Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, and Joan of Arc

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford (born 30 September 1404) 

Anne of Burgundy, kneeling
praying to St. Anne,
from the Bedford Hours
(British Library MS Add 18850,
fol. 257v)

Born in Arras on 30 September 1404, Anne of Burgundy was the daughter of John II, duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Bavaria--to be more specific, Anne was the sixth of seven daughters born to the couple. 

Although she died when she was still quite young--she was just twenty-eight at the time of her death--Anne of Burgundy was nevertheless one of several notable women in her family who played key roles during the Hundred Years' War. 

Anne's mother was regent of Burgundy twice, first on behalf of her husband and then on behalf of her son, Philip III, duke of Burgundy. 

Anne's elder sister, Margaret, was betrothed to Charles, the dauphin of France (son of Charles VI), in 1394, when she was three years old, but Charles died in 1401. Two years later, in 1403, she married, Louis, who had become dauphin after the death of his brother. (Louis died in 1415, leaving her, at age sixteen, a widow for the second time.)

Anne's sister-in-law was the politically adept infanta Isabel of Portugal, who married Anne's brother, Philip III (Isabel was his third wife) in 1430. (Isabel's son, Charles the Bold, was the father of Mary of Burgundy, the mother of Margaret of Austria; he married--as his third wife--Margaret of York.) 

And here's a connection to recent posts on this blog about the Breton War of Succession: Anne's younger sister, Isabelle, married Olivier, count of Penthièvre, the grandson of Jeanne de Penthièvre, duchess of Brittany. She was only six when she married in 1406, and she died in 1412. 

(There are probably many other connections I'm missing, but these are the ones that spring immediately to mind.)

So, back to Anne of Burgundy herself. Details about her childhood are scanty. After her birth in Arras, Anne spent much of her childhood in the ducal palace in Dijon. In 1412, when she was about seven years old, Anne traveled with her mother and two sisters to Paris. In 1418, when she was about thirteen, she left her mother and Dijon and lived with her younger sister, Agnes, the two spending at least some time at the château Montbard, another ducal residence. Anne and Agnes were at Montbard when they learned of their father's assassination on 10 September 1419. She attended a ceremony in his honor in October, though with an empty coffin--his body was not returned to Dijon until 1420.

The finances of Burgundy were under severe stress at this point--Anne's brother, the new duke, finding that money was scarce and the expenses of his mother and sisters were great. And thus, by 1420, he was eager to arrange a marriage for Anne.  

As early as 1412, Anne's father had sought to marry Anne to Henry IV's eldest son, Henry, but after the prince succeeded his father in 1413, becoming Henry V, that alliance no longer made sense for the new English king. After the signing of the 1420 treaty of Troyes, in which Charles VI of France disinherited his son in favor of Henry V, Henry V married Katherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI and his queen, Isabeau of Bavaria.

Still, Burgundy sought to position itself advantageously during the contest between England and France, so an English alliance remained desireable. Philip III, duke of Burgundy, arranged a marriage to strengthen the ties between Burgundy and England. His sister, Anne of Burgundy, was married to the English king's younger brother, John of Lancaster, duke of Bedford. At the same time, Anne's twice-widowed sister, Margaret, was married to Arthur, count of Richmond.)

John of Lancaster was the third son of Henry IV of England. John was born on 20 June 1389, just two days after the signing of a truce between the English and the French, though disputes between the two countries continued. In 1399, after Richard II was deposed, John of Lancaster's father had become the king of England. As Henry IV consolidated power in England, France was involved in civil wars, but after Henry IV's death in 1413, his successor, Henry V, turned once more to war in France. 

In 1414, the new king had awarded his brother, John, the title duke of Bedford. By 1415, when Henry V left England for France, Bedford was experienced not only in military campaigns but in government. During his brother's absence, Bedford governed on his behalf, serving three separate times as lieutenant of the kingdom. After Henry V's death in 1422, Bedford had become regent of France for the new king, Henry VI, then just a few months old. He was also made Lord Protector of England, although he would continue to manage affairs in France. 

In the castle of Montbard, Anne was married by proxy to Bedford in April 1423. The formal marriage ceremony of the eighteen-year-old Anne of Burgundy to the thirty-three-year-old John, duke of Bedford took place in Troyes on 13 May 1423 as a result of the negotiations of the treaty of Amiens, the so-called Triple Alliance. (The treaty negotiated an alliance between England, Burgundy, and Brittany.) 

While the military, diplomatic, and political activities of John, duke of Bedford, figure in a great number of historical sources, much less is available for Anne of Burgundy. Interestingly, one of the most detailed sources of information about Anne's life is an article on the duke of Bedford's will. Another focuses not so much on Anne's life but on her death--or, rather, on the tomb effigy commissioned by her brother, Philip III. 

For many of the brief glimpses of her life, we need to look at histories of the Hundred Years War or at the biographies of her brother and her husband (although, to be fair, while there are many articles about her husband, there seems to be only one full-length biography of John, duke of Bedford). One of the most accessible of these sources is William Hunt's entry for Bedford, in the old (nineteenth-century) edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.

Hunt notes that by 1419, several marriage alliances had been proposed for John: to Jacqueline of Bavaria, the widow of Jean, the fourth son of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria (he was also the fourth dauphin of France); to the daughter  of Frederic IV, burgrave of Nuremberg; to Isabella, the daughter of Charles II, duke of Lorraine (she later married René of Anjou); and, in Hunt's words, "to some kinswoman of Sigismund," the Holy Roman Emperor.

For various reasons, none of these marriages had worked out for him, so John was available when the alliance with Burgundy offered itself. In his biography of Anne's brother, Philip III ("the Good"), Richard Vaughan notes that the "bait" for Bedford was "financial and territorial" rather than personal, for Anne and her sisters were described by a contemporary as being "plain as owls." Despite Burgundy's financial problems, the agreed-upon dowry was generous: "it was agreed that the girl's dowry should be 150,000 gold crowns, and that, in case Philip [of Rurgundy] died without a male heir, [Anne] should succeed to the county of Artois, or, if Philip left an heir, she should receive 100,000 gold crowns." The very beautiful book of hours, now known as the Bedford Hours, was given to Anne as a wedding gift. 

