List of Italian Renaissance female artists

Italian Renaissance female artists (Italian: Le donne pittrici del Rinascimento italiano) included painters, manuscript illustrators and sculptors who lived in Italy in 15-16th centuries.^[1][2]

Marginal self-portrait of Maria Ormani, 1453.

For other countries see List of 16th-century women artists.

List

15th century

• Onorata Rodiani (1403–1452) – semi-legendary painter
• Catherine of Bologna (Caterina de' Vigri) (1413–1463) – nun, artist, writer, later saint
• Maria Ormani (1428–c.1470) – manuscript illustrator and nun
• Elena de Laudo (fl. 1445) – Venetian glass artist.
• Antonia Doni (Antonia di Paolo di Dono, Antonia Uccello) (1446-1491) – painter, daughter of Paolo Uccello. Mentioned in documents as "pittoressa" – first usage of feminine term.^[3] Nun.
• Barbara Ragnoni (1448 – 1533) – painter, nun
• Eufrasia Burlamacchi (1482–1548) – manuscript illuminator, nun
• Marietta Barovier (fl. 1496) – Venetian glass artist

16th century

More than 25 women active in 20 cities from Venice to Naples have been recorded as artists during the Cinquecento. Most were painters, but 2 were called intagliatrici, 4 (all Milanesi) ricamatrici, Properzia De'Rossi was the sole scultrice.^[4][5]

• Properzia de' Rossi (1490-1530) – sculptor, the only woman to receive a biography in 1st edition of Vasari's Lives of the Artists.^[6]
• Elisabetta Alberti (d. 1555) – painter, daughter of painter Alberto di Giovanni Alberti.
• Teodora Danti (c.1498–c.1573) – painter, writer. Aunt of sculptor Vincenzo Danti.
• Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588) – painter, nun. Her disciples: Suor Prudenza Cambi, Suor Agata Trabalesi, Suor Maria Ruggieri, and three others as additional producers: Suor Veronica, Suor Dionisia Niccolini, and his sister Suor Maria Angelica Razzi.
• Anguissola family:
  • Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532–1625), painter
  • Elena Anguissola (c.1532–1584), painter
  • Lucia Anguissola (c.1538 – c.1565), painter
• Irene di Spilimbergo (1540–1559) – painter and poet
• Lucrezia Quistelli della Mirandola (1541-1594), painter countess
• Diana Scultori Mantuana (1547-1612) – engraver, daughter of the sculptor and engraver Giovanni Battista Ghisi. One of the first female engravers.
• Mariangiola Criscuolo (c.1548–1630) – painter, daughter of painter Giovanni Filippo Criscuolo.
• Cecilia Brusasorzi (1549 – 1593) – painter, daughter of painter Domenico Brusasorzi.
• Barbara Longhi (1552-1638) – painter, daughter of painter Luca Longhi
• Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) – painter, daughter of painter Prospero Fontana. First female career artist in Western Europe as she relied on commissions for her income.
• Marietta Robusti (La Tintoretta) (c.1560–1590) – painter, daughter of Tintoretto
• Maria Angelica Razzi (16th century) – sculptor, nun

Torah binder attributed to embroidery artist Miriam Foa, 1615-1616.

Baroque female artists

• Geronima Parasole (1569–1622) – wood block cutter and print maker
• Isabella Parasole (c.1570–c.1620) – wood engraver
• Fede Galizia (1578 – c. 1630) – pioneering still-life painter, daughter of painter Nunzio Galizia.
• Chiara Varotari (1584–1663) – painter, daughter of painter Dario Varotari the Elder
• Lucrina Fetti (c.1590–1651) – painter, daughter of painter Pietro Fetti, nun
• Angelica Veronica Airola (c.1590–1670) – painter, nun
• Caterina Ginnasi (1590–1660) – painter, niece of cardinal
• Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–c.1656), painter
• Orsola Maddalena Caccia (1596–1676) – religious mannerist painter, daughter of painter Guglielmo Caccia, nun
• Maria Eufrasia della Croce (1597–1676) – nun, painter
• Arcangela Paladini (1599–1622) – painter, daughter of painter Filippo Paladini
• Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) – painter, niece of painter Pietro Gaia
• Miriam Foa (active 1615-1616) – Judaica embroidery artist, featured in exhibitions by the Metropolitan Museum of Art^[7] and Boston Museum of Fine Arts.^[8][9]
• Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665) - painter and etcher from Bologna

See also

• Art by Women in Florence (book)
• Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence (book)
• Advancing Women Artists Foundation

Bibliography

• Ambrogio Levati. Donne illustri. 1822
• Gadol, Joan Kelly, Did Women have a Renaissance?, in: Renate Bridenthal, Claudia Koonz, Becoming Visible. Women in European History, Boston 1970.
• Graziani, Irene (2021). Le Signore dell'Arte. Storie di donne tra '500 e '600.
• King, Margaret L., Simpson, Catherine L., Women of the Renaissance, University of Chicago Press 1991.
• Garrard, Mary D., Angouissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist, Renaissance Quarterly 24, 1994.
• Zwanger, Meryl, Women and Art in the Renaissance, in: Sister, Columbia University 1995/6.
• Judith Brown. Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy (Women And Men In History). 1998
• Letizia Panizza, Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society. Oxford, 2000. ISBN 1-900755-09-2.
• Mary Rogers, Paola Tinagli. Women in Italy, 1350—1650.. Manchester University Press, 2005
• Gaia Servadio. Renaissance woman. 2005
• Nicholson, Elizabeth S. G. "Diana Scultori." Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque: National Museum of Women in the Arts. Milano: Skira, 2007
• Anne Sutherland Harris. Sofonisba, Lavinia, Artemisia, and Elisabetta: Thirty Years after Women Artists, 1550-1950. 2017
• Robin, Diana Maury, Larsen, Anne R. and Levin, Carole. Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. — ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2007. — P. 160—161.
• Sheila Barker. Women Artists in Early Modern Italy: Careers, Fame, and Collectors. 2016
• Tanja L. Jones (ed.). Women Artists in the Early Modern Courts of Europe. c. 1450-1700
• Fortunati, Vera, Jordana Pomeroy, and Claudio Strinati, Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque, Milan, Skira, 2007

See also

• List of Italian women artists