Category: Women Renaissance Artists
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400 Years Ago, She Painted for 80 Years
c. 1556 Sofonisba Anguissola Self-Portrait in miniature, Boston Museum of Fine Arts Look into her young eyes. You can see her imagination racing. She’s studying you as you study her. She sees you. Do you see her? Do you know how fascinating her story is? I will tell you this: you do not know a…
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Sofonisba’s Legacy
November, 1625 Imagine that 400 years ago, in November, 1625, Sofonisba Anguissola died, around the age of 90, leaving a body of work that spanned over 80 years. Her oils can be found all over the world, some still being discovered. Imagine a woman who did all that, so long ago. Sofonisba Anguissola was truly…
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Sargent & Spain
I did not see much of Sofonisba’s influence at the San Francisco Legion of Honor exhibition Sargent & Spain. I thought I would see her influence since he went to Spain to study the historic painters. But then I saw this painting, and I instantly thought of Sofonisba’s portrait of Eleonora de Medici at the…
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A PRINCESS OF PEACE for 2021 So much pain, in so many ways, 2020. Yet, also, transformation, change, growth. Quarantine offered time and simplicity. I used my time and angst in 2020 to polish the screenplay adaptation of LADY IN ERMINE. Six rewrites. It was rough in June. Wordy in July. Rambling in August. In…
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The Chess Game
Just last week the Wall Street Journal published an article about hobbies and diversions and referenced Sofonisba’s Chess Game painted in 1555. WSJ spoke of the hobbies that entertained the nobility. What Sofonisba enthusiasts see in the painting is the ingenuity of her work and the subversive messages of female power embedded in the chess…
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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…
Lady In Ermine: The Story of A Woman Who Painted The Renaissance 