Self-Portrait
Sofonisba Anguissola
(Italian (Cremonese), about 1532–1625)
about 1556
Country of Origin, for CustomsItaly
Medium/TechniqueVarnished watercolor on parchment
Dimensions8.3 x 6.4 cm (3 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Credit LineBeth Munroe Fund—Bequest of Emma F. Munroe
Accession number60.155
On View
On viewClassificationsMiniatures
Collections
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 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."
ProvenanceBy 1801, Richard Gough (b. 1735 - d. 1809), London [see note 1]. 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] For the history of this miniature, see "Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Scientific Instruments, Watches, and Objects of Vertu," Sotheby's, London, November 9, 1959, lot 28. The work was recorded 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 auction catalogue (as above, n. 1).
[3] Kleinberger Galleries Records, Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, stock card F1375.
