Sofonisba Anguissola's Impact On Renaissance Society

Sofonisba Anguissola changed or made an impact in Renaissance society by portraying women differently to her male contemporaries and by being one of the first successful independent female artists in the renaissance. She helped the renaissance society by demonstrating the significance of women through her many works of elaborate art. Sofonisba Anguissola was born in 1532 in Cremona, Italy as the eldest of seven artistic children. She was the daughter of minor noblemen Amilcare Anguissola and during the time of her birth, women were only trained in needlework, religion, courtesy and refined living, but Sofonisba was taught painting and how to play piano as well. She was the first female painter famously known and was hired by King Philip II of Spain for fourteen years, which allowed her to get adequate resources needed for her paintings. (Wikipedia, 2015) Throughout these years, Sofonisba got married to Sicilian nobleman, Fabrizio di Monarda. In

Women were not allowed to draw naked people, so instead she painted women in informal environments as seen in “The Chess Game”. Her paintings helped break gender and class barriers and led the way for women to be accepted in society as artists. Historian Whitney Chadwick wrote that she was “placed her within a critical category of her own”. (New World Encyclopaedia, 2012) During the middle ages, the only artists were nuns, and Sofonisba’s newfound success influenced the art of today. Many famous male renaissance artists copied her artwork style, which can be seen in the works of Peter Paul Rubens. Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian credited her work: “…she has not only succeeded in drawing, colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very choice and beautiful works of painting.” (Oxford,