Sofonisba Anguissola's painting titled The Holy Family with Saints Anne and John the Baptist (1592) is an unusual example of a narrative religious painting by a master who usually painted portraits. The work, which is oil on canvas and measures 49.5" x 43.5", is in the collection of the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami. The painting, which is signed and dated, reflects Counter-Reformation painters' interest in devotional images that made a very direct emotional appeal to the viewer. Anguissola adapted the composition from the work of another painter, her friend Luca Cambiaso, but her version shows an interest in sfumato and warmth of presentation that recalls the earlier Renaissance painters rather than the harsher realism that appealed to many Counter-Reformation artists, such as Cambiaso.
Anguissola (c. 1535-1625) lived in an age when very few women were trained as painters. She had the good fortune to be one of the six daughters of Amilcare Anguissola, a nobleman of Cremona whose Humanist associates were convinced that the education of women was a good idea. The painter and her sisters (two of whom became painters as well) received a sound Humanist education and Sofonisba and Elena, the eldest two, were sent to the workshop of a local painter, Bernardino Campi, for their training. In an age when a very young and talented girl who could paint was regarded as a phenomenon her "manager-father" initially promoted his daughter "as a sensation." But Sofonisba's talent was sufficient to earn her the respect of her peers and her works were highly valued throughout her lifetime.
Anguissola never became a professional painter in the sense of one who worked for hire. As a member of the upper classes she always remained a dilettante, one who painted for pleasure rather than for money, and most of her paintings were done as gifts. But the Anguissola family was not wealthy and had great difficulty in producing the dow...