Lavinia fontana biography of christopher

There weren’t many women who became successful artists in Renaissance Europe. However, there were probably more than most people think, and we try here at DailyArt Magazine to highlight them as often as we can.

Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was definitely one of those successful women artists in European history.

In fact, she seems to have been the first female to have a successful career in the art world without being connected to a court or convent (earlier successful women, such as Plautilla Nelli, often flourished as part of a convent).

This made Fontana quite the groundbreaker.

Lavinia Fontana learned painting from her father, Prospero Fontana, who was a highly-respected artist in Bologna. For a long time, an artist father was basically a prerequisite for female artists, since artistic training was otherwise unavailable for women.

Better-known female artists, such as Artemisia Gentil