THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Women Artists in Spain.--Their Participation a Test of general
Interest.--Female Representatives of the most important Schools.--That
of Seville.--Of Madrid.--The Paintress of Don Quixote.--Ladies
of Rank Members of the Academy.--Maria Tibaldi.--Two female
Artists besides two Poetesses in Portugal.--The Harvest greater
in Italy.--Few attained to Eminence.--Learned Ladies.--Female
Doctors and Professors.--Degrees in Jurisprudence and Philosophy
conferred on them.--Examples.--The Scholar nine Years old.--A lady
Professor of Mathematics.--Women Lecturers.--Comparison with English
Ladies.--Brilliant Devotees of the Lyre.--Female Talent in the
important Schools of Art.--Women Artists in Florence.--Engravers and
Paintresses.--In Naples.--Kitchen-pieces.--In the Cities of northern
Italy.--In Bologna.--Princesses.--In Venice.--Rosalba Carriera.--Her
childish Work.--Her Genius perceived.--Instruction.--Takes to
Pastel-painting.--Merits of her Works.--Celebrity.--Invitations
to Paris and Vienna.--Visit from the King of Denmark.--Invited
by the Emperor and the King of France.--Portrait for the Grand
Duke of Tuscany.--The King of Poland her Patron.--Unspoiled by
Honors.--Her moral Worth.--Residence in Paris.--Her Pictures.--The
Lady disguised as a Maid-servant.--Want of Beauty.--Anecdote of the
Emperor.--Rosalba’s Journal.--Visit to Vienna.--Presentiment of
Calamity.--The Portrait wreathed with gloomy Leaves.--Blindness.--Loss
of Reason.--Death and Burial.--Her Portrait.--Other Venetian Women.
A glance at the women artists of the romantic South will close this
general survey of the eighteenth century. In Spain we find few worthy
of mention. Since the commencement of the Bourbon dynasty interest in
art had ceased to be the essential element in the national life that
it had been under the sway of the house of Hapsburg throughout the
seventeenth century. And in the Peninsula the truth was made apparent
that the participation of women is a test and measure of the general
interest in the studies and products of art prevailing among any people.
The most important schools, however, were not entirely without female
representatives. Linked with that of Seville, we hear the name of the
portrait-painter, Maria de Valdes Leal; her father and tutor, Don Juan
de Valdes, after the death of Murillo, was regarded as the first living
master of this school.
That of Madrid had among its disciples Clara and Anna Menendez, the
latter being remembered as the painter of a series of scenes from Don
Quixote. To the same school belong Donna Barbara Maria de Hueva, and
Donna Maria de Silva, Duchess of Arcos, both celebrated for their skill
in drawing, and members of the Academy of San Fernando, as were also
Anna Menendez, and the painter Anna Perez of Navarre. Maria Felice
Tibaldi, born in 1707, painted in oil, and also miniatures and pastels.
She possessed great skill in drawing from life and copying historical
pieces. A work of her husband, Pierre Subleyras, “The Apostolic
Supper,” was copied by her in miniature. Pope Benedict XIV. sent
her for it a thousand scudi, and placed it in his collection at the
Capitol. After the death of her husband Maria supported herself and her
children by her talents.
To these may be added Maria Prieto, the daughter of a distinguished
_médailleur_; she practiced both painting and engraving, but died in
her twentieth year at Madrid, in 1772.
Portugal, at this period, was justly proud of two women whose poetical
talents had won no small celebrity, Magdalena da Gloria and the
Countess de Vimiero. Beside them we may note two artists of eminence,
Doña Isabel Maria Rite of Oporto, and Catarina Vieira of Lisbon; the
former of high repute as a miniature-painter, the latter noted for
several church pictures which she painted after the designs of her
brother, Don Francisco Vieira de Mattos.
In Italy the harvest of names was greater, but fewer women attained
to eminence during this century than in either of the two that had
preceded it. Of women of poetical genius there was no lack at this
period; and more than ever--though such are not wanting in the early
annals of the principal Italian cities--learned ladies abounded. Female
doctors and professors were far more in plenty than they promise to be
in America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Such phenomena
were not rare in the classic Italian clime as women occupying the
chair, not only of music, drawing, and modern tongues, but of Greek,
Latin, Hebrew, mathematics, and astronomy. They took degrees as doctors
in jurisprudence and philosophy; for example, Maria Victoria Delfini,
Christina Roccati, and Laura Bassi, in the University of Bologna,
and Maria Pellegrina Amoretti, in that of Pavia. Anna Manzolini, in
1758, was Professor of Anatomy in Bologna; and Maria Agnesi--who,
when only nine years of age, had delivered at Milan a Latin address
on the “Studies of the Female Sex”--was appointed by the Pope to the
professorship of mathematics in the same university at Bologna.
