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Instead of doing our typical Friday news cast, I’m sharing a recent discussion I had with author Damian Dibben about his latest novel, The Colour Storm. Set in the cutthroat art-world of Renaissance Venice, The Colour Storm is about the search for a new color. The daring young painter, Giorgione, is in the fight of his life to beat his rivals and find it first.
Today: Another day, another nun! But Plautilla Nelli’s story is an interesting one, involving a great lost-and-found twist, and the opportunity to discuss how some artists can be “forgotten” and then rediscovered. From Breaking Barriers: Women of Renaissance Europe, please enjoy “Plautilla Nelli: Lost and Found.”
Today’s subject is a major one: Properzia de’ Rossi, a Renaissance sculptor who was (gasp!) female. Why was this a big deal, why was de’ Rossi a rarity? We dig into the details and learn about the highly masculinized world of sculpture. From Breaking Barriers: Women of Renaissance Europe, please enjoy “Properzia de’ Rossi: The “Rare Female Sculptor.”
Today: Artist-nuns are not rare: just look at the example of the famed Hildegard von Bingen, long praised as one of the first-known female artists. Today, we’re uncovering the story--and the myth--behind St. Catherine of Bologna, a mystical member of the Poor Clares whose artistic talents may (or not!) have been exaggerated. From Breaking Barriers: Women of Renaissance Europe, please enjoy “St. Catherine of Bologna: The Patron Saint of Artists.”
Today: Lots of women artists have gotten a head-start in their careers thanks to their families. Fathers, in particular, often led their remarkable daughters to find great success in the arts, and Marietta Robusti was no exception: her dear old dad was none other than Tintoretto, a Venetian master. But did Tintoretto’s adoration of his daughter hold her back from achieving greater heights? From Breaking Barriers: Women of Renaissance Europe, please enjoy “Marietta Robusti: Like Father, Like Daughter.”
Today: One of the earliest-known female printmakers in Europe, Diana Scultori (sometimes identified as Diana Ghisi or Diana Mantuana), Diana was a grand marketer of her own work, even requesting a particular “Papal Privilege” to sell and promote her engravings while living in Rome. Rock on, Diana!
Today: She might not have had the backing of royal patrons or the fancy aristocratic connections that Levina Teerlinc and Sofonisba Anguissola had, but Fede Galizia still did well for herself with commissions. And she was an innovator, to boot, often noted as the first-known Italian artist to have completed a still life painting at a time where the genre was not yet fashionable From Breaking Barriers: Women of Renaissance Europe, please enjoy “Fede Galizia: Early Still-Life Adopter.”
For this season of ArtCurious, I’m doing something a little bit different. I’m treating you to renditions of eight of my favorite segments from Breaking Barriers: Women Artists of Renaissance Europe, my online course found exclusively at avid.fm. Every other week through January, I’ll share selections from Breaking Barriers, and encourage you that if you like it, you can purchase the whole course. Today, I’m sharing a story about the family of one of the most well-known female artists of the Renaissance. You might know a bit about Sofonisba Anguissola--but how much do you know about her sister, Lucia? And how about another Anguissola daughter? From Breaking Barriers: Women of Renaissance Europe, please enjoy “Lucia Anguissola (and Elena Anguissola): In Their Sister’s Footsteps.”
I’ve got a great interview for you today— this time, I’m featuring a conversation with Eden Collinsworth on her fascinating book, What the Ermine Saw: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo da Vinci's Most Mysterious Portrait. This extraordinary work of narrative non-fiction traces the remarkable history of Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic portrait: The Woman with an Ermine, from its original creation, including the fascinating story of its subject, Cecilia Gallerani, and on to its mysterious disappearance for 250 years after which it emerged in the hands of an aristocratic Polish family. Now on display in Krakow, the painting was exiled in Paris, and kept hidden from the Nazis by a brave housekeeper. These defining moments in history comprise a portrait of Europe’s past as vivid and complex as the painting itself.
The magic of Collinsworth’s book is the powerful combination of research-based non-fiction— reminiscent of Walter Isaacson (Leonardo da Vinci) and Mary Gabriel (Ninth Street Women)— with a character-driven narrative that will keep readers glued to the page until the very end. Perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch or Céline Sciamma’s film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, What the Ermine Saw pulls back the curtain on the fascinating history behind the astonishing portrait.
In 2003, there were a few things that were totally inescapable: trucker hats and studded belts were everywhere, people were nuts for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the best-selling book of the year. But also huge, and equally inescapable, was the second-highest grossing book of that year: Dan Brown’s smash hit, The Da Vinci Code. I remember that I, a graduate student in art history, grabbed a copy at my local bookstore—sorry not sorry, and spent the entire weekend devouring it—really only taking a break here and there to make myself some snacks before diving back headlong into its narrative. By now, you probably know the story: Brown’s “symbologist,” Robert Langdon and his cryptologist colleague Sophie Neveu struggle to solve a murder couched in symbols that translate to spell out incredible consequences—for world religion, and thus for the world at large. And the bombshell claims that this fictional book—and I stress, fictional-- made were many, and two-decade-long spoiler alert, by the by: Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and after his death she fled to what would become France and bore him a daughter, whose descendants founded the Merovingian line of French kings. This secret has been kept throughout the centuries, first by the Knights Templar, then after their destruction by the Priory of Sion, a secretive group led over the years by many great men, including, as the title so clearly states, Leonardo da Vinci. Most fascinatingly, Dan Brown wrote that Leonardo had revealed these—and many more—secrets in his paintings: the “Da Vinci Code.” It’s an irresistible premise, and it was catnip even for an art historian like me who should have known better… and hopefully did know better. But ever since its publication, many have wondered: is there really a “Da Vinci Code?” And if so, what painting might truly contain allusions to these secrets?
