As is familiar to every student of the classic past the Greeks and Romans hailed a female deity, Pallas Athene, or Minerva, as the protectress of their arts and industries. She was believed to have invented spinning, weaving, embroidering, painting, and every other handicraft that has brought mankind comfort and happiness.
Of course this goddess had many eager women disciples. There was hardly any Greek or Roman woman without a thorough command of the above named crafts. Since the days of Homer, who praised Penelope, the beautiful wife of Ulysses, for her skill in tapestry-weaving, all women devoted themselves to useful arts. In Ephesus Pliny admired a picture of Diana, painted by Timarata, the gifted daughter of an able artist. He also praises Laya for her excellent miniature portraits on ivory, which were held in great favor by the rich ladies of Rome. The names of several other female artists are known, but unfortunately none of their works have come down to us.
Enthusiastic authors of the Middle Ages glorify Agnes, Abbess of Quedlinburg, for her great skill in illuminating manuscripts with figures, beautiful initial letters and elaborate border ornaments, which she enriched with all the splendor of color and gilding.
It was only natural, that the magnificent works of art, produced by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Correggio, Tintoretto and other great masters of the Italian Renaissance, inspired the women who came in daily contact with these men; especially their daughters, many of whom inherited their fathers’ enthusiasm for beauty and art. Constantly witnessing the origin and progress of the products of their fathers’ genius, it could not fail that such women likewise devoted themselves to art. As did Lavinia Fontana, the daughter of Prospero Fontana of Bologna, whom Michael Angelo recommended to Pope Julius III., in whose service he remained for many years. Lavinia was born in Rome in 1552. Inspired by her father’s art, she too won great fame. The old patrician palaces of Rome, Bologna, and other Italian cities still contain many portraits of beautiful women and illustrious men, who once were among her sitters. She likewise painted various other works which show great care and delicacy.
Among her most admired works are a Venus, now in the Museum at Berlin; the Virgin lifting a veil from the sleeping infant Christ, now in the Escurial; and the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. Her masterpiece, however, is her own portrait, which shows her in all her radiant beauty.
Sofonisba Anguisciola, born in 1533 at Cremona, likewise ranks high among the foremost portrait painters of the 16th Century. On recommendation of the Duke of Alba, Philippe II., King of Spain, invited her to his court in Madrid, where she was received with extraordinary honors. Here she painted numerous portraits of the king as well as of the queen, the infantas and the members of the court. A few specimens of her art are still to be seen in the Escurial at Madrid and at Florence. Van Dyck acknowledged himself more benefited by her than by his study of all other masters.
Marietta Tintoretto, born in 1560, a daughter of the great Venetian artist Jacopo Robusti, commonly called Tintoretto, was one of the most appreciated portrait painters in the “Queen City of the Adriatic.” She was so favorably known for the beauty of her work and the exactness of resemblance that she was solicited by Emperor Maximilian as well as by Philippe II., King of Spain, to visit their courts. But her affectionate attachment to her father was so great that she declined these honors, and remained in Venice, where she died in 1590.
The 17th Century likewise produced a number of excellent women artists. Bologna, the birth-place of so many famous men and women, was also the native town of Elizabeth Sirani, who, born in 1638 to Gian Andrea Sirani, a painter of some reputation, attracted attention to her attempts at drawing when scarcely more than an infant. Her rare talents developed as she grew older. Before she had attained her eighteenth year, she had finished several paintings, which were greatly admired and given places of honor in various churches. Her most admired work, a Lord’s Supper, grand in conception, is in the church of the Certosini, and is considered one of the best examples of the Bolognesian School of art. Unfortunately this promising woman died suddenly when only twenty-seven years of age.
Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian, born in 1675, became famous over all Europe for her admirable miniature- and crayon- or pastel-portraits, which, through her, became the fashion of the 18th Century.
Among the Dutch artists of the 17th Century Maria van Osterwyck and Rachel Ruisch excelled in painting flowers and fruits. Elisabeth Cheron, a French woman, born in Paris in 1648, was famous for her miniatures and historical subjects.