A sixteenth-century drawing of the

Hôtel des Tournelles

After they were married "with great magnificence" at Troyes, the couple lived in Paris at the palace of Tournelles. There, the duchess became her husband's "zealous collaborator." Just a year after their marriage, in August 1424, she interceded for a group of soldiers who  had been sent to Paris for execution--in response to Anne's intercession, Bedford freed the men. 

In January 1425, Anne was with her husband when he returned to England. A year later, they were back in Paris in April and then, in 1427, they were on to Flanders. In 1428, Bedford reluctantly agreed to the English siege of Orléans--a siege that failed with the arrival of Joan of Arc. 

In 1429, Anne's brother, Philip of Burgundy, was in Paris and, in Hunt's words, "renewed his alliance, being influenced, it is said, by his sister, the Duchess of Bedford." Historian B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé also stresses Anne's role in maintaining the alliance between England and Burgundy: "It is indisputable [il est incontestabile] that the duchess Anne intervened with all her power [toutes ses forces] to maintain an alliance between her husband and her brother"--an alliance that she saw as necessary for both of them. 

In June of this year, 1429, while marching to Orléans, Bedford made his will, designating his wife as his principal executor and describing her as his "very dear and beloved" wife--she was not only the primary executor, she was also his primary beneficiary.

While her husband continued his military campaign, Anne traveled to Flanders with her brother, but she returned to Paris. Later, Bedford established himself in Rouen, and Anne joined him there. It was in Rouen, in 1431, that Joan of Arc was brought after her capture by Burgundian troops in 1430. 

At this point, Anne steps briefly out of the background, although she makes her appearance only in the words of others, not in words she spoke herself. After Joan had been brought to Rouen, she seems to have undergone a test of her virginity, an examination that Anne, the duchess of Bedford, may have overseen. (I say "seems" and "may have" because no mention of this examination is found in the ample trial records that survive--the testimony to this examination is from the 1455-56 Trial of Rehabilitation.)

According to one of the men who had been at Joan's Trial of Condemnation, Joan herself wished to prove her virginity by means of such an examination, "provided it be done by decent women, as is the custom." Another witness contributed a bit of hearsay: "I heard it said by one, whom I no longer remember, that Joan was examined by some matrons and that she was found to be a virgin and that this examination had been made by order of the Duchess of Bedford." (This same witness adds a bit of creepiness to his testimony, saying that he'd also heard the duke of Bedford hid himself so he could watch Joan being examined . . . ) 

A third claimed firsthand knowledge. According to this witness, "I know well that she was examined to discover if she was a virgin or not by some matrons and midwives, and that on the orders of the Duchess of Bedford and notably by Anna Bavon and another matron whose name I do not remember." He went on to say that he had heard directly from Bavon that Joan "was a virgin intact" and, for this reason, the duchess of Bedford, "had the warders and others forbidden to offer her [Joan] any violence."

In the same year, we catch another glimpse of Anne of Burgundy in Rouen, when the duchess presented the Bedford Hours as a Christmas present to the nine-year-old Henry VI, just before his coronation, a gift recorded by the king's tutor in a note in the manuscript (fol. 256r) just preceding the two portrait miniatures of the duke and the duchess (see the first image in this post, above right).

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford,
marble effigy,
formerly in the Church of the Celestines
(now in the Louvre Museum, Paris)

But just two years later, on 13 November 1432, Anne, duchess of Bedford, died in Paris. As a contemporary, known as the "bourgeois of Paris," noted in his journal, she died in a time of "great death" in the city. He gives fulsome praise to the woman he describes as the duchess of Bedford, wife of the regent of France, and sister of the duke of Burgundy:

the most pleasant of all women who were then in France, because she was good and beautiful, and of good age, for she was only twenty-eight years old when she died; and certainly, she was well loved by the people of Paris. And it is true that she died in the Hôtel de Bourgon, near the Louvre, on the twelfth day of November, two hours after midnight between Thursday and Friday, about which those [men and women] of Paris spoke a great deal of their hope, but also of their pain.

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford, was buried in Paris in the convent church of the Celestines in the Marais. Because many members of royal families were buried in the church, it was desecrated during the French Revolution and eventually the remains were demolished in the nineteenth century.

In his 1934 analysis of the duke of Bedford's will, B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé claims that the duke's decision to designate his wife as his primary executor and beneficiary represents a testament that Anne was a a "tenderly loved wife." In his biography of Anne's brother, Richard Vaughan notes that Anne and her husband "apparently became fond of each other."

These assertions about the state pf the couple's relationship persist. In his 1984 article on Anne of Burgundy's tomb, Jeffrey Chipps Smith wrote that, although the couple had been "childless," they had been "happily married." This view is repeated elsewhere--it appears in Janet Backhouse's 1985 Books of Hours ("one of the happiest love matches of the period") and in online blog posts and the Wikipedia entry for Anne of Burgundy. 

I wish I knew the source of the claim. None of the sources I've mentioned here supports this conclusion with a reference to documentary evidence. Still, I'd like to think it was so . . . 

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford
(Louvre Museum);
Jeffrey Chipps Smith writes that her hair is
"tightly trussed in a pearl ornamented hairnet" that
culminates in a bicorne, or two horned, headdress 
around which a richly jewelled crown is placed"

The most complete biographical information about Anne of Burgundy is B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé, “Anne de Bourgogne et le Testament de Bedford (1429)” Bibliothèque de l’École Des Chartes 95 (1934): 284–326. Also extremely useful is Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "The Tomb of Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, in the Musée du Louvre" Gesta 23, no. 1 (1984): 39-50. 

