Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson. We recently,
Speaker 1: not too far back, ran our Georgiova Sarry podcast as
Speaker 1: a Saturday classic, and today's topic sort of tangentially touches
Speaker 1: him on the timeline, not entirely tangential. Prospero Fontana was
Speaker 1: a painter in Bologna, Italy in the sixteenth century, and
Speaker 1: he was relatively successful because he was skilled and he
Speaker 1: worked quickly. He stayed busy with commissions because he just
Speaker 1: had a track record for dependability, particularly in fresco work
Speaker 1: and portraiture, and he worked for Giorgiova Sarry on a
Speaker 1: number of projects. Prospero va Sary is Germane to today's
Speaker 1: topic because he was today's topics father. We were talking
Speaker 1: about another painter, Prospero's daughter, Lavinia Fontana, so let's get
Speaker 1: into it. Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, Italy in
Speaker 1: fifteen fifty two. We don't know the exact date she
Speaker 1: was born, As we just mentioned, her father was a painter.
Speaker 1: Her mother, Antonia Bartolomeo de Bonardes was from a family
Speaker 1: that made its fortune in publishing. The Fontana's were not nobles,
Speaker 1: but they did live comfortably, and Lavinia's baptismal sponsors were
Speaker 1: men from the Bolognese nobility. Lavinia was one of three
Speaker 1: children in the family. She had a sister and a
Speaker 1: brother named Amelia and Faminio. Both of them died, though
Speaker 1: not in their childhood, but when they were young adults.
Speaker 1: One had been a teenager and when I think within
Speaker 1: their early twenties. Lavinia studied under her father, who was
Speaker 1: a leading member of the painters guild in Bologna, and
Speaker 1: he worked in the Mannerist style, which is what he
Speaker 1: taught Lavinia. He had also taught his other children, Amelia
Speaker 1: and Meno, but Lavinia was the one that was just
Speaker 1: most naturally gifted at painting. She was educated beyond art.
Speaker 1: She was very well educated in mathematics, Latin and music,
Speaker 1: as well as her painting classes with her father. Mannerism,
Speaker 1: just as a quick refresher, was very popular in sixteenth
Speaker 1: century Italy. It originated in Florence, but it wasn't referred
Speaker 1: to as mannerism until much later in the eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: This period follows right on the heels of work that
Speaker 1: was done by da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael and it
Speaker 1: shows a move away from the Classicism and naturalistic beauty
Speaker 1: that those artists sought to create in their work. Mannerism
Speaker 1: is slightly more stylized. Sometimes it can even be bizarre.
Speaker 1: It slightly exaggerates otherwise realistic compositions, so that say, Assiter's
Speaker 1: limbs might be a little too long or their head
Speaker 1: a little too small. Incredible detail in the four ground
Speaker 1: is often combined with a really sparse or unrealistically simple background.
Speaker 1: As she reached her twenties, Lavinia transitioned into a painting career,
Speaker 1: which was an unusual step for a woman in Bologna
Speaker 1: in the fifteen seventies. She is often referred to as
Speaker 1: the first woman painter in Western Europe to have a
Speaker 1: successful career. It's a little more nuanced than that. There
Speaker 1: were other women in Italy making a living in the arts,
Speaker 1: most famously sofonisba Ala, who was about twenty years older
Speaker 1: than Lavinia. These two women are often discussed in tandem
Speaker 1: when considering art of the period, and they were also
Speaker 1: compared to one another at the time by their contemporaries.
Speaker 1: So Fanisba, who could and probably will be her own
Speaker 1: episode at some point, was born into the nobility, although
Speaker 1: at a low level that did not come with wealth,
Speaker 1: and she became a court painter other women artists who
Speaker 1: managed to make a living at it before Fontana worked
Speaker 1: exclusively at convents creating devotional art. So what sins Lavinia
Speaker 1: apart is that she was not noble by birth, and
Speaker 1: as she advanced her art career, she made her living
Speaker 1: through commissions from a variety of clients. Like her father had,
Speaker 1: the groundwork for this career had been laid very carefully
Speaker 1: by Prospero. He encouraged clients to commission Lavinia's first professional works.
