Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Printmaker of the 16th century

Diana Scultori (Italian, about 1547-1612)
Latona giving birth to Apollo and Diana on the Island of Delos, n.d.
after Giulio Romano, Italian, 1499-1546
engraving

Image and owner: New York Public Library

I discovered this print and the artist through the catalog for the exhibition, Women in Print: Female Printmakers 1500-1800 (Ball State University Museum of Art). I am simply taken with the discovery of an exhibition and study into unknown and lesser known women artists. The date in and of itself is fantastic (why I chose this work over others in the show) How many women artists can you name from the 16th century? (Me, now 1) Starr Siegele, in an essay for the exhibition brings up that despite increasing scholarship into women's studies among art historians, that study of earlier women artists is still elusive. Diana Scultori, trained by a printmaking family, received a mention and tribute by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, yet this was not common for women artists before the 19th century.

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