Isabel de Valois holding a portrait of Philip II by Sofonisba Anguissola, 1561 – 1565. Jan. 17, 2024
Hello everyone welcome back to the Prada museum for another of our weekly sessions in English this program that is made possible with the support of the nonprofit the American Friends of the pra Museum today I’m really excited to be able to talk about one of the few
Women painters that we have that we have here in the PR’s collection of sofonisba anguis Sola sofonisba had a long fascinating life and she really broke through some of the stereotypes around artistic ability and creative capacity of women in her time in the 16th century
And so today we’re going to look at a few of the portraits that she painted when she was at the Spanish court and get to know a little bit about about sanba so we’ll start with this portrait of Elizabeth of Vala who was the third
Wife of Philip II and we can tell that this that this is a court portrait right I mean I think that when you see Court portraits in a museum they immediately jump out of you they have this similar air a style a distance this gesture everything is telling us all about the
Position and the power of the person that we’re looking at her hair and her clothes are glittered with jewelry we can see these these buttons that are fastening her sleeves that are brought together with with rubies and with diamonds and her her dress is glittering with pearls everything is telling us
About the social position and the power of this person but there’s another detail too that we have to notice here in her hand and she’s holding a miniature and this is uh a small portrait of her husband of King Philip II of Spain now she might be carrying this
Miniature because she’s the queen consort of Spain but she might also be carrying it because uh she represented her husband at an important conference the conference of Bayon and somebody who stands in representation of the king of Spain well that’s a very powerful person we can also notice the inclusion of the column
In the side here which is also adding strength to the portrait but it also ties this portrait into the lineage of hapsburg portraits because they do tend to have this column this portrait used to be attributed to Alonso santh guo and if we look around the room we can see a few
Other portraits by sanchith guo and there’s one actually right next to this one um and we can immediately see a similarity in style in gesture in distance in formality it’s easy to think how how this painting might have been uh confused with a painting by the court painter santh kuo
But it went uh with that attribution for centuries so how did that happen well sopan but painted this when she was a lady in waiting at the court um for Isabelle for Elizabeth of Vala and as a lady in waiting she wasn’t at the court really as a court painter she she was
There to be the company of the royal family and so she was there and she painted she gave classes to Elizabeth as well but she painted for the pleasure of the court and for the and for her own pleasure um and so that means that she didn’t take payments for her paintings
She didn’t write or sign contracts for her paintings and she didn’t have a workshop and all of these things uh well on top of the fact that it’s already difficult to become a successful painter as a woman in this in in the 16th century well this has made it more
Difficult for historians to find sanb work to identify it as sopb but in the past few decades while art historians are catching up and more and more paintings have been reconsidered and reattributed to sanba and sanba andola is really such a unique figure not just because she is a
Woman painter but also because she’s is unique among women painters uh some of the painters that are women that we can think of from this time period come from families of painters like artamisa galeski or Lavinia Fontana but sanba had a very different upbringing she came
From Crona in Northern Italy and she was born into a noble family that wasn’t necessarily very affluent but they had good connections and her father was very insistent on giving all of his daughters the six daughters an excellent education following the humanist standards at the time for women which meant that they
Were well versed in a little bit of everything in a little bit of painting a little bit of music a little bit of literature a little bit of languages so that they could uh rise socially and and be ladies and that were well positioned it became evident at an early
Age that sanba was very talented in painting and so she would practice at home she painted portraits of her family members and also portraits of her herself and in these self-portraits she depicted herself painting reading and writing at a table listening and playing to music doing these things that
Reflected that unique that excellent education so her father took advantage of some of these self-portraits and really used them kind of his business cards and he passed them out to all of his connections even to Michelangelo sofonisba had correspond correspondence with Michelangelo and it was a way to promote her artistic capabilities but
Also promote sanisa and as a lady with an excellent upbringing and she really acquired some sort of a level of celebrity and so Philip II called here here we have a picture of of Philip II so we can see who we’re talking about Philip II called her to his court to be
A lady in waiting first for his daughter and then to his wife Elizabeth of Vala and let’s look also at when we’re looking at this portrait we can also see um not just her artistic talent but also how close she was with the royal family when we look at this we can see
That s that sanba has been uh very discreet but also clear and giving philli this unated this really understated gesture here with his hand on the armchair that hand that is resting there um really is indicating his authority his Regal Authority on the other side we can see a
Sword that is hanging at his hip which talks more about his social position really than his military standing um and here we and he’s also holding a rosary talking about his religious beliefs so here we have an image of Philip as a refined as a distinguished man a religious man of the Court
Looking calm Serene and elegant and adding to that Elegance adding to that Serenity really is the soft diffused light that sofonisba has used to paint him and especially in his face you can see um in his icy blue eyes and in the modeling of the face and also in the details of of
The lace here where deep in those within the lace you might expect to find these really sharp Shadows but really it’s just this soft diffused gentle treatment of light that adds to the cool Serene refinement of Philip as a man of the court and if we look across the room we
Can also see a portrait of his wife of Anna of Austria as well this is Philip I four sorry Philip II’s fourth wife after Elizabeth died he married Anna of Austria and here we see Anna um again with all of her Regal Authority um and she’s wearing some jewelry here but it’s
Very different than the jewelry that we saw in the court portrait of Elizabeth she’s wearing this beaded necklace echoing the rosary that we just saw in the portrait of Philip II and it might be made of cuka wood or it might be made of Amber and we can also see that she’s
Wearing this chain as a belt that might be made of aach stones this is a jet black stone that was popular in jewelry at the time but this is the kind of jewelry that Anna would have worn on any given day not necessarily for Grand official
Portrait so it might tell us a little bit about the proximity of sanba to the royal family sopena painted these just before she left the court for her first marriage and well she lived a very long and fascinating life and uh I hope that you’ve enjoyed getting to know a little
Bit more about sanisa and her time at the court and if you want to know more then you can go to the pros website and find out more with all of our multimedia there and also look up the catalog from 2019 the story of two women painters
About sopan bangua and linia Fontana so thank you for joining me again and we’ll see you here next Wednesday for another session in English
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