Levina Teerlinc, Painter at the Tudor Court

 Levina Teerlinc, Artist (died 23 June 1576)

Like her somewhat older contemporary, Susannah Hornebolt, Levina Teerlinc was a Flemish artist, specializing in miniature painting, who lived and work at the court of the Tudor kings and queens. And also like Hornebolt, unfortunately, little is known about Teerlinc's life or work.* 

This 1565 miniature of Queen Elizabeth
is one of those most frequently
attributed to Levina Teerlinc
(it's used to illustrate the entry in
Wikipedia, so I've reproduced it here)

Born Levina Bening, Teerlinc was the oldest of five daughters born to Catherine Stroo and Simon Bening (or Binnink). 

Simon Bening was an accomplished and successful miniaturist and illuminator who had been trained in the family workshop in Ghent by his father, Alexander Bening. Simon Bening's mother was Kathelijn van der Goes, a woman who seems to have been either a sister or niece of another noted Flemish painter, Hugo van der Goes. 

Simon Bening left Ghent about the year 1510, establishing himself in Bruges as a producer of elaborate and expensive books of hours for wealthy patrons. This year--1510--is at times given as the date for Levina's birth, although there is no evidence to support that date, and some sources suggest her date of birth was as late as 1520. 

Aside from the names of her parents, nothing at all is known about the young Levina's life. Given her own father's background, most historians assume that Levina was trained in her father's workshop so that she could continue the family business. 

Her mother, Catherine Stroo, died in 1542, and Teerlinc's father, Simon, would remarry, his second wife adding another daughter to his family. At some point Levina herself married, but there is no evidence as to when exactly the marriage took place. Indeed, the first documented reference to Levina is on 4 February 1545, when her appearance, along with that of her husband, George Teerlinc, is noted in official records of the mayor of Bruges as they close accounts related to the death of George Teerlinc's father. Given the range of dates suggested for her birth, Levina might have been as old as thirty-five or as young as twenty-five when the first real fact of her existence emerges.

At some point after this date in early 1545, Levina Teerlinc arrived in England. By November of the next year, 1546, she had entered into royal service at the Tudor court, where documents note that she was awarded an annuity by Henry VIII, to be paid "during the King's pleasure." (For his part, George Teerlinc seems to have been given something of an honorary position at court, becoming a Gentleman Pensioner.) Levina Teerlinc's tenure at the royal court was to outlast Henry's reign--her service continued for thirty years.

In 1547, after Henry VIII's death, "Maistris Levyn Teerling paintrix" was recognized by Edward VI, who continued her annuity of £40 a year, paid quarterly. Teerlinc remained as a court painter during the reigns of both Mary and Elizabeth (through all these years of service, the amount she was paid did not change). Based on surviving documentary evidence, Edward Towne concludes, "It would appear that her position at court only required her to produce one miniature annually."**

Records indicate that, in 1551, Teerlnc was asked to "drawe owt" a picture of Princess Elizabeth. As a New Year's gift in 1553, Teerlinc presented Queen Mary with "a small picture of the trynitie." In 1559, during the first year of Elizabeth's reign, she completed "the Quenis picture finely painted upon a card" ("card," in this context, refers to vellum). Records of New Year's gifts in subsequent years show Teerlinc's regular presents to the queen: in 1562, she presents a miniature described as depicting "the Queen's personne and other personages in a box fynely painted"; in 1563, a "card . . . with the Queene & many other personages"; in 1564, "a certayne Journey of the Quenis Ma[jes]tie and the Trayne, fynely wrought"; in 1565, "a howse paynted and theraboute certayne personages in a case of walnuttree"; in 1567, "the picture of the queene," this one, notably, a full-length painting--"her whole stature drawne upon a Card"; in 1568, "a paper paynted" with the queen and "the knyghtes of the order"; in 1575, "a carte paynted upon a card" depicting the queen and "other personages"; and, in 1576, another painting of "the Quenis picture upon a Card" (Towne 172).

Meanwhile, in 1566, Teerlinc and her husband applied for denization, a grant of citizenship for themselves and their son--so Levina gave birth to at least one child. The couple also built a house on leased land in Stepney.

By this point, in the mid-1560s, Levina Teerlinc's reputation as an artist was so well established that in his 1567 description of the history and art of the Low Countries, Lodovico Guicciardini includes her among his account of only four "living female artists." The first of these, he says, is Levina, "who, like her father, is excellent in miniature." According to Guicciardini, her skill in miniature painting is why Henry VIII "invited her to his court," where she was "highly rewarded." He notes that royal favor continued under Queen Mary and that Teerlinc enjoys "equal esteem" under Queen Elizabeth. 

It is important to note that Guicciardini speaks about Teerlinc only in general terms, so that he is unlikely to have seen any of her work, and he can be mistaken--he claims that Teerlinc was "splendidly married" after she arrived at the Tudor court. In their groundbreaking Women Artists: 1550-1950, Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin note that Teerlinc's "fame was still part of the tradition when Guicciardini wrote" (26).

A document dated 11 August 1576, "given by the queen under her privy seal," notes that Levina Teerlinc died "the xxxiii of June last past." The queen made the quarterly payment of Levina's annuity to her husband "as our gift." She was buried at St. Dunstan and All Saints, in Stepney.

Unfortunately, as with her countrywoman and near contemporary, Susannah Hornebolt, and so many other women artists (like Marietta Robusti, about whom I wrote a month ago), no surviving work has been firmly attributed to Levina Teerlinc. A great deal of effort has gone into identifying surviving miniatures with those described in the New Year's gift lists, but there are no certainties. Of course, if you Google, you'll find lots of miniatures attributed to Levina Teerlinc, but none of these attributions is supported by evidence. One exasperated art historian bemoans "the current epidemic of unsustainable attributions to Levina Teerlinc"!

In addition to her work as a miniature painter, Teerlinc may have produced designs for coins, documents, seals, woodcut illustrations, and, perhaps, needlework, as part of her duties at court--all of these have been suggested by a variety of different art historians, searching for Levina Teerlinc. It has even been suggested that Teerlinc produced a written "discourse on painting, . . . A Very Proper Treatise." Some of these claims are more plausible than others--none is supported by much, if any, evidence.

