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The Chess Game (Portrait of the Artist's Sisters Playing Chess)
Sofonisba Anguissola · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532–1625)
- Date
- 1555
- Dimensions
- 72 x 97 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- National Museum in Poznań, Poznań, Poland
The Chess Game shows three of the painter's younger sisters, Lucia, Minerva and Europa, playing chess at a table covered with an oriental carpet, watched by an elderly maid, in a garden landscape.
A closer look
Lucia, on the left, has just made a winning move and looks out at us with quiet triumph; Minerva, across the board, raises her hand in surprise or protest; little Europa laughs at her defeat. The painting is remarkable for its lively, natural expressions and for showing educated young women engaged in an intellectual game, rather than posed formally. Sofonisba, only about twenty-three, combined a family portrait with a scene of everyday life, a new idea at the time.