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Master Sofonisba Anguissola
In honor of Sofonisba’s newly recognized accomplishments and the Prado exhibition of her work, I would like to present her Boy Bitten (drawn for Michelangelo) and her Girl Laughing next to each other to accentuate Sofonisba’s effort. She conceived of these close in time and the figures and positioning show how she experimented with subtle…
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Sofonisba’s Philip II
In honor of Sofonisba Anguissola’s new-found celebrity, I wanted to place her Prado Portrait of Philip II alongside her Portrait of a Spanish Prince (San Diego Museum of Art). Sofonisba did not know Philip as a young child, but perhaps she could envision him as one. As Giorgio Vasari says, Sofonisba had invenzione. Perhaps she…
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Lady in Ermine
The Renaissance of Sofonisba Anguissola (2019) What a year 2019 was for Sofonisba Anguissola. Sofonisba realized her own Renaissance in 2019. She was championed by the Prado Museum in Madrid with its exhibition A Tale of Two Women Painters or Historia de Dos Pintoras, that ran starting October 22, 2019. She was dramatized in Lady in…
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Sofonisba and her Portrait of Philip II, King of Spain
On this day, October 21st, in 1561, Sofonisba sent her regrets to Bernardino Campi, “Molto Magnifico Signor Bernardino,” her first trainer, explaining that she could not yet send him a portrait of the king. “Non posso al presente servirlo, come saria mio desiderio.” She was occupied painting the king’s sister Juana and Queen Isabel. In…
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Sofonisba or El Greco? Sofonisba Cradle to Grave
The details of Sofonisba Anguissola’s life show that she had the physical and geographical opportunity to paint a mature Catalina Micaela that her male contemporaries El Greco and Coello did not being far away in Spain. Sofonisba also had personal insight into the Infanta’s private world to render the Infanta of Spain, Catalina Micaela, as…
Lady In Ermine: The Story of A Woman Who Painted The Renaissance
by Donna DiGiuseppe
Lady In Ermine: The Story of A Woman Who Painted The Renaissance 