It has also been suggested--and subsequently accepted by some--that Teerlinc was responsible for instructing and training the well-known Elizabethan miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard in the art of the miniature, but again, there is no evidence to support such a claim and much to disprove it. 

An even more tenuous (and romantic) connection has been made between Teerlinc and Giulio Clovio, an illuminator and miniaturist who was born in the Kingdom of Croatia but who worked principally in Rome. In the mid-1550s, Clovio's portrait was painted by the extraordinary Sofonisba Anguissola. In Anguissola's portrait of the artist, he is holding a miniature, one which, it is said, he so valued that he kept with him until his death. The art historian Federico Zeri, who owned the portrait of Clovio painted by Anguissola, came to believe earlier claims about this picture--that the miniature in the portrait of Clovio represented Levina Teerlinc, and that the Flemish painter had, early in her career, traveled to Rome to be trained by Clovio. However, as Mary Garrard writes, these "conclusions" seem to rest on misidentification and conflation. Zeri had accepted an earlier identification of Teerlinc as a female miniaturist who was said to have written to Clovio in Rome. And, noting that Clovio may have owned a miniature by Teerlinc, he concluded that the miniature Clovio was holding in Anguissola's painting was of Levina Teerlinc. From this came the notion that Levina Teerlinc had, at some point early in her career, traveled to Rome to train with Clovio. As for the evidence of all this--there is none. In the 1540s, Clovio is said to have addressed a letter to a nameless female miniature painter, a young German woman, though this letter survives only in late copies (and Teerlinc was Flemish, not German). Clovio may have had a female painter training in his workshop, but there is no evidence to support the claim that Levina Teerlinc left Bruges and trained with anyone anywhere at any time before she arrived in England. And an inventory of Clovio's property at the time of his death refers to a portrait by (again, not of) "Livinia meniatrice"--this may or may not refer to Levina Teerlinc.***

*In her blog post on Levina Teerlinc, art historian Louisa Woodville writes that Gerard Hornebolt, Susannah Hornebolt's father, is Levina Teerlinc's uncle, thus making the two women cousins. There is no documentation provided, and I have been unable to find this information in other sources. Gerard Hornebolt was married to a woman named Margaret Saunders (or Svanders), so the two, Levina Teerlinc and Susannah Hornebolt, were surely countrywomen, but I cannot confirm a family relationship. In Pens and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England, Susan Frye notes that Simon Bening and Gerard Hornebolt collaborated on the production of illuminated manuscripts, which may (?) account for the confusion.

**Town, "A Biographical Dictionary of London Painters, 1547-1625," The Volume of the Walpole Society 76 (2014): 172. 

***Mary D. Garrard, "Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist," Renaissance Quarterly  47, no. 3 (1994): 575. And here is an example of how undocumented claims about Teerlinc become fact: by the time Susan Frye is writing about Levina Teerlinc, she says that Teerlinc "apprenticed" with Clovio in Rome and that she was "trained . . . within the Italian Mannerist movement"--no footnote in sight.

Marietta Robusti, Tintoretto's Daughter

Marietta Robusti, la Tintoretta (death of her father, 31 May 1594)

Marietta Robusti was the daughter of a famous father, the Venetian painter Jacopi Robusti, more commonly known by his nickname, Tintoretto ("little dyer," from the Italian tintore--his father had been a dyer by trade).

A "self-portrait" long attributed 
to Marietta Robusti,
Uffizi Gallery

For all that Marietta Robusti was the daughter of a famous father, few details of her life are certain, not even the year of her birth. 

The earliest reference to her is found in Raffaelo Borghini's Il Riposo, published in 1584. The Florentine writer and art critic knew Tintoretto and his family, and in his discussion of art, artists, and art collectors, he includes a brief paragraph about the painter's daughter, Marietta, claiming that she is "known to all" as la Tintoretta. 

Borghini also indicates that, at the time of his writing, Robusti is some twenty-eight years old, which would make her year of birth about 1556.

The second early source for the life of Marietta Robusti is a brief chapter (just two pages) in Carlo Ridolfi's Le Maraviglie dell'arte: overo le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello stato, published in 1648. 

Though he was writing decades after the death of both Tintoretto and his daughter, Ridolfi knew members of the Robusti family, from whom he obviously gained information about both Tintoretto and Marietta. According to Ridolfi's account, "the daughter of the famous Tintoretto" was thirty years old at the time of her death, in 1590, which suggests that her year of birth was 1560. 

But there seems little to support Ridolfi's claim. In his recent study of Tintoretto, published in 2018 to commemorate the five-hundredth anniversary of the Venetian painter's birth, scholar and curator Robert Echols claims that Marietta Robusti was born about the year 1554. 

And despite their references to Marietta Robusti, these works are really about her father, not Robusti herself. She rates a few small paragraphs or a couple of pages, no more. The most extended study of Marietta Robusti that I have found--and the only one dedicated to Robusti herself, rather than to her father--is Alicia Savage's 2018 M.A. thesis, "Marietta Robusti, la Tintoretta: A Critical Discussion of a Venetian pittrice" (available here); Savage indicates that Robusti was born in the early 1550s, probably in 1553 or 1554. 

Such discrepancies may not seem all that important, but they do show how little is known about Robusti. Her parentage is not entirely clear either--she was Tintoretto's eldest child, but her mother is unknown. While Tintoretto married a woman named Faustina de Episcopi about 1559, and while the couple had seven children, Marietta Robusti was not Faustina's child. 

Indeed, the circumstances of Robusti's birth may explain one of the more unusual aspects of her life, noted by Ridolfi--"Being small of stature she dressed like a boy. Her father took her with him wherever he went and everyone thought she was a lad" (translated by Savage). In Echols's view, the circumstance of Robusti's birth "probably helps explain" not only the cross-dressing but the fact that her father "trained her as an artist."

Description of "Marietta la Tintoretta,"
Il riposo di Raffaello Borghini (1584)

But Marietta Robusti's training at her father's hand was not unique, and the circumstances of her birth may have had nothing to do with her place in his workshop, for she shared that experience with most of the women painters I have written about in this blog. 

Female painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries regularly began their careers under their father's tutelage, working with and alongside members of the family--there were few other options for a girl who might have dreamed of being an artist. 

Like at least two of her brothers, Robusti was taught how to draw and paint, especially portraits in the manner of Tintoretto himself; Ridolfi compares her "brilliant mind" to her father's, claiming that she "also painted other works of her own invention" (translated by Savage). 

Aside from work she completed in the family bottega, she is also likely to have have assisted her father in some of his public commissions, for example in the program of decoration at the Robusti family's parish church, the Madonna del Orto. (The church contains eleven paintings by Tintoretto, including a "monumental pair" that were "probably painted in situ".)

In addition to painting, Robusti was a musician. Borghini notes that she played the harpsichord, the lute, and other instruments. According to Ridolfi, her singing and playing were very pleasing to those whom she painted. In addition to her musical accomplishments, Borghini mentioned Robusti's beauty and her grace. About her art, he says that she "paints very well" and that she has "done many beautiful works"--though he cannot say more about them, because he has "no detailed knowledge of her works" (translated by Savage).

But whether he has personally seen her work or not, Borghini indicates that Robusti had earned something of a reputation as an artist: 

And she did, among others, the portrait of Jacopo Strada, antiquarian of Emperor Maximilian II, and the portrait of she herself that, as a rare thing, His Majesty keeps in his room. And [Maximilian], as also King Phillip and Archduke Ferdinand, did everything to have this excellent woman with him and sent to ask her of her father. But [Tintoretto], greatly loving her, did not want her taken from his sight.

One of the few certainties of Marietta Robusti's life is her marriage. In 1578, she married a goldsmith and jeweler known as Marco-Augusta; German-born, he was living in Venice. For Ridolfi, the groom's residence in Venice is critical; Tintoretto chose his daughter's husband "so that she may always be nearby" because he did not want to "be deprived of her.” Notably, unlike most women painters who stopped working after their marriage, Robusti continued to paint. In Borghini's words, "having married, she enjoys its virtues and she does not fail continuously to paint."

The discussion of Marietta Robusti, in 
Carlo Ridolfi's Le Maraviglie dell'arte (1648)

For all of the uncertainties about Marietta Robusti's life--the identity of her mother, the year of her birth, even the date of her death (aside from Robusti's claim, there is no documentary evidence that she died in 1590), the greatest uncertainty surrounds the body of her work. 

The title of Rebecca Ann Hughes's very recent essay says it all: "The Lost Paintings of Marietta Robusti Are a Maddening Renaissance Mystery." As Hughes writes, "A black-and-white chalk drawing of the head of a portly man was recently sold at a Christie’s auction as the only work firmly attributed to Marietta Robusti, daughter of the Venetian master Jacopo Robusti, perhaps better known as Tintoretto." (On Marietta Robusti and the Christie's auction of "Head of a Man, after the Antique," click here.) According to the description, posted by Christie's, the drawing "bears a large inscription, likely her father’s, stating that 'this head is by the hand of madonna Marietta.'" (The drawing, also known as "The Head of Vitellius," sold for €100,000.)

And that's it. The painting most commonly attributed to Robusti is the "self"-portrait, reproduced in this blog post. Although the Uffizi labels this as her work, that attribution is questioned--not only based on the provenance of the portrait but, to quote Hughes, on "the mediocrity of the painting," with its "rudimentary foreshortening" and "poor anatomy." (Another art historian has recently called the portrait a "feeble work.") 

Perhaps the most poignant comment about Robusti's "lost" oeuvre was made by Germaine Greer in The Obstacle Race, her 1979 exploration of "the fortunes of women painters and their work: "Modern scholars attribute none of the work in the Tintoretto bottega to her, although she worked there more or less full time for fifteen years."

As the search for the surviving work of early women artists continues, many paintings have been hopefully identified as long lost work by Marietta Robusti. A quick online search will turn up quite a few example of such attributions, from popular sources (like WikiArt Visual Encyclopedia), general-audience publications (like The Florentine), and museum publications (like the Museo del Prado's online catalogue), to scholarly art-history journals (like Duncan Bull's "A Double-Portrait Attributable to Marietta Robusti" in  The Burlington Magazine). The best summary of the search for works by Robusti is in Savage, "Attributions and Collection History."

While attempts "to restore Marietta's reputation" are on-going, Hughes indicates that, without more "physical evidence" of Robusti's accomplishment, the effort cannot succeed. "For the moment," she concludes, "La Tintoretta, the legendary woman artist, remains just that--a legend."

Catharina van Hemessen, Portrait Painter

Catharina van Hemessen (married 23 February 1554)

Catharina van Hemessen is "one of the first Flemish women artists recorded and the first for whom several certainly authentic works are known."* Although we have few details about her life, thirteen signed works survive.

Born about the year 1528, Catharina was the daughter of the influential Flemish painter Jan Sanders van Hemessen and his wife, Bárbara de Fevere, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Like most of her female contemporaries, Catharina was trained by her father, a master in the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp, where he also had his workshop. She began her career in her father's studio, assisting her father, an artist known in particular for his "multi-figured, abundantly detailed" religious genre paintings. 

self-portrait, Catharina van Hemessen,
dated to 1548 and indicating
her age

In 1551, Hemessen sent his two of his sons, Hans and Gilles, to train as painters in Italy, just as he himself seems to have done. (There is no documentary evidence of Jan Sander van Hemessen in Italy, but he is widely believed to have spent time there as a young man, and he is noted for his "innovative" Italian-influenced style.)

Such a journey would have been impossible for a young woman, of course. But by the time her brothers were sent to Italy, Catharina van Hemessen was already producing her own original work. 

