Western Archive

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The painting is an allegory of the crowning of the young Grand Duke Ferdinando II. His father died in 1621 while the prince was still a child, and he became Grand Duke on coming of age in 1629. His mother Maria Maddalena of Austria and his grandmother, Cristina of Lorraine acted as regents during this lengthy period.

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In the painting the nun wears a lily-white habit which stands out against the dark background. The red and gold bound book of prayers offers the only source of detail. The sitter is usually identified as Elena Anguissola, Sofonisba’s younger sister who had been a student of the painter Bernardino Campi along with Sofonisba, and later entered the monastery of San Vincenzo in Mantua assuming the name of Sister Minerva.

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That women could be intellectually accomplished and highly rational, even strategic, are the complementary themes of a family portrait showing Anguissola’s three sisters playing chess. In this painting, which Vasari saw hanging in the artist’s family home in Cremona in 1566, the chivalric game of chess takes place in an idealized landscape familiar in late medieval courtly images of the game and not in a tavern or other questionable locale seen in other contemporary representations of gaming. On the far left Lucia looks out at the viewer, dominating our gaze as her arm and obvious expertise dominate the chess board. She has removed two of Minerva’s pieces from the game and the younger sister opens her mouth and raises her hand as if to speak. […]

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One of the period’s most inventive portraitists came from Cremona. The noblewoman Sofonisba Anguissola created wry and witty portraits of family members and acquaintances, a subject largely imposed upon her by societal restrictions on female access to models and patrons. Sofonisba’s painting of her teacher, painting her portrait – a story within a story – demonstrates how she negotiated her male-dominated world. Anguissola’s gaze rivets the viewer of the painting, forcing consideration of what appears to be the inscribing of male authority on the body of the female. Campi’s gaze complicates matters, however, since as he paints he, too, looks out of the painting toward what the picture indicates must be his subject, Anguissola. Thus the viewer in front of the painting plays a double […]

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D’Ancona moved to Paris in 1868, the year the composer of such famous operas like the Barber of Seville and Cinderella died. This posthumous portrait of Rossini, who spent several decades in the French capital where he was known for his sharp wit, appears to have been executed from a photograph, as its oval format may indicate. In the wave of renewed Italian nationalism, the painting may have been intended as a symbolic gesture to bring the Italian composer back to his native country.

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This painting relates the story of Jael and Sisera in tones of delicate colours that contrast emphatically with the drama of the biblical event recounted. It was painted after the artist’s return too Venice from travels that took him to most of Europe, when his palette became brighter and more refined. Sisera was a cruel Canaanite leader who ruled the Israelites for twenty years. Barak defeated his nine hundred charioteers by a surprise Israelite attack. Sisera escaped and sought refuge in the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. She gave the terrified Canaanite sanctuary. When he fell asleep, she drove a tent peg into his brain. The act fulfilled the prediction of Debora, prophetess and Israelite leader, who foresaw that a woman would […]

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