Exhibition in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett: When female artists came onto the scene

She lets the gold brocade shine like the real thing, the cuddly fur shimmers. But it is not the materials that inspire curator Dagmar Korbacher in the portrait of the painter Sofonisba Anguissola. The facial expression fascinates you. Calmly approached and attentive, the artist grasped her mother as if in conversation.

The humanistically educated Anguissola was one of the outstanding portrait painters of her time. She impressed Michelangelo in Rome and at the age of 96 gave practical tips to her Flemish colleague Anton van Dyck. She signed her picture with the addition “virgo”, “virgin”. That increased the value.

His father’s workshop served as a stepping stone

It is the only painting in the exhibition, which otherwise makes up a brilliant tour of the Italian art world of the Renaissance and Baroque solely from the holdings of the Print Room and Art Library. By no means only as a passive source of inspiration, i.e. muse, did the women assert their influence. Rather, how they acted with the most varied of strategies in a male-dominated environment is rolled out using drawings, prints and book art.

The exhibition presents around 20 artists with short biographies and works. There is Diana Mantovana, a shrewd engraver with an enormously wide range of subjects, who was the first to sign with her name. The spectrum ranges from purely female scenes, such as the Birth of Venus with many figures, to magnificent male images, such as a brooding Jerome or a stark naked Hercules based on ancient models.

It would have been even harder without patrons

However, artists were not allowed to draw living models for study purposes, it was too improper. Many women therefore switched to portraits. In fact, nude models were usually male. The consequences are made clear by an amazing study sheet by Federico Barocci: he sketched the pose of a Madonna figure using a male nude model.

The famous Artemisia Gentileschi complained about how expensive female models were. Not only her powerful female figures, but also her biography with sexualised experiences of violence have made her known. She was raped by her teacher, which her father took to court. Not a single drawing can be attributed to her with certainty. But Korbacher puts two sheets up for discussion: after all, the exhibition is also intended to stimulate new research.

As in every old master collection, the Kupferstichkabinett has a large stock of anonymous sheets. They are often, almost habitually, attributed to male artists. Rethinking and readjusting the scientific view is a gradual process. At least he’s getting started.

Korbacher himself was surprised at how much that is current is slumbering in the well-known inventory when new questions are asked: from the gender pay gap to fluid gender roles. Now a magical, enigmatic portrait of the young Caterina Piccolomini hangs in the entrance. She wears men’s clothes. Nothing is known about the background.

Nobody would know anything about Laura Piranesi, the daughter of the well-known graphic master, if she hadn’t signed her neatly. Of course, she worked in the family business like the brothers, skilfully delivered the style that was in demand, and also issued invoices. For many women, their father’s workshop was a stepping stone to their own career. Others used monastery walls as free space for successful work.

The Venetian nun Isabella Piccini, who specializes in book illustrations, had the printing plates sent to the convent. It brought Elisabetta Sirani to stardom as a painter. She confidently sketched an infant with just a few strokes, as lively and chubby as a putto or baby Jesus can be.

She is also convincing as an etcher, but the work of her students is weak. When Sirani died at the age of 27, public attention was high. On the other hand, only one work by the etcher Teresa Maria Coriolano has survived: the finely dashed Madonna is on display.

Elisabetta Parasole secured lasting success in a market niche. She grew up in an orphanage – and was the first woman to publish her own designs as woodcuts and sell them in book form: her embroidery and bobbin lace designs went through several editions. Some look like abstract patterns.

Women were also part of the art world as patrons. Without the energetic impulses of Isabella d’Este, Mantegna would not have created some of his most famous works. The influential Maria de Medici was artistically trained herself, as her early self-portrait shows. Later, as Queen of France, she supported an initiative by artist Virginia Vezzi to set up a drawing school for girls.

Christina of Sweden, on the other hand, resigned in order to move in Rome as a patron in artistic circles. The Eternal City was an important focal point, where women also benefited from the good order situation. They were admitted to the academies in Italy at an early age. Teresa del Pò, for example, self-confidently signed with her status as an academic, which was undoubtedly sales-promoting.

Rosalba Carriera, the master of pastels, has made it to the cover girl of the catalogue. Her self-portrait in red chalk is an exceptional work. Where she otherwise shines as a portraitist admired throughout Europe with representative enamel, here she shows herself completely without make-up and without coiffed with stubborn ruffled curls.

Her gaze is energetic, highly concentrated: an artist who has achieved the greatest fame is questioning herself in the mirror. If you want to see more of her: there is a solo exhibition in Dresden this year to mark her 350th birthday.

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