Bolognese School, 17th Century, Portrait Of Ginevra Cantofoli

Bolognese School, 17th Century

Portrait of Ginevra Cantofoli

Oil on canvas, cm 48 x 39.5

With frame, cm 57 x 50

This painting depicts a woman painter in the midst of her creative activity. In fact, he turns his gaze towards the viewer, as if it had been interrupted suddenly, while he holds in his hands the palette and brushes, tools of the trade, and with a easel on which rests his last work: A half-obscured portrait of a young man who plays with the concept of picture in picture creating a double illusion to the eyes of those who observe the portrait. Both this solution and the idea of representing themselves with objects and tools related to their own artistic work, were often used by women painters, who wanted in this way to demonstrate their cultural, professional and cultural independence from a masculine world, in which it was difficult to assert itself because of secular habits and stereotypes that also reverberated in the artistic universe. The fame that reached some women in the field of painting was recognized both by their contemporaries and in the following centuries until today; many of these decided to self-represent or were portrayed during the development of their art, as did great artists such as Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola, Elisabetta Sirani, Artemisia Gentileschi, Rosalba Carriera and Violante Series Patches. Often the portrait also assumed a metaphorical meaning through some symbolic references that allowed to interpret the painter also as possible allegory of painting, although in this work there are no objects or allusions of allegorical mold.