Until recently, the painter Sofonisba Anguissola was barely known to most audiences. Now, after multiple recent exhibitions, she is increasingly recognized as one of the major figures of the later Italian Renaissance. Nevertheless, much about her identity and production as an artist remains elusive.
Presented by Michael Cole of Columbia University, the 27th annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art will consider how the study of Sofonisba’s work points to a sometimes troubled relationship between the history of women artists and the old art-historical practice of assigning authors to paintings. It will then turn its focus to several of the most recent questions and controversies surrounding Sofonisba’s work.
Michael Cole is Howard McP. Davis Professor at Columbia University, where he teaches Italian Renaissance and baroque art. He is the author of Sofonisba’s Lesson: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work (2019) and Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Art of the Figure (2015), among other books.