The Ladies of the Baroque | Part 3 | Tutt'Art@ | Pittura * Scultura * Poesia * Musica

Elisabetta Sirani

Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in still unexplained circumstances at the early age of 27.

She was the most famous woman artist in early modern Bologna and established an academy for other women artists.

Sirani produced over 200 paintings, 15 etchings, and hundreds of drawings, making her an extremely prolific artist, especially considering her early death.

Magdalena de Passe

Dutch painter, 1600-1638

Magdalena van de Passe was a Dutch engraver and member of the Van de Passe family of artists from Cologne who were active in the Northern Netherlands.

She specialized in landscapes and portraits, and trained the polymath Anna Maria van Schurman in engraving, one of the few known early examples of the training of one woman artist by another.

Clara Peeters

Flemish painter, active 1607-1621

Clara Peeters was a still-life painter from Antwerp who worked in both the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic.

Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists working professionally in seventeenth-century Europe, despite restrictions on women's access to artistic training and membership in guilds.

Peeters specialized in still-life paintings with food and was prominent among the artists who shaped the traditions of the Netherlandish ontbijtjes, "breakfast pieces", scenes of food and simple vessels, and banketjes, "banquet pieces" with expensive cups and vessels in precious metals.

Princess Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate

German painter, 1622-1709

Princess Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate was a painter and abbess.

She was a daughter of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and Scottish princess Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James VI and I.

Louise Hollandine was a talented portrait painter and graphic artist, a talent that she shared with her brother, Prince Rupert.

She was student of Gerard van Honthorst and painted so ably in his style that some of her works were attributed to him.

Luisa Roldán

Spanish sculptor, 1652-1706

Luisa Ignacia Roldán, known also as La Roldana, was a Spanish sculptor of the Baroque Era.

She is the earliest woman sculptor documented in Spain.

Roldán is recognized in the Hispanic Society Museum for being "one of the few women artists to have maintained a studio outside the convents in Golden Age Spain".

Because of the quality of her work, Antonio Palomino considered her as important a sculptor as her father, Pedro Roldán.

Although Roldán became the Escultor de Cámara, or Court Sculptor, to the Habsburg King Charles II, she struggled financially.

Like many artists of her time she died poor, signing a declaration of poverty shortly before her death. On the day of her death, Roldan was given the title of "Academician Merit" from the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

Lucrina Fetti

Italian painter, 1590-1673

Lucrina Fetti was born in Rome under the name Giustina.

She was the daughter of a lesser-known painter, Pietro Fetti, and the sister and pupil of the more distinguished painter of the family, Domenico Fetti.

She accompanied her family to Mantua when her brother was invited to be court painter to Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.

On December 3, 1614, Duke Ferdinando exclusively gave Giustina a dowry of 150 scudi so she could become a Clarissan nun in the Convent of St. Ursula.

Once she entered the convent, she chose to change her name to "Lucrina".

She was known for her religious works from her family's workshop.

They were mostly meant for decorations for the church and convent that were sponsored by Margherita Gonzaga, Duchess of Ferrara.

She was also known for doing portraits of the women of the Gonzaga family.

Giulia Lama

Italian painter, 1681-1747

Giulia Lama was an painter active in Venice.

Her dark, tense style contrasted with the dominant pastel colors of the late Baroque era.

Rachel Ruysch

Dutch painter, 1664-1750

Rachel Ruysch was a still-life painter from the Northern Netherlands.

She specialized in flowers, inventing her own style and achieving international fame in her lifetime.

Due to a long and successful career that spanned over six decades, she became the best documented woman painter of the Dutch Golden Age.

Ruysch had a very good understanding of drawing and the techniques of earlier traditions. This knowledge improved her painting abilities.

Stylistically, her artwork, with its playful composition and brilliant colors, was part of the rococo movement.

She paid extensive attention to all details in her work. Every petal was created painstakingly with delicate brushwork.

The background of Ruysch's paintings are usually dark which was the fashion for flower painting in the second half of the 17th century.

Her asymmetrical compositions with drooping flowers and wild stems created paintings that seemed to possess a great energy about them.

In March 2021, Ruysch's work was added to the "Gallery of Honour" at the Rijksmuseum.

The Ladies of the Baroque | Part 1

Artemisia Gentileschi | Judith and her maid with the head of Holofernes, 1613 | Gallerie degli Uffizi, Firenze.

Artemisia Gentileschi

Italian painter, 1593-1652

Louise Moillon

French painter, 1610-1696

Mary Beale

British painter, 1633-1699

Maria Theresa van Thielen

Flemish painter, 1640-1706

Katharina Pepijn

Flemish painter, 1619-1688

Catharina Peeters

Flemish painter 1615-1676

Johanna Vergouwen

Flemish painter, 1630-1714

The Ladies of the Baroque | Part 2

Ginevra Cantofoli | Woman in a Turban, 1650 | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini, Roma.