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• 1 2020-10-19T15:14:51+00:00 Lavinia Fontana and Her Subliminal Self-Portrait 21 by Zoe Wilber image_header 2020-10-19T16:47:25+00:00

  In her landmark essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" Linda Nochlin argues that various circumstances and obstacles point to how the social structures in place have actively held women back from being great and well-renowned artists. Historically, women were not encouraged to be great artists simply because art made by women has been characterized as distinctly feminine (or, by an extension, feminist) which implies that the art is intrincicially tied to the gender of its creator which, upon analyzing art made by people of all genders, appears to be false. Secondly, there was ”complete unavailability to aspiring women artists of any nude models at all” so female artists could hardly practice and improve at their craft. Additionally, “women were not accepted as professional painters” until the nineteenth century, and even then, fought to be recognized as artists who could be defined by more than their gender expression. For centuries, women were barred from entrance into universities and this included schools of the arts from which many renowned male painters studied. Women were not encouraged to enter into apprenticeships with other painters or sculptors, nor were they accepted into social circles where they could network and conduct business because those spaces were reserved for and dominated by men. With that in mind, yet another reason there have been no great female artists is because when women were encouraged to make art it was never for a great purpose, but rather as something frivolous and decorative that could occupy them for a short period of time. In this sense, not only were women discouraged from pursuing a career as an artist, but generations of women were made to believe that their work could never go beyond what they were taught and assigned. Furthermore, “women were warned against the snare of trying too hard to excel in any one thing”. An excellent example of this being The Family Monitor and Domestic Guide, a book published and widely read in the US and England before the middle of the 19th century which encourages women to expand their skills in order to fulfill the various yet God-given roles designed for them as wife, mother and homemaker. 

  One thing that certainly stands out in Nochlin’s essay is the assertion that “for a woman to opt for a career at all, much less for a career in art, has required a certain unconventionality, both in the past and a present”. Such a woman was Lavinia Fontana, a Baroque-period artist who had both the fortune and wit to fashion a career for herself as a painter. Lavina Fontana’s last known painting was Minerva Dressing, dating 1613. The oil canvas painting depicts the Roman goddess Minerva “who has just cast off her weapons to put on a dress, which was unusual for her. In perspective in the background are a spear, an olive tree, and an owl, the usual attributes of the warrior goddess”. A cherub, signaling the presence of a Divine, is also depicted in the background, and perhaps most distinctly featured, is Minerva’s exposed backside and relaxed expression. While this painting was inspired by the myth and figure Minerva, the similarities between the goddess and the painter herself suggest that perhaps Fontana painted Minerva as her last piece with herself and her legacy in mind.

  Fontana was born in Bologna, Itay, 1552 and died in Rome in 1614. She was the first-known female Italian female artist and the daughter of  Prospero Fontana (1512 – 1597), a renowned Bolognese-Italian painter and teacher who, against the conventional attitudes toward women at the time, invested in teaching his daughter how to paint. By the time she was 25, Fontana married a nobleman and painter by the name of Giano Paolo Zappi (a definitively socially-advantageous marriage) and by the end of her life, had outlived 3 of her 11 children. Fortunately, Fontana was supported in her career not only by her father, but also by her husband who “formed a working partnership that supported her career, allowing her to accept a growing number of commissions for baroque portraits, small paintings, and religious art...Zappi abandoned his career, kept Fontana's accounts, and tended the couple's 11 children”. While Fontana was not readily accepted as a painter due to the constraints placed on her gender, she became the most desired portraiture among Bolognese noblewomen and also invested in painting portraits of herself, eager to showcase her skill. Following her father’s death, she moved her family to Rome in 1604: “There she became a portraitist at the court of Pope Paul V and was the recipient of numerous honors, including a bronze portrait medallion cast in 1611 by sculptor and architect Felice Antonio Casoni”. Fontana was the first woman “to be commissioned for public paintings, [and] earned membership in the prestigious Roman Academy. [Tragically,] of her 135 works—the largest corpus of artwork by any woman from the Renaissance or before—only 32 are signed and dated”. While she was one of the first women to be permitted to study art at the male-dominated Roman Academy, the loss of much of her artwork points to the difficulties female artists face in personally preserving and promoting their names and works throughout history when no one else wants to.
  
  In her self-portraits, Fontana chose to depict herself very specifically. Art historians and scholars who have analyzed her work note her apparent choice to depict herself modestly and as a traditional, wealthy woman. In truth, she was wealthy and had garnered respect as both a painter and social figure as she had 

  “a reputation for pose, detail, and the use of a delicate palette. Such qualities are reflected in Fontana's self-portrait that now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. Therein she is elegantly dressed in lace and jewels and studying archeological finds on shelves and a table, likely as preparation for sketching them. Venturing beyond traditional still lifes and set poses into high drama, she painted mythic and biblical figures on a grand scale and used as models female and male nudes...Fontana excelled at the depiction of the female form”.

  It would seem that by emphasizing her virginity before marriage, and then her wealth and domesticity after marriage, she is communicating to her viewer that despite the fact that she is a painter and supports her husband and children, she is by no means less of a respectable noble woman. 

  Upon examining Fontana’s last known-work, there may be a poignant, if not cheeky (pun intended!) subliminal message she has chosen to communicate through her subject. By choosing to portray the goddess Minerva in the act of dressing (i.e. in the nude), Fontana not only defies gender expectations since female painters were not allowed access to nude models, but I argue that there is a symbolic message sent in the act of painting Minerva. According to Mythopedia, 

  “Minerva was a goddess of intelligence, philosophy, craftsmanship, art, and inspiration. From her position in the heavens, she oversaw all things that required forethought and calculation. In later incarnations, Minerva was also seen as a military figure, as well as the fount through which all strategic and tactical thought flowed...The wisest of all gods and goddesses, Minerva had a calculating mind that she used to achieve her aims...The chastest of Roman deities, Minerva spurned the advances of men and gods alike in order to retain her virginal purity”.

  Based on the description, it is clear that parallel connections may be made between Minerva and Lavina Fontana. Both are intelligent, artful, inspiring and crafting women who carefully calculate ways to  achieve their goals and maintain power. Arguably, Minerva’s military tact and wisdom, coupled with her chaste reputation, may be compared to Fontana’s own tactfulness in how she portrayed herself throughout her career as a noblewoman, wife and mother through her self-portraits and commissioned work (depicting other noble women and biblical images, both which were generally well-received by the public). 

  Despite the odds, Fontana managed to secure herself as a professional female painter not only in part due to the unconventional support of the male artists in her life, but through her own determination, talent, and willingness to subvert the status quo by the means necessary to achieve recognition. One of the ways she did this was by painting nude female figures. Imagine how Fontana may have admired the goddess Minerva, or looked to her for inspiration, and then chose to depict her in a most vulnerable state, perhaps as if to communicate the humanness of this female subject, or simply the beauty of this body paired with the other aspects of the painting. It must be noted that Minerva’s expression does not look fear-filled or uncomfortable--she looks like she knows something and is proud of it. Imagine how Fontana must have found a similar likeness in Minerva, eager to show-case her mastery of depicting the naked female form, but also how she must have painted Minerva with her own female form in mind. Finally, imagine what the creation of the painting must have meant for female viewers who not only saw the female form depicted by another woman, but saw a woman who was beautiful, strong and wise. Undoubtedly, this painting is one that captures the work of an inspiring female artist in the image of an inspiring female figure.