Giovanna Garzoni
Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque era. She was unusual for Italian artists of thetime for two reasons: first, in that her themes were mainly decorative and luscious still-lifes of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and second, because she was a woman.
Garzoni was born in Ascoli Piceno. Her training was with an otherwise unknown painter from her native town of Ascoli Piceno. She gained substantial success at her trade in Rome, Venice, Florence (1642–1651), Naples, and Turin. She was patronized by Cassiano dal Pozzo and Anna Colonna, the wife of Taddeo Barberini. In Turin she painted for Carlo Emanuele II, Duke of Savoy. She returns to Rome in the 1650s. In 1666, Garzoni bequeathed her entire estate to the Roman painters' guild the Accademia di San Luca, on condition that they build her tomb in their church of Santi Luca e Martina. Her tomb monument by Mattia De Rossi is to the right of the entrance. Laura Bernasconi was also a woman painter of still-life flowers in Rome in the 1670s. In Rome, she would have been a contemporary of Caterina Ginnasi.
It is likely that in Naples she was exposed to the still-lifes of Giovan Battista Ruoppolo and his contemporaries. Others cite Jacopo Ligozzi or Fede Galizia as possible influences in her choice of still life topics.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, in a short biography below a painting attributed to her, claims she traveled to Northern Europe[1].
[edit] References
- Getty Museum biography
- Grove Art Dictionary