It was not then esteemed unfeminine for women to give lectures in
public to crowded and admiring audiences. They were freely admitted
members of learned societies, and were consulted by men of pre-eminent
scientific attainments as their equals in scholarship; yet, a British
reviewer remarks, “It is doubtful whether the far-famed Novella was
a better Greek scholar than Mrs. Browning; or Maria Porcia Vignoli,
whose statue long adorned the market-place of Viterbo, more learned in
natural sciences than Mrs. Somerville.”
Among the more brilliant devotees of the lyre may be mentioned, in
passing, Emilia Ballati and Giulia Baitelli, who emulated the fame of
Petrarch, and Laura Vanetti, in whose poems Metastasio discerned the
very soul of the bard of Love.
But we must not linger over names, even of the artists who belong to
our special field of observation. None of the important early schools
failed in the eighteenth century, to be able to boast the ornament of
female talent. In Florence, Violanta Beatrice Siries, after a prolonged
course of study in Paris under Boucher and Rigaud, was noted as a
portrait-painter. In the same branch of the profession, Anna Boccherini
and Anna Galeotti were highly esteemed.
In copper-engraving, Catarina Zucchi and Laura Piranesi acquired some
celebrity. As engravers, we hear of Livia Pisani, Violanta Vanni, and
Teresa Mogalli, the last also skilled in painting.
In encaustic painting, Anna Parenti-Duclos was well known toward the
close of the century. Maria Felicia Tibaldi was distinguished in Rome
for her talents as a painter no less than for her virtues as a woman;
and her sister, Teresa, belongs to the same category, with Rosalba
Maria Salviani and Caterina Cherubini. In miniature-painting, Bianca
and Matilda Festa excelled; the latter holding the professor’s chair in
the Academy of San Luca.
The wreaths of poetry and painting were intertwined around the brow of
Maria Maratti, the daughter and pupil of the celebrated Carlo Maratti,
and the wife of the poet Zappi. The like was true of Anna Victoria
Dolora, who died at a great age in 1827, in a Dominican convent.
Naples boasted at this period a famous mathematician in Maria Angela
Ardinghelli. Three gifted sisters, Maria Angiola, Felice, and Emmanuela
Matteis, were also noted here; with the distinguished Angelica Siscara
and Colomba Garri, who practiced flower and genre painting, and
produced a series of kitchen-pieces, in which they sought to idealize
by artistic adornment the ordinary occupations of the frugal and
industrious housewife.
The cities of northern Italy had their share of energetic women. Turin,
Milan, Bergamo, Roveredo, Carpi, and Parma produced artists whose fame
was limited to a narrower circle than those of Bologna and Venice,
where, especially in the former city, the shadow of past glories seemed
to linger.
Professor Anna Manzolini modeled excellent portraits in wax, and
Clarice Vasini obtained no small celebrity as a sculptor, being a
member of the Academy.
Lucia Casalini, Bianca Giovannini, Barbara Burini, Eleonora Monti, Anna
Teresia Messieri, Rosa Alboni, and Teresa Tesi, belonged to Bologna,
and elevated the renown of its women for painting. They aspired to
imitate the example of Elizabetta Sirani.
Carlotta Melania Alfieri is mentioned as accomplished in literature,
music, and painting.
Laura Vanetti, praised as a linguist, musician, and philosopher, also
excelled in painting. In the beginning of this century the Princess
Elizabeth of Parma, afterward married to the King of Spain, was a
famous dilettante. Another Princess Elizabeth, the wife of the Archduke
Joseph of Austria, was, in 1789, on account of her pastels, admitted to
membership of the Academy in Vienna.
In Venice, on the other hand, the fair students of art zealously
emulated the fame of Maria Robusti. This “city of the sea” had many
daughters who did well in painting, though even their names are now
forgotten. She gave birth to one, however, whose fame was destined to
spread into a wider circle, and to renew even in foreign lands the
ancient lustre of the Italian name in art. This gifted being stands
almost alone in the century as one who will be remembered by posterity
with admiration.
