Conscious Acts
Sofonisba Anguissola, ‘Self Portrait with Maid', 1561, provides sensory overload with the abundance of feminine and chaste symbols. Initially, it could read as a simple portrait of a woman playing piano, however, upon deeper examination, there are several symbols that can feel overwhelming the viewer, to point in which its a question of whether or not Anguissola overcompensating her femininity in order to poke fun at traditional or even the expectations held for her as a woman.Through engaging with this Scalar page, it will argue that Anguissola is conscious of how she is portraying herself to the world and finds distinct yet subtle ways to engage and promote a protofeminism meaning to her work.
This idea is emphasized in most of Anguissola’s work, but particularly in 'Self Portrait with Maid', 1561 because it serves as the most conscious example of her protofeminism stance. (1)
