Giovanna Garzoni

Still Life with Bowl of Citrons, late 1640s, now in J. Paul Getty Museum.

Giovanna Garzoni (1600 – February 1670) was an Italian Baroque painter. She began her career painting religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects but gained fame for her still life botanical subjects painted in tempera and watercolour. Her works were praised for their precision and balance and for the exactitude of the objects depicted. More recently, her paintings have been seen to have female bodily associations and proto-feminist sentiments. She combined objects very inventively, including Asian porcelain, exotic seashells, and botanical specimens. She was often called the Chaste Giovanna due to her vow to remain a virgin. Scholars have speculated Garzoni may have been influenced by fellow botanical painter Jacopo Ligozzi although details about Garzoni's training are unknown.

Early life

Giovanna Garzoni was born in 1600 in Ascoli Piceno in the Marche district of Italy to Giacomo Garzoni and Isabetta Gaia. Both of Garzoni's parents were of Venetian origin and are believed to have come from a long line of Venetian painters - a fact that is often disputed. Historians have widely speculated that Garzoni started off her career as an apprentice under her uncle sometime before 1615. Garzoni also had a brother, Mattio, with whom she would travel throughout her career.

Career Taffeta antependium embroidered in silk with flowers around central medallion of God in splendour, 1640–1650. Uffizi Gallery.

Garzoni's first known commission was in the city where she grew up, Rome. It was in 1616, from the chemist Giovanni Vorvino to paint a herbarium. Garzoni reached Turin in 1632 and lived there until 1637. After staying in Turin, Garzoni became familiar with the work of fellow artists Fede Galizia and Panfilo Nuvolone. A few years later in 1640, Garzoni arrived in Paris and stayed there until 1642 when she went to Rome. Garzoni traveled back and forth from Rome to Florence until 1651 where her primary clients were in the Medici Family, particularly Grand Duke Ferdinando II, Grand Duchess Victoria, and Cardinal Giovan Carlo.

After serving the Medici Court, Garzoni decided to settle in Rome in 1651 where she worked continue producing work for the Florentine Court. As well as painting, Garzoni attended the Accademia di San Luca, where she followed events and discussion aimed at educating, socializing, and professionalizing painters, architects and sculptors of Rome. It is noted by several historians that Garzoni's pieces were so well received by the public; she was able to ask any price for her paintings.

Notable works and clients Plate with White Beans, ca. 1650–1662. Gouache on parchment. Galleria Paletina, Florence.

One of Garzoni's earliest works, Self-portrait as Apollo in which she appears rational and contained, appears to have been modelled on Gentileschi's Self-portrait as a Lute Player, although to very different ends. One study of citrus fruit from dal Pozzo's collection, attributed to Garzoni, was sold Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 2011, Lot 122. She probably had links to the Accademia dei Lincei.

Portrait of Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savory:

Created between 1623 and 1637 when Garzoni was invited to work for the court of Turin by Christina of France in 1632, this painting is now located in Palazzo Reale, Turin and was last restored in 1995.

Still Life with a Basket of Fruit, a Vase with Carnations and Shells on a Table:

This gouache on vellum piece is one of the twenty still-life miniatures that Garzoni produced for the Medici family from the years 1650–1662. The piece depicts carnations, conch shells, as well as a basket of fruit. Due to her work for the Medici Court, Garzoni became a favorite within the Florentine court for her depictions of nature and botanical subjects. It is now located in the Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay Collection in Washington, DC.

Two important manuscript notebooks by Garzoni exist. The rare books library in Washington DC, Dumbarton Oaks, contains a self-portrait of the elderly artist, in addition to a number of botanical studies. Another album, held by the Accademia di San Luca, the artists' institute to which Garzoni left her estate, includes flower studies and still lifes.

Personal life

It is believed by historians that Garzoni never married, but others speculate that the artist was once married to Venetian portrait painter Tiberio Tinelli in 1622. If so, the marriage was short lived, possibly resulting in separation in 1624.

Exhibitions "La grandezza del universo" nell'arte di Giovanna Garzoni / "The immensity of the universe" in the art of Giovanna Garzoni, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Andito degli Angiolini, 28 May - 28 June 2020, exhib. cat. edited by Sheila Barker.

Le Signore dell'Arte. Storie di donne tra '500 e '600, Milan, Palazzo Reale, 02.03.2021 to 22.08.2021, curated by Anna Maria Bava, Gioia Mori and Alain Tapié, exhib. cat published by Skira.

By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800, Wadsworth Atheneum and the Detroit Institute of Arts, September 30, 2021 – January 9, 2022, exhib. cat Yale University Press, edited by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and Oliver Tostmann

Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800, Baltimore Museum of Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario, October 1, 2023 – July 1, 2024, exhib. cat Goose Lane, edited by Andaleeb Banta, Alexa Greist, and Theresa Kutasz Christensen