Properzia de' Rossi
Encyclopedia
Properzia de' Rossi was an Italian
female Renaissance
sculptor
. This daughter of a notary studied under the Bolognese artist and master engraver Marcantonio Raimondi
, who is best known today for his engravings of the paintings by Raphael
.
As she approached her thirties, de' Rossi began working in large scale. Her marble portrait busts from this period gained her prominence and public commissions, including the decorative program for the high altar of Santa Maria del Baraccano in Bologna
. She also won a competition to create sculpture for the west facade of San Petronio in Bologna. Records show that she was paid to create three sibyls, