Women artists in all ages and countriesEllet, E. F. (Elizabeth Fries)
History
Women artists in all ages and countries
Ellet, E. F. (Elizabeth Fries)
Women artists
The husband grew morose and irritable, and at times manifested the
change that had come over him by sudden outbursts of ill-humor. Vainly
Aniella strove by unremitting patience and redoubled affection to
soothe his wayward moods. She soon perceived that all her happiness
must be derived from her art, and from the approbation of her old
master, who frequently visited her. She painted in her best manner a
Holy Family, and presented it to him. “On seeing,” writes Domenici,
“with what mastery of drawing and perfection of coloring Aniella had
completed the painting, and because she had so toiled for him, he was
overcome with feeling, and, in a transport of affection, clasped her
in his arms, exclaiming that she was his best pupil, and that, had he
been asked to retouch the painting, he should not know where to begin,
for fear of destroying the beautiful coloring.”
The infamous servant was playing the spy throughout this scene, and
had called up a servant-lad to support her testimony. On Stanzioni’s
departure Agostino returned.
“Now,” cried this hearth-stone serpent, “now I have proofs to set all
doubts at rest--proofs I will furnish you with in the presence of
your wife.” Confronted with her mistress, the vile hireling charged
her with guilty embraces, and called the servant-lad to confirm the
charge. Aniella, astounded and indignant, disdained to defend herself,
but stood before her husband mute and motionless, while a flush of pain
and indignation mantled on her brow. Her silence confirmed Agostino’s
suspicions; in his phrensy he drew his sword, and the next moment
Aniella lay dead at his feet. Thus closed the career of this noble
artist, in 1649, in the thirty-sixth year of her age. She was not the
only victim to the taste for the horrible and for wild extremes of
passion then prevailing in the works of artists, and too common in
their personal experience.
Another fair Neapolitan, who also worked in Rome at portrait-painting,
was Angela Beinaschi. The nun, Luisa Copomazza, a landscape-painter and
poetess, and the flower-painter, Clena Ricchi, were of Naples; with the
painter and modeler in wax, Catarina Juliani, called the “_ornamento
della patria_.”
Teresa del Po--daughter of a painter, the disciple of Domenichino,
and distinguished for oil and miniature painting, and copper
engraving--came from a family of Palermo. She etched plates in her
father’s style; some after Caracci.
Messina boasted of Anna Maria Ardoino, the daughter of the Princess
de Polizzi, accomplished in every branch, including music and poetry,
who won great celebrity on account of her splendid attainments in art
and literature, and was admitted a member of the Academy of Arcadia in
Rome. She died in 1700, at Naples, in the bloom of her life and fame,
and it is said her death was occasioned by grief for the loss of a son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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