Catharina's earliest known painting is a portrait, a genre in which she seems to have specialized. In fact, it is a self-portrait--a self-portrait of the artist in the process of painting. In a Latin inscription, she both names herself as the artist and dates her painting: "EGO CATERINA DE/ HEMESSEN ME/ PINXI/ 1548." A second version of this painting,  a copy made by Catharina, adds her age: "ETATIS/SVAE/20" (this inscription suggests her year of birth, otherwise undocumented). 

At some point during the decade of the 1540s, she gained an influential patron, Mary of Austria, regent of the Netherlands. In 1555, Catharina is recorded as a "dame de compagnie" at the regent's court. 

Meanwhile, on 23 February 1554, Catharina married Kerstiaen de Moryn, who was soon to be named organist at the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp. I have used this one certain date in Catharina van Hemessen's life--the date of her marriage--as the occasion for this post.

In 1556, when Mary of Austria "retired" from her role as regent and left the Low Countries, Catharina retained her place in the former regent's court and, with her husband, left for Spain. According to the Florentine merchant and writer Ludovico Guicciardini, who lived in Antwerp and whose 1567 Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (Description of of the Low Countries) contains an enumeration of many contemporary Flemish artists, "this couple [Mary of Austria] took with her to Spain." Guicciardi also notes that the former regent granted an annuity to Catharina. In the words of the eighteenth-century English translation of Guicciaardini's Description, Mary of Austria "bequeathed a sufficient maintenance" to Hemessen.

Another 1548 signed painting
by Catharina van Hemessen.
The sitter's age is given as 22,
and may represent Hemessen's
older sister, Christina

After Mary of Austria's death in 1558, the couple returned to Antwerp, where they seem to have remained until 1561, when they relocated to the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, where Kerstiaen de Moryn had accepted a position as organist for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Lady.

After 1565, no further details survive. As Anne Jensen Adams writes, "Catharina and her husband seem to have left the city [of s'Hertogenbosch] by 1565, and subsequently disappeared without a trace."

When he wrote about Catharina van Hemessen in 1567, Guicciardini names her as one of four "living female artists" in Antwerp, so it is possible she had returned to that city. Nothing more is known about her.

What survives is her work--thirteen signed work, nine portraits and four religious paintings. Of these, ten are dated between 1548 and 1552, a fact which has led modern historians (including Harris and Nochlin) to conclude that Hemessen may have given up painting when she was married. (And that her role at the Spanish court may have been in teaching painting.)

Interestingly, Catharina van Hemessen is mentioned in Giorgio Vasari's 1568 version of Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori (Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects)--but he includes her in his discussion of "excellent miniaturists." 

To see more of Catharina van Hemessen's surviving work, a good place to start is with the selection of images posted at ArtUK. I also recommend Ellen Moody's excellent overview and fascinating critique of Catharina van Hemessen's work (click here).

In addition, Anne Jensen Adams's 2005 review of Karolien De Clippel's 2004 Catharina van Hemessen (1528 - na 1567): Een monografische studie over een 'uytnemende wel geschickte vrouwe in de conste der schilderyen (unfortunately, for me, in Dutch) includes some biographical information, additional material about the surviving paintings, and some speculation about unattributed work.

*This quotation is from Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin's groundbreaking Women Artists, 1550-1950, the catalogue/history/collection of art plates that was published in connection with the first international exhibition of female artists, curated by Harris and Nochlin, and organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition opened on 21 December 1976. The show featured the work of eighty-three artists from twelve countries, including Catharina van Hemessen. 

Susannah Hornebolt, Artist at the Tudor Court

Susannah Hornebolt, Tudor Artist (28 January 1547, death of Henry VIII)

Born in 1503, Susannah Hornebolt was the daughter of the Flemish artist Gerard Hornebolt (an Anglicization of Geraert Horenboult) and his wife, Margaret Saunders. 

1534 portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger
of a "wife of a court servant,"
generally identified as Susannah Hornebolt

Susannah's father was a master painter in Ghent, regularly commissioned for work in a variety of media by Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands--recognized by the regent for his "industry and experience," Gerard Hornebolt was also named as Margaret's valet de chambre in 1515 and awarded a pension. 

Among other projects, he designed stained glass windows, oversaw the production of tapestries and embroidered work, and illuminated several manuscripts, including work on the manuscript now known as the Sforza Hours--originally commissioned by Bona Sforza, duchess of Milan, the incomplete Book of Hours was inherited by Bona's nephew, Philibert of Savoy. As Philibert's widow, Margaret of Austria took the incomplete manuscript with her when she took up her position in the Netherlands.

At some point between 1522, when his name last appears in the accounts of Margaret of Austria (payment for a portrait of Christian II of Denmark, who had visited her in the Netherlands) and 1528, when his name appears in the royal accounts of Henry VIII (where Gerard was described as "paynter"), Hornebolt had arrived in England and entered into the king's service. He was to be paid a monthly wage from October 1528 until February 1538. 

Well, all that is about Susannah's father. What about Susannah? 

When Gerard Hornebolt came to England, he was accompanied by at least some members of his family, including his wife, his son Lucas (also a painter), and his daughter, Susannah. In Ghent, Gerard had run a thriving workshop, specializing in illumination, and it is likely that Susannah had trained and painted there. By the time the Hornebolts relocated to England, Susannah was already recognized as an artist of some accomplishment. 

In 1521, when she was just eighteen, Susannah had traveled with her father to Antwerp, where she had met the artist Albrecht Dürer, who had bought a work called Salvator Mundi from her (variously described as a miniature, a colored drawing, or an illumination) and proclaimed "It is a wonder that a woman should be able to do such work" ("Ist ein grosz wunder, das ein weibs bild also viel mach").

In England, Susannah Hornebolt secured a place as a member of the queen's household by as early as 1522, with historian Susan James noting her unique position as a female artist at court, her sex making her unable to join the network of other artists in the workshops associated with the king's household.

