Page 68 - HISTORY ANGKOR

LEGENDARY

NAMES at the court allowed her to achieve near-
unprecedented fame for a female artist.
Although many art historians now believe that
ofonisba Anguissola’s name had an- some of her works have been wrongly attrib-

cient origins. Her father traced his an-
uted to other painters—notably the chief court
cestors to the Cartha ginians, painter, Alonso Sánchez Coello—it is clear
Sthe North African empire
that Sofonisba was highly regarded at court. A
that invaded Italy in the third cen-
stream of pensions from the monarch attest to
tury b.c. during the Punic Wars. her high standing at the palace.
Her first name belonged to a
In 1573 King Philip approved the marriage
virtuous Carthaginian prin-
cess. Her surname derives of Sofonisba to a Sicilian nobleman, Fabrizio
Moncada, and provided his brilliant court
from a legend told about
painter with a dowry. The infantas, then six
another ancestor, a Byz-
antine nobleman who and seven, attended the proxy ceremony
pulled off a stunning in Madrid. The couple set up home in Sic-
victory over the Umayy- ily, but their marriage was cut short by
ad Muslims in the eighth Fabrizio’s death, at the hand of pirates,
century. His successors be- in 1579.
came known as “Anguissola” Details of Sofonisba’s life on the island
because his shield featured an are scarce, but it appears she kept working.
eel—in Latin, anguillae. In 2008 researchers confirmed the discovery

of a document proving Sofonisba’s author-
ship of a painting of a Madonna in the Sicil-
ian church of Santa Maria de la Annunziata,
in Paternò. For centuries, the work—one of a
FAMILY PRIDE being gloomy and austere. Nevertheless, So- small number of religious paintings she pro-
In 1556 Sofonisba fonisba’s long sojourn in Madrid was marked duced—had been wrongly attributed to an-
painted a miniature by close friendships, especially with Queen Is- other painter.
self-portrait that abel, who on arrival in Madrid was only 14 years
featured a monogram
of her father’s name old. Sofonisba stayed by her side through her Undimmed by Age
(detail, above). pregnancies, and taught the royal children— Sofonisba returned to northern Italy, possibly
Around the edge, a Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela. to be near her family. After remarrying, she
Latin inscription says These art classes helped forge an intimate lived in Genoa, where she may have painted
“Painted from a mirror bond with the family. In 1561 an Italian am- the then adult infantas. She lived there for 35
by her own hand,
Sofonisba Anguissola, bassador reported: “Sofonisba the Cremonese years. When she was in her 80s, and nearly
virgin from Cremona.” says that her pupil [Queen Isabel] is very good blind, she moved with her second husband
Museum of Fine Arts, and paints naturally with a crayon in a way that back to Sicily, where, in 1624 she was visited
Boston one recognizes the sitter.” Sofonisba’s royal by painter Anthony Van Dyck.
SCALA, FLORENCE
portraits included her 1565 likeness of King The young baroque artist was deeply im-
Philip. Her familiarity with some of the other pressed by his encounter with the doyenne of
sitters, especially Queen Isabel, and later, her Renaissance art, immortalizing her in a portrait
two daughters, enabled her to blend warmth in which her spirit burns on through her lined
and expressiveness with the rigid canons of face and tired eyes. She died in 1625, around
royal portraiture. age 93. Her husband had these words engraved
In 1568 tragedy struck when Queen Isabel, on her tomb in the church of San Giorgio dei

23, died in childbirth. Italian ambassadors re- Genovesi: “To Sofonisba, one of the illustri-
ported Sofonisba’s intense grief at her friend’s ous women of the world for her beauty and for
death. Even though many of Isabel’s cour tiers her extraordinary natural abilities, so distin-
left Madrid after her death, Sofonisba re- guished in portraying the human image that
mained at the request of Philip II, who wanted no-one of her time could equal her.”
her to help educate the young princesses Isa-
bella Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela (in
HISTORIAN ALESSANDRA PAGANO WRITES ON ARTISTS OF THE RENAISSANCE ERA.
Spain, known as the infantas). Her position SHE IS ALSO A SPECIALIST ON ART FROM HER NATIVE ITALIAN REGION OF CALABRIA.

66 MARCH/APRIL 2022