Women artists in all ages and countries

A glance at the women artists of the romantic South will close this general survey of the eighteenth century. In Spain we find few worthy of mention. Since the commencement of the Bourbon dynasty interest in art had ceased to be the essential element in the national life that it had been under the sway of the house of Hapsburg throughout the seventeenth century. And in the Peninsula the truth was made apparent that the participation of women is a test and measure of the general interest in the studies and products of art prevailing among any people.

The most important schools, however, were not entirely without female representatives. Linked with that of Seville, we hear the name of the portrait-painter, Maria de Valdes Leal; her father and tutor, Don Juan de Valdes, after the death of Murillo, was regarded as the first living master of this school.

That of Madrid had among its disciples Clara and Anna Menendez, the latter being remembered as the painter of a series of scenes from Don Quixote. To the same school belong Donna Barbara Maria de Hueva, and Donna Maria de Silva, Duchess of Arcos, both celebrated for their skill in drawing, and members of the Academy of San Fernando, as were also Anna Menendez, and the painter Anna Perez of Navarre. Maria Felice Tibaldi, born in 1707, painted in oil, and also miniatures and pastels. She possessed great skill in drawing from life and copying historical pieces. A work of her husband, Pierre Subleyras, “The Apostolic Supper,” was copied by her in miniature. Pope Benedict XIV. sent her for it a thousand scudi, and placed it in his collection at the Capitol. After the death of her husband Maria supported herself and her children by her talents.

To these may be added Maria Prieto, the daughter of a distinguished médailleur; she practiced both painting and engraving, but died in her twentieth year at Madrid, in 1772.

Portugal, at this period, was justly proud of two women whose poetical talents had won no small celebrity, Magdalena da Gloria and the Countess de Vimiero. Beside them we may note two artists of eminence, Doña Isabel Maria Rite of Oporto, and Catarina Vieira of Lisbon; the former of high repute as a miniature-painter, the latter noted for several church pictures which she painted after the designs of her brother, Don Francisco Vieira de Mattos.

In Italy the harvest of names was greater, but fewer women attained to eminence during this century than in either of the two that had preceded it. Of women of poetical genius there was no lack at this period; and more than ever—though such are not wanting in the early annals of the principal Italian cities—learned ladies abounded. Female doctors and professors were far more in plenty than they promise to be in America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Such phenomena were not rare in the classic Italian clime as women occupying the chair, not only of music, drawing, and modern tongues, but of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, mathematics, and astronomy. They took degrees as doctors in jurisprudence and philosophy; for example, Maria Victoria Delfini, Christina Roccati, and Laura Bassi, in the University of Bologna, and Maria Pellegrina Amoretti, in that of Pavia. Anna Manzolini, in 1758, was Professor of Anatomy in Bologna; and Maria Agnesi—who, when only nine years of age, had delivered at Milan a Latin address on the “Studies of the Female Sex”—was appointed by the Pope to the professorship of mathematics in the same university at Bologna.

It was not then esteemed unfeminine for women to give lectures in public to crowded and admiring audiences. They were freely admitted members of learned societies, and were consulted by men of pre-eminent scientific attainments as their equals in scholarship; yet, a British reviewer remarks, “It is doubtful whether the far-famed Novella was a better Greek scholar than Mrs. Browning; or Maria Porcia Vignoli, whose statue long adorned the market-place of Viterbo, more learned in natural sciences than Mrs. Somerville.”

Among the more brilliant devotees of the lyre may be mentioned, in passing, Emilia Ballati and Giulia Baitelli, who emulated the fame of Petrarch, and Laura Vanetti, in whose poems Metastasio discerned the very soul of the bard of Love.

But we must not linger over names, even of the artists who belong to our special field of observation. None of the important early schools failed in the eighteenth century, to be able to boast the ornament of female talent. In Florence, Violanta Beatrice Siries, after a prolonged course of study in Paris under Boucher and Rigaud, was noted as a portrait-painter. In the same branch of the profession, Anna Boccherini and Anna Galeotti were highly esteemed.

In copper-engraving, Catarina Zucchi and Laura Piranesi acquired some celebrity. As engravers, we hear of Livia Pisani, Violanta Vanni, and Teresa Mogalli, the last also skilled in painting.

In encaustic painting, Anna Parenti-Duclos was well known toward the close of the century. Maria Felicia Tibaldi was distinguished in Rome for her talents as a painter no less than for her virtues as a woman; and her sister, Teresa, belongs to the same category, with Rosalba Maria Salviani and Caterina Cherubini. In miniature-painting, Bianca and Matilda Festa excelled; the latter holding the professor’s chair in the Academy of San Luca.

The wreaths of poetry and painting were intertwined around the brow of Maria Maratti, the daughter and pupil of the celebrated Carlo Maratti, and the wife of the poet Zappi. The like was true of Anna Victoria Dolora, who died at a great age in 1827, in a Dominican convent.

