Have You Heard Of... Lavinia Fontana?
Lavinia Fontana was an Italian portrait artist.
Born in Bologna in 1552, Lavinia Fontana was the daughter of leading Bolgnese painter Prospero Fontana. Lavinia trained with her father in the Mannerist style – a 16th century style of painting which is artificial in composition, striving for elegance and sensuousness, and designed to show off the painter’s skill.
And skill was something which Lavinia had in great abundance.
As her portraiture work gained attention, high society women clamoured to be painted by Lavinia. Everyone wanted to commission her to paint their portrait, sit for her, and be the subject of her unwavering eye for detail that so beautifully described the sumptuous riches of their fashionable outfits. Was it the friendly, intimate atmosphere she created during sittings? Was it the woman to woman symbiosis she capitalised on? Or was it simply that her work was so notable? Or a heady combination of all these factors? We can only guess.
Lavinia Fontana was a career artist. She married the painter Gian Paolo Zappi in 1577. Gian Paolo was happy to take a backseat, and facilitate Lavinia’s career. Did he know that he himself was a minor painter, and she was actually the bomb? I suppose we’ll never know for sure, but he acted as her agent and looked after their 11 children while she forged ahead. And they all relied as a family on Lavinia’s substantial income from portraiture. I like the sound of the very modern Gian Paolo Zappi a lot. What a guy!
The family moved to Rome in 1603, and Lavinia died there in 1614.