Speaker 1: He had also given away small pieces she painted to
Speaker 1: help establish her reputation. So while she was unique as
Speaker 1: a professional, she benefited from her father serving as her supporter,
Speaker 1: both technically as a painter and as sort of an
Speaker 1: early public relations manager. Yeah, he made some other very
Speaker 1: significant moves in her life. We'll talk about um. The
Speaker 1: first signed work that we know of by Lavinia is
Speaker 1: a portrait of a boy from fifty There isn't a
Speaker 1: record of who this child was. He is dressed in
Speaker 1: rather fancy clothes, so he was likely the son of
Speaker 1: a wealthy family. Although it is a very early work,
Speaker 1: many of the hallmarks of Lavinia's painting style are already present.
Speaker 1: For example, the fabrics of the boy's clothing are rendered
Speaker 1: in just incredible detail. The pose is quite formal, the
Speaker 1: boy does not look relaxed in his body posture, and
Speaker 1: he makes direct eye contact with the viewer. In a
Speaker 1: painting estimated to have been created in fifteen seventy five
Speaker 1: titled Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine. St. Catherine of Alexandria
Speaker 1: is shown having a vision of Christ. There are numerous
Speaker 1: works by many artists that have this title or a
Speaker 1: similar one that depicts the same basic idea, although sometimes
Speaker 1: that St. Catherine of Alexandria and others St. Catherine of
Speaker 1: Sienna both show the moment when one or in some
Speaker 1: cases rarely both of these women pledged their lives to Christ,
Speaker 1: using the framework of marriage that is frequently invoked as
Speaker 1: part of describing a woman becoming a nun. In Fontana's
Speaker 1: version of this moment, Catherine is shown in a soft
Speaker 1: golden yellow gown with a red cape that straped around
Speaker 1: her shoulders. She is kneeling with her hands posed as
Speaker 1: in prayer before the infant Jesus, who is being held
Speaker 1: by his mother Mary and appears to be blessing her.
Speaker 1: Above the main scene is an entire secondary group of
Speaker 1: angels in the clouds. They are all rendered in very
Speaker 1: dreamy pastel's. In February seventies seven, when she was twenty five,
Speaker 1: Lavinia married a man named Giovanni Paolo Zappi, often also
Speaker 1: named as Jean Paulo. He had been a student under
Speaker 1: her father. This marriage was unusual and that although Zappy
Speaker 1: was a painter, his work didn't become the priority. It
Speaker 1: was quite the opposite. Jean Paulo supported Lavinia's career and
Speaker 1: even became her agent. That arrangement is often pointed at
Speaker 1: for its progressive and unusual nature, and it was that,
Speaker 1: but it was also arranged to be that way by
Speaker 1: Lavinia's father, Prospero. Giovanni was the son of a noble.
Speaker 1: He was not first in line to inherit, but his
Speaker 1: status was going to elevate Lavinia's social rank, so you
Speaker 1: might think that the marriage agreement would favor him considerably,
Speaker 1: But in fact it laid out some pretty unusual terms. First,
Speaker 1: there would be no dowry that was in light of
Speaker 1: Lavinia's earnings potential. That was a condition that may have
Speaker 1: been stipulated by Prospero because he would have had difficulty
Speaker 1: coming up with a sum that would set this new
Speaker 1: couple up in a household of their own. He was
Speaker 1: in many ways successful, but he still struggled when it
Speaker 1: came to managing his money. Second, the couple had to
Speaker 1: live with Prospero, who would support them in exchange for
Speaker 1: Lavinia continuing to work with him. Basically, Prospero, who saw
Speaker 1: his daughter's earning potential, promised the Zoppie family that she
Speaker 1: could be the breadwinner. There was also language in the
Speaker 1: contract that gian Paolo would also paint, and money that
Speaker 1: he brought in would be kind of part of this
Speaker 1: family collective. But it appears he was just not really
Speaker 1: at the same level of Lavinia, and he stopped trying
Speaker 1: to have an art career pretty early on. While this
Speaker 1: arrangement undoubtedly benefited Prospero Fontana by keeping his daughter as
Speaker 1: his assistant in the long term, it also meant that
Speaker 1: she was supported in her artistic career by her spouse
Speaker 1: Giovanni handled all our business deals, something that would have
Speaker 1: been difficult or impossible for her to do herself as
Speaker 1: a woman. He was also a stay at home father
Speaker 1: to their children, and they had a lot over the
Speaker 1: course of their marriage. They had eleven kids, although sadly
Speaker 1: only three of them survived past childhood. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk more about Lavinia's painting after we take a quick
Speaker 1: break to hear from the sponsors to keep stuff you
Speaker 1: missed in history class going. Even before her marriage, Lavinia's
Speaker 1: skills as a portraitist were why recognized her father in law,
Speaker 1: Severozapi noted her work in a letter that he wrote
Speaker 1: her before she and Giovanni were married. Lavinia had sent
Speaker 1: him to portraits and he was quite pleased with them.
