XVITH CENTURY FEMALE SELF-PORTRAITURE IN ITALY AND ITS FORMAL CRITERIA

UDC 7.034.5
DOI: 10.36871/hon.202303074

Authors

Ekaterina S. Novikova,
Russian State University for the Humanities, 125047, Russian Federation, Moscow

Abstract

Since the second half of the XVIth century, the number of female artists and sculptors gradually increased. Their work was extremely important already because for the first time it claimed success in a field where, until then, the fame had belonged exclusively to men. Self-portraits in the XVIth century became an extremely popular form of artistic creation among painters, including women. In general, the practice of artists putting their signatures on paintings did not go beyond the Italian tradition. However, it can be assumed that witnessing their work was an important moment for women of that time, when the myth that only a man could create was still popular. Self-portraits occupied a different place in the work of female artists: S. Anguissola painted more than a dozen self-portraits, L. Fontana — only one. Yet, the variety of portrait images does not deny the presence of common features characteristic of the work of all artists. The purpose of the study is to define formal criteria for Italian women’s self-portraits of the XVIth century. The revealed criteria allow to understand to what extent women’s selfportraits corresponded to the traditions of female portraiture of their time.

Keywords

self-portrait of the XVIth century, female image, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Barbara Longhi, Marietta Robusti, Fede Galizia, Renaissance, Italy