Properzia de' Rossi(1490 — 1530)

Properzia de' Rossi created miniature works of astonishing precision by carving entire religious scenes onto simple apricot pits. These tiny masterpieces — sometimes depicting the Passion of Christ with dozens of figures — circulated throughout Italy and earned her an extraordinary reputation even before she ever touched marble.

The painter and biographer Giorgio Vasari included her in his famous 'Lives of the Artists' (1550), dedicated to the greatest artists of the Renaissance. This was a remarkably rare honor for a woman: Vasari describes her as beautiful, an accomplished musician, and a gifted sculptor, noting that nature had bestowed upon her 'all graces at once.'

In 1524, Properzia received an official commission for the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, one of the most important artistic projects in Italy. She carved two marble angels and a bas-relief depicting Joseph and Potiphar's wife — a scene that some historians interpret as an expression of her own heartbreak over a young nobleman who did not return her feelings.

Her career was marked by conflicts with other artists who were jealous of her success. She was even brought to court for throwing stones at a canon who had refused her a commission. These tensions reflect the obstacles women artists faced in trying to establish themselves in an exclusively male-dominated field.

Properzia died around 1530, most likely a victim of the great plague epidemic that swept through Bologna that year. She was barely forty years old. According to Vasari, she died in poverty, her commissions having dwindled due to the scheming of her male rivals — a tragic end for the woman now regarded as the first professional female sculptor in Europe.