HIST 321 Herstory, An Examination of Women, Gender and Sexuality in European History: Lavinia Fontana

Lavinia Fontana was from Bologna, Italy and acquired her artist techniques from her father. According to the Coursepacket, Lavinia's father needed his only child to support the family, so he trained her to be a painter (CP 150). Although she may have been taught the basic technique from her father, Lavinia became a master and her work spoke for itself.
Lavinia had many patrons who requested various works of art from her, many were portraits but one of her largest and most well-known pieces is the "Assumption of the Virgin" that was in Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti's chapel in Bologna cathedral of San Pietro (CP 151). Lavinia supported her large immediate family, 11 children total, and made such a name for herself that she and her family moved to Rome in 1604 where she became a portraitist for Pope Paul V (National Museum of Women in the Arts 1).
The year 1604 also marked another milestone in Lavinia's career. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, "this was the year that she painted her largest work, the "Martyrdom of St. Stephen, an altarpiece for San Paolo Fuori le Mura in Rome, a basilica that was destroyed in the fire of 1823 (1). According to various documents that contained records of the money that Lavinia received from her art work, scholars have found that upon her death, she had acquired a total sum of several thousand scudi (CP 152).
Lavinia is proof of the fact that women could and can "easily" stand alongside male artists and be successful.

This is a self-portrait of Lavinia: