Self portrait, Madrid, period 1564-1572
During her lifetime, the Cremonese Sofonisba Anguissola was arguably the third famous artist of the Italian Renaissance after Titian and Michelangelo, and the first female painter to gain significant patronage and recognition Her importance to the violin world, whilst tangential, is of great significance. As a Cremonese contemporary of Andrea Amati, she was the pupil of Bernardino Campi, members of whose family decorated the Amati violins for the court of Charles IX of France. At the same time, Catherine de Medici who was responsible for the arrival of Amati instruments in the court of France, sent the Cremonese artist to become lady-in-waiting in the court of her daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, wife of Philip II of Spain. The miniature is an unusual depiction of the sitter in court dress, and of noted significance is the pelican of piety jewel, documented as a gift of the Spanish King, and appearing in one other self-portrait. Following a tentative identification, we were able to confirm the attribution of the painting and acquire it on behalf of a private collection. The detail of the jewelled necklace has much in common with the painterly technique employed by the Campi family on the instruments of Andrea Amati, which is what brought this to our attention in the first place.
Connoissership at Oxford University.
For the academic world there are deep problems that arise from historic artefacts that are untethered from a record of provenance, and the violin is
