Modesty and Mastery: Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola (Cremona, c. 1532 – Palermo, 1625) was the eldest of seven children—six daughters and one son. Her father, Amilcare, was a minor aristocrat with forward-thinking ideas. In a bold and unprecedented move, he allowed two of his daughters—Sofonisba and Elena—to study painting.

While many Renaissance artists were born into artistic families, Sofonisba received formal training from two prominent local painters.

Her early teacher, Bernardino Campi (1522–1591), began teaching Sofonisba and Elena around 1546. It’s unclear whether the sisters lived with Campi or returned home daily. According to scholars, they were not part of a typical bottega but received instruction at Campi’s residence, possibly under the watch of his wife.

When Campi left Cremona in 1549, the sisters continued training with Bernardino Gatti (1495–1576). Despite their ability to paint from life, they were excluded from history painting—considered unsuitable for women, who were believed to lack the requisite imagination.

Sofonisba went on to teach her younger sisters—Lucia, Minerva, and Europa—and Europa, in turn, taught Anna Maria.

Sofonisba Anguissola, *The Chess Game*, 1555. Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań

A Portrait of Sisterhood

In The Chess Game, we see Sofonisba’s sisters—Lucia, Europa, and Minerva—alongside a maidservant. Unlike typical sixteenth-century depictions of game players, which are usually set indoors, this scene unfolds in what appears to be a family garden. Oak trees in the background and acorns on the chessboard may symbolize family unity.

Sofonisba’s interest in portraiture was influenced by the Central Italian school, particularly Correggio (1489–1534), and further shaped by the realism of Lombard artists like Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Giovanni Battista Moroni (1520–1578). The tree trunks behind Lucia and Europa recall Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci, where juniper branches accentuate the subject’s profile through chiaroscuro.

Recent interpretations suggest the painting is about learning—not how to play chess, but how to develop poise. The sisters embody different stages of self-control: Europa, around six, is full of energy; Minerva, about ten or twelve, gestures gently and speaks with restraint; Lucia, seventeen, looks at the viewer with composed elegance. The painting also celebrates pleasure—in play, in dress, and in shared company.

The contrast between the sisters’ ornate dresses and the maidservant’s modest attire highlights social distinctions. This figure type would later appear in women’s self-portraits—such as Lavinia Fontana’s Self-Portrait at the Keyboard (1577)—and in depictions of Judith and Her Maidservant by artists like Fontana, Fede Galizia, and Artemisia Gentileschi.

Sofonisba Anguissola, *The Chess Game*, 1555. Detail

At the bottom of The Chess Game, an inscription reads:

SEPHONISBA ANGVSSOLA VIRGO AMILCARIS FILIA EX VERA / EFIGIE TRES SVAS SORORES AT ANCILAM PINXIT. MDLV
(The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, daughter of Amilcare, painted from the true likeness three of her sisters and the maidservant. 1555.)

This inscription emphasizes the originality of the composition. Though painted from life, the scene is a fictional assembly—a constructed narrative. Ironically, for centuries, portraiture was seen as a genre suitable for women because it supposedly required little invention.

Self-Portraiture and Reputation

As a member of the lower nobility, Amilcare Anguissola could not approach princely courts directly but, lucky for him, art served as a strategic gift.

Amilcare actively promoted his daughter’s work, sending drawings (including one famously sent to Michelangelo), small portraits, and self-portraits to powerful patrons.

In the 1550s, Sofonisba—or her father—sent self-portraits to the d’Este in Ferrara, the Gonzaga in Mantua, and the Farnese in Parma and Piacenza.
Reputation was paramount, and the repeated use of the word Virgo (maiden) in inscriptions was meant to bolster Sofonisba’s virtue and, by extension, her professional credibility.

Sofonisba Anguissola, *Self-Portrait,* ca. 1556. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In the small medallion housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Sofonisba holds a disk inscribed:

SOHONISBA ANGUISSOLA VIR[GO] IPSIUS EX [S]PEVLO DEPICTAM CREMONAE

Interestingly, her thumb obscures the final syllable -go, making the word Virgo appear as Vir (man). Whether intentional or not, the inscription complicates the identity of the sitter.

Sofonisba painted her father Amilcare only once but mentioned him in most of the inscriptions accompanying her self-portraits. In this one, for instance, Sofonisba is holding a quite large disk featuring the interlocked letters ERMALCI, which many believe is an anagram of Amilcare—though some argue it fails to account for a visible “K”.

A Red Dress and a Hidden Arm

Sofonisba created between 12 and 16 self-portraits.

In the self-portraits produced during the 1550s the artist often wears a plain black jacket (corpetto), white lace collar, parted hair in braids.
Although Sofonisba presents herself modestly in the painting below too, she seems to be more present than Campi, occupying as she does the middle of the composition and a higher position.

