Defining the Renaissance 'Virtuosa'
Women Artists and the Language of Art History and Criticism

Jacobs examines art criticism on women artists who were active in Renaissance Italy.

Fredrika H. Jacobs (Author)

9780521664967, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 August 1999

246 pages, 32 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.34 kg

"Thanks to the breadth of her textual analyses and the insightful questions she poses throughout, Jacobs offers a richly illuminating reading of the construction of the Renaissance woman artist. In turn, the book provides a welcome context for several worthy but more narrowly focused critical studies on related subjects whose contents she integrates into her own narrative....a considerable achievement in having uncovered and woven together a complex of ideas that expands consequentially our view of artistic activity in Early Modern Italy." Leslie Korrick, Sixteenth Century Jrnl

Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo are familiar names that are often closely associated with the concepts of genius and masterpiece. But what about Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Irene di Spilimbengo? Their names are unfamiliar and their works are literally unknown. Why? Defining the Renaissance 'Virtuosa' considers the language of art in relationship to the issues of gender difference through an examination of art criticism written between 1550 and 1800 on approximately forty women artists who were active in Renaissance Italy. Fredrika Jacobs demonstrates how these theoretical writings defined women artists, by linking artistic creation and biological procreation. She also examines the ambiguity of these women as both beautiful object and creator of beautiful object. Jacobs' study shows how deeply the biases of these early critics have inflected both subsequent reception of these Renaissance virtuose, as well as modern scholarship.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Problems of praise and Pythagorean contrariety
3. (Pro)creativity
4. Melancholia: a case study
5. La donnesca mano
6. Misplaced modifiers
7. 'femmina masculo e masculo femmina'
Appendix I. A roster of sixteenth-century Italian women artists
Appendix II. Rime, Madrigali, and other early writings on artists and art
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of art & design styles: c 1400 to c 1600 [ACN]