Happy Birthday - Lavinia Fontana

Lavinia Fontana was born August 24, 1552, in Bologna, Italy.

Lavinia Fontana, 1552-1614, Bolognese Painter
by Felice Antonio Casone ca. 1611 (source: Wikipedia)

Lavinia Fontana was one of the most successful painters in her time, and the highest rated female painter in Bologna. Unlike the few other women artists at the time, she had a prolifically successful career painting a wide range of subjects for her patrons and clients -- including portraits, alterpieces and historical and mythological paintings.

While it wasn't totally uncommon for noblewomen to explore artistic pursuits, the level of training and support, as well as the number and types of commissions she received during her career, are remarkable. It was a lucky accident that she was born into the family and time she was. Her father, Prospero Fontana, was himself an accomplished and well respected artist of his time. He taught his daughter and treated her as an apprentice in the family business of painting, which was customary at the time.

Self-portrait at the Clavichord with a Servant ca. 1577 (source: Wikipedia)

In addition to having a master as a father and mentor, she was born during an exciting time for art in Bologna. The city was considered one of the greatest cities for painters at the time. She was surrounded by great artists and art, and there is no doubt that the social and religious culture of Bologna had a profound effect on her as an artist.

Being born the daughter of the successful artist Prospero Fontana (1512-1597), a provincial painter with a solid reputation, had numerous advantages. During Lavinia's apprenticeship, Prospero shared with his daughter the artistic skills he had mastered during his early training in Genoa. The time Prospero had spent working in Florence and Rome, prior to returning to Bologna, undoubtedly contributed to the overall quality of Lavinia's early studies. Lavinia's apprenticeship in her father's studio provided her with ample opportunities to contribute to her father's commissioned works as well as to produce works of her own design. The first recorded works attributed to the hand of Lavinia date from 1575. Lavinia also profited from being born in the Italian city--state of Bologna, which was a prominent Italian artistic center during her lifetime. In Bologna, Lavinia could study distinguished works of art at her convenience.
(source: Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World: A Biographical Dictionary, by Carole Levin; Debra Barrett-Graves et al.)

Under her father's tutelage she developed her natural talent and became a prosperous portrait painter. At the time, most women painters worked solely selling their skills painting portraits of wealthy families, and particularly women nobility. Her attention to detail and her genuine talent brought her widespread fame, reaching beyond Italy.

Portrait of a Noblewoman ca. 1580 (source: NMWA)

When she was twenty-five, she married another young student of her father, Paolo Zappi. She and Paolo had 11 children, only three of whom survived her. Although Paolo was also a painter, it appears that his role in the marriage was more one of support for his wife's artistic career. He acted as her assistant, which included painting minor elements of her works.

Her commercial painting included more than just portraits. She also painted devotional images and alterpieces.

Fontana was also the first woman to paint alterpieces at the time of Counter-Reformation and the growing power of the Catholic Church. One of her altarpiece paintings, San Francisco di Paola blessing the Child has been also on view in the Pinacoteca Nazionale. Birth of the Virgin Mary can be seen in Santissima Trinita church and Madonna Enthroned with Child and Santa Caterina of Alexandria, Cosma, Damiano e il Committente Scipione Calcina in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, among other churches of Bologna.
(source: Women In The Arts)

Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1570 (source: It's About Time)

Her fame attracted the attention of high ranking members of the Catholic Church, and she was increasingly commissioned for portraits and works with a religious theme.

National Gallery of Art Fontana and her family moved to Rome in 1603 at the invitation of Pope Clement VIII. She gained the patronage of the Buoncompagni, of which Pope Gregory XIII was a member. Lavinia thrived in Rome as she had in Bologna and Pope Paul V himself was among her sitters. She was the recipient of numerous honors, including a bronze portrait medallion cast in 1611 by sculptor and architect Felice Antonio Casoni.
(source: Wikipedia)

There are quite a few great resources online and in print if you're interested in learning more about the life and works of Lavinia Fontana:

• Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World: A Biographical Dictionary, by Carole Levin; Debra Barrett-Graves et al.
• Lavinia Fontana: A Painter and Her Patrons in Sixteenth-century Bologna, by Caroline P. Murphy
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Women in the Arts
• 3 Pipe Problem
• Uffizi Gallery

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Today in Herstory - Althea Gibson

On August 22, 1950, Althea Gibson made history simply by walking out onto a tennis court.

