Examples Of Individualism In The Renaissance: Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola is a very good example of individualism in the Renaissance. She painted several self-portraits, such as the one above, as well as portraits of other people. Strayer defines the individualism movement as “a new emphasis on man as a private person, mainly concerned with himself” (Strayer). It can obviously be seen that Anguissola cared for herself very much as it took a very long time to make a single portrait and to do one of herself must have been very complex. The people that she painted portraits of are also examples of individualism. They had to commission an artist and pose for hours to just have a picture of themself. This behavior of appreciating yourself and your own talents was very different from the Middle Ages,

when more often than not, an artist would not even sign their own work. During the Renaissance, people began to acknowledge the work of others, while making their own opinions and discovering who they were as people. Sometimes this went to extremes, where people became very arrogant and self-concerned. Sofonisba Anguissola was not the only artist painting self-portraits, but she is most well-known for the portraits she created, and did not really make a lot of paintings that were not portraits (Encyclopedia Britannica: Sofonisba Anguissola). This self-portrait is the epitome of individualism in the Renaissance.