Speaker 1: And in addition to portraits of other people, Lavinia painted
Speaker 1: self portraits, so not very many, and those self portraits
Speaker 1: offer an interesting window into how she saw herself and
Speaker 1: how she presented herself to the world. And as noted
Speaker 1: in a piece of writing by Catherine A. Mcgiver, Professor
Speaker 1: Emerita of Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
Speaker 1: what's really really interesting is that Lavinia did not paint
Speaker 1: herself as an artist in her fifteen seventies seven painting
Speaker 1: self portrait at the Virginal, which was one of the
Speaker 1: portraits she sent to her future father in law. She
Speaker 1: seated at a small harpsichord. An attendant is standing behind
Speaker 1: her holding a music book. Her painting easel is in
Speaker 1: the image, but it's sitting empty in the background, and
Speaker 1: she's dressed in layered jeweled clothes that would have been
Speaker 1: popular with the nobility of the day and Latin. At
Speaker 1: the top left of the image is the note Lavinia,
Speaker 1: the unmarried daughter of Prospero Fontana, took this her image
Speaker 1: from the mirror seventy seven. Art historians have interpreted this
Speaker 1: painting as being Lavinia's assurance to her future relatives that
Speaker 1: she's a lady of refinement with a career that can
Speaker 1: support her family. As an aside, this was a time
Speaker 1: when Bologna was kind of ahead of a lot of
Speaker 1: other places in terms of women's education. Women were allowed
Speaker 1: to enroll with the university, although they couldn't study all
Speaker 1: of the same subjects as men. Law, medicine, and theology
Speaker 1: courses were only permitted for male students. But in showing
Speaker 1: herself In this portrait with the harpsichord as musically accomplished
Speaker 1: and including a Latin inscription, Lavinia was very carefully and
Speaker 1: clearly showing her own level of intellect and knowledge, in
Speaker 1: line with the culturally held values of education at the time.
Speaker 1: In fifteen seventy nine, she painted the Tiny Self Portrait
Speaker 1: in the Studiolo, which is a circular portrait six inches
Speaker 1: in diameter, showing her in her study. This is a
Speaker 1: commissioned piece. Collector Alfonso Calcionio already had a self portrait
Speaker 1: of sophonisba Angui Sola, and he wanted one of Lavinia
Speaker 1: to go with it. In the portrait, she's wearing fine
Speaker 1: court dress with a stiff ruffled collar, and she's seated
Speaker 1: at a desk with books and sculptures, holding a pen.
Speaker 1: She also wears a large gold cross, and her gaze
Speaker 1: is fixed on the viewer, although her head is in
Speaker 1: a quarter profile so that she's not actually facing the
Speaker 1: viewer directly. In the fifteen eighties, Lavinia became very popular
Speaker 1: with women clients in particular. Carlos ces Armaza was a
Speaker 1: historian in the seventeenth century who wrote a book on
Speaker 1: Bologna's famous artists, and this is often referenced as an
Speaker 1: import source when it comes to studying Fontana, although he
Speaker 1: wrote it in six seventy eight, which was more than
Speaker 1: sixty five years after Lavinia's death, so keep in mind
Speaker 1: he does not always have firsthand accounts in it. He writes, quote,
Speaker 1: for some time, all the ladies of the city would
Speaker 1: compete in wishing to have her close to them, treating
Speaker 1: her and embracing her with extraordinary demonstrations of love and respect.
Speaker 1: Considering themselves fortunate to have seen her on the street,
Speaker 1: or to have meetings in the company of the curious
Speaker 1: young woman. The greatest thing they desired would be to
Speaker 1: have her paint their portraits, prizing them in such a
Speaker 1: way that, in our day no greater prices could be
Speaker 1: charged by a van Dyke or justice Susterman's his point
Speaker 1: was that this popularity among the ladies of Bologna's upper
Speaker 1: class had actually pretty steeply driven up the prices of
Speaker 1: Fontana's work. There have been scholars over the years who
Speaker 1: have made the case that the fact that Lavinia was
Speaker 1: a woman was part of her success with Bologna's women,
Speaker 1: because they felt more comfortable sitting for a woman artist,
Speaker 1: she clearly became friends with some of them. Several became
Speaker 1: godmothers to her children. Before the fifteen eighties, Fontana also
Speaker 1: had a lot of clients who were members of the intelligentsia.
