Whose hands from this hard stone have formed my image.”
Nothing further is known about this artist of the end of the 13th Century.
Properzia de Rossi was an Italian woman sculptor, born near the end of the 15th Century at Bologna or Modena. The first-named city cherishes still a number of her works, among them a fine marble statue of Count Guido de Pepoli, and several figures that adorn the three gates of the facade of St. Petroneus. Vasari in his biographies of celebrated artists calls her “a virtuous maiden, possessing every merit of her sex, together with science and learning all men may envy.” And when she died in 1530, the following epitaph was written in her praise:
Fero splendor di due begit occhi accrebbe
Gia marmi a marmi; e stupor nuovo e strano
Ruvidi marmi delicta mano
Fea dianzi vivi, ahi! morte invidia n’ebbe.
In modern Germany Anna von Kahle, Marie Schlafhorst, Dora Beer, Helene Quitmann, Henny Geyer Spiegel and Lilly Finzelberg have done much excellent work.
In France several statues by Jeanne Hasse, a Parisian, have been purchased by the government and presented to various provincial museums.
In England Mary Thornycroft, daughter and pupil of John Francis, the sculptor, has won the praise of the severest critics.