Lucia Anguissola

Lucia Anguissola (1536 or 1538 – before 1568) was an Italian Mannerist painter of the late Renaissance. Her paintings, mainly portraits, are similar in style and technique to those of her sister. Contemporary critics considered her skill exemplary; according to seventeenth-century biographer Filippo Baldinucci, Lucia had the potential to "become a better artist than even Sofonisba" had she not died so young.

One of her extant paintings, Portrait of Pietro Manna, (early 1560s) was praised by Giorgio Vasari, who saw it when he visited the family after her death. He wrote that Lucia, "dying, had left of herself not less fame than that of Sofonisba, through several paintings by her own hand, not less beautiful and valuable than those by the sister."

Lucia Anguissola is represented in a painting of 1555 by her sister Sofonisba titled The Chess Game, along with her younger sisters Minerva and Europa. Lucia appears at the far left, with both hands on the chess board; Europa, smiling, is the youngest girl; and Minerva appears at the right, raising her right hand; a servant stands behind them. The painting suggests the interactions between the siblings and represents their high status. Lucia gazes directly at the viewer, suggesting her connection to Sofonisba, but also seeming to invite the viewer to join in.

Paintings Portrait of Pietro Manna (Maria)

The Portrait of Pietro Manna, misidentified by Giorgio Vasari as a portrait of Pietro Maria, is estimated to be made around 1557–1560. The portrait suggests aspects of Lucia's education in humanism, classical mythology, psychology, and art. It is also the only painting she signed with her full name. Her signature reads “Lucia Anguissola Amilcaris F[ilia] Adolescens F[ecit].” This could translate as “Lucia Anguissola, adolescent daughter of Amilcare, made this,”

In this painting, she represented her family's name and heritage. The man sitting in the portrait is thought to be a relative to the Anguissola family, and commonly assumed to be a physician or doctor, but that is false. The snake on the rod in his left hand has two meanings. A rod with a snake wrapped around it can be an Asclepeion rod, indicating a medical symbol, but in this case the snake most likely serves as a visual translation of the artist's name, "Anguis Sola," which appeared on her family coat of arms as "Anguis Sola Fecit Vinctoriam," literally translating “the lone snake became victorious.” The Asclepeion rod could also be a sign of Lucia Anguissola's education in classical mythology; she is one of the first artists to place it in the hands of a contemporary. Her clothing is meant to represent her modest and elegant exterior. One art historian has suggested that Lucia Anguissola's "suspended" and "gloomy" gaze alludes to her feelings about living in Sofonisba's shadow. This element is in many of Lucia's portraits—as well as in Sofonisba's painting The Chess Game—and may reference the inferiority she felt compared to her sister. Lucia also painted a Virgin and Child, and A Portrait of a Woman (early 1560s; Rome, Gal. Borghese) is thought to be either a self-portrait by her or Sofonisba, or a portrait of Lucia by Sofonisba. Two portraits, in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia and the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, probably of Minerva Anguissola, may also be by Lucia.