Speaker 1: Academics of the day often turned to her to capture
Speaker 1: their likenesses. But as this increase in demand for fashion
Speaker 1: portraits from the society ladies increase, the prices rose too
Speaker 1: high for scholars, she painted fewer and fewer portraits of
Speaker 1: Italy's great thinkers. There's one woman in particular who's often
Speaker 1: seen as the true turning point in Fontana's career, and
Speaker 1: that is Laudomia Gozzadina. In four Laudomia commissioned Fontana to
Speaker 1: paint her family, and after that the artist popularity rose
Speaker 1: very rapidly. That portrait, which is simply called Portrait of
Speaker 1: the Gotzdini Family, features Laudomia and her sister Geneva, as
Speaker 1: well as their spins. The women are in their wedding gowns.
Speaker 1: In the center of the portrait is the sister's father,
Speaker 1: Senator Ulisa Gottadina, who died twenty three years before this
Speaker 1: painting was created. Laudomia's sister Geneva was also dead when
Speaker 1: the painting was commissioned, although she had passed just a
Speaker 1: few years before in as Ulsa. Gotzadini had arranged both
Speaker 1: of the marriages pictured in the portrait when the girls
Speaker 1: were still small children. This sort of appears to be
Speaker 1: a representation of the family that he created through those
Speaker 1: marriage arrangements. There are additional interpretations of this painting, some
Speaker 1: of which are kind of fun that we can talk
Speaker 1: about on Friday. This painting is really interesting, both in
Speaker 1: composition and in the ways people have interpreted it over
Speaker 1: the centuries. There are some obvious elements and tended to
Speaker 1: convey meaning each person and it is reaching out to
Speaker 1: touch one of the others. Listen. The patriarch has a
Speaker 1: hand wrapped around the forearm of the deceased daughter Generva,
Speaker 1: indicating their shared status. Additionally, both of the dead members
Speaker 1: of the family and the image face to the viewers right,
Speaker 1: those who were alive when it was painted face to
Speaker 1: the viewers left. The Doomia is stroking a tiny dog
Speaker 1: which sits on the table at the center of the image,
Speaker 1: and that served as a symbol of devotion. Such dogs
Speaker 1: were also very popular among the wealthy of the time,
Speaker 1: and Laudomia Gozzadini was one of the women who became
Speaker 1: a godmother to one of Lavinia's children. That was a
Speaker 1: son named Several. Lavinia's next daughter that was born after Several,
Speaker 1: was named Laudomia, presumably after this friend. The Gozzini family
Speaker 1: also became very closely intertwined with the finances of Lavinia
Speaker 1: and her husband Jampaolo. It appears that they made a
Speaker 1: lot more commissions for portraits, as records indicate multiple sums
Speaker 1: of money transferring from the Gotzdini family to Lavinia's. There
Speaker 1: were many other women with which Lavinia had clothed and
Speaker 1: ongoing relationships, both as patrons and as friends, but in
Speaker 1: the case of Vadomio Gozzadini we have a lot more
Speaker 1: detailed records and most of the others. There are many
Speaker 1: portraits painted by Fontana in which the sitter remains unidentified,
Speaker 1: but in the case of Gotzedini, there are notations on
Speaker 1: the back, particularly of that famous family portrait, as to
Speaker 1: each person in the painting, as well as those records
Speaker 1: of the financial ties that the two families had. In
Speaker 1: addition to the portraits, Fontana was commissioned by many households
Speaker 1: to paint religious subjects. She had started doing this early
Speaker 1: in her career. There are instances where she signed some
Speaker 1: of them with her maiden name, so they we know
Speaker 1: that they predate her marriage. One thing of note in
Speaker 1: the progression of both subject and tone of her religious
Speaker 1: paintings that's been noted by historians is that as Lavinia
Speaker 1: matured into life as a mother, her paintings of Mary
Speaker 1: and the infant Jesus reflect a sweetness that was unique
Speaker 1: among depictions by other artists. In the fifteen eighties, Lavinia
Speaker 1: achieved another milestone for women artists. She was the first
Speaker 1: woman commissioned to create an altarpiece. She did several of these,
Speaker 1: and one such commission came from the Commune of Imola,
Speaker 1: which is where her husband was from. The resulting work,
Speaker 1: which is titled Assumption of the Virgin, features Sat. Cassian
Speaker 1: and St. Peter chrystals. Those are both patron saints of Imola.
