Fontana, Lavinia. Born in Bologna, 1552. Her father was a distinguished portrait painter in Rome in the time of Pope Julius III., but the work of his daughter was preferred before his own. She was elected to the Academy of Rome, while her charms were extolled in poetry and prose.
Pope Gregory XIII. made her his painter-in-ordinary. Patrician ladies, cardinals, and Roman nobles contended for the privilege of having their portraits from her hand. Men of rank and scholars paid court to her, but, with a waywardness not altogether uncommon, she married a man who was even thought to be lacking in sense.
One of her two daughters was blind of one eye, and her only son was so simple that the loungers in the antechamber of the Pope were accustomed to amuse themselves with his want of wit. She is said to have died of a broken heart after the death of this son, and her portrait of him is considered her masterpiece.
Her own portrait was one of her most distinguished works, and though it is in possession of her husband's family, the Zappi, of Imola, it may be judged by an engraving after it in Rossini's "History of Italian Painting."
Many portraits by Lavinia Fontana are in the private collections of Italian families for whom they were painted. In the Gallery of Bologna there is a night-scene, the "Nativity of the Virgin," by her, and in the Escorial is a Madonna lifting a veil to regard the sleeping Jesus, while SS. Joseph and John stand near by.
In the churches of San Giacomo Maggiore and of the Madonna del Baracano, both in Bologna, are Fontana's pictures of the "Madonna with Saints." In Pieve di Cento are two of her works—a "Madonna" and an "Ascension." It is said that several pictures by this artist are in England, but I have failed to find to what collections they belong.
Lavinia Fontana was a distinguished woman in a notable age, and if, in translating the tributes that were paid her by the authors of her day, we should faithfully render their superlatives, these writings would seem absurd in their exaggerations, and our comparatively cold adjectives would be taxed beyond their power of expression.
Fontana, Veronica. Born in 1576. A pupil of Elisabetta Sirani, who devoted herself to etching and wood-engraving. She is known from her exceedingly fine, delicate portraits on wood and etchings of scenes from the life of the Madonna.
Foord, Miss J. A painter of plants and flowers, which are much praised. An article in the Studio, July, 1901, says: "Miss Foord, by patient and observant study from nature, has given us a very pleasing, new form of useful work, that has traits in common; with the illustrations to be found in the excellent botanical books of the beginning of the nineteenth century." After praising the works of this artist, attention is called to her valuable book, "Decorative Flower Studies," illustrated with forty plates printed in colors.
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