Jessica Fahy Art Historian

Week 3: Lavinia Fontana (Italian, 1552-1614)

Regarded as one of the first professional female artists in Europe, she is best known for her portraiture, but also and more unusually produced religious and mythological history paintings too often in a Mannerist style. She achieved great success in her career, working for the elite of Europe including two Popes and she was elected into the Academy of St Luke in Rome as a full member in 1614.