ROSALBA CARRIERA.
Rosalba Carriera was born in Venice in 1675. Her father held an office
under government, which occupied his whole time; but he, as well as
his father, had been a painter. He loved art, and encouraged his child
in her early fancies. Her first childish work was at point de Venise
lace. She seemed to care little for the ordinary amusements of young
people, but passed her leisure time in drawing. She tried to copy one
of her father’s designs for the head of a sonnet. A student of art,
who chanced to see this piece of work, showed it to his master, who
instantly perceived the genius of the child artist; and, foreseeing the
excellence to which she would attain, and wishing to encourage her to
persevere, gave her other designs to copy.
Rosalba was desolate when this friend left Venice; but a Venetian
banker, who had noticed her proficiency, lent her some heads in pastel
of Baroche. These studies vastly improved her; and her father, then
satisfied of his daughter’s possession of rare talents, consented
that she should take lessons from Antonio Nazari, who was eminent
as a pastel-painter. The cavalier Diamantini, distinguished for the
freshness of his pencil, also gave her instruction.
Her most valuable knowledge of the technical part of painting,
which gave her the mastery and command of her art that marked her
productions, was acquired under the tuition of Antonio Balestra.
Finally, she obtained from her kinsman, Antonio Pellegrini, a knowledge
of the details of miniature-painting, to which the advice of a lady
friend first directed her, and in which branch she acquired rare skill.
She would willingly have pursued this, but the weakness of her sight
compelled her to abandon it, and take to pastel-painting, in which she
obtained the greatest celebrity--attaining, Zanetti says, the highest
grade of perfection.
Her miniatures were noted particularly for severe accuracy of drawing,
united with rare softness and delicacy of touch; they had the
perfection of proportion, and the brilliancy and warmth of coloring for
which her pastels were remarkable. Her tints were blended with great
tenderness; her heads had a lovely expression of truth and nature.
Her talents met with due appreciation and honor while yet in their
bloom of promise. She was celebrated in her native city as the
“companion of the muse of painting,” and “the ornament of her sex and
of the Venetian school.” Zanetti speaks of her with high praise in his
“Storia della Pittura Veneziana.” Works evincing her extraordinary
ability were shown at most of the courts of Europe. She was invited to
Paris and Vienna to practice her profession there, and was elected to
membership in the academies of Paris, Bologna, and Rome. Her miniature
and pastel paintings were sent to the institutions which conferred
this honor upon her. The King of Denmark came to Venice, and, having
heard of Rosalba, expressed a curiosity to see her. After consulting
Balestra, she presented to her royal visitor some portraits of Venetian
ladies of rank whom he had admired, receiving from his majesty in
return a very costly diamond. She also played and sang for his
amusement with her two sisters, one of whom performed on the violin.
She was invited by royalty to paint the Emperor Charles and the
imperial court; also the King of France. The Grand-Duke of Tuscany
placed her portrait in his gallery; it is painted in pastel, with one
of her sisters. The style is noble and sustained; the expression is
true, and the flesh-tints are so admirable, the face seems scarcely to
want a soul. Augustus III., King of Poland, was her special patron; and
in Modena she painted portraits of the reigning family.
None of these, or similar honors, had power to turn her head nor
to corrupt her heart. Although a daughter of Venice, then the most
luxurious and licentious city in Europe, the deep seriousness, and
even enthusiastic melancholy of her character--dispositions that find
expression in many of her works--kept her aloof from contact with vice,
and her moral purity and worth were as conspicuous and as universally
recognized as her genius. Her own house at Venice was adorned with
portraits and original compositions. This valuable collection she sold
at a high price to the King of Poland, who placed them in a special
cabinet of his palace in Dresden.
In the bloom of her career and her fame, Rosalba accompanied her
brother-in-law Pellegrini to France. She remained a year at the house
of M. Crozat. Two portraits of the king were done by her in pastel, and
one in miniature, besides a victoire for a snuff-box which his majesty
gave to Madame de Ventadour.
Several groups and demi-figures, designed by Pellegrini and executed
by Rosalba, are preserved in Paris, with many heads in pastel done for
Crozat. Many of her symbolical pictures--such as the Muses, Sciences,
Seasons, etc.--were purchased by English travelers. Her crayon-drawings
were distinguished by softness and life-like freshness. She became a
member of the Paris Academy in October, 1720. Her tableau de reception
was a Muse in pastel. The connoisseurs esteemed her portraits for their
perfect likeness, delicacy of touch, wonderful lightness, peculiar
grace, and admirable coloring and expression. They were unrivaled of
their kind.
