The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm has acquired a portrait by Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola-it is the first work by the artist to enter the museum’s collection. The painting, depicting a man in ecclesiastical dress, is on public display starting Sept. 16.
Sofonisba Anguissola (Cremona, 1532 - Palermo, 1625) was one of the most celebrated artists of her time, known both for the sensitivity with which she captured realistic details and for her ability to convey the emotions of her subjects. Coming from a noble family, she received a thorough education and, an extraordinary fact for the time, had the opportunity to study painting outside the home. His early works include several self-portraits and portraits of family members, through which he perfected his artistic language.
The painting recently discovered and purchased by the Nationalmuseum depicts a regular canon of the Catholic Church, a member of a cathedral chapter who has taken priestly vows and is attached to a religious order. The man wears the traditional white linen rochetto, edged with lace, over his cassock. The work, executed in Cremona shortly after the completion of Anguissola’s training in 1551, is small: measuring just 19 x 15 centimeters. Despite its small size, however, it already reveals the artist’s technical mastery and early expressive maturity, evident in his skillful use of light and meticulous finishing.
The character’s direct and penetrating gaze, charged with silent intensity, returns an image of deep spiritual determination. Some scholars speculate that the subject may be Ippolito Chizzola (1521-1565), a Lateran canon who stayed in Cremona during the same years that Sofonisba Anguissola was working there. However, the identification is not certain: in fact, the painter made several portraits of canons that remained anonymous during the 1550s. Small-format works such as this one were often intended as gifts to possible patrons, a strategy that helped consolidate the artist’s success to the point of taking her, in 1559, to the court of Philip II of Spain.
The purchase, made possible by a grant from the Sophia Giesecke Fund, is part of the Nationalmuseum’s program to expand the representation of women in its collections and to highlight the figures of women artists who have made their mark on art history.
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| Stockholm Nationalmuseum acquires work by Sofonisba Anguissola: it is the artist's first in the collection |
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