"Minerva Dressing," Lavinia Fontana, 1613.
Fontana (1552-1614) was an Italian Mannerist painter, and believed to be the first woman to be a career artist in Western Europe. She supported her family with her commissions, and her husband acted as her agent, along with raising their eleven children.
Fontana is also believed to be the first Western woman to paint female nudes (although, as always, some historians disagree). Here we have one of them, painted toward the end of her life. While it's definitely a nude woman, and there's a coy glance at us, it doesn't show us a whole lot except her posterior, and the pose is very natural. It's someone who just emerged from the bath and is fetching her robe. She's not spread out for someone's delectation, but just going about her life.
Perhaps that coy glance is a way of saying, "What, you thought you were gonna see more of me? Forget it!"
The naturalness of the pose, and the lack of a leering quality, give this the stamp of a painting by a woman, as it's usually women who paint women so naturally. (There are some exceptions....)
From the Galleria Borghese, Rome.
#Art #LaviniaFontana #Mannerism #WomenArtists #WomenInArt #Minerva #Nude
