Editing Sofonisba Anguissola (section)

==Experiences as a female artist==
[[Image:Self-portrait with Bernardino Campi by Sofonisba Anguissola.jpg|right|thumb|''[[Bernardino Campi]] Painting Sofonisba Anguissola'', c.&nbsp;1550s]]

Anguissola's education and training had different implications from those of men, since men and women worked in separate spheres. Her training was not to help her into a profession where she would compete for commissions with male artists, but to make her a better wife, companion, and mother.<ref>Sylvia Ferino-Pagden and Maria Kusche, Sofonisba Anguissola: A Renaissance Woman, (Washington D.C.: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1995).</ref> Although Anguissola enjoyed significantly more encouragement and support than the average woman of her day, her social class did not allow her to transcend the constraints of her sex. Without the possibility of studying anatomy or drawing from life (it was considered unacceptable for a lady to view nudes), she could not undertake the complex multi-figure compositions required for large-scale religious or [[history painting]]s.

Instead, she experimented with new styles of portraiture, setting subjects informally. Self-portraits and family members were her most frequent subjects, as seen in such paintings as ''Self-Portrait'' (1554, [[Kunsthistorisches Museum]], Vienna), ''Portrait of Amilcare, Minerva and Asdrubale Anguissola'' (c. 1557–1558, [[Nivaagaard]]s Malerisambling, Nivå, Denmark), and her most famous picture, ''The Chess Game'' (1555, Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań), which depicted her sisters Lucia, Minerva and Europa. Painted when Anguissola was 23 years old, ''The Chess Game'' is an intimate representation of an everyday family scene, combining elaborate formal clothing with very informal facial expressions, which was unusual for Italian art at this time. ''The Chess Game'' explored a new kind of genre painting which places her sisters in a domestic setting instead of the formal or allegorical settings that were popular at the time.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Old mistresses : women, art, and ideology |last1=Rozsika |first1=Parker |author-link=Rozsika Parker |last2=Pollock |first2=Griselda |author2-link=Griselda Pollock |isbn=0710008791 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |location=London |oclc=8160325 |date = 29 October 1981}}</ref> This painting has been regarded as a [[conversation piece]], which is an informal portrait of a group engaging in lively conversation or some activity .

Anguissola's self-portraits also offer evidence of what she thought her place was as a woman artist. Normally, men were seen as creative actors and women as passive objects, but in her self-portrait of 1556, Anguissola presents herself as the artist, separating herself from the role as the object to be painted.<ref>Mary Garrard, "Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist," Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 3:(1994): 556.</ref> Additional pieces show how she rebels against the notion that women are objects, in essence an instrument to be played by men. Her self-portrait of 1561 show her playing an instrument, taking on a different role.<ref>Mary Garrard, "Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist," Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 3:(1994): 557.</ref> In her later portraits she represents multiple statuses by using a double portrait image portraying herself as an artist or a wife.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cheney |first=Liana De Girolami |date=1993 |title=Review of Sofonisba Anguissola: The First Great Woman Artist of the Renaissance. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2541628 |journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=942–947 |doi=10.2307/2541628 |jstor=2541628 |issn=0361-0160}}</ref> 
[[File:MassimilianoStampa.jpg|alt=Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa|thumb|Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa (1557), the artist's first commissioned work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa |url=https://art.thewalters.org/detail/1377//}}</ref>]] 

She became well known outside of Italy, and in 1559 King Philip II of Spain asked her to be lady-in-waiting and art teacher to Queen [[Elisabeth of Valois]], who was only 14 at the time. Queen Elisabeth of Valois and Anguissola became good friends, and when the Queen died nine years later, Anguissola left the court because she was so sad. She had painted the entire royal family and even the Pope commissioned Anguissola to do a portrait of the Queen.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Weidemann|first1=Christiane|last2=Larass|first2=Petra|last3=Klier|first3=Melanie|title=50 Women Artists You Should Know|publisher=Prestel|isbn=978-3-7913-3956-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/50womenartistsyo0000weid/page/14 14, 15]|year=2008|url=https://archive.org/details/50womenartistsyo0000weid/page/14}}</ref>