Naples boasted at this period a famous mathematician in Maria Angela Ardinghelli. Three gifted sisters, Maria Angiola, Felice, and Emmanuela Matteis, were also noted here; with the distinguished Angelica Siscara and Colomba Garri, who practiced flower and genre painting, and produced a series of kitchen-pieces, in which they sought to idealize by artistic adornment the ordinary occupations of the frugal and industrious housewife.

The cities of northern Italy had their share of energetic women. Turin, Milan, Bergamo, Roveredo, Carpi, and Parma produced artists whose fame was limited to a narrower circle than those of Bologna and Venice, where, especially in the former city, the shadow of past glories seemed to linger.

Professor Anna Manzolini modeled excellent portraits in wax, and Clarice Vasini obtained no small celebrity as a sculptor, being a member of the Academy.

Lucia Casalini, Bianca Giovannini, Barbara Burini, Eleonora Monti, Anna Teresia Messieri, Rosa Alboni, and Teresa Tesi, belonged to Bologna, and elevated the renown of its women for painting. They aspired to imitate the example of Elizabetta Sirani.

Carlotta Melania Alfieri is mentioned as accomplished in literature, music, and painting.

Laura Vanetti, praised as a linguist, musician, and philosopher, also excelled in painting. In the beginning of this century the Princess Elizabeth of Parma, afterward married to the King of Spain, was a famous dilettante. Another Princess Elizabeth, the wife of the Archduke Joseph of Austria, was, in 1789, on account of her pastels, admitted to membership of the Academy in Vienna.

In Venice, on the other hand, the fair students of art zealously emulated the fame of Maria Robusti. This “city of the sea” had many daughters who did well in painting, though even their names are now forgotten. She gave birth to one, however, whose fame was destined to spread into a wider circle, and to renew even in foreign lands the ancient lustre of the Italian name in art. This gifted being stands almost alone in the century as one who will be remembered by posterity with admiration.

ROSALBA CARRIERA.

Rosalba Carriera was born in Venice in 1675. Her father held an office under government, which occupied his whole time; but he, as well as his father, had been a painter. He loved art, and encouraged his child in her early fancies. Her first childish work was at point de Venise lace. She seemed to care little for the ordinary amusements of young people, but passed her leisure time in drawing. She tried to copy one of her father’s designs for the head of a sonnet. A student of art, who chanced to see this piece of work, showed it to his master, who instantly perceived the genius of the child artist; and, foreseeing the excellence to which she would attain, and wishing to encourage her to persevere, gave her other designs to copy.

Rosalba was desolate when this friend left Venice; but a Venetian banker, who had noticed her proficiency, lent her some heads in pastel of Baroche. These studies vastly improved her; and her father, then satisfied of his daughter’s possession of rare talents, consented that she should take lessons from Antonio Nazari, who was eminent as a pastel-painter. The cavalier Diamantini, distinguished for the freshness of his pencil, also gave her instruction.

Her most valuable knowledge of the technical part of painting, which gave her the mastery and command of her art that marked her productions, was acquired under the tuition of Antonio Balestra. Finally, she obtained from her kinsman, Antonio Pellegrini, a knowledge of the details of miniature-painting, to which the advice of a lady friend first directed her, and in which branch she acquired rare skill. She would willingly have pursued this, but the weakness of her sight compelled her to abandon it, and take to pastel-painting, in which she obtained the greatest celebrity—attaining, Zanetti says, the highest grade of perfection.

Her miniatures were noted particularly for severe accuracy of drawing, united with rare softness and delicacy of touch; they had the perfection of proportion, and the brilliancy and warmth of coloring for which her pastels were remarkable. Her tints were blended with great tenderness; her heads had a lovely expression of truth and nature.

Her talents met with due appreciation and honor while yet in their bloom of promise. She was celebrated in her native city as the “companion of the muse of painting,” and “the ornament of her sex and of the Venetian school.” Zanetti speaks of her with high praise in his “Storia della Pittura Veneziana.” Works evincing her extraordinary ability were shown at most of the courts of Europe. She was invited to Paris and Vienna to practice her profession there, and was elected to membership in the academies of Paris, Bologna, and Rome. Her miniature and pastel paintings were sent to the institutions which conferred this honor upon her. The King of Denmark came to Venice, and, having heard of Rosalba, expressed a curiosity to see her. After consulting Balestra, she presented to her royal visitor some portraits of Venetian ladies of rank whom he had admired, receiving from his majesty in return a very costly diamond. She also played and sang for his amusement with her two sisters, one of whom performed on the violin.

She was invited by royalty to paint the Emperor Charles and the imperial court; also the King of France. The Grand-Duke of Tuscany placed her portrait in his gallery; it is painted in pastel, with one of her sisters. The style is noble and sustained; the expression is true, and the flesh-tints are so admirable, the face seems scarcely to want a soul. Augustus III., King of Poland, was her special patron; and in Modena she painted portraits of the reigning family.

None of these, or similar honors, had power to turn her head nor to corrupt her heart. Although a daughter of Venice, then the most luxurious and licentious city in Europe, the deep seriousness, and even enthusiastic melancholy of her character—dispositions that find expression in many of her works—kept her aloof from contact with vice, and her moral purity and worth were as conspicuous and as universally recognized as her genius. Her own house at Venice was adorned with portraits and original compositions. This valuable collection she sold at a high price to the King of Poland, who placed them in a special cabinet of his palace in Dresden.

