Around the middle of the 16th century, Amilcare Anguissola, a nobleman from Cremona, did something unusual. He apprenticed two of his daughters to painters, choosing a path the Italian Renaissance did not envisage for daughters of the nobility. The elder, Sofonisba Anguissola, had been born in Cremona around 1532 and was about fourteen when she began her apprenticeship with Bernardino Campi, later continuing with Bernardino Gatti. Women were barred from studying the nude - and thus from the grand history paintings that could not be created without studies of the human body. So she painted what no one could forbid her to paint: herself and her own family.
The best known of these family pictures is “Game of Chess, 1555” at the National Museum in Poznań. Three of her sisters, Lucia, Europa and Minerva, sit at the board with a maid before a broad river landscape; the player on the left moves a piece and looks calmly out of the picture, the middle sister laughs, while the third raises her hand, her mouth half open. Giorgio Vasari saw the painting in her father's house and wrote that the figures lacked nothing but the power of speech. The edge of the chessboard bears the inscription: “Sofonisba Anguissola, virgin, daughter of Amilcare, painted from life her three sisters and a maid, 1555.”
At Meisterdrucke, 75 art prints carry on the name she so confidently inscribed within the picture itself. The Chess Game leads the order rankings by a wide margin, followed by the self-portraits; most of the originals are oil paintings. We share our customers' verdict, for in these pictures the painter is where her art was at home - among her own family.
One of them, “Self portrait at the Easel”, shows her in a dark dress with a white lace collar, holding her brush against a mahlstick; on the easel, a Madonna kissing her child is taking shape. A statement of intent, one might think - the noblewoman at work. Even Michelangelo in Rome was shown one of her drawings, a laughing child, and asked for a weeping one because it was more difficult. Her response was a drawing of her little brother Asdrubale, bitten by a crayfish. In 1562, the sheet was sent to the court in Florence together with a drawing by Michelangelo.
Shortly before her departure for Spain, she painted another family piece: “Portrait of the Artist's Family: Minerva, Amilcare, and Asdrubale, 1559”. The father sits between his children; Asdrubale, dressed in red, places his hand in his father's and looks up at him, Minerva holds a bouquet, and a white dog waits beside them.
In the winter of 1559 to 1560, the Spanish court summoned her. Since there was no official place for a female painter at court, the Italian was appointed as a lady-in-waiting; in reality, she painted and taught the young Queen Elisabeth of Valois to draw. Much of her work from the Madrid years burned with the Alcázar, Madrid's royal palace, in 1734, while surviving paintings were long attributed to the Spanish court painters Coello and Pantoja, until the Prado reassigned a portrait of the queen to her.
After her years at court, she married the Sicilian nobleman Fabrizio Moncada; King Philip II provided the dowry of 12,000 scudi; by 1579, she was a widow. On the sea voyage home, she met the captain and merchant mariner Orazio Lomellino and became his wife in Pisa. Decades in Genoa followed, and finally Palermo; her eyesight began to fail. She died in Palermo in 1625.
A year earlier, on 12 July 1624, the 25-year-old Anthonis van Dyck, the star of the next generation of painters, had visited her. He sketched the nearly blind woman and noted in his sketchbook that her memory and intellect remained keen and that her manner was exceedingly courteous. He gave her age as 96; counting from around 1532, she was just over ninety. The legend was already rounding up.
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.jpg "Game of Chess, 1555 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait, 1558 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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 daughter of King Philip II of Spain (1556-98) and Isabella of Valois (1545-68) 1599 - (MeisterDrucke-88765).jpg "Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), daughter of King Philip II of Spain (1556-98) and Isabella of Valois (1545-68), 1599 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
 daughter of King Philip II of Spain (1556-98) and Isabella of Valois (1545-68) 1599 - (MeisterDrucke-88765).jpg)
.jpg "Self-Portrait at the Easel, 1556 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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 Amilcare (father) and Asdrubale (brother) 1559 - (MeisterDrucke-101552).jpg "Portrait of the artist")
 Amilcare (father) and Asdrubale (brother) 1559 - (MeisterDrucke-101552).jpg)
.jpg "Girl with a Dwarf, thought to be a portrait of Margarita of Savoy, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Savoy, c. 1595 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-95109).jpg "Self Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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 daughter of Philip II of Spain (1527-98) and Isabella of Valois (1545-68) married Charles Emmanuel Duke of Savoy 1584 - (MeisterDrucke-77026).jpg "Infanta Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy (1567-97), daughter of Philip II of Spain (1527-98) and Isabella of Valois (1545-68), married Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, 1584 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
 daughter of Philip II of Spain (1527-98) and Isabella of Valois (1545-68) married Charles Emmanuel Duke of Savoy 1584 - (MeisterDrucke-77026).jpg)
.jpg "Madonna and Child, 1598 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I de Medici by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Massimiliano Stampa, Marquis of Soncino by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1558070).jpg "The Chess Game (detail) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1558070).jpg)
_ou_Isabelle_de_Valois_reine_dEspagne_-_-_(MeisterDrucke-1010895).jpg "Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois (1545-1568), Queen of Spain by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_ou_Isabelle_de_Valois_reine_dEspagne_-_-_(MeisterDrucke-1010895).jpg)
 - (MeisterDrucke-86842).jpg "Self Portrait, Attired as Maid-of-Honour to the Queen of Spain, 1559 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-49969).jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1522904).jpg "Portrait of a Girl from a Noble Family by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Philip II, King of Spain and Portugal by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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 wife of Philip II of Spain (1527-98) c1573 - (MeisterDrucke-57336).jpg "Anne of Austria, Queen of Spain, wife of Philip II of Spain, c.1573 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
 wife of Philip II of Spain (1527-98) c1573 - (MeisterDrucke-57336).jpg)
_-_Portrait_of_Joanna_of_Austria_(1547-157_-_(MeisterDrucke-960104).jpg "Portrait of Joanna of Austria (1547-1578) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_-_Portrait_of_Joanna_of_Austria_(1547-157_-_(MeisterDrucke-960104).jpg)
.jpg "Portrait of a Patrician by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Elena by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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.jpg "Portrait of the artist")
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_later_Governor_of_the_Netherlands_(1578-86)_son_of_-_(MeisterDrucke-91617).jpg "Alessandro Farnese, later Governor of the Netherlands, c.1561 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_later_Governor_of_the_Netherlands_(1578-86)_son_of_-_(MeisterDrucke-91617).jpg)
.jpg "The Artist")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1575085).jpg "Portrait of Anna of Austria (1549-1580) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_italienne_dune_riche_famille_-_(MeisterDrucke-1320416).jpg "Portrait of a Young Lady by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Anna of Austria, Queen Consort of Philip II of Spain and Portugal by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Saint Lucy by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_Portrait_of_the_Infanta_Isab_-_(MeisterDrucke-1556093).jpg "Portrait of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_Portrait_of_the_Infanta_Isab_-_(MeisterDrucke-1556093).jpg)
.jpg "Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_Peinture_de_Sofonisba_Anguissola_(vers_1532-1625)_-_(MeisterDrucke-959927).jpg "Self-Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Girl with a Dwarf (Portrait of Margarida of Savoy) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Philip II of Spain by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Female Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "A Game of Chess by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois holding a portrait of Philip II by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Self Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Boy at the Spanish Court by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Anna of Austria, Queen Consort of Spain and Portugal, 1573 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man with His Daughter by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Boy and Dog,")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Boy at the Spanish Court by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_(1466-1510)_age_14_ans_-_Peinture_de_Sofonisba_Angui_-_(MeisterDrucke-1014800).jpg "Giuliano Cesarini, age 14 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Philip II by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_Peinture_de_Sofonisba_Anguissola_(_-_(MeisterDrucke-1325875).jpg "Female Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_Peinture_de_Sofonisba_Anguissola_(_-_(MeisterDrucke-1325875).jpg)
.jpg "Double Portrait of a Boy and Girl of the Attavanti Family by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Double Portrait of a Boy and Girl of the Attavanti Family by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Patrician by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Giuliano Cesarini the Younger, Aged 14 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "The Holy Family with Saints Anne and John the Baptist by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-908349).jpg "Portrait of a Woman by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-908349).jpg)
.jpg "Philip II by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_-_Elisabeth_of_Valois_-_(MeisterDrucke-1028534).jpg "Elisabeth of France (Isabella of Valois, Isabel de la Paz) - Elisabeth of Valois (1545-1568), Queen of Spain - Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532-1625). c. 1599. Dimensions: 68 x 54 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_-_Elisabeth_of_Valois_-_(MeisterDrucke-1028534).jpg)
_wife_of_King_Philip_II_of_Spain_(155_-_(MeisterDrucke-898782).jpg "Isabella of Valois, Queen of Spain (1545-68), wife of King Philip II of Spain (1556-98) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_wife_of_King_Philip_II_of_Spain_(155_-_(MeisterDrucke-898782).jpg)
_Painting_by_Sofonisba_Anguis_-_(MeisterDrucke-984488).jpg "Portrait of the King of Spain Philip II (1527-1598). Painting by Sofonisba Anguissola or Anguisciola (1540-1625) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_Painting_by_Sofonisba_Anguis_-_(MeisterDrucke-984488).jpg)
.jpg "Two Sisters and a Brother of the Artist by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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 miniature artist holdi - (MeisterDrucke-556378).jpg "Portrait of Giulio Clovio (1498-1578), miniature artist, holding a miniature thought to be by the artist Lavinia Teerlinks (fl. 1545-70), 1556 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
 miniature artist holdi - (MeisterDrucke-556378).jpg)
.jpg "Portrait of Philip II 1527-1598, King of Spain and Portugal, 1565 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-304117).jpg "Portrait of a Child (Panel) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Lady by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Self-portrait at the easel by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Elisabeth of Valois 1545-1568, Queen of Spain, 1561-1565 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Alexandre Farnese (Alessandro Farnese) by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, 1573 by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Lady by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a child by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man with His Daughter by Sofonisba Anguissola")
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_later_Duke_of_Parma_and_Piacen_-_(MeisterDrucke-1749170).jpg "Portrait of Prince Alessandro Farnese (1545-1592), later Duke of Parma and Piacenza by Sofonisba Anguissola")
_later_Duke_of_Parma_and_Piacen_-_(MeisterDrucke-1749170).jpg)
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