Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cremona who became one of the first women to achieve international fame as an artist, celebrated particularly for portraits distinguished by informal, psychologically observant depictions of her own family, including an innovative series of self-portraits. Barred as a woman from the study of anatomy and large-scale religious or history painting that structured the academic hierarchy of the period, she built her reputation instead through portraiture, and her skill drew the attention of the Spanish court, where she served for years as a lady-in-waiting and portrait painter to Queen Elisabeth of Valois. Giorgio Vasari praised her work in his Lives of the Artists, and her career opened a path later followed by other women painters of the period, including Lavinia Fontana.