In the bloom of her career and her fame, Rosalba accompanied her brother-in-law Pellegrini to France. She remained a year at the house of M. Crozat. Two portraits of the king were done by her in pastel, and one in miniature, besides a victoire for a snuff-box which his majesty gave to Madame de Ventadour.

Several groups and demi-figures, designed by Pellegrini and executed by Rosalba, are preserved in Paris, with many heads in pastel done for Crozat. Many of her symbolical pictures—such as the Muses, Sciences, Seasons, etc.—were purchased by English travelers. Her crayon-drawings were distinguished by softness and life-like freshness. She became a member of the Paris Academy in October, 1720. Her tableau de reception was a Muse in pastel. The connoisseurs esteemed her portraits for their perfect likeness, delicacy of touch, wonderful lightness, peculiar grace, and admirable coloring and expression. They were unrivaled of their kind.

An anecdote has been mentioned of a lady of rank who wished to study painting under Rosalba, but knew she could not be prevailed on to take pupils. The lady presented herself in the disguise of a maid-servant, and desired employment at the house of the distinguished paintress. Rosalba was pleased with her appearance, and at once engaged her services. While faithfully performing her tasks, the lady incessantly watched the proceedings of the artist; and, by dint of careful observation, succeeded in learning much of the art. Rosalba noticed the extraordinary quickness of her maid in these matters; and, willing to give to native talent all the aid in her power, invited the girl to observe her while painting, and gave her valuable instruction. The secret was at last discovered. The lady became afterward an artist so skillful in miniatures, that she received an appointment from a German prince as painter at his court.

An Italian writes concerning her: “Nature had endowed Rosalba with lofty aspirations and a passionate soul, and her heart yearned for that response which her absence of personal attractions failed to win. She was aware of her extreme plainness; and had she ignored it, the Emperor Charles XI. enlightened her, when, turning to Bertoli, a court artist, who presented her in Vienna, he said, ‘She may be clever, Bertoli mio, this painter of thine, but she is remarkably ugly.’ But Rosalba, even if annoyed, could well afford to smile, for Charles XI. was the ugliest of men.”

While in France, Rosalba wrote a journal which was entitled “Diario degli anni 1720 e 1721. Scritto da Rosalba Carriera.” It appeared in Venice in 1793, with notes by Giovanni Vianelli, who had a fine collection of her paintings.

From Paris she went laden with honors to the imperial court at Vienna, where, besides the emperor and empress, she painted the archduchesses and others of the court. The King of Poland had a number of her pastels, which were highly valued.

Zanetti remarks: “Much of interest may be said of this celebrated and highly-gifted woman, whose spirit—in the midst of her triumphs and the brightest visions of happiness—was weighed down with the anticipation of a heavy calamity. On one occasion—when she had painted a portrait of herself, with the brow wreathed with gloomy leaves, significant of death—her friends asked why she had done this. She replied that the representation was an image of her life, and that her end would be tragic, according to the meaning here shadowed forth. This portrait was afterward in the possession of Giambattista Sartori, a brother of her famous pupil Felicità Sartori. He preserved it as a sacred relic. His sister married Von Hoffmann, and painted with much success at the court of the Elector of Saxony.”

It seemed, indeed, that the presentiment of a fast approaching and terrible affliction, amid the strict seclusion in which Rosalba lived, had taken possession of this noble and gifted spirit. It might be that her solitary existence tended to sadden her temperament, and deepen its natural inclination to melancholy. The forewarning, of which even in youth she felt conscious, was mournfully fulfilled ere she had long passed her prime. Before she was fifty years of age she became totally blind, as she had feared. Her mind struggled long with weakness and incurable sorrow, but sank at last, and the light of reason too departed.

The latter part of her life was a blank, yet she lingered to old age, dying in Venice, on the 15th of April, 1757. Amid the universal expression of unaffected sorrow and commiseration, she was buried in the church of San Sista a Modesta. She left considerable property. Her grave is still pointed out to the traveler as the last resting-place of one whose genius was an ornament to Venice.

Many of her works have been engraved. The Dresden Gallery has the largest collection, numbering one hundred and fifty-seven pieces.

The engraving of Rosalba’s portrait shows a youthful face, with a pleased expression of childish innocence. The hair is brushed back from the forehead on the top, but curls cluster around the face on the sides; earrings are worn, and the corsage is low. The eyes are dark, the forehead is high, and the whole head has a graceful air.

Like Rosalba Carriera, Ippolita Venier was a native of Venice, though she lived at Udina with the painter her father. In 1765 she painted the Adoration of the Kings, for a church in the sea-born city. Felicità Sartori was a pupil of Rosalba, and worked in Dresden, whither she went with her husband.

Apollonia de Forgue, born in 1767, assisted her husband, Seydelman, with his pictures. She was a member of the Academy in Dresden.