Susannah married another minor member of the Tudor court, John Parker, probably in 1526. Parker's "mediocre prospects" improved immediately after his marriage, and while Susannah remained a member of the queen's household, her artistic work for the king seems to have come to an end. 

After the death of Jane Seymour, Henry's third queen, in 1537, which coincided with the death of Susannah's husband, John Parker, Susannah Hornebolt faced a number of financial difficulties--the loss of her place at court, the loss of her husband's income, and legal battles with her husband's family over his bequests to her. But in 1539, when Henry married Anne of Cleves, Susannah Hornebolt returned to court. Even more notably, she was sent by Henry VIII to Cleves, where she would be his "personal ambassador" to his soon-to-be bride. Hornebolt also acquired a second husband, a man named Henry Gilman.

While Henry's fourth marriage was short-lived, Susannah Hornebolt remained at court after the royal divorce. She survived the brief reign of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard, and remained in the household of his last, Katherine Parr.

After the death of Henry VIII in 1547, Susannah's second husband continued his court employment under both Edward VI and Mary I. Although the date of her death is unknown, Susannah Hornebolt must have died before her second husband remarried in 1554.

After her death, Susannah Hornebolt's reputation as an artist was remembered, at least for a while. In his 1567 description of the history and art of the Low Countries, Lodovico Guicciardini wrote that Susannah Hornebolt "excelled in all painting, in miniature, in illumining." In fact, he claims that it was she who had been "invited by Henry VIII to England." At the time of her death, she was "loaded with wealth and honour." 

Susannah Hornebolt was also mentioned by Giorgio Vasari in his masterwork, Lives of the Artists. He included her among a small list of women "who have been excellent miniaturists." Susannah "was invited for that work into the service of Henry VIII, King of England, and lived there in honour all the rest of her life."

What is known about Susannah Hornebolt's artistic work? 

About this question, the art historian Hugh Paget noted: "Of her work as a miniature painter nothing certain has been discovered, but the fact that she lived some years longer than has hitherto been supposed may make it easier to identify her oeuvre. Miniatures of Queen Jane Seymour in the Buccleuch collection and of Queen Katherine Parr at Sudeley Castle appear to be by the same hand: although similar to those attributed to Lucas they differ from them in some respects and may be by Susanna." 

Most sources indicate that no surviving work from Hornebolt can be identified, but James identifies two miniatures, one from 1524 and one from 1526/7, one of them, she claims, bearing Susannah Hornebolt's monogram. The most accessible analysis of surviving miniatures that may be the work of Susannah Hornebolt can be found at the website Tudor Faces--click here to read "Two New Faces: the Hornebolte Portraits of Mary and Thomas Boleyn?" 

A brass commemorating her mother, at All Saints, Fulham, was commissioned by Susannah Hornebolt, and may well have been designed by her. 

The brass commemorating
Susannah Hornebolt's mother,
Margaret, at All Saints, Fulham

Two very useful articles on the Hornebolt family are Hugh Paget's "Gerard and Lucas Hornebolt in England," The Burlington Magazine 101, no. 680 (1959): 396-402 (which I have quoted here) and Lorne Campbell and Susan Foister, "Gerard, Lucas and Susannah Hornebolt," The Burlington Magazine 128, no. 1003 (1986): 719-27 (which speculates about Susannah's designing the brass commemorating her mother). 

I am posting this today because Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, and he seems to have been a patron and supporter of Susannah Hornebolt for some twenty-five years.

For the most comprehensive source on the life and work of Susannah Hornebolt in English, see Susan James's The Female Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603.

Update, 17 November 2024: In his new piece in The Guardian, "After Decades, Tiny 500-year-old Royal Portrait Is Identified as Mary Tudor," Richard Brooks highlights the work of art historian Emma Rutherford in identifying the the subject of a miniature dating about the year 1546. Previously believed to represent Katherine Parr, the portrait is, Rutherford argues, that of Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Hidden in the piece (a bit) is the fact that the miniature was painted by Susannah Hornebolt (whose name is variously spelled--Brooks spells it "Horenbout.")

Harriet Hosmer: She "Knew Herself to be a Sculptor"

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, American Sculptor (born 9 October 1830)

Harriet Hosmer, 
photo by Matthew Brady

The name of Harriet Hosmer came to my attention only recently--as part of the widespread protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, in particular, and to the growing resistance movement that addressed larger issues of police brutality, systemic racism, and social injustice. 

As statues honoring Confederate generals and white supremacy at long last began to come down, a monument that remained standing was Thomas Ball's Freedman's Memorial. 

While the intentions of those who worked to create a monument to Lincoln's emancipation of enslaved men and women may have been good, the memorial itself as long been a source of controversy: it might portray "the hopes, dreams, [and] striving" of those who constructed it, but it also represents the "ultimate failures of reconstruction."

Recognizing Ball's monument as a "problematic depiction of the fight to achieve emancipation," Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has said that she will introduce legislation to have the statue removed.

While the "great emancipator" might remain secure on his pedestal, at least for the moment, Ball's sculpture has undergone a new round of criticism for its imagery--a white man "giving" freedom to the unclothed black man kneeling at his feet. (For Patrick Browne's excellent essay on this "misguided" monument, written long before the events of this year, click here.)

The sculpture was funded by freed slaves, and while Frederick Douglas spoke at the monument's dedication, he later made it clear that his feelings were complex--Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation only reluctantly. Lincoln was neither the "man" nor the "model" for the struggle of those who had been enslaved. Later still, Douglas noted his reservations about the Ball design for the sculpture: “What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man.” 

So that was the context in which I first heard Harriet Hosmer's name--because Thomas Ball's was only one proposal for the memorial, one that was selected after Harriet Hosmer's original design was judged to be too expensive. Or perhaps too controversial.

