From 2 March 2021 Palazzo Reale in Milan is hosting the first major exhibition devoted to ‘The Ladies of Art’, extraordinarily talented women artists active between the 16th and 17th century, who can finally be seen in all their splendour.

Over 130 works by 34 artists, including Artemisia Gentileschi, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Giovanna Garzoni and many others, which tell the incredible stories of talented, “modern” women.

From 2 March to 25 July 2021, the rooms of Palazzo Reale in Milan are hosting a unique exhibition devoted to the iconic women artists who lived between the 16th and 17th century: Artemisia Gentileschi, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Fede Galizia, Giovanna Garzoni are just a few of them.

Promoted by Milan City Council–Culture and produced by Palazzo Reale and Arthemisia, with the support of Fondazione Bracco, the exhibition is part of the programme I talenti delle donne (Women’s Talents) organized by the Department of Culture of the Milan City Council. The programme is dedicated
to the feminine universe, focusing throughout 2020 and until April 2021 on their works, their priorities and their skills.

The show ‘Le Signore dell’Arte. Storie di donne tra ’500 e ’600’ (The Ladies of Art. Stories of women between the 16th and 17th century), rediscovers the art and the extraordinary lives of 34 different women artists through over 130 works. Testimonies of intense, lively all-female creativity, in a unique exhibition that tells the inspiring stories of women who were already “modern”.

They include celebrated artists, others less familiar to the general public, and new discoveries, like the Roman noblewoman Claudia del Bufalo, who is making her debut in this story of female art. There are works on show for the first time, such as the Madonna dell’Itria Altarpiece by Sofonisba Anguissola,
executed in Paternò, Sicily, in 1578, which has never left the island before; the Immaculate Madonna and St Francesco Borgia altarpiece of 1663 by Rosalia Novelli, the only work attributed with certainty to the artist, which is leaving the church of Gesù di Casa Professa in Palermo for the first time, and the
Mystic Marriage of St Catherine of 1576, by Lucrezia Quistelli, from the parish church of Silvano Pietra in the province of Pavia.

The works selected for the exhibition, under the curatorship of Anna Maria Bava, Gioia Mori and Alain Tapié, come from no less than 67 different lenders, including many Italian museums, namely the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Museo di Capodimonte, Pinacoteca di Brera, Castello Sforzesco, Galleria Nazionale
dell’Umbria, Galleria Borghese, Musei Reali in Turin, the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, and international institutions such as the Musée des Beaux Arts in Marseille and Muzeum Narodowe in Poznan, Poland. 

Daughters, wives, sisters of male painters, and sometimes even nuns: the exhibition The Ladies of Art not only focuses on the extraordinary compositional talents of these women painters. It also recounts their individual stories by examining the role they were assigned in society at the time; the success some
of them achieved at the grand international courts; their ability to interact, to emerge individually and establish themselves, even becoming businesswomen, and to question their ideals and their various lifestyles.

The most famous of the heroines showcased at Palazzo Reale is Artemisia Gentileschi: daughter of the painter Orazio, icon of female awareness and rebellion, artist and businesswoman. Artemisia’s art rivalled that of her male counterparts and success enabled the artist to rise above her female social status. Indeed, she exemplified the struggle against the authority and artistic power of her father, against the restrictions imposed on women.

Originally from Cremona, Sofonisba Anguissola resided at the court of Philip II in Madrid, then moved to Sicily –where Van Dyck came to visit her in 1624 – after marrying the nobleman Fabrizio Moncada, and later to Genoa where she was married a second time, to Orazio Lomellini. On display are her
paintings The Chess Game of 1555 (lent by the Muzeum Narodowe in Poznan, Poland) and the abovementioned Madonna dell’Itria Altarpiece (1578), which has undergone major restoration, carried out with the collaboration of the Museo Civico Ala Ponzone in Cremona.

Lavinia Fontana was from Bologna and the daughter of the Mannerist painter Prospero Fontana. At the age of 25 she married the artist Giovan Paolo Zappi from Imola, on condition that she could continue to paint, actually making her husband her assistant. She has no less than 14 works on display in the show,
including Self-portrait in the Studio (1579) from the Uffizi, the Consecration to the Virgin (1599) from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, and various paintings of mythological subjects which possess a rare sensuality.

Elisabetta Sirani was another Bolognese painter. The exhibition features her powerful canvases depicting female courage and rebellion against male violence, namely Portia Wounding Her Thigh (1664) and Thymoclea Kills the Captain of Alexander the Great (1659) from the Museo di Capodimonte
in Naples. Ginevra Cantofoli is present with Young Woman in Oriental Dress (2nd half of 17th century); Fede Galizia, with the iconic Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1596); and Giovanna Garzoni, another extremely modern woman who lived between Venice, Naples, Paris and Rome, with her rare
and precious works on parchment.

Main Sponsor of the exhibition, Fondazione Bracco has always kept abreast of new developments in the world of art and science, showing a special interest in the feminine universe. The Fondazione has enthusiastically committed to this project, which is part of the programme I Talenti delle donne devised
by the Milan City Council, of which Fondazione Bracco is the Main Partner. In addition the Fondazione has created, in collaboration with various Milanese universities, a scientific project for the exhibition to shed new light on an important work on display through the use of diagnostic imaging, in which Bracco is
a world leader. The work in question is the Portrait of Carlo Emanuele I Duke of Savoy, a tempera on parchment executed by the 17th-century miniaturist painter Giovanna Garzoni from Ascoli Piceno and held by the Musei Reali in Turin. Science and research thus become important tools not only for
ensuring individual well-being, but also for studying works of art. In fact, the aim of the Fondazione, founded on the legacy of values developed over the 90 years of the Gruppo Bracco’s history, is to create and spread expressions of culture, art and science as the means of improving the quality of life and
social cohesion.

Special partner Ricola.
Event recommended by Sky Arte.
Catalogue published by Skira.