But it really wasn't that simple. Nothing really ever is, right? Prior to 1950, the national championship events were for whites only. Which meant that young tennis genius Althea Gibson could not compete on a national level, and could not progress in the sport she was so very talented at.

"I knew that I was an unusual, talented girl, through the grace of God. I didn't need to prove that to myself. I only wanted to prove it to my opponents."

Althea Gibson came to tennis later than most who pursued a professional career. But she was a natural, and quickly rose in the ranks of her local tennis circle. In fact, she was so good and so well loved by her community that in 1940 they took up a collection to pay for a junior membership and lessons at the prestigious Cosmopolitan Tennis Club.

With their support and the excellent training she received, she continued to advance, winning tournament after tournament.

In 1941 she entered — and won — her first tournament, the American Tennis Association (ATA) New York State Championship. She won the ATA national championship in the girls' division in 1944 and 1945, and after losing in the women's final in 1946, she won her first of ten straight national ATA women's titles in 1947.
(Source: wikipedia)

And she went on winning. And getting more attention from people in the position to help her. Dr. Walter Johnson, a Virginia physician and patron of the African American tennis community, took her under his wing and mentored her as she continued to excel. Dr. Hubert A. Eaton, another physician and tennis aficionado, sponsored her move to Wilmington, North Carolina, where she attended Williston High School and continued to play tennis and improve her skill. In fact, her skill was so impressive that while she was only ever a mediocre student, she was awarded a full athletic scholarship at Florida A&M.

In 1949, she became the first black woman to play in the USTA's National Indoor Championships. While this was an exciting event, it was also one of the few high level events she was able to enter. Because of the color barrier, her options for advancement in her sport were becoming ever fewer. That same year, she petitioned to enter the USLTA's National Grass Court Championships at Forest Hills and was denied. It was still a white-only event, and while she had the skill to compete, she did not have the privilege.

The next step proved harder. Even after she had won the 1950 Eastern Indoor Championship and a clamor had begun to let her play in the National Grass Court Championships at Forest Hills, the precursor of the United States Open, the powers of tennis seemed to close ranks to keep her out.

To qualify for an invitation to the 1950 nationals, she was required to first make a name for herself at one of the major preliminary grass-court events. But no invitations were forthcoming.
(Source: New York Times)

And here's where something remarkable happened. Alice Marble, a former tennis champion herself, wrote an open letter in the American Lawn Tennis magazine, calling out the powers that be that were keeping Althea Gibson and other African Americans off their courts.

"Miss Gibson is over a very cunningly wrought barrel, and I can only hope to loosen a few of its staves with one lone opinion. If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen, it's also time we acted a little more like gentle-people and less like sanctimonious hypocrites... If Althea Gibson represents a challenge to the present crop of women players, it's only fair that they should meet that challenge on the courts."

Marble said that, if Gibson were not given the opportunity to compete, "then there is an ineradicable mark against a game to which I have devoted most of my life, and I would be bitterly ashamed."
(Source: wikipedia)

Althea Gibson and Alice Marble walking to the outer court where Gibson's first match was scheduled. (Source: tennisforum.com)

In response to the attention this letter garnered, Althea finally received an invitation to compete in the United States National Championships (now the U.S. Open) at Forest Hills. On August 22, 1950, Althea became the first African American to be named on a National Grass Court Championship roster. Her first match was on her 23rd birthday, August 25.

She did not win the championship. She lost in the second round to Louise Brough, the reigning Wimbledon champion, but her presence on the court brought national, and international, coverage.

But it was Gibson's second-round match against three-time Wimbledon champion Louise Brough that showed everyone Gibson was a future champion. Gibson led Brough 1-6, 6-3, 7-6, needing just one game to win the match, when along came a storm so severe lightning knocked a cement eagle from atop the stadium. Brough won the match upon its conclusion the next day.

But, Gibson said later of that day, "When lightning put down that eagle, maybe it was an omen that times was changing."
(Source: USAT)

And the times were changing.

