Ginevra Cantofoli (1618–1672) was an Italian painter. She was active in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

during the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period.

Career

Cantofoli was born in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1618. She trained under

Giovanni Andrea Sirani Giovanni Andrea Sirani (4 September 1610 – 21 May 1670) was an Italian Baroque painter from Bologna. He is best known as the father of the female painter Elisabetta Sirani. Sirani trained initially with Giacomo Cavedone, then worked in the ...

, the father of

Elisabetta Sirani Elisabetta Sirani (8 January 1638 – 28 August 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27. She was a pioneering female artist in early modern Bologna, who established an academy fo ...

, in Bologna. Although a generation older than Elisabetta Sirani, Cantofoli was described by

Carlo Cesare Malvasia Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616–1693) was an Italian scholar and art historian from Bologna, best known for his biographies of Baroque artists titled ''Felsina pittrice'', published in 1678. Life and career Malvasia is the Bolognese equivalen ...

, , and Marcello Oretti as Elisabetta's student. Also named as her teachers are

Emilio Taruffi Emilio Taruffi (1633–1696) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was a fellow-pupil with Carlo Cignani in the studio of Francesco Albani, then a pupil of the former. Active first at Bologna, in decorating the public hall, and next ...

Lorenzo Pasinelli Lorenzo Pasinelli (September 4, 1629 – March 4, 1700) was an Italian painter active mainly in Bologna during the late Baroque period. He was born in Bologna, and initially trained in the studio of Simone Cantarini. He then pursued studies in R ...

, and

Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole (10 December 1654 – 22 July 1719) was an Italian painter and engraver from Bologna, active in the late-Baroque period. Upon the death of Carlo Cignani, Gioseffo dal Sole became among the most prominent painters in Bolo ...

. According to art historian Laura M. Ragg, among the women painters in Bologna at the time, Cantofoli "had much more talent than any of her companions." Her early works were pastel portraits and small paintings, but she later went on to paint large-scale compositions. She was primarily a history painter. She also produced several altarpieces for Bolognese churches, although none of these works are known to still exist. Art historian Massimo Pulini attributes 30 works to Cantofoli. Among her works are a painting, ''Self-Portrait, Painting the Madonna of St Luke'', and a drawing, ''Self-Portrait'', which portrays the artist holding a palette and brushes before an easel, both dated to c. 1665. It has also been asserted that a painting known as ''Allegory of Painting'' (in a private collection) contains a self-portrait, and that "the features of many of her female figures resemble her own." A painting of a woman in a turban in the collection of the

Palazzo Barberini The Palazzo Barberini ( en, Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome. History T ...

, traditionally identified as a portrait of

Beatrice Cenci Beatrice Cenci (; 6 February 157711 September 1599) was a Roman noblewoman who murdered her father, Count Francesco Cenci. She was beheaded in 1599 after a lurid murder trial in Rome that gave rise to an enduring legend about her. Life Beatri ...

, long attributed to

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious ...

, has been attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli.

At auction

A record price for a work by Cantofoli was set by "A Sea-Nymph, probably Galatea," auctioned for $137,500 at Sotheby's, New York, January 30, 2020.

Gallery

File:A SEA-NYMPH, PROBABLY GALATEA.png, A Sea-Nymph, probably Galatea, private collection File:01 Portret Beatrice Cenci.jpg, Presumed portrait of

File:Ginevra Cantofoli - Scena Allegorica.jpg, ''Scena Allegorica'', private collection File:Ginevra Cantofoli--Saint Thomas of Villanova.jpg, Saint Thomas of Villanova, etching of 1658 after the painting by Cantofoli File:Ginevra Cantofoli--Truth Revealing the Artifice of Painting--c. 1665-1672--Berkeley Art Museum.png, ''Truth Revealing the Artifice of Painting'', c. 1665-1672,

Berkeley Art Museum The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

File:Ginerva Cantofoli self-portrait--c 1665--Milan.png, ''Self-Portrait, Painting the Madonna of Luke'', c. 1665,

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

File:Ginerva Cantofoli self-portrait--drawing--c 1665--Venice.png, Self-Portrait (drawing), c. 1665,

Giorgio Cini Foundation The Giorgio Cini Foundation (''Italian: Fondazione Giorgio Cini''), or just Cini Foundation, is a cultural foundation founded 20 April 1951 in memory of Giorgio Cini, an Italian entrepreneur who died in August 1949. History The Foundation is loca ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

File:Ginevra Cantofoli--head of a woman in red chalk--British Museum.jpg, Head of a woman wearing a turban, after Guido Reni, attributed to Cantofoli,

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

File:Ginevra Cantofoli--A Sybil--Christies June 2022.tif, ''A Sybil'', private collection

References and footnotes

Sources

* Bohn, Babette
"Female Self-Portraiture in Early Modern Bologna"
''Renaissance Studies'', Vol. 18, No. 2 (June 2004), pp. 239–286 * Bryan, Michael
"Cantofoli, Ginevra"
in ''Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical'', London: George Bell and Sons, 1899, Vol. I: (A-K), p. 227. * Pulini, Massimo (2006). ''Ginevra Cantofoli: la nuova nascita di una pittrice nella Bologna del Seicento'', Bologna 2006. * Ragg, Laura M
''The Women Artists of Bologna''
London: Methuen & Co., 1907.

External links