For the catalogue entry on this work, including provenance and

Lavinia Fontana
(Bologna 1552 – 1614 Rome)
Portrait of a Lady of the Gonzaga or Sanvitale Family
Oil on canvas
45 ¼ x 34 ¼ inches (115 x 87 cm)
Provenance: Probably Sanvitale Collection; by descent to Count Giovanni Sanvitale
di Fontanellatto, until ca. 1940
Private Collection, France
Literature:
Probably no. 64, in an undated Eighteenth Century Sanvitale
Inventory, Archivio di Stato di Parma, Fondo Sanvitale, Busta 809-810,
Nota di Quadri e Pitture: “n. 63. Ritratto di Donna con sghiratto in tela
maniera di Girolamo Mazzola molto ritocco. N. 64 Come sopra suo
compagno, meno ritocco.”
Probably no. 1395, in an undated inventory for Count Stefano
Sanvitale, thus compiled between 1764 and 1838. Busta n. 811a,
Inventario Generale delle Mobiglie di ragione del Patrimonio di S.a E.a il
Sign.r Co. Stefano Sanvitale; pp. 137-138: “N. 1394 … quadro senza
cornice rappresentante un Ritratto di donna con scojatolo, di
Girolamo Mazzola intatto, in tela per alto. Alto p.mi 57. Largo p.mi 48;
N. 1395 Altro quadro senza cornice rappresentante come sopra un
ritratto di donna di maniera di Girolamo Mazzola in tela per alto. Alto
p.mi 57. Largo p.mi 48.”
Probably Mostra iconografica gonzaghesca, exh. cat., Mantua, Palazzo
Ducale, May 16-Sept 19, 1937, p. 70 s.v. no. 312
Lavinia Fontana has the distinction of being considered the first woman
artist working within the same sphere as her male counterparts outside of a court or
convent. She achieved her independent success and celebrity in one of the most
intense of artistic environments, Bologna of the late Cinquecento. The daughter of
the artist Prospero Fontana, Lavinia is best known as a portrait painter of elegance
and sympathy, and her fame in her own lifetime extended throughout Italy and
beyond. In an arrangement unusual, if not unique for the age, Lavinia married a
fellow painter from a noble family, who then acted as his wife’s assistant and
managed their large household (the couple had 11 children, only three of whom
outlived their mother). From the 1580s until the turn of the seventeenth century
Lavinia was the portraitist of choice among Bolognese nobility. She then moved to
Rome, where she became a painter at the papal court and the recipient of numerous
honors. Her art and career have recently been the subject of renewed scholarly
attention and collector interest.
The present painting is a stunning addition to the known corpus of Lavinia
Fontana’s works. It has been recently studied by Maria Teresa Cantaro, author of
the standard monograph on the artist, whose essay is here appended. Cantaro dates
the painting to ca. 1585, contemporary with some of the artist’s most distinguished
celebrated works: the Portrait of the Gozzadini Family (1585, Bologna, Pinacoteca
Nazionale), the Portrait of a Man of the Tozzoni Family (1584, Imola, Palazzo
Tozzoni), the Portrait of Fra Francesco Panigarola (1585, Florence, Galleria
Palatina), and the Venus and Cupid (1585, Venice, Private Collection).
Our painting is closely related to another portrait by Lavinia, of nearly
identical size and format. The sitter in that work, now in a private American
collection, is so close to that of the present portrait that Cantaro considers it likely
that the same woman is depicted, but at different times – ours, she suggests, at the
time of her engagement, and the other after her marriage. Certainly they share
many similarities --in their physiognomy, hairstyle, dress, jewelry, and pose. But the
differences are notable as well, although the significance of the changes may be
difficult to appreciate. While a closed book appears on the table next to the sitter in
our portrait, a letter rests on the table next to the lady in green. A fragmentary
inscription formerly on that letter gave the name of “Laura Gonzaga, contessa di
Sabbionetta,” however her identification as the sitter of the portrait has been
rejected by Cantaro, both because the inscription was later addition (and
disappeared during the recent cleaning) and as the historic Laura Gonzaga, born in
1547 or 1548, had become a nun and entered a Benedictine convent in 1566.
Cantaro associates both portraits with a pair of identically-sized portraits
recorded in eighteenth-century Sanvitale inventories, as in the “manner of Girolamo
Mazzola.” These would have descended from either the Sanvitale family or from the
Sabionetta or di Bozzolo branches of the Gonzaga. They evidently remained with
the Sanvitale family until the dispersal of the family collections in the 1940s. The
Lady in Green was photographed when in the collection of Count Giovanni Sanvitale
at the at the Rocca di Fontanellato in 1931; our portrait appears to have been
recorded there at the same time. Cantaro discusses the Sanvitale provenance in her
essay, in which she makes the tentative proposal to identify the sitter of our portrait
as Isabella Gonzaga, daughter of Vespasiano, Lord of Sabbioneta, who married Don
Luigi Caraffa in 1584.
The portrait is framed in an elaborate period frame, which may be original.
Lavinia Fontana’s authorship has been confirmed as well upon first-hand inspection
by Dr. Babette Bohn (January 2014), who also dates the portrait to the mid 1580s.
Lavinia Fontana (the subject painting)
Lavinia Fontana, the so-called “Laura Gonzaga”

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