"No Negro player, man or woman, has ever set foot on one of these courts," wrote journalist Lester Rodney at the time. "In many ways, it [was] even a tougher personal Jim Crow-busting assignment than was Jackie Robinson's when he first stepped out of the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout."
(Source: wikipedia)

Althea Gibson's full career deserves a longer, more in-depth telling. But I wanted to give a little more attention to this one moment in time in her career. It should get more than a just quick paragraph in her longer biology. It cannot have been as simple as having one famous tennis star stand up for her. While that one act played an important role in her professional advancement, it was Althea herself who put in the work and applied her talents to place herself in the position of gaining the attention of her mentors, her sponsors and patrons, and eventually Alice Marble.

It was Althea who had to show up on the court and play excellent tennis. There is no record of how she was received at Forest Hills, but I cannot help but wonder how one would prepare for that moment. Especially after having seen the reception Jackie Robinson was given.

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Duchess Sophie-Elisabeth of Mecklenburg

Four hundred years ago, Duchess Sophie-Elisabeth of Mecklenburg was born into a life of immense wealth and privilege. But even as a noble woman her options for a fulfilling life were limited. With the support of her family she was able to build on her innate musical talents and produce many projects which have been remarkably well preserved as an example of early baroque compositions.

She was born on August 20th in 1613, into a wealthy family with a long history of supporting the arts. While it was not unusual for girls of her status to be given a basic education in language and culture, her experience was more than simply learning how to appreciate fine art and music. She was afforded the remarkable luxury of being able to study with many distinguished musicians, and eventually given the opportunity to become an important figure in the German baroque movement.

"At Güstrow, Sophie-Elisabeth's father maintained a thriving musical establishment, with a sizable contingent of English virtuoso performers in its orchestra. Sophie-Elisabeth and her sister Christine Margarete thus had rich opportunities to study the lute and gamba."

Her mother, a remarkable musical talent herself, died while Sophie-Elisabeth was still quite young. Her father soon remarried, and his second wife, Elisabeth, was an extraordinarily gifted musician and singer as well. In addition, she was fluent in several languages, as well as educated in theology.

"Following her personal convictions, Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel involved herself directly for nine years in the education, including religious and musical tutoring, of the young Sophie-Elisabeth and her sister. Elisabeth's upbringing amid the intense musical activities and her father's court prepared her to be duchess at Güstrow, expanding its instrumental forces and actively encouraging festive court representations. Thus as a teacher and active musical administrator, she acted as an influential role model for her young charges at Güstrow. With adulthood, Sophie-Elisabeth would follow Elisabeth's example as an important musical impresario."

Tragically, when Sophie-Elisabeth was 13, Elisabeth, only 29 herself, died, leaving her father widowed and his children motherless for a second time. Proving the importance placed on music and arts training in the Güstrow estate, his third wife, Eleonore Marie, was also a well-educated woman, with a strong background in religion, languages, and especially music. She took over the continued education of Sophie-Elisabeth and Christine Margarete.

Only two years later in 1628, the whole family was forced to flee their home and homeland of Mecklenburg as exiles as the political and religious turmoil of the Thirty Years' War spread to the region. Sophie-Elisabeth and her sister spent the years at the Kassel court with the father of their former step-mother Elisabeth. While this experience must have been stressful for two young women in their formative teenage years, it was also likely a highly influential experience on Sophie-Elisabeth's musical experience, as the Kassel court had a "long and distinguished musical history." Her step-grandfather himself was an educated musician as well as a patron of the arts, and regularly hosted musical events as well as fostered a general atmosphere of refined culture.

After the family estate was liberated, Sophie-Elisabeth and her family returned to Mecklenburg, and slowly resumed their lives of luxury and study. In 1635, at the age of 22, Sophie-Elisabeth married Duke August the Younger of BraunschweigLüneburg, himself a highly educated man and patron of the arts.

The Thirty Years' War continued to rage in her homeland, Sophie-Elisabeth and her husband Duke August and his children were somewhat protected, and continued to participate in an active cultural life.

"Sophie-Elisabeth's humanist background fit in perfectly with the Wolfenbüttel court, a sophisticated center of German intellectuals and literati. She participated in several of Wolfenbüttel's exclusive literary-arts societies that she had joined early in her marriage: the Académie des Loyales, the Tugendliche Gesellschaft, and the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, in which she was given the pseudonyms die Fortbringende, die Gutfillige, and die Befreiende, respectively. Dedicated to the cultivation of works in the German language, Wolfenbüttel's Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, however, offered full membership only to men. But with her status as Duke August's wife, Sophie-Elisabeth was thus admitted as an honorary member, one of the earliest women accepted into this society. Her participation in these organizations contributed significantly toward maintaining the Wolfenbüttel court as a major center of contemporary German and French literature."

