114 - Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Rome 1614), workshop of

Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Rome 1614), workshop of Portrait of a Noblewoman with Her Dog Oil on canvas 121 x 95 cm Among Lavinia Fontana’s various portraits of ladies with small dogs, this painting bears striking similarities to the Portrait of Costanza Alidosi, dated approximately 1595, housed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington. See: https://nmwa.org/art/collection/portrait-costanza-alidosi/ Lavinia, daughter of Prospero Fontana, an artist of the Bolognese school, trained under her father. She also absorbed the lessons of Correggio and Parmigianino in her religious paintings, while her color palette reflects the influence of the Carracci and their Venetian-school emphasis on color. She moved to Rome in 1603 at the invitation of Pope Gregory XIII, from whom she received numerous commissions, becoming famous as “the Pontifical Painter.” The first woman elected to the Academy of San Luca, she was celebrated during her lifetime. The mother of eleven children, she died in 1614 in Rome, in the monastery where she had retired. Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Rome 1614) workshop of Portrait of a Noblewoman with her Dog Oil on canvas 121 × 95 cm Among the various portraits of ladies with small dogs by Lavinia Fontana, this painting bears close similarities to the Portrait of Costanza Alidosi, dating approximately to 1595 and housed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. See: https://nmwa.org/art/collection/portrait-costanza-alidosi/