By Angelo Fernandez
The Art of the Portrait Journal
Issue No. 40, 2nd Quarter 2008
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| Judith and Holofernes oil on canvas, 175.9 x 134.1 cm |
Born in the major art center of Bologna, Italy to leading
painter, Prospero Fontana, Lavinia enjoyed her professional training at home. In
her artistic development, she was influenced by her role model, Sofonisba
Anguissola, the first internationally recognized Italian female portrait
painter. Lavinia’s own portrait style combined elegance and elongation of the
human figure, typical of the Mannerist style. She was admired for the beauty of
color and the precise description of clothing, texture, and jewelry worn by her
subjects.
Women painters of the era were generally limited to portraiture.
Lavinia enjoyed a well established reputation for portraits of many women
sitters but also of local, aristocratic men. She became the portraitist of
choice among Bolognese noblewomen and important individuals connected with the University of Bologna. By the 1570’s, public
commissions for large paintings of religious and mythological subjects, which
included female nudes, resulted in her unique reputation.
In 1577, at the age of 25, Lavinia married Giovanni Paolo
Zappi, a wealthy fellow artist. Zappi recognized her superior talent and
dedicated himself to assisting Lavinia by rendering backgrounds in some of her
paintings. Despite her demanding art schedule, the couple bore 11 children. Only 3 outlived Lavinia.
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| Portrait d'homme assis feuilletant un livre (dit du senateur Orsini) Musee des Beaux-Arts, France Bx E 197; Bx M 5689 |
The first of Fontana’s large religious paintings was the Holy Family with St. John (1589), done
as an altar piece for El Escorial, the Spanish Royal Palace and now in the
collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. She subsequently executed a major commission,
her most ambitious narrative work, The
Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, presently in the National Gallery,
Dublin, Ireland. This is probably a
group portrait of the wealthy, powerful, and ruling Gonzaga family of Mantua. Another altar
piece, The Vision of Saint Hyacinth
(1599-1600), for the Santa Sabina church in Rome led to an invitation by Pope
Clement VIII to become a papal court painter. The Zappis permanently moved to
Rome in 1603 where Lavinia became a court portraitist, enjoying the patronage
of Pope Gregory XIII’s family. In 1604 she painted the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, her largest altar piece for a Roman
basilica, San Paolo Fuori le Mura. A rare honor for a female, Lavinia was
elected a member of the Roman
Academy.
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| Minerva Dressing, 1613 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
After her marriage, Fontana
would occasionally sign her paintings using her married name, Zappi. Of
Fontana’s body of work, only 30 paintings consistently attributed to her
survive. This still represents the largest known body of work by a woman up to
the year 1700. Lavinia received many awards and honors, was one of the first
women to paint large, publicly commissioned figure paintings, and is recognized
for developing a successful artistic career while working within the sphere of
her European, male counterparts. At present, Fontana’s Portrait of a Noble Woman, said to be Bianca Capello, Grand Duchess
of Tuscany, and her Portrait of Constanza
Adidosi are in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts,
Washington, D.C.
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