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Self-Portrait at the Virginal with a Servant
Lavinia Fontana · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614)
- Date
- 1577
- Dimensions
- 27 x 23.8 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, Italy
In this small self-portrait, the young Bolognese painter Lavinia Fontana shows herself seated at a keyboard instrument, an elegant spinet or virginal, in a fine red dress with a lace collar, looking out at the viewer.
A closer look
Behind her a maid holds a music book, and in the background stands an empty easel by a window. Every element presents the artist as a cultivated, accomplished woman, skilled in music as in painting, worthy of marriage into a good family. In fact, the portrait was probably painted for the family of her future husband, the painter Gian Paolo Zappi, who later gave up his own career to assist her. The precise detail of the lace and jewellery recalls Northern European portraits.