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Self-Portrait
Sofonisba Anguissola (Italian (Cremonese), about 1532–1625)
Italian
about 1556
Medium/Technique
Oil (?) on parchment
Dimensions
8.3 x 6.4 cm (3 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Beth Munroe Fund—Bequest of Emma F. Munroe
Accession Number60.155
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsMiniatures
Praised by her contemporaries as the foremost woman painter of her day, Anguissola executed more self-portraits than any other artist in the period between Dürer and Rembrandt. This miniature displays the artist's meticulous technique and a Renaissance taste for puzzles: the interwoven letters at the center of the medallion form a monogram or phrase that has not been satisfactorily explained. Around the rim, the medallion is inscribed in Latin: "The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, at Cremona."
DescriptionSet in a metal frame with scroll surmount.
ProvenanceBy 1801, Richard Gough (b. 1735 - d. 1809), London [see note 1]; July 19-21, 1810, posthumous Gough sale, Leigh and Sotheby, London, lot 322. By 1862, Henry Danby Seymour (b. 1820 - d. 1877), Ashridge [see note 2]; by descent to his niece, Miss Jane Margaret Seymour (b. 1873 - d. 1943), Knoyle, Wiltshire; May 9, 1928, Seymour sale, Sotheby's, London, lot 61. November 9, 1959, anonymous sale ("the property of a lady"), Sotheby's, London, lot 28, to F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York (stock no. F1375); 1960, sold by Kleinberger to the MFA for $3,000 [see note 3]. (Accession Date: March 10, 1960)
NOTES:
[1] The work was recorded and reproduced in the Gough collection in "Gentlemen's Quarterly," October 1801, p. 897.
[2] Henry Danby Seymour lent the work to the South Kensington Museum as early as 1862, and, according to a letter from Harry G. Sperling of Kleinberger to the MFA (November 12, 1959), from 1912 to 1928, J. M. Seymour lent it to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Information about the dates of these loans (but not about the lenders) is confirmed in the 1959 Sotheby's catalogue.
[3] Kleinberger Galleries Records, Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, stock card F1375.
NOTES:
[1] The work was recorded and reproduced in the Gough collection in "Gentlemen's Quarterly," October 1801, p. 897.
[2] Henry Danby Seymour lent the work to the South Kensington Museum as early as 1862, and, according to a letter from Harry G. Sperling of Kleinberger to the MFA (November 12, 1959), from 1912 to 1928, J. M. Seymour lent it to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Information about the dates of these loans (but not about the lenders) is confirmed in the 1959 Sotheby's catalogue.
[3] Kleinberger Galleries Records, Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, stock card F1375.