Posted on September 21, 2019
There are soooooo many female painters - and here is just one more!
Wait a minute! Barbara Longhi, today's famous birthday, was born on this date in 1552???
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| This painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria is thought to actually by a self-portrait by Barbara Longhi, of Barbara Longhi. |
There aren't a lot of famous women from the 1500s, and there certainly weren't a lot of women who were famous for their art, way back then.
Longhi was Italian, and both her father (Luca) and her older brother were painters. Not only did her father teach her (and her brother) to paint, they were both part of his studio, so they may have contributed to many of his larger pieces. Luca also used Barbara at times as a model.
Although Barbara Longhi seemed to have a good reputation for her portraits during her lifetime, we still have very little knowledge of her life, and most of her artwork, including her portraits, are lost, unattributed, or misattributed. (In other words, Longhi seldom signed her pieces, so there are likely some unsigned paintings that are hers but that nobody knows are hers, and some experts think that some pieces considered to be by Luca Longhi are actually by his daughter.
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| Madonna Adoring the Child, ca. 1600-05, by Barbara Longhi |
Like many other European Renaissance artists, Longhi devoted a lot of her artistic time to painting religious subjects, especially "Mother and Child" paintings that are supposed to depict Jesus as a baby and his mother Mary. I'm so much happier looking at these sorts of paintings from the Renaissance era, when babies look like actual babies...
...Instead of looking at medieval Mother and Child paintings, which show baby Jesus proportioned all wrong - like an ugly old man!
Also on this date:
(Third Weekend of September)
(Third Saturday of September)
Plan ahead:
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Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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