compared
to those of Guido Reni. To delicacy of touch she united rare skill
in taking likenesses. Her talents met with appreciation and honors
not often accorded to female merit. The first ladies in Rome sought
to become her sitters, and the greatest cardinals deemed themselves
fortunate in having their portraits executed by her skillful hand. Her
portraits were so highly esteemed that they commanded enormous prices,
and were displayed with pride in the galleries of the nobility and
the most cultivated persons in the land. Her services were engaged
by Pope Gregory XIII. as his painter in ordinary; and she worked for
the Buoncompagni family. Other crowned heads sought her society, and
the most wondrous grace of all was that these honors did not create
in her vanity or self-conceit. To her accomplishments she added such
personal attractions that her hand was sought by many distinguished
and titled suitors; but she preferred to them all a young man unknown
to fame, Giovanni Paolo Zappi, of Imola. Some authorities speak of him
as a wealthy nobleman. He had painted in her father’s studio for love
of the charming daughter, and had been accustomed to paint the clothes
in her portraits so well that she had made concerning him the not very
flattering observation, that “he was worth more as a tailor than a
painter.” He was rewarded by marrying her, the condition being exacted
that Lavinia should remain free to follow her professional career.
Besides portraits, she produced several compositions on sacred
subjects; some church pictures now in Bologna, and some on worldly
themes, as the picture of Venus in the Berlin Museum. In her later
works, after her lessons with Caracci, she acquired a softness and
warmth of coloring that remind one of the masters of the Venetian
school. One of her productions--Saint Francis de Paula raising a dead
person--preserved in the Pinacothek of Bologna--has been noticed for
this. Of her pictures besides are the Crucifixion, the Miracle of the
Loaves, and the Annunciation. These were for churches of Bologna.
Lavinia lived at the close of what was peculiarly the period of
Christian art, and it seems just to place her among the artists who
labored while the Christian ideal, in all its splendor, was yet above
the horizon. On this period Raphael and Michael Angelo had set their
seal, and the Christian ideal was exhausted in the Transfiguration,
and the frescoes of the Sistine chapel; they could not be surpassed.
One of Lavinia’s works--the Nativity of the Virgin, at nighttime--is
still exhibited in her native city. The infant Mary is surrounded by
a cloud of angels, and a saint is pointing to two children below. A
figure in magnificent bishop’s robes, on the other side, is in the act
of sprinkling holy water on two beautiful kneeling girls. This picture,
Bolognini asserts, alone justifies the artist’s fame. In the Escurial
at Madrid is a piece by her, representing a Madonna uplifting a veil to
view her sleeping child, who reposes on richly-embroidered cushions;
St. Joseph and St. John stand near. “A picture,” says Mazzolari, “so
vivid, so gay and graceful, and of such glorious coloring, so full
of beauty, that one is never weary of admiring it.” A picture which
has especially contributed to her artistic fame represents the Queen
of Sheba in the presence of Solomon; but it has also an allegorical
reference to the Duke and Duchess of Mantua, and various personages of
their court. Lanzi considers this production worthy of the Venetian
school. Another represents a royal infant, playing on a bed, wrapped
in blankets, and adorned with a splendid necklace. A “Judith, seen by
torch-light,” is in the possession of the Della Casa family. A Virgin
and Child, which she painted for Cardinal Ascoli, and sent to Rome,
has been thought her best production, and brought her so much fame,
that, a large painting being required for a church, the commission was
intrusted to Lavinia, in preference to many first-class artists, who
sought it. She painted a stoning of Stephen, with a number of figures,
and a halo above representing heaven opening. The figures were larger
than life, and the work was not as successful as Lavinia had hoped.
But after she confined herself to portrait painting, she had no reason
to be dissatisfied with her success. Her _chef d’œuvre_ is said to be
her own portrait, taken when she was young and surpassingly beautiful.
It is now in the possession of Count Zappi, at Imola, and has been
engraved by Rossini, for his history of Italian painting. The portrait
is painted in an oval; in the background, ranged on a shelf, are models
in clay of busts, heads, trunks, hands, and feet. The artist is seated
at a table, on which are two casts of Greek statues; she is in the act
of commencing a drawing, and is dressed with elegant simplicity, her
mantle flowing in clear and ample folds. Under the ruff encircling her
neck hangs a pearl necklace, to which is attached a golden crucifix.
She wears a Mary Stuart headdress, and the head is colored with
wonderful delicacy and transparency. The work unites correctness of
drawing with incomparable grace. England possesses three paintings by
Lavinia Fontana.