Speaker 1: The significance of being commissioned for alterpieces is really clear
Speaker 1: when you consider time and place. While Bologna wasn't an
Speaker 1: epicenter of art patronage in the early part of the
Speaker 1: sixteenth century, it was heavily invested in devotional art. One
Speaker 1: of Bologna's points of pride was another altarpiece in the
Speaker 1: city that had been painted by Raphael in the early
Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds, so for Fontana to be commissioned to make
Speaker 1: one was a really big deal. We should also note
Speaker 1: that there are some altarpieces that remain a little bit
Speaker 1: unclear that she has in her her body of work,
Speaker 1: that are unclear in terms of their attribution. Because that
Speaker 1: was an area where her father, Prospero Fontana, had specialized
Speaker 1: and one in which Lavinia often assisted. There have been
Speaker 1: a number of questions over the years about how much
Speaker 1: either of them worked on each other's commissions and who
Speaker 1: should get primary credit, and Prospero was part of the
Speaker 1: reason that Lavinia became favored by figures in the church
Speaker 1: and ended up with public commissions. Prospero had painted quite
Speaker 1: a few works for churches and had long term friendships
Speaker 1: and patronages with some of them. In turn, those relationships
Speaker 1: helped build similar opportunities for Lavinia. The Archbishop of Bologna,
Speaker 1: Cardinal Gabrielle Pelotti, had known Lavinia as she was her
Speaker 1: father's assistant, and it was through him that she received
Speaker 1: some of her commissions for public devotional paintings. And though
Speaker 1: she was born and raised in Bologna and was very
Speaker 1: successful there, Lavinia also came celebrated in Rome, and we
Speaker 1: will talk about her first visit to that city. After
Speaker 1: a sponsor break, Lavinia visited Rome for the first time
Speaker 1: in six While she was there, she expanded her client
Speaker 1: base to include Cardinal Francisco Patchaco of Spain, which garnered
Speaker 1: her a commission for King Philip the Second of Spain,
Speaker 1: so very high profile. A subsequent visit to Rome in
Speaker 1: six led to a similarly momentous commission when Lavinia was
Speaker 1: asked to paint a chapel altarpiece in the city around
Speaker 1: though that date is uncertain, Lavinia painted the first of
Speaker 1: only a few paintings we know of covering mythological figures.
Speaker 1: This painting is Mars and Venus, and it was groundbreaking. First,
Speaker 1: this may have been the first time a woman painter,
Speaker 1: and certainly one of high stature, took on this genre. Uh,
Speaker 1: mythological paintings had always been the domain of men, and
Speaker 1: a lot of men have painted Mars and Venus. Second,
Speaker 1: the figure of Mars is covered only by a cloth
Speaker 1: which wraps around his body at the groin level, and
Speaker 1: Venus is totally naked. For a woman, even a woman
Speaker 1: painter at the time, it would have been completely scandalous
Speaker 1: to paint from referencing a live nude model. We don't
Speaker 1: actually know if Livinia ever had nude models, or if
Speaker 1: she was painting nudes by referencing the work of male artists. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's also been uh some indication that she said it
Speaker 1: was from painting the women she had known in her life, uh,
Speaker 1: to to avoid any of that. But it doesn't explain
Speaker 1: why she does a nude man quite so perfectly. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's um, I love that painting desperately, and I'll talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about why and are behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: On Friday in she painted the Visit of the Queen
Speaker 1: of Sheba to Solomon. If you take a quick look
Speaker 1: at this work when you're considering that title, one thing
Speaker 1: is blazingly obvious. These are all very white Europeans in
Speaker 1: Renaissance dress. Though there is still hardy debate today about
Speaker 1: whether the biblical land of Sheba would be in present
Speaker 1: day Africa, specifically Ethiopia, or in the Arabian Peninsula. Specifically Yemen.
Speaker 1: Many depictions of the Queen of Sheba created by European
Speaker 1: artists do definitely whitewash her. There is a little bit
Speaker 1: of additional nuance to consider. In the case of Fontana's painting.
Speaker 1: It is widely accepted that she created this work as
Speaker 1: a sort of portrait allegory, she was casting too contemporary
Speaker 1: Italian nobles in the roles of Solomon and the visiting Queen.
