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Updated: May 1, 2025
Later she was a pupil of Bernardino Gatti, "il Sojaro," and in turn she superintended the artistic studies of her sisters. Sofonisba excelled in portraits, and when twenty-four years old was known all over Italy as a good artist.
That Sofonisba fully appreciated her gentle mistress is shown in her letter to Pope Pius IV., who had requested her to send him a portrait of the queen. She wrote that no picture could worthily figure the royal lady, and added: "If it were possible to represent to your Holiness the beauty of the Queen's soul, you could behold nothing more wonderful."
And let this testimony suffice to prove how great is the talent of Sofonisba.
To that letter his Holiness answered with that given below, which, having thought the portrait marvellously beautiful, he accompanied with gifts worthy of the great talents of Sofonisba: "PIUS PAPA IV DILECTA IN CHRISTO FILIA.
"La Cuochettina," as she was called from her father's profession, made her first appearance in Galuppi's "Sofonisba" in Lucca, after five years of severe training. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, full of liveliness and grace, with an expression full of coquettish charm and espieglerie. Her acting was excellent, and her singing already that of a brilliant and finished vocalist.
History does not tell us whether she ever revisited Cremona, but she dwelt in Genoa during the remainder of her long life, pursuing her art with great success. On her second marriage, her faithful friends in the royal family of Spain added four hundred crowns to her pension. The Empress of Germany visited Sofonisba on the way to Spain, and accepted from her hand a little picture.
La poesie est venue de vos rivages et doit y retourner. . . ." Hermann Buchholtz discovers scenic changes worthy of Shakespeare, and passages of Aeschylean grandeur, in his tragedy "Sofonisba." Carnet compares him with Dante, and the omniscient Mr. Gladstone wrote in 1880 a post card, presumably belauding his disinterested efforts on behalf of his country.
We have in several instances ventured to extend the limits as far as a part of the sixteenth century, and therefore include among female artists the name of Sofonisba Anguisciola, who was born about 1540. She was a noble lady of Cremona, whose fame spread early throughout Italy.
Speaking, then, of Signora Sofonisba, of whom we said but little in the Life of Properzia of Bologna, because at that time we knew no more, I must relate that I saw this year in the house of her father at Cremona, in a picture executed with great diligence by her hand, portraits of her three sisters in the act of playing chess, and with them an old woman of the household, all done with such care and such spirit, that they have all the appearance of life, and are wanting in nothing save speech.
Sofonisba held the post of lady-in-waiting to the queen, and was for some time governess to her daughter, the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, an appointment which proves that she must have resided in Spain for some time after 1566, the year of that princess' birth.
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