Her marriage to the Duke gave her a rich cultural experience, and contributed to the expanding of the arts throughout Europe, despite the continued ravages of the war. While acting as a mother to the Duke's four children, as well as raising her own two children, she also managed much of the cultural events at court. By 1645 her husband was so busy with political duties he officially made her the administrator of the musical events of his court. She was tasked with the management of the musicians and structuring of the musical establishment. This duty sometimes even meant reprimanding her husband for failure to pay his court musicians.

It was during this time that she collaborated with Heinrich Schütz, an established composer affiliated with the nearby Dresden court. He acted as her mentor in the reorganization of the musical events at her husband's court, as well as helping her with her own musical compositions. With his assistance she was able to restructure the musical life at court after the chaos of the war.

"Sophie-Elisabeth -- because she was a woman -- never had been able to undertake the rigorous formal course of study, particularly in counterpoint, traditionally required of 'professional' male students for composing unaccompanied choral works." Schütz offered her suggestions for improvement and encouragement in her talents. In 1661, he wrote to her husband, praising her "as the incomparably perfect princess in all other princely virtues, especially in the praiseworthy profession of music."

"The earliest surviving collections of Sophie-Elisabeth's musical works and arrangements appear in three sizable manuscript collections now in Wolfenbüttel's Herzon-August-Bibliothek, the distinguished library founded by her husband."

Each of the three manuscript collection contains works of a similar type and period in her development, and document her improvement over time. Additionally, there are two songbook collections of works Sophie-Elisabeth created with her husband.

In her role as administrator of the musical events at court, she was involved in creating and producing twenty-five Festspiele -- "song-ballets, each one consisting of a series of dances with much vocal music embellishing the drama itself."  Not only did she organize these events, she also composed or arranged much of the music for them.

"Although twice left motherless in her childhood and subjected to the horrors and indignities of a terrible was, Sophie-Elisabeth transcended the typically circumscribed orbit of a female royal spouse in her day with its rather fixed cultural and gender roles. To the contrary, this musically gifted, persevering, compassionate, and politically astute duchess contributed significantly to the cultural history of the German early baroque period."

"Among the relatively few seventeenth-century German noblewomen composers of her day, Sophie-Elisabeth was also the first German woman composer to attain performances and publication of her works while she was living. That was no small feat."

While she may not have been up to the standards of many of her contemporary male composers, it is clear that she was quite talented and that this talent had been supported by her father and her husband, which in itself is quite remarkable. Her strength as a woman who had to overcome the hardships of life and war is evident in her quite capable handling of court affairs as duchess. That so many of her works have been preserved shows that she was a valued member of the court. She clearly deserves to be remembered as a talented and capable musician in her own right.

text source: Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present by Cecelia Hopkins Porter)

photo source: RoyaltyGuide.nl

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She's Crafty!

Erin M. Riley's pop culture tapestries are intricate and moving. She deftly captures intimate snapshots of time in a woman's life. Many of them are NSFW, and some are quite disturbing, but they are all beautiful.

This gorgeous embroidery is just too amazing for words. Which is good, because my high school French is très rusty.

I'm spending far too much time thinking of awesome badges to make for all my friends. Because, seriously, this is cool!

I'm just amazed by this magnificent Mario Maps cross stitch piece. While I appreciate all forms of fiber arts, I have a special love for cross stitch. It appeals to my need for organization and precision. In my time, I've completed several large-format cross stitch projects. I know the amount of work that goes into them.

I mean, the details are just wonderful! I know pixel art lends itself quite easily to cross stitch, but this is so much better.

You know, perler beads kinda get a bad rap. I get the impression that some people think they're kitschy and mainly for little kids. But once in a while I see something that stops me in my tracks. And it's this ridiculously detailed Legend of Zelda Triforce Montage by NestalgicBits. In fact, his whole store is filled with amazing game-related items that bring a whole new level of amazing to crafting with perler beads.

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