In Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, and other Italian cities, there were, in the seventeenth century, many women who made enviable reputations as artists, some of whom were also known for their literary and musical attainments. Anna Maria Ardoina, of Messina, made her studies in Rome. She was gifted as a poet and artist, and so excelled in music that she had the distinguished honor of being elected to the Academy of Arcadia.
Not a few gifted women of this time are remembered for their noble charities. Chiara Varotari, under the instruction of her father and her brother, called Padovanino, became a good painter. She was also honored as a skilful nurse, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany placed her portrait in his gallery on account of his admiration and respect for her as a comforter of the suffering.
Giovanna Garzoni, a miniaturist, conferred such benefits upon the Academy of St. Luke that a monument was there erected to her memory. Other artists founded convents, became nuns, and imprinted themselves upon their age in connection with various honorable institutions and occupations.
French Art in the seventeenth century was academic and prosaic, lacking the spontaneity, joyousness, and intensely artistic feeling of Italian Art—a heritage from previous centuries which had not been lost, and in which France had no part. The works of Poussin, which have been likened to painted reliefs, afford an excellent example of French Art in his time—1594-1665—and this in spite of the fact that he worked and studied much in Rome.
The Académie des Beaux-Arts was established by Louis XIV., and there was a rapidly growing interest in art. As yet, however, the women of France affected literature rather than painting, and in the seventeenth century they were remarkable for their scholarly attainments and their influence in the world of letters.
Madame de Maintenon patronized learning; at the Hôtel Rambouillet men and women of genius met the world of rank and fashion on common ground. Madame Dacier, of whom Voltaire said, "No woman has ever rendered greater services to literature," made her translations from the classics; Madame de Sevigné wrote her marvellous letters; Mademoiselle de Scudéry and Madame Lafayette their novels; Catherine Bernard emulated the manner of Racine in her dramas; while Madame de Guyon interpreted the mystic Song of Solomon.
Of French women artists of this period we can mention several names, but they were so overshadowed by authors as to be unimportant, unless, like Elizabeth Chéron, they won both artistic and literary fame.