In fact, Harriet Hosmer's 1867 design for the sculpture had been accepted by the commission overseeing the building of the memorial. Her proposal was not for a sculpture with one submissive freed slave at Lincoln's feet. Instead, it was a monument that featured Black Americans--above a base that depicted scenes from Lincoln's life, and posted around a Lincoln lying in his casket, were to be four "colossal statues" that "display the progressive stages of liberation" of African Americans: an enslaved man for sale, a slave "laboring on the plantation," a Black man aiding Union soldiers, and, finally, a Black soldier. In describing this figure, David Cranor writes, "The latter figure, standing with eyes gazing forward in uniform and holding a gun, would be shown having gained freedom, legitimacy and power."

But white members of the commission overseeing the monument insisted on a redesign--Lincoln lying in his coffin had to be swapped out with a standing Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation in one hand. Below him were four allegorical figures (female, of course), representing liberty. The Black men were retained, but they were bumped down, farther out and below Lincoln and the Liberties.

Harriet Hosmer's redesigned
proposal for the Freedman's Memorial

Eventually, of course, Ball's design, with the "figure of a liberated slave crouching below . . . Lincoln" was substituted for Hosmer's.

So who was Harriet Hosmer?

When fundraising began for this memorial, Harriet Hosmer was a already a well-established artist. As a girl, she had not only been allowed to pursue her interests in art, but her father encouraged her interest in anatomy. Her studies were informal at first, but she traveled to St. Louis for private instruction in anatomy at the Missouri  Medical College.

After returning to Boston, she left for Rome in 1852 with the actress Charlotte Cushman. Once there, she earned a place in the studio of John Gibson (along with several other American women, including Edmonia Lewis and Emma Stebbins, disparagingly referred to by the novelist Henry James as the "white marmorean flock"). In Rome, Hosmer was not only surrounded by classical sculpture, she was also able to work with live models, a rare opportunity for women artists. She also began a relationship with Louisa, lady Ashburton, a relationship that would last twenty-five years.

Hosmer had a long and successful career. She eventually returned to the United States and died in the place of her birth, Watertown, Massachusetts, on 21 February 1908.

Hosmer's Zenobia in Chains,
Saint Louis Art Museum

Unlike many of the women I have written about here, there is a wealth of material--easily accessible--about the life and work of Harriet Hosmer, so you will be able to read widely and enjoy reproductions of her work. I find it particularly interesting that many of Hosmer's pieces are of figures of historical women, including Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, and Beatrice Cenci. And Hosmer knew several women who have made an appearance in this blog, including Susan B. Anthony, Lydia Maria Child, Phebe Ann Hanaford, and Fanny Kemble. And, hey! There is an entry for Harriet Hosmer in the Encyclopedia Britannica!!

The phrase she "knew herself to be a sculptor" comes from Maria Mitchell, the American astronomer and teacher. When she was in Rome, Mitchell met Hosmer, and her memoirs include a description of their meeting. 

Back to the Future, Part 14: More Good News for Women--We're Still Missing!!

Back to the Future, Part 14: Women and Wikipedia

I rarely refer to Wikipedia in my posts. It's not that I'm a research snob (well, okay, I'm a research snob), it's just that I hope to include information in these entries on women that wouldn't necessarily appear at the top of the page after a quick Google search. 

Logo of WikiProject Women in Red

But here's the thing, which should surprise no one: women are vastly under-represented in Wikipedia. Despite many efforts to redress the balance, the "pages" of Wikipedia are heavily skewed toward men--male historical figures, artists, writers, musicians, politicians, athletes, even goddamn video game characters. Etc., etc. Ad nauseam. 

And now a bit of happy news about just how bad it is. 

According to an April 2019 report released by Wikimedia, of the 1,618,509 biographies in the English Wikipedia, only 287,852 of them are biographies of women!!! Just 17.79%!! (This is reported by WikiProject Women in Red.)*

This number--17.9%--is up from 15%, reported in 2014. Yay????

A similar number is reported by Le project les sans pagEs: "en octobre 2018, Wikipédia en français compte 547 599 biographies d'hommes, contre 94 021 de femmes, soit seulement 17,3%" (in October, French Wikipedia includes 547,599 biographies of men, compared to 94,021 of women, only 17.3 percent).

Logo of Le project les sans pagEs

Why the disparity? A recent story in the New York Times suggests that it's not because women don't care. Rather there are continued barriers to women writers and editors--Wikipedia is a place of "relentless harassment" for women. According to a report by the Wikimedia Foundation, the Foundation itself is "seriously concerned about the idea that cisgender women and transgender editors could be repelled from Wikipedia by online abuse."

It's not only the online abuse: there is a "systemic bias in policies," "implicit bias within the [Wikipedia] community," and "poor community health"--which includes, in addition to harassment, a lack of support for "gender equity work" and a "lack of diversity in leadership."

Banner posted by Wotancito,
Spanish "Women Love Wiki" project
("making women invisible in history is also violence")

I've filled this blog with complaints about women written out of history, women written out of the literature, women written out of art, the lack of public monuments for women's achievements, and, especially, the terrible treatment of women by "reliable" sources like the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica. I'm always bitching about something, I guess . . .

Update, 16 April 2019, afternoon: And, then, there's this--

The man charged with throwing a 5-year-old boy off a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America told police he was angry at being rejected by women at the Minnesota mall and was "looking for someone to kill" when he went there last week, according to a criminal complaint Monday.

But, hey, he wasn't murdering his wife, his girlfriend, or his own child . . .

Update, 19 July 2019: For Jessica Wade's efforts to write women into Wikipedia, see Maya Salam's New York Times column, "Most Wikipedia Profiles Are of Men. This Scientist Is Changing That" (click here).

Update, 11 April 2020: For a profile of Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, the co-founder of Women in Red, see Rachael Allen's "Wikipedia Is a World Built by and for Men--Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight Is Changing That," published as part of The Lily in The Washington Post (click here).

*Update, 13 February 2024: The figures quoted on the Women in Red Project have recently been updated—as of 5 February 2024, a whole 19.74% of Wikipedia’s biography’s are about women. Woohoo!