Character Catalog

Painted on the occasion of her marriage, this self-portrait shows Lavinia in an aristocratic setting, playing the harpsichord. It is one of the earliest paintings to depict a woman artist in a cultivated, professional environment.

This early work already demonstrates Lavinia Fontana's mastery of figural group compositions and her ability to integrate the tradition of the Bolognese school within a Counter-Reformation devotional framework.

A masterpiece of aristocratic female portraiture, this painting showcases Lavinia Fontana's virtuosity in rendering embroidered textiles, jewelry, and the psychological depth of her sitters. It is housed in the Musei di Palazzo Poggi in Bologna.

A signed and dated religious painting held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It demonstrates Lavinia Fontana's ability to treat biblical subjects with a distinctive narrative sensitivity, poised between Mannerism and the naturalism of the Counter-Reformation.

One of Lavinia Fontana's rare works on a mythological subject, this late canvas is remarkable for its depiction of the female nude — nearly unique in the output of a woman artist of the early modern period. It is held at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

A typical commission for the private devotion of noble Roman and Bolognese families, this painting illustrates the careful craftsmanship and luminous softness characteristic of Lavinia Fontana's mature style.

Although Vasari does not mention Lavinia Fontana in his 1568 edition, later additions and commentators on his work highlight the Bolognese artistic lineage she belongs to, stemming from the workshop of her father Prospero Fontana.

In this correspondence preserved in the Bologna archives, Lavinia Fontana discusses her works in progress and seeks the cardinal's support for an ecclesiastical commission, attesting to her network of patrons and her command of the codes of learned epistolary courtesy.

Malvasia devotes several pages to Lavinia Fontana in his collection on Bolognese painters, calling her the 'gloria di Bologna' and citing her numerous commissions for the Roman nobility and prelates of the papal court.

Lavinia Fontana signed this 1581 work 'LAVINIA FONTANA ZAPPIA FACIEBAT', asserting both her own artistic identity and her status as a wife — a signature that reveals her dual professional and conjugal identity.

It was in her father's workshop, in the heart of Bologna, that Lavinia Fontana received her complete artistic training and produced her first important works. Bologna was at the time a major intellectual and artistic center of northern Italy.

Summoned to Rome by Pope Clement VIII in 1603, Lavinia Fontana spent the final years of her career there as official painter to the Vatican. The Eternal City was the heart of Counter-Reformation patronage and brought her her most prestigious commissions.

This Roman basilica housed one of Lavinia Fontana's first major public commissions — a Nativity painted in 1589 for the high altar. It represents the official recognition of her talent by ecclesiastical institutions.

The residence of one of the noble Bolognese families for whom Lavinia Fontana painted several portraits. These aristocratic commissions formed the foundation of her reputation and her network of patrons.