This famous artist had three children, and was unhappy in them. Her
only daughter lost the sight of one eye, by running a pin into it; and
one of her boys was half-witted, and served to amuse loungers in the
Pope’s antechamber. Malvasia remarks, “The story ran that he inherited
his simplicity from his father; assuredly it came not from his mother,
who was as full of talent and sagacity as she was good and virtuous.”
Lavinia was elected a member of the Roman Academy. Her merits were
celebrated by contemporaries; Marini, among other poets, wrote in her
praise; and in such estimation was she held, that, when she passed near
the seat of the Lord of Sora and Vignola, the proud patrician came out
to meet her at the head of his retainers, according to the fashion then
in vogue for the reception of royal personages.
Among the Lettere Pittoriche is a letter dated 1609, signed Lavinia
Fontana Zappi. This proves her to have been living then. One authority
states that she died at Rome, in 1614, aged sixty-two.
While Lavinia Fontana availed herself of the system of Caracci,
another, who enjoyed in early life the advantage of being Ludovico’s
pupil, emulated his excellences so successfully that she produced a
fine picture, full of figures, from one of his compositions, in 1614,
for the church of the Annunziata, in Bologna. This was Antonia Pinelli.
For skill in drawing and purity of tone she was held in high estimation.
Numerous were the young women who learned painting in the atelier of
the Caracci; while other masters had their share of fair students.
Domenichino is said to have been the teacher of Flavia Durand, Teresa
del Po, and Artemisia Gentileschi; Lanfranco brought to light the
talent of Caterina Ginnassi; Guido Reni gave instruction to Madalena
Natali, and formed the genius of Elisabetta Sirani, the pride of
the Bolognese school. Albano, however, was an exception, and, with
the churlish Guercino, who despised every thing like female talent,
had no pupils of the fair sex. A sister of one of his pupils,
nevertheless--Flaminia Triva, of Reggio--became a painter much esteemed
by the connoisseurs of her time.
Of these artists, only the three most distinguished need be noticed
here. Caterina Ginnassi, of noble family and the niece of a cardinal,
was born in Rome, 1590. She was well instructed from early youth in
all feminine employments, useful as well as brilliant. She often said,
afterward, “The needle and distaff are sad enemies to the brush and the
pencil.” Her first master was Clelio, and after his death she threw
herself into the bold and brilliant manner of Lanfranco. She produced
the great paintings that adorned the church founded by her uncle, of
St. Lucia, in Rome. Becoming the inheritor of the cardinal’s large
possessions, she founded, according to his directions, a cloister, with
a seminary attached for students from Romagna; as abbess of which, she
continued to practice her favorite art, dying in 1680, in the enjoyment
of the fame and popularity her industry and piety had deservedly won.
ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI.
The life of Artemisia Gentileschi was more in the world and more
brilliant. She was the daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi, was
married to Pier Antonio Schiattesi, and lived long in Naples. Receiving
her earliest lessons from Guido Reni, at a later period she studied
the works of Domenichino, one of the best masters of expression in
the Bolognese school. Her great reputation was acquired by numerous
portraits, and her skill in this species of painting obtained for
her the honor of a call to the English court, whither her father
accompanied her. There the art-appreciating monarch Charles I. gave her
abundant employment. She was esteemed not inferior to her father in
historical pieces. King Charles placed several of her works among his
treasures. “David with Goliath’s head” was considered her best. Some of
the royal family sat to her for their portraits, as did several of the
nobility. A female figure, representing Fame, of great merit, was in
the royal collection. Her own portrait is in Hampton Court, painted in
the powerful and vivid style of Michael Angelo. Wägen says she excelled
her father in portraits.
Having reaped a rich, reward for her labors in England, she returned to
Naples, where she seems to have established herself in much splendor.
She died in 1642, at the age of fifty-two. Several letters addressed
to the Cavalier del Pozzo were found among her papers. In one, dated
1637, she inquires coolly after her husband. “Sia servita darmi nuova
della vita o morte di mio marito.” Some of her letters contain orders
for gloves; now her request to the Pope was permission for a priestly
friend to bear arms; now she appealed to the Cardinal Barberini,
then, all powerful in Rome, for assistance in disposing of some large
picture, to furnish means to provide for the wedding of a daughter with
suitable magnificence; after the granting of which favor, she would
add, in the Italian fashion, that, “free from this burden,” she would
return contented to her home. A fine specimen of her skill in painting
is a picture of “Judith,” in the Palazzo Pitti, which shows, in its
ground-work, the principles of the school of Bologna; while its finish,
on the other hand, exhibits the startling effects of the Neapolitan
school. Lanzi says, “It is a picture of strong coloring, of a tone and
intensity that inspires awe.” Mrs. Jameson remarks, “This dreadful
picture is a proof of her genius, and, let me add, of its atrocious
misdirection.” But the artist should not be censured for her treatment
of a subject which may not have been her own choice. “Susannah and
the Elders” pleases by the scene and the drapery of the figures. The
“Birth of John the Baptist,” in the Museum of Madrid, painted by this
lady as a family piece, displays the same combination, but has more of
the freedom of nature, and a certain boldness that betokens familiar
acquaintance with life and the best models.
ELISABETTA SIRANI.
A place among the most gifted and the most illustrious women who, in
any country or in any age, have devoted themselves to the fine arts,
must be accorded to Elisabetta Sirani. She has been pronounced a
complete artist; unrivaled by any of her sex in fertility of invention,
in the power of combining parts in a noble whole, in knowledge of
drawing and foreshortening, and in the minute details that contribute
to the perfection of a painting. Had she lived longer, she would have
equaled any painter of her time.
She was born in Bologna, about 1640, and was the daughter of a painter
of no inconsiderable merit. She was enrolled among the pupils of Guido
Reni, and her artistic character was formed after the model of this
most gifted and most versatile master of the Bolognese school. She
imbibed from him an exquisite sense of the beautiful, and a peculiar
gift of reproducing it. To this she added a vigor and energy rare in
a woman. She made herself acquainted early with the works of the most
distinguished painters, and manifested so much talent in youth, that
she became the admiration of her acquaintances, particularly as she
excelled also in music; while, to the gift of genius, she added that
of rare personal loveliness. Lanzi speaks of her with enthusiastic
admiration. It is not often that an artist of celebrity so generally
wins the affections of those who know her. This popularity perhaps
added to her renown; or the tragical fate of the blooming girl may
have contributed to invest her name with a halo of romantic glory.
Malvasia, who tells us she was persuaded by her father to adopt the
profession of a painter, calls her “the heroine among artists”--and
himself “the trumpeter of her fame.” Another eulogist, in the glowing
style of Picinardi, praises her unwearied industry, her moderation in
eating, and simplicity in dress; and the exquisite modesty with which
she was always ready for household employments. She would rise at dawn
to perform those lowly domestic tasks for which her occupations during
the day left her little leisure, and never permitted her passion for
art to interfere with the fulfillment of homely duties. Thus she was
admirable in the circle of daily life, as in her loftiest aspirations.
She obtained time in this manner for her exercises in poetry and music.
All praised her gracious and cheerful spirit, her prompt judgment, and
deep feeling for the art she loved. Besides being a painter, she was an
adept in sculpture and engraving on copper, thus meriting the praise
lavished on her as “a miracle of art.”
Her devoted filial affection, her feminine grace, and the artless
benignity of her manners, completed a character regarded by her friends
as an ideal of perfection. Malvasia mentions the rapidity with which
she worked, often throwing off sketches and executing oil pictures
in the presence of strange spectators. The envious artists of her
time took occasion, from the number of her paintings, to insinuate
that her father gave out his own works for his daughter’s to obtain
a higher price for them; but the stupid calumny soon fell to the
ground, for every one had free access to the studio of Elisabetta, and
one day, in the presence of the Duchess of Brunswick, the Duchess of
Mirandola, Cosimo, Duke of Tuscany, and others, she drew and shaded
subjects chosen by each with such promptitude that the incredulous
were confounded. She had hardly received the commission of her large
picture--“The Baptism of Jesus”--before she had sketched on the canvas
the entire conception of that memorable incident, including many and
various figures; and the work was completed with equal rapidity. She
was then only twenty years of age.
Her method has been compared to that of Guido Reni, whose versatility
she combined with rare force and decision, and peculiar delicacy
and tenderness; the most opposite qualities being harmonized in her
productions.
This fascinating artist, in the height of her fame, in the flush
of early womanhood, was snatched from her friends by a cruel and
mysterious doom. Her fate is involved in a darkness which has not been
penetrated to this day. Some do not hesitate to aver that her sudden
death was a base and cruel murder; that she was poisoned by the same
hands that administered the deadly draught to Domenichino--those of
Ribiera or his disciples, jealous of her rising fame. The general
impression is that she was the victim of professional envy. Some
averred that her death was caused by the revenge of a princely lover,
whose dishonorable advances were repelled, or some great personage
who was incensed at her refusal to engage in his service, or of a
distinguished individual who felt aggrieved by a caricature, and
secretly employed a servant to put poison in her food. Each story was
believed among her contemporaries, and the record of the examination
is yet extant; but it was conducted without regularity, and throws no
light upon the mysterious assassination.
Great was the excitement on the 14th November, 1665, in Bologna, on the
day of her funeral, when the whole population crowded, weeping, to see
the once beautiful features distorted by the hateful poison. The victim
of revenge or jealousy was honored with solemn and splendid funeral
ceremonies in the church of St. Domenico.
Shortly after her death a work was published, in which was included a
number of poetical eulogies and tributes, from the most eminent poets
of the day, to the memory and virtues of the deceased. One line runs
thus:
“I was a woman, yet I knew not love.”
Picinardi adds the information that the pure calm of her soul was
never disturbed by the grand passion. On the other hand, Gualandi
intimates that the highly gifted maiden cherished for a young artist
of her acquaintance an ardent affection, but that her father would not
consent to the marriage. The romantic may please themselves with the
supposition that the seed of genius sown in the nature of this richly
endowed girl was quickened in the glow of an unhappy passion into the
gorgeous bloom that attracted the eye of the world.
Elisabetta lies at rest in the chapel of the Madonna del Rosario in
the church of St. Domenico, which also incloses the dust of her great
master, Guido Reni. The works enumerated as hers by Malvasia, from
her own register, were one hundred and fifty pictures and portraits,
some of them large and carefully finished. Her first public work
was executed in 1655. Her composition was elegant and tasteful; her
designing correct and firm; and the freshness and suavity of her
color, especially in demi-tints, reminded one of Guido. The air of her
heads was graceful and noble, and she was peculiarly successful in the
expressive character of her Madonnas and Magdalens. Among her finest
pictures are mentioned a Francesco di Padoua kneeling before the infant
Christ, a Virgin and St. Anna contemplating the sleeping Saviour,
and others, preserved in several palaces in Bologna. Her portrait of
herself was taken in the act of painting her father. Another portrait
of her is in the person of a saint looking up to heaven. Among her
paintings on copper, which are exquisitely delicate, is a Lot with his
children, now in the possession of a family in Bologna. She produced
etchings of the Beheading of John the Baptist, the Death of Lucretia,
and several master-pieces; all distinguished by delicacy of touch and
by ease and spirit in the execution. Her painting, “Amor Divino,”
represents a lovely child, nude, seated on a red cloth, holding in its
left hand a laurel crown and sceptre, while with the right it points
to a quiver and some books lying at its feet. Bolognini says: “It
is impossible to conceive any thing more beautiful in form or more
exquisite in finish than this lovely child.”
Like Guido’s, the influence of Elisabetta Sirani on the progress of
art in Bologna was exhibited in the number of scholars who sought
instruction from her, or studied her paintings to ground themselves in
her system. So illustrious an example as she presented must naturally
have contributed greatly to the encouragement and development of female
talent, and many were the women whom her success, in a greater or less
degree, stimulated to exertion. One of Elisabetta Sirani’s pupils
was Ginevra Cantofoli of Bologna. She painted history pieces with
some reputation. In a church of Bologna is a picture by her--The Last
Supper. Her best was San Tommaso di Villanuovo.
Sirani’s sisters, Anna Maria and Barbara, are also mentioned among
her scholars, with Lucrezia Scarafaglia, Maria Teresa Coriolani, and
Veronica Fontana, who carved excellently well in wood, and executed
portraits in this manner which were highly praised. Many other names of
women are recorded who derived their impressions of art, directly or
indirectly, from Sirani.
Teresa Muratori was the daughter of an eminent physician, and born at
Bologna in 1662. At an early age she showed a genius for painting and
music. She was instructed in designing by Emilio Taruffi, and afterward
took lessons from Lorenzo Parmello and Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole. She
painted historical pieces, and several religious ones for churches in
Bologna. She died at the age of forty-six.
Orlandi speaks highly of Maria Helena Panzacchi. She was born at
Bologna in 1668, was taught designing by Taruffi, and became a
reputable painter of landscapes, which she embellished with figures.
Her works were correct in design, and the disposition was marked by
elegance and taste. Several of them are in private collections at
Bologna.
Bologna boasted also of Ersilia Creti, a pupil of her father Donato,
and of Maria Viani, of whose workmanship a reclining Venus, in the
Dresden gallery, exquisitely done, remains to her praise.
Among others of the school of Bologna, we may mention Maria Dolce, the
daughter and pupil of Carlo Dolce, so noted and so admired for the
calm dignity of his productions. She copied several of her father’s
pictures. The name of another painter, Agnes Dolce, may be added;
but we must pass over a host, observing only that the Bolognese was
throughout the seventeenth century the richest in female talent of all
the schools of Italy.