(Traditionally attributed to Sofonisba Anguissola) *Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola*, late 1550s. Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. Pre-restoration

But then, when in 1996 the painting was restored, it turned out that actually Sofonisba is wearing a quite flamboyant red dress, decorated with jewels and a golden thread. She is also wearing earrings.

Quite a surprise was also the position of her left arm, as the restoration revealed that the arm holding the glove was originally bent upward. It looks as if Sofonisba is holding the maulstick (that’s the name of the stick used by painters to support the working hand) and in doing so she is keeping Campi’s hand steady.

The restorers were also able to discover that the arm was a pentimento: Sofonisba (or Campi) painted it over herself (or himself) some time later. It was left visible until 2002, when it was decided to cover it again as it seems more than a few visitors to the Tuscan collection found it confusing.

So this is how the portrait appears these days.

Even though an attribution to Sofonisba is largely accepted, there are still a few controversial issues that need to be addressed.

If we accept the attribution to Sofonisba, we must also acknowledge that she is defying all the established norms of Renaissance self-portraiture. In every known example of double-portraits from this period, the artist is always depicted at the easel—not as the subject on the canvas.

Later, Baroque artists began to challenge this convention, introducing new complexities. I’ve written elsewhere about two unconventional self-portraits by Baroque painters who chose to become the subject on the easel themselves.

But why the inverted roles? Was Sofonisba trying to express something about her teacher? Almost a decade had passed since Campi had left Cremona and Sofonisba Campi’s workshop.

Was Sofonisba teasing the viewer? If indeed a self-portrait, she is the only known artist to depict their teacher in such an illusionistic manner.

And what of the dress? Had she changed her style in anticipation of court life? Or is it the vision of a man dressing a woman?

Her meticulousness (diligenza), praised in her time, became unfashionable later, especially when compared to Titian’s freer brushwork. Yet in the fine details—like the golden thread—her precision shines.

At the Spanish Court

At the end of 1559, Sofonisba left Cremona and joined the Spanish court as a lady in waiting for King Philip II's third wife—Queen Elisabeth of Valois (1545-1568).

Sofonisba was already a well-known artist when she moved to Spain. Her diligent style, developed from that of the court painters Campi and Bronzino (1503-1572), helped her to feel at home in the Spanish court. And yet, despite all the written accounts talking about her success, there is not one single work from that period that can be attributed to her with certainty.

There are a few reasons for that. She may have stopped signing her works because her role was not as a court painter but a court educator. Moreover, the uniformity of court style, shaped by tradition and hierarchy, could have made her work indistinguishable from that of others.

Sofonisba Anguissola, *Portrait of Alessandro Farnese*, ca. 1560. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

And yet, there are works in which notable stylistic differences between Sofonisba’s paintings and those of other court artists can be noticed. One such example is the Portrait of Alessandro Farnese, which I have discussed in detail here.

In relation to the subject’s clothes, in 2022 the portrait was exhibited at the V&A exhibition ‘Fashioning Masculinity’. It was displayed next to a cape designed by Dolce & Gabbana for their autumn/winter 2012 collection.

Portrait of Alessandro Farnese featured in 'Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear'. V&A Museum, 19 March – 6 November 2022

Later Years and Final Chapter

After the queen’s death in 1568, Sofonisba stayed on as governess to the royal daughters for five more years, until 1573. She then married Fabrizio Moncada, Governor of Paternò in Sicily. Five years later, Moncada died—either drowned in a pirate attack or possibly murdered amid a family feud.

In 1579, while returning to Cremona, Sofonisba’s ship docked in Livorno due to bad weather. When the skies cleared, she didn’t continue the journey. Instead, she married the ship’s captain, Orazio Lomellino—against her family’s wishes. The couple settled in Genoa until around 1615, then moved to Palermo.

In 1624, a year before her death, Sofonisba received a visit from Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641). The renowned portratist had travelled to Palermo to paint a likeness of the Spanish viceroy but had not been allowed to leave for Naples because the Sicilian city had in the meanwhile been struck by the plague.

The painting below was made after a drawing the Flemish artist made of Sofonisba.

Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), *Sofonisba Anguissola on her deathbed*, 1625. Musei Reali, Palazzo Reale, Turin

Taking it further

A Renaissance Joke: What a 500-Year-Old Self-Portrait Reveals by George Upton in Frieze Masters , One Takes | 02 Oct 19

Sofonisba and Michelangelo by Dr Richard Stemp in talking about art

For an examination of the differences between Sanchez Coello’s and Sofonisba’s styles watch ArtStop | Sofonisba Anguissola produced by The San Diego Museum of Art

A transcription of Van Dyck's account of his meeting with Sofonisba in a copy from van Dyck's Chatsworth sketchbook now in the British Museum

Michael W. Cole, Sofonisba’s Lesson: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work, Princeton University Press, 2019

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