The enlightenment of Renaissance Italy did not extend to attitudes about women’s roles. If a woman did not marry, her prospects were typically limited to nun, maid, seamstress or prostitute.
Or artist, if you were fortunate enough to have afather to nurture your talent — or served in a convent that counted on its nun to generate financial support.
And even the most exceptional talents had to contend with daunting stereotypes and conform to society’s dictates. A woman had to be passive and submissive — qualities decidedly not conducive to success in a field requiring public display of your work and the courting of patrons.
In Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque, you’ll meet 15 artists who transcended the barriers to achieve critical and market success in their own time — the 16th and 17th centuries. Subsequently neglected by the chroniclers of art history, these masterful mistresses get well-deserved wall space at the National Museum of Women in the Arts starting this weekend.
Featuring five dozen paintings, drawings and impossibly intricate cherry stone pendant carvings, the show demonstrates the power of a woman’s touch through violent biblical allegories to storied patron portraits to exquisitely precise botanical studies.
Among the artists: Sofonisba Anguissola (born between 1532-35, died 1625), whose father hoped art would help his six daughters amass dowries and attract worthy husbands, and Artemisia Gentileschi. The sole female mentored by the rebellious master of realism Caravaggio, Gentileschi challenged art and societal conventions, demanding respect as an equal to the male luminaries in her field. Joining them is Dominican nun Plautilla Nelli. Presented as the first known women painter of Florence, Nelli was as skilled in selling art as in creating it.
Then there is Lavinia Fontana, who depended on her husband to sign her many contracts, since women had no legal standing. Another surprising nugget: Fede Galizia assured both patron and public of her virginity by signing her work “Virgo Pudiciss” — which translates to chaste maiden.
Despite the countless depictions of Mary holding the infant Jesus, Elisabetta Sirani’s 1663 “Virgin and Child” will, for many viewers, become the new favorite. Sirani, also trained by her father, has so joyfully humanized the holy, Mary beaming like a mortal mother at her son. This is the same artist who, one year later, captured the graphic drama of “Portia Wounding Her Thigh” — the self-mutilation intended to gain the trust of husband Brutus and uncover the plot to assassinate Caesar.
Follow the eyes through the exhibition. At once ethereally beautiful and eerily lifelike, they reflect the prowess, keen powers of observation and soul of these artists. Pay particular attention to the lovely liquid eyes that Gentileschi gives “Clio, the Muse of History” … the intense direct gaze of Anguissola’s self-portrait playing the spinet, in which she appears as a fresh-faced youth emanating a lifetime’s acquaintance with human nature) … and the corneas she so subtly, smartly clouds to perfect her trompe l’oeil, “Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola.”
It’s rare to find wall text about “Marketing Strategies” next to Renaissance masterworks. We learn how these determined women worked within social constraints to find patrons and earn commissions. We also learn an explanation for the many self-portraits — in addition to demonstrating their mastery of oils, the artists wanted to control their public image.
This savvy endeavor helped them sell their work and avoid censure. Indeed Sirani maintained her reputation as una gentildonna — the ideal young woman — while painting more than 200 works before dying in 1665 at age 27.
Amply qualified for the job, these artists earned their commissions and reputations with their talent before getting lost in the cobwebs of time.
This most remarkable collection corrects the neglect — and rightfully elevates the concept of “women’s work.”
Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque
Through July 15
» Venue: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW
» Info: 202-873-5000; www.nmwa.org
» Related event: Renaissance Revelry Family Festival noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 1. Free; reservations required
