Marietta Robusti (1560? - 1590) was a female
VenetianVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
painter of the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
period. She is one of very few known female artists of this period, a group that included
Sofonisba AnguissolaSofonisba Anguissola was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.- The Anguissola Family :...
,
Lucia AnguissolaLucia Anguissola was an Italian mannerist painter.Very little is known about Lucia’s life. No birth records remain, although her death has been traditionally dated to 1565. Few of Lucia’s paintings are known and only two extant are signed.Born in Cremona, Italy...
,
Lavinia FontanaLavinia Fontana was an Italian painter.-Biography:Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, the daughter of the painter Prospero Fontana, who was a prominent painter of the School of Bologna at the time and served as her teacher...
, and
Diana Scultori GhisiDiana Scultori Ghisi, , was an Italian artist, also known under the name Diana Mantovana.The Renaissance is the first time period where women artists gained international reputations. Perhaps this growth of art among women was due to cultural shifts, such as a move towards humanism, there were many...
.
Biography
The only known primary source for details of Marietta Robusti’s life is
Carlo Ridolfi’sCarlo Ridolfi was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period.-Painter:He was born in Lonigo near Vicenza, and died in Venice. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi . He painted a Visitation for the Ognissanti and a Adoration of the Magi for San Giovanni Elemosinario in...
Life of Tintoretto, first published in 1642, although she is mentioned briefly in Raffaelo Borghini’s
Il Riposo della Pitura e della Scultura of 1584. These two sources disagree on the year of her birth: according to Borghini, she was born in 1555, but
Carlo RidolfiCarlo Ridolfi was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period.-Painter:He was born in Lonigo near Vicenza, and died in Venice. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi . He painted a Visitation for the Ognissanti and a Adoration of the Magi for San Giovanni Elemosinario in...
indicates that she was born in 1560.
Marietta was born and died in
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
, the eldest daughter of the painter Jacopo Robusti, from whom she inherited her nickname, la Tintoretta (translated as little dyer girl, after Jocopo’s father’s occupation as a tintore, or dyer). She is thus variously known as Marietta Robusti, Marietta Tintoretto, and la Tintoretta.
Since conventions of the time dictated that women remained in the privacy of the domestic sphere and were not welcome in the public world of art production and sale, Marietta and her female contemporaries gained access to the art world through their artist fathers or brothers. Marietta's artistic training consisted of serving an apprenticeship in the collaborative environment of her father’s workshop, where she probably contributed to her father’s paintings with backgrounds and figure blocking, as was the usual distribution of labor in painting workshops of the time.
Evidence suggests that Marietta received no commissions for major religious works such as altarpieces or other church decorations, and that she was mainly a portraitist.
RidolfiCarlo Ridolfi was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period.-Painter:He was born in Lonigo near Vicenza, and died in Venice. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi . He painted a Visitation for the Ognissanti and a Adoration of the Magi for San Giovanni Elemosinario in...
describes Marietta’s close relationship with her father at great length. Not only did she learn at his knee, as a child she also liked to dress like a boy so that she could go everywhere with Jacopo.
Emperor MaximilianEmperor Maximilian may refer to:* Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor * Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor * Maximillian I of Mexico, Austrian-born royal, Emperor of Mexico...
and
King Philip II of SpainPhilip II was King of Spain and Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, during his wife Mary Tudor's reign, King of England and Ireland...
both expressed interest in hosting her as a court painter, but her father refused their invitations on her behalf because he couldn’t bear to part with her. In 1578 he arranged for her to marry a Venetian jeweler, Mario Augusta, to ensure she would always stay near him. Jacopo also had Marietta instructed in singing and playing the harpsichord, clavicord, and lute.
She died of unrecorded causes in 1590, and was buried in Santa Maria dell’Orto in Venice.
Attributions and Assessment
The only painting that can be conclusively attributed to Marietta Robusti is her
Self Portrait (c. 1580; Uffizi Gallery, Florence). This portrait depicts Marietta posed before a harpsichord, holding a musical text that has been identified as a madrigal by
Philippe VerdelotPhilippe Verdelot was a French composer of the Renaissance, who spent most of his life in Italy. He is commonly considered to be the father of the Italian madrigal, and certainly was one of its earliest and most prolific composers; in addition he was prominent in the musical life of Florence...
, "Madonna per voi ardo". It has been postulated that the inclusion of this text, whose opening lines are "My Lady, I burn with love for you and you do not believe it", suggests that the painting was created for a male viewer, possibly Marietta's husband.
Other attributions include:
Old Man and a Boy (c. 1585;
Kunsthistorisches MuseumThe Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, crowned with an octagonal dome, is one of the premier museums of fine arts and decorative arts in the world...
, Vienna);
Portrait of Ottavio Strada (c. 1567-68;
Stedelijk MuseumThe Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for modern art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is located at Museum Square, close to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum....
, Amsterdam); and two small paintings of the
Virgin and Child (dates unknown,
Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. It has a permanent collection of more than 43,000 works of art. General admission to the permanent galleries is free to the public, with admission fees charged for certain special exhibitions...
, Ohio).
Portrait of Two Men (
Gemäldegalerie Alte MeisterThe Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden features numerous major works of art history. Therefore it belongs to the world’s mostrenowned art collections....
, Dresden), signed "MR", is thought to be Marietta Robusti's only surviving signed work.
See also
Internal Links
- Sofonisba Anguissola
Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.- The Anguissola Family :...
- Lucia Anguissola
Lucia Anguissola was an Italian mannerist painter.Very little is known about Lucia’s life. No birth records remain, although her death has been traditionally dated to 1565. Few of Lucia’s paintings are known and only two extant are signed.Born in Cremona, Italy...
- Lavinia Fontana
Lavinia Fontana was an Italian painter.-Biography:Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, the daughter of the painter Prospero Fontana, who was a prominent painter of the School of Bologna at the time and served as her teacher...
- Diana Scultori Ghisi
Diana Scultori Ghisi, , was an Italian artist, also known under the name Diana Mantovana.The Renaissance is the first time period where women artists gained international reputations. Perhaps this growth of art among women was due to cultural shifts, such as a move towards humanism, there were many...
- High Renaissance
The High Renaissance, in the history of art, denotes the culmination of the art of the Italian Renaissance between 1450 and 1527. Because Pope Julius II patronized many artists during this time, the movement was centered in Rome; it had previously been centered in Florence.The High Renaissance is...
External Links