Four women painters who achieved greatness against the odds, between 1580 and 1665: Lavinia Fontana, Clara Peeters, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Elisabetta Sirani.
Peeters
Tuna fishing in Spain, goldfish sold as pets or in a Berlin flat, underwater with a diver, and in many still lifes, including those of William Merritt Chase, the master of fish.
Expressing a weariness with this life and yearning for the next, they originated in Flanders, but soon became popular in the Dutch Republic in its Golden Age.
Although not entirely new, from 1620 still life paintings were highly popular, thanks to skilled painters migrating from Flanders and Brabant to escape religious oppression.
In 1579, 7 of the more northerly provinces in the Low Countries formed the Dutch Republic. That soon prospered from its international trade, and saw the creation of millions of paintings that changed European art.
In some of the earliest European paintings, the Fall of Man, the fable of the cat’s paw, in Vanitas paintings, and for their mischief and mayhem.
The humble mouse seen in Millais’ portrait of Cinderella, Klimt’s Fable, still life paintings, and an illustration by the artist who died with Captain Scott.
Originating in the Northern Renaissance, these paintings expressed feelings of emptiness, and the futility of earthly life. Examples of these elaborate allegories.
Before photography, the only opportunity to see your face, painters took advantage of the Venus Effect to break optical rules and show faces that couldn’t have been seen in the mirror.
An unusual pastel, a couple of fine nocturnes, then some reflections of figures from Caravaggio and Bonnard, concluded by coy self-portraits.
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