Author: shelidon

Lucrina Fetti, whom she gets mixed up with her brother

Roma, 1595 – Mantova, 1651 If you’re passionate about baroque art, you might have heard of Domenico Fetti. Born in 1589, six years before his sister, he worked for the Gonzagas and Mantova’s churches are literally littered with his work, from the Cathedral’s apse to Sant’Orsola. He’s often described as a naturalist, influenced by both […]

Lucrezia Quistelli della Mirandola, artist and XVI Century detective

Florence, 1541 – Unknown, 1594 Lucrezia was born in Florence from a foreign noble family who had come to Tuscany to enter the Medici’s court: her father was Alfonso Quistelli della Mirandola, a judge, and Giulia Santi, daughter from a long line of humanists and authors. Vasari mentions her as “accomplished in both painting and […]

Irene of Spilimbergo, who died of too much art

Spilimbergo, 1538 – Venezia, 1559 Irene of Spilimbergo’s birth and death are both accounted for in her grandfather’s journal, and the latter is recorded as having happened after twenty-two days of fever and a splitting headache for having been too engaged in too much painting. Maybe the cause of her death was having such a […]

Properzia de’ Rossi: first woman on a construction site?

Bologna, 1490 – 1530 When Giorgio Vasari wrote about the Lives of contemporary artists, he included four women in its Part IV: Plautilla Nelli, Lucrezia Quistelli, Sofonisba Anguissola and Properzia de’ Rossi, the titular leader of the chapter including the others. Properzia isn’t as well known as Sofonisba, and why should she? She’s only the […]

Giovanna Garzoni: painter and natural scientist

Ascoli Piceno, 1600 – Roma, 1670 Considered the most prominent miniaturist of the Baroque Era, Giovanna Garzoni distinguishes herself for the production of still lives, parchments painted in a particular style called “a guazzo” and swift impressions in guache that almost seem to come out of another era. Her style alone would make her interesting […]

Marietta Robusti

Marietta Robusti known as “the Tintoretta” Venice, approx. 1554 – Venice, 1590 Marietta Robusti had one problem in life: being born to a famous father. In an age where emerging as a female artist was almost as difficult as today, she would live her life under his shadow and eventually became known as “the Tintoretta”. […]