An anecdote has been mentioned of a lady of rank who wished to study
painting under Rosalba, but knew she could not be prevailed on to take
pupils. The lady presented herself in the disguise of a maid-servant,
and desired employment at the house of the distinguished paintress.
Rosalba was pleased with her appearance, and at once engaged her
services. While faithfully performing her tasks, the lady incessantly
watched the proceedings of the artist; and, by dint of careful
observation, succeeded in learning much of the art. Rosalba noticed
the extraordinary quickness of her maid in these matters; and, willing
to give to native talent all the aid in her power, invited the girl
to observe her while painting, and gave her valuable instruction. The
secret was at last discovered. The lady became afterward an artist so
skillful in miniatures, that she received an appointment from a German
prince as painter at his court.
An Italian writes concerning her: “Nature had endowed Rosalba with
lofty aspirations and a passionate soul, and her heart yearned for that
response which her absence of personal attractions failed to win. She
was aware of her extreme plainness; and had she ignored it, the Emperor
Charles XI. enlightened her, when, turning to Bertoli, a court artist,
who presented her in Vienna, he said, ‘She may be clever, Bertoli mio,
this painter of thine, but she is remarkably ugly.’ But Rosalba, even
if annoyed, could well afford to smile, for Charles XI. was the ugliest
of men.”
While in France, Rosalba wrote a journal which was entitled “Diario
degli anni 1720 e 1721. Scritto da Rosalba Carriera.” It appeared
in Venice in 1793, with notes by Giovanni Vianelli, who had a fine
collection of her paintings.
From Paris she went laden with honors to the imperial court at Vienna,
where, besides the emperor and empress, she painted the archduchesses
and others of the court. The King of Poland had a number of her
pastels, which were highly valued.
Zanetti remarks: “Much of interest may be said of this celebrated and
highly-gifted woman, whose spirit--in the midst of her triumphs and the
brightest visions of happiness--was weighed down with the anticipation
of a heavy calamity. On one occasion--when she had painted a portrait
of herself, with the brow wreathed with gloomy leaves, significant of
death--her friends asked why she had done this. She replied that the
representation was an image of her life, and that her end would be
tragic, according to the meaning here shadowed forth. This portrait was
afterward in the possession of Giambattista Sartori, a brother of her
famous pupil Felicità Sartori. He preserved it as a sacred relic. His
sister married Von Hoffmann, and painted with much success at the court
of the Elector of Saxony.”
It seemed, indeed, that the presentiment of a fast approaching and
terrible affliction, amid the strict seclusion in which Rosalba lived,
had taken possession of this noble and gifted spirit. It might be that
her solitary existence tended to sadden her temperament, and deepen
its natural inclination to melancholy. The forewarning, of which even
in youth she felt conscious, was mournfully fulfilled ere she had
long passed her prime. Before she was fifty years of age she became
totally blind, as she had feared. Her mind struggled long with weakness
and incurable sorrow, but sank at last, and the light of reason too
departed.
The latter part of her life was a blank, yet she lingered to old
age, dying in Venice, on the 15th of April, 1757. Amid the universal
expression of unaffected sorrow and commiseration, she was buried in
the church of San Sista a Modesta. She left considerable property. Her
grave is still pointed out to the traveler as the last resting-place of
one whose genius was an ornament to Venice.
Many of her works have been engraved. The Dresden Gallery has the
largest collection, numbering one hundred and fifty-seven pieces.
The engraving of Rosalba’s portrait shows a youthful face, with a
pleased expression of childish innocence. The hair is brushed back
from the forehead on the top, but curls cluster around the face on the
sides; earrings are worn, and the corsage is low. The eyes are dark,
the forehead is high, and the whole head has a graceful air.
Like Rosalba Carriera, Ippolita Venier was a native of Venice, though
she lived at Udina with the painter her father. In 1765 she painted the
Adoration of the Kings, for a church in the sea-born city. Felicità
Sartori was a pupil of Rosalba, and worked in Dresden, whither she went
with her husband.
Apollonia de Forgue, born in 1767, assisted her husband, Seydelman,
with his pictures. She was a member of the Academy in Dresden.