Internationally, there were many women artists from the Renaissance alone, but very few of them challenged society through their wit, playfulness, and talent for painting. Among them, the most recognized woman artist who achieved celebrity status through her paintings was Sofonisba Anguissola, a student of Michelangelo and court painter to King Philip II of Spain. Though famous in her own time, this composition that you see here, painted by Sofonisba herself, with time, has faded from art history and public awareness over the past centuries. A remarkable body of work that infuses feminity, humor, and excellent craftsmanship, Bernardino Campi painting Sofonisba Anguissola is an art piece that took sixteenth-century art in a new direction because of the sitter’s engagement with activity. Being a rare painting having a theme of the teacher-student relationship of artists, this is the only known portrait of Campi and is sensitively done by the artist.
A little backstory to this artwork starts when Bernardino, a recognized artist, was hired by the comune to paint the pictures of Prince Philip’s army. It happened because the Cremonese were notified that the Spanish prince would pay them a royal visit, which was why huge preparations were made to fete him. Now, during this time, Anguissola was studying under Bernardino, so it was conceivable that she was asked to help him. The prince made a triumphal entrance into Cremona on 9 January 1549. The Cremonese nobility, which included the Pallavicini, Ponzone, and Anguissola families, were supposed to provide lodging and entertainment to these hundreds of servants and nobilities traveling with Philip.
Sofonisba Anguissola was sixteen at this time, and this talented and well-educated lady met the twenty-one-year-old Philips. Her father, Amilcare, left no chance to make good contacts during this brief stay at Philips, which in the future would prove invaluable when Sofonisba gets invited to the Philips court after ten years.
The same year, Bernardino Campi went to Milan, where he was introduced at the ducal court of the governor of Milan, Ferrante Gonzaga, by Alessandro Sesto. In a letter of May 1550, Isabella di Capua, the princess of Molfetta, Ferrante’s wife, requested him to paint a portrait of her daughter, Ippolita. And sooner Bernardino’s starred with an immense reputation. It was exactly about this time that Anguissola painted Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola.
The composition was different in comparison to the traditional portraiture of the time. Though the aristocracy and wealthy people afforded portraiture; these sitters were supposed to either hold a book or a dog as a prop. It was the first time when the Renaissance’s art got a new direction because of the sitter’s engagement in an activity. Unlike static portraits, this image had a movement, memorializing the sitter in her favorite activity. Besides, what can be a better way to pay homage to a teacher by his student?
The painting shows Campi wearing a black artist’s smock with full sleeves. Wearing a white linen shirt underneath, his right hand is steadied by appoggiamano (a handrest made of a long stick to avoid smudging on the canvas while painting) holding a paintbrush. Anguissola portrays herself on a canvas on an easel with a dark gown with puffed sleeves at the cap, and a rich aristocratic dress with a direct stance to the viewers. Her left eye appears to be reddish and larger than the right one, as an indication of eye inflammation. In her left hand, she holds a pair of gloves, and with her right hand, she holds the hand of Bernardino to govern him painting her. The artist paints her hair in a light auburn hue with soft touches of blonde. She wears a silver drop earring in her left ear and a gold bracelet in her left hand.
Anguissola always had a warmth and esteem in her teacher, Bernardino, which is visible through her letters to him even after he left for commissions, and she started working under Bernardino Gatti and then Michelangelo. In one of her letters from court life, dated 21 October 1561, she writes,
“Therefore, my dearest teacher, Signore Bernardino, you see how busy I am painting. The Queen wants a great part of my time in order for me to paint her portrait, and she does not have patience for me to paint others so that she is not deprived of my working for her.”
The inventiveness and playfulness, that Anguissola displayed in this portraiture with an immense gratitude to her benevolent teacher, Campi, is worth noticing. Though the Renaissance women artists were somehow restricted in history and religious genres, due to the prohibition to study nude male figures, Sofonisba proved herself as the most iconic woman artist who showed her excellent and prolific inclination towards portraiture. Though creative, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola has been obscured by more than four hundred years of accumulated dirt and neglect. Today, it hangs in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, but still takes its place mostly in the shadows.
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Featured Image: Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola by Sofonisba Anguissola; Sofonisba Anguissola, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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