Lavinia Fontana was one of the most compelling portraitists of her time. As a painter, she was known for her exquisite descriptions of costumes and jewelry and her expressive portrayals of women and children. The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco has announced the acquisition of Portrait of Bianca delgi Utili Maselli and her Children, a rare and significant portrait by Fontana. On public view for the first time in over 400 years, it is also the first work of art created by a woman before 1700 to join the collection housed at the Legion of Honor.
The Florentine Mannerist tradition
Mannerism comes from the Italian maniera, meaning “style.” Portrait of Bianca delgi Utili Maselli and her Children has the earmarks of the High Renaissance era including the stylized elegance of patterned fabric and an emphasis on slightly exaggerated bodies and facial features. Fontana was born in Bologna and trained by her father who was a former studio assistant to the Florentine Mannerist Giorgio Vasari. Fontana’s rise as a painter coincided with a time in Bologna when women had greater opportunities to participate in public life. Such women became Fontana’s core clientele, and the artist’s attention to detail in her rendering of glittering jewelry and sumptuous textiles earned her stylish patronage. As a mother to 11 children, of whom only three would survive her, Fontana painted juvenile subjects with a particular tenderness and sensitivity.
A story of family and grief
“Portrait of Bianca delgi Utili Maselli and her Children is an unusually spectacular work — winsome in subject, grand in scale, richly painted, and beautifully preserved,” said Emily Beeny, chief curator in charge of European paintings. “It opens a window onto the life of a Roman noblewoman and her family, marked by both privilege and grief.”
Bianca delgi Utili Maselli (1568–1605) bore 19 children before dying from complications of childbirth at the age of 37. Depicted with five sons and a daughter, Maselli’s index finger is grasped by her infant daughter, Verginia, her other hand holding a tiny dog, symbolizing Maselli’s loyalty, while Verginia’s other hand holds the foot of the dog. The children echo the large expressive eyes and red hair of the mother while the positing of their heads, hands, and eyes communicate the restless fidgeting of children, especially the trio on the right of the composition. Gold and crimson textiles shimmer next to pearls and diamonds depicted in exquisite detail, and each sitter holds an emblematic accessory: the aforementioned dog, a quill pen and ink well, a songbird on a leash, a silver cup of figs, a gold medallion, all perhaps symbolic of their personalities or their future professions.
“Portrait of Bianca delgi Utili Maselli and her Children is an unusually spectacular work — winsome in subject, grand in scale, richly painted, and beautifully preserved.”
— Emily Beeny, chief curator in charge of European paintings
The inscription along the top right edge identifies the family yet the only sitter identified by her own inscription is Maselli’s young daughter Verginia. Verginia Maselli survived into adulthood and in 1620 married Fausto Bartoli, to whom she bore three children. One was a daughter, Maria Felice, who married into the Marchetti family. The unusually fine condition of the painting is attributed to the unbroken line of inheritance as the work descended through the Marchettis for nearly four centuries.
Lavinia Fontana’s career
As one of the leading artists of her age, Fontana was the recipient of major public commissions for altarpieces in her native Bologna and as far away as Madrid. Born in 1552 and trained with her father, Prospero, a minor Mannerist, she had already embarked on a promising career in portraiture by 1577 when she married Gian Paolo Zappi, an occasional studio assistant to her father. Unusual for the time, her marriage stipulated that Fontana would continue to practice her profession unhindered by housekeeping duties. Even though she had many children, she would take on commissions of increasing importance while Zappi gave up his own career to serve as her agent and help manage her thriving studio.
The acquisition
The acquisition of Portrait of Bianca delgi Utili Maselli and her Children was made possible by generous support from Margaret and William R. Hearst III, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn, Dagmar Dolby, and the Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Endowment Income fund in celebration of the Legion of Honor centennial. The painting was acquired through Ben Elwes Fine Art, London.
Portrait of Bianca delgi Utili Maselli and her Children: on view in the Renaissance galleries at the Legion of Honor.
