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Lucia Bonasoni Garzoni, c. 1590

Lavinia Fontana

This painting celebrates the talents and intertwined stories of two creative women: its painter Lavinia Fontana and her subject, lute player and singer Lucia Bonasoni Garzoni. Fontana and Garzoni lived in Bologna, Italy, during the second half of the 1500s and were successful artists of their time. They overcame the constraints of a male-dominated society to gain wide acclaim.

Fontana depicts Garzoni in an elegantly detailed gown and delicate jewelry that suggest her high status in Italian society. An upturned lute rests on the table behind her along with a sheet of musical notations for playing the instrument. Fontana’s intimately detailed painting suggests that she held Garzoni in high esteem, as did many others.

This highly detailed and exquisite portrait depicts the 16th-century musician Lucia Bonasoni Garzoni (b. 1561–at least 1610) by the most productive woman artist of the late 16th century, the Bolognese painter Lavinia Fontana. This portrait is among Fontana's best preserved and most accomplished surviving works in the genre. A rare depiction of a 16th-century woman musician by a 16th-century woman artist, this painting tells the story of two accomplished women who were able to overcome obstacles in a patriarchal society to succeed in the artistic spheres of painting and music.

Fontana died just before her 62nd birthday after a highly successful career. Trained by her father, Prospero Fontana (1512–1597), in the late mannerist style, and most famous for her portraits of noblewomen, she produced her first dateable works around 1575. In addition to portraits, she painted secular and religious subjects, including altarpieces for churches (a rarity in the period), portraits of scholars, and mythological nudes—a subject that was unheard of for women in the period. In 1577, Fontana married Gian Paolo Zappi (c. 1555–1615), who acted as her business manager; she supported her family, which included 11 children, with the profits from her painting. Fontana is one of 68 known women artists from Bologna in the early modern period and was a trailblazer for women artists who succeeded her.

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Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 113.5 × 87.5 cm (44 11/16 × 34 7/16 in.)

framed: 149.54 × 126.68 × 8.89 cm (58 7/8 × 49 7/8 × 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Funds from Anonymous in memory of Montana Walker Strauss, and Patrons' Permanent Fund

Accession Number

2022.38.1

Artists / Makers

Lavinia Fontana (artist) Italian, 1552 - 1614

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Detail Information

Inscription

upper right: LUCIA BONAS: AD [A in superscript],GARZONIB / ANNO AETATS [S in superscript] SUE / XXCIII[II]

Provenance

(sale, C. Galardelli, Florence, 11-15 May 1914, third day, 13 May 1914, no. 49). private collection, Madrid; (sale, Subastas Segre, Madrid, 18 May 2021, no. 98); Lullo Pampoulides, London; purchased 24 May 2022 by NGA.

Associated Names

Lullo Pampoulides
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)

Exhibition History

2023: Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 2023, no. 19, repro.

Bibliography

2021: Tanzi, Marco. "La 'gentildonna' e liutista bolognese Lucia Garzoni in un ritratto di Lavinia Fontana." Recercare 33 (2021): 165-180.

2022: Straussman-Pflanzer, Eve. "Gifts & Acquisitions." Art for the Nation no. 66 (Fall 2022): 18-19, repro.

2023: Puglisi, Catherine. "Lavinia Fonatana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker." Exhibition review. Woman's Art Journal44, no. 2 (Fall / Winter 2023): 72.

2023: Ramos, Carmen E. "Collecting for the Nation." Art for the Nationno. 67 (Fall 2023): 10, fig. 11.