Speaker 1: There is additional debate about exactly who those Italian nobles are.
Speaker 1: The most popular theory for a long time was that
Speaker 1: it is Vincenzo the first of Gonzaga and Eleonora de Medici,
Speaker 1: who were then Duchess of Mantua in the late sixteenth
Speaker 1: and early seventeenth centuries. That aligns with when the painting
Speaker 1: was created. However, recent developments have introduced an alternate theory.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that later in the episode.
Speaker 1: Part of the trouble in identifying the models for this
Speaker 1: piece is that it doesn't appear in any records until
Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds, when it was noted as being in
Speaker 1: Bologna's Palazzo Zambacari. The work was presumably commissioned but there's
Speaker 1: no clear evidence as to who may have contracted Leviny
Speaker 1: It's to paint it. After that, it traveled to Paris
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty nine and was purchased by Napoleon the
Speaker 1: third cousin. Then it was one of only a few
Speaker 1: paintings saved when the Palais Royal burned during the uprising
Speaker 1: of the Paris Commune, which means this crosses paths ever
Speaker 1: so briefly with that recent podcast on Gustave Courbet. At
Speaker 1: that point the painting moved to London before we being
Speaker 1: purchased by the National Gallery of Ireland. Because she had
Speaker 1: made connections to so many religious figures in Rome. After
Speaker 1: her father Prospero died in sixteen oh three, Lavinia was
Speaker 1: invited to move to Rome permanently by Pope Clement the eighth.
Speaker 1: She had enjoyed the favor of Pope before him, Pope
Speaker 1: Gregory the thirteenth, who had been pope from fifteen seventy
Speaker 1: two until his death in fifty five, had been a patron,
Speaker 1: and when Pope Paul the fifth became the two d
Speaker 1: thirty third Pope in May of sixteen o five, after
Speaker 1: the very brief papacy of Leo the eleventh. He not
Speaker 1: only was her patron, but he also gave her the
Speaker 1: very prestigious position of portraitist in ordinary i e. The
Speaker 1: primary portraitist at the Vatican. Lavinia's largest work was complete
Speaker 1: while she lived in Rome. That was the Martyrdom of St.
Speaker 1: Stephen or the Stoning of St. Stephen, which she completed
Speaker 1: in sixteen o four for the Basilica of sam Paolo
Speaker 1: foury le Mura in Rome. Fortunately we don't have images
Speaker 1: of this because the work was lost in a fire
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty three, which destroyed the whole basilica. That means,
Speaker 1: the painting The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to
Speaker 1: Salomon is Fontana's largest surviving work. It's two hundred fifty
Speaker 1: six by five centimeters or eight point four by ten
Speaker 1: point seven feet. Fantana was elected to the Roman Academy
Speaker 1: of Painters Academia disson Luca. This was rare, not just
Speaker 1: for a woman, but it was an honor that wasn't
Speaker 1: given to many male artists either, and this falls in line,
Speaker 1: though with her status as the Pope's primary portraitist, as
Speaker 1: the papacy was very influential on the Academy's leadership. During
Speaker 1: Lavinia's time in Rome, she achieved just an incredible level
Speaker 1: of success that any painter, man or woman would have envied.
Speaker 1: She was so well regarded that in sixteen eleven, flee
Speaker 1: ch Antonio Cassoni, who was a well known sculptor at
Speaker 1: the time, honored Fontana with a bronze medal featuring her
Speaker 1: m On one side of the metal is a bust
Speaker 1: likeness of the artist in profile wearing a veil. The
Speaker 1: opposite side of the metal shows her in a very
Speaker 1: different way. She sets at her easel, depicted in full figure.
Speaker 1: Her hair is loose and wild, and she's painting, and
Speaker 1: paint brushes and a palette litter the area around her feet.
Speaker 1: An inscription on this side of the metal translates to
Speaker 1: through you joyous state I am maintained. In sixteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: Fontana completed another nude. This one is titled Minerva Dressing,
Speaker 1: and it features the Roman goddess of Wisdom preparing to
Speaker 1: pull on a very very expensive looking garment. She's in
Speaker 1: three quarter profile with her head turned to look at
Speaker 1: the viewer, and her armor is scattered on the floor St.
