Power and Presence: Early Modern Italian Women at the BMA

Clockwise from left of introductory text:

DIANA MANTUANA
Italian, c. 1547–1612
after Giulio Romano
Italian, 1499–1546
Feast of the Gods, or Preparations for the Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche
c. 1575, printed 1613
Engraving on three joined sheets of paper
Garrett Collection, BMA 1984.81.

Celebratory—and salacious—activities unfold during the wedding preparations and feast of Cupid and Psyche, a scene based on the mythological story written by the 2nd-century Roman poet Apuleius. Diana Mantuana’s print expertly replicates a section of a large-scale wall painting (fresco) by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo Te in Mantua, Italy, during the late 1520s. Mantuana, who both made and sold her own engravings, was also the first Italian woman to sign her prints: above the doorway on the far left, a placard announces Diana F. (fecit, or made).

DIANA MANTUANA
Italian, c. 1547–1612
after Domenico Ghirlandaio
Italian, 1449–1494
Attinia, S. Greciniana
1583
Engraving
Garrett Collection, BMA 1946.112.4638
 

ELISABETTA SIRANI
Italian, 1638–1665
Rest on the Flight to Egypt
c. 1658–1665
Etching
Garrett Collection, BMA 1946.112.4670

Women flourished as printmakers in Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries, whether by reproducing the work of their male contemporaries, as in Diana Mantuana’s prints on view nearby, or by creating their own designs. Bolognese painter and printmaker Elisabetta Sirani executed ten prints of her own invention during her lifetime, all religious subjects. In this lush landscape, Sirani captured a tender moment between the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus, who extends his arms toward his mother as Mary’s husband, Joseph, looks on. Sirani’s prints display a fluid and confident handling of the etching needle, which she used to draw her designs directly onto the printing plate.

ATTRIBUTED TO LAVINIA FONTANA
Italian, 1552–1614
Portrait of a Young Lady
c. 1590–1600
Oil on wood panel
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection, BMA 1938.173

With a doorway behind her open to a distant garden, this elegant and unidentified woman displays her wealth and intellectual interests. She clutches a book in her right hand; her fashionable gown sparkles with gold embroidery and features fine lace sleeves and an elaborate collar, both likely made by women and girls from local orphanages or convents. The portrait’s fashion and setting situate it in Bologna, an Italian city distinguished for its promotion of women artists and patrons around the turn of the 17th century.

Like the sitter, the artist responsible for this work remains unidentified. At some point in its history, the composition was damaged, presenting challenges in determining the painting’s authorship. Ongoing research suggests that it may have been painted by Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana, or possibly her father, Prospero Fontana (1512–1597), with whom she trained in the late 1560s or early 1570s.

UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST
Velvet Fragment
Florence, Italy
15th century
Silk
Gift of Saidie A. May, BMA 1944.31
 
UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST
Lace Border
Italy
16th or 17th century
Linen
Bequest of Susan Dwight Bliss, BMA 1967.37.137

Italian women artists of varying socioeconomic statuses made velvet and lace, like examples seen here and in the nearby portraits, in the 15th through 17th centuries. The raw silk for this green velvet was either imported from eastern Mediterranean ports or cultivated in a silkworm farm, many of which were founded by Italian noblewomen to support local textile industries. Transported to urban workshops, the silkworm cocoons were unraveled by low-income women who specialized in preparing raw silk for looms.

Contrastingly, this wheel-patterned lace border was most likely stitched in a Catholic convent or orphanage. This piece combines two techniques, both invented by Italian lacemakers: reticella, embroidery on a fabric base later cut away, and punto in aria, threads joined in open air. Often, lacemakers sold textiles like this one to support women-only religious houses and women-led charities.

UNIDENTIFIED ITALIAN ARTIST
Portrait of a Lady of the Medici Court
c. 1600–1620
Oil on canvas
The Jacob Epstein Collection, BMA 1951.102

CLAUDE MELLAN
French, 1598–1688
Publisher: Michel Odieuvre
French, 1687–1756
Anna Maria Vaiani
c. 1630
Engraving
Blanche Adler Memorial Fund, BMA 2019.45
 
Virginia da Vezzo
1626
Engraving
Blanche Adler Memorial Fund, BMA 2019.43
 
Maddalena Corvina
1636
Engraving
Blanche Adler Memorial Fund, BMA, 2019.44

French printmaker Claude Mellan executed these three bust-length portraits of celebrated Italian women artists while he was working in Rome between 1624 and 1636. Mellan’s engravings are strongly individualized, showing each sitter in an oval frame inscribed with her name, profession, and birthplace. The portraits, made for the esteemed collector Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1667), were a testament to each woman’s prominence within Rome’s artistic and intellectual circles.

After leaving Rome for Paris with her husband, the painter Simon Vouet, in 1627, Virginia da Vezzo (1600–1638) established the first drawing class for women at the French court. Anna Maria Vaiani (1604–c. 1655), an engraver and still-life painter, was active in the most important Roman scientific academy of her time, the Accademia dei Lincei, in the 1630s. Maddalena Corvina (1607–1664), born to Flemish immigrant parents, worked as a successful miniaturist and painter in Rome, producing several botanical studies.

Center of gallery:

 
ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCESCO XANTO AVELLI
Italian, c.1486–after 1542
Maiolica Plate
Urbino, Italy
c. 1525
Tin-glazed earthenware
Purchase with exchange funds from Gift of Albert Hendler, Bernard R. Hendler, Bernice Hendler Kolodny and Florence Hendler Trupp, BMA 1957.81

A woman walks on clouds across this maiolica, or tin-glazed earthenware, plate. Francesco Xanto Avelli delicately blended and layered blue, green, and yellow glazes to produce an ombre effect for her gauzy dress, mimicking the iridescent, Italian-made silks popular during the 16th century. Italian artists at this time often represented virtuous ancient Greek or Roman goddesses with the features of contemporary Italian women to draw parallels between the past and present. This figure’s flowing red hair, pale skin, and graceful body are typical of the idealized women in many early 16th-century Italian artworks.