Arcadópolis
Portrait of Her Father Amilcare with Minerva and Asdrubale
Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1559
What you see
Amilcare, the father, sits at the center dressed in black and looks out at us. On the left, his daughter Minerva holds a small bunch of flowers and lowers her eyes. On the right, Asdrubale stands looking up at him; his father wraps an arm around his shoulder and takes his hand. At lower right, a small shaggy white dog completes the group.
The father’s black sits between the blue of Minerva’s dress and the deep red of the boy’s suit. A reddish curtain hangs above, and on the right a bluish landscape opens onto a town and mountains. Watch for the sword at the boy’s side and the embroidery on the girl’s collar.
About Sofonisba Anguissola
Sofonisba Anguissola was born in Cremona into a noble family whose father wanted all six of his daughters to study art and letters, something very rare at the time. She painted her sisters playing, laughing and posing, and made so many self-portraits that her face was one of the best known of her age. She was painter and lady-in-waiting at the court of Philip II in Madrid and lived past ninety; in her old age the young Anthony van Dyck visited her in Palermo and drew her.
More by Sofonisba Anguissola
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