Speaker 1: Peter's Basilica is visible in the background. Like Mars and Venus,
Speaker 1: this one continues to raise the question of whether Fontana
Speaker 1: flouted social moraise to work with a nude model. If
Speaker 1: she did, or even if people thought she did, it
Speaker 1: didn't really seem to have much of an impact on
Speaker 1: her work or her social standing. Lavinia died at the
Speaker 1: age of sixty two in Rome on August eleven, six fourteen.
Speaker 1: Her three sons, Flaminio, Arazzio and Prospero, which were her
Speaker 1: only surviving children, had it noted on her memorial stone
Speaker 1: that she had become famous beyond the womanly sphere. So
Speaker 1: we have talked about a wide range of painting categories
Speaker 1: that Fontana worked in at a time when portraiture was
Speaker 1: really considered the appropriate painting style for women. In the
Speaker 1: book Women Artists, Their Patrons and their Publics in Early
Speaker 1: Modern Bologna, which came out in one author Bubbett Bone
Speaker 1: breaks down the number of surviving Fontana works into a
Speaker 1: small table by type, based on that fortent were portraits,
Speaker 1: were private devotionals, eighteen percent were public devotionals. Mythological and
Speaker 1: genre slash landscape painting, each makeup fo and ancient history
Speaker 1: makes up just one percent. If you do the mad
Speaker 1: there it adds up two one, but that's because all
Speaker 1: of the percentages were rounded up, which is notated on
Speaker 1: the table. This really speaks to Lavinia's breadth of work,
Speaker 1: although portraits were obviously her bread and butter. In eighteen
Speaker 1: the National Gallery of Ireland received a grant for a
Speaker 1: conservation and research project from the Bank of America Global
Speaker 1: Art Conservation Project Fund. That grant was given to help
Speaker 1: the museum conserve Fontana's painting the Visit of the Queen
Speaker 1: of Sheba to King Solomon, and to conduct deeper research
Speaker 1: into Lavinia's life and works. The gallery has had the
Speaker 1: painting for a long time. It was acquired in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy two, just eight years after the National Gallery of
Speaker 1: Ireland opened. This project did not mark the first conservation efforts,
Speaker 1: not biologue shot. Now, this painting has had a lot
Speaker 1: of touching years. We mentioned the series of events that
Speaker 1: we know transpire to eventually land the painting in Ireland.
Speaker 1: When it was rescued from that fire in Paris, it
Speaker 1: had been cut from its frame because it is obviously
Speaker 1: too large to have been moved quickly otherwise, so it
Speaker 1: was reframed at some point in the late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: That frame has also been recently conserved. It has received
Speaker 1: reinforcement to the frame to support the way to the painting.
Speaker 1: That frame was also carefully cleaned to reveal the really
Speaker 1: beautiful gold leaf that was original to the framing. As
Speaker 1: varnish was removed from the painting under the supervision of
Speaker 1: conservators Maria Canavan and Latitzia Marcatelli. It revealed the color
Speaker 1: and detail of the painting and new and then offered
Speaker 1: an opportunity to compare the faces long believed to be
Speaker 1: the Duke and Duchess of Mantua. To compare those with
Speaker 1: other paintings of the couple, it became apparent that the
Speaker 1: likenesses were not as close as had been thought. The
Speaker 1: conservators and researchers believe these images are a closer match
Speaker 1: to a different couple, Alfonso the second death Day and
Speaker 1: Marguerite to Gonzaga, who were the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara.
Speaker 1: In addition to the likeness. To support this theory, the
Speaker 1: Duke would have died around the same time the painting
Speaker 1: was being completed, and that may account for why it
Speaker 1: doesn't appear on any documentation, it never would have been
Speaker 1: delivered to the original commissioner. There's no way to be sure,
Speaker 1: but it does make sense this explanation. It also explains
Speaker 1: why there are some gaps in the information about its origination.
Speaker 1: The conservation work on this piece is really really fascinating,
Speaker 1: and it included several stages, each of which of course
Speaker 1: had to be completed with incredible care. First, the painting
Speaker 1: had to be stabilized, meaning that paint that was pulling
Speaker 1: away from the surface had to be adhered back to it,
Speaker 1: and the canvas had to be inspected and repaired in
Speaker 1: any areas that showed evidence of degradation. Then came that
Speaker 1: varnish removal we mentioned just a moment ago. There had
Speaker 1: also been some conservation retouching performed in the mid twentieth
Speaker 1: century that had discover and over time that had to
Speaker 1: be removed as well. The next steps really interesting. It
Speaker 1: was a layer of varnish that means that any retouching
Speaker 1: that's part of this conservation effort can be removed at
Speaker 1: a later date. This will serve as a barrier between
Speaker 1: the old and the new pigment to avoid any confusion
Speaker 1: in the future. This and all other applications to the
Speaker 1: painting are intended to be reversible. The retouching technique used
Speaker 1: to fill in areas of the painting where color has
Speaker 1: flaked away is also intended to complete the painting without
Speaker 1: creating any question of what was original versus what was new.
Speaker 1: So this retouched painting is done using tiny dots and lines.
Speaker 1: If you're standing back from the painting, it looks complete,
Speaker 1: but if you get up really close you can see
Speaker 1: that these sections aren't part of the original painting. This
Speaker 1: was all part of the research the gallery conducted through
Speaker 1: the Lavinia Fontana Conservation and Research Project, and that conservation
Speaker 1: has been completed. The painting is back on you now,
Speaker 1: which makes me want to go to Ireland soon. Lavinia
Speaker 1: Fontana's high profile as one of the first women in
Speaker 1: Europe to make a living as an artist has continued
Speaker 1: to be important to the discussion of representation equity in
Speaker 1: the art world. In February of the National Gallery of
Speaker 1: Victoria in Melbourne, Australia acquired one of Lavinia's paintings as
Speaker 1: part of an ongoing effort on the part of the
Speaker 1: museum to address quote historical gender imbalance. The painting added
Speaker 1: to the m GVS collection is Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.
Speaker 1: So many paintings. Um I am. I am very very
Speaker 1: into her work. Like I said, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about Mars and Venus behind the scenes, okay uh. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, I have a listener mail about Evangelista Toricelli,
Speaker 1: just from our listener Alyssa, right, Till and Tracy. I've
Speaker 1: been meaning to write this email for quite a while now,
Speaker 1: but hearing Evangelista Toricelli's name pop up on your episode
Speaker 1: on hypertension gave me the push I needed to finally
Speaker 1: do it. I'm a PhD candidate in chemistry, which also
Speaker 1: means I occasionally teach general chemistry courses. In a very
Speaker 1: impressive coincidence, I happened to listen to your episode about
Speaker 1: Evangelista Toricelli on the way to campus the day my
Speaker 1: students were covering the ideal gas Law. I entered the
Speaker 1: room to find a very frustrated group of students. They
Speaker 1: had read the next section of the textbook the night before,
Speaker 1: and they didn't know why pressure could have such weird
Speaker 1: units in the equations, such as millimeters of mercury or
Speaker 1: a unit called tour. I knew the reason for the
Speaker 1: millimeters of mercury, but I had completely forgotten about Toricelli
Speaker 1: being the reason why we also call a millimeter of
Speaker 1: mercury a tour. They're exactly the same unit. Telling them
Speaker 1: the history behind the naming seemed to really get them
Speaker 1: interested in the material, but just more than I can
Speaker 1: often say about general chemistry classes. Thanks for helping me
Speaker 1: be the cool ta for the day A. My now
Speaker 1: husband introduced me to the podcast at the start of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, and it has become one of my go
Speaker 1: to listening pleasures for my one point five hour commute
Speaker 1: to work. That has given me plenty of time to
Speaker 1: listen to your current episodes while also working backward to
Speaker 1: catch what I've missed over the years. It's been a blast.
Speaker 1: Thank you for making my commute much easier. I have
Speaker 1: attached photos of my pair of kiddies for your enjoyment
Speaker 1: as a good and proper chemist. Their names are Xenon
Speaker 1: and Copper year old Torby girl and Copper is my
Speaker 1: four year old black Tabby boy. I love them dearly
Speaker 1: and hope their antics give you a smile. These cats
Speaker 1: are so stink and cute. There's one where they're grooming
Speaker 1: each other in front of a window, and it's a
Speaker 1: gorgeous little picture, and I may soon want to hug
Speaker 1: and kiss their faces. Thank you, my love a little
Speaker 1: uh cats grooming each other, It's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you. A lista. I'm glad
Speaker 1: we could help UH make a little more sense for
Speaker 1: the day. I wish I had had fun things like
Speaker 1: that happened in my chemistry classes when I was younger.
Speaker 1: I probably would have chemistry a lot more. I would
Speaker 1: like to write to us. You can do so at
Speaker 1: History podcast at iHeart radio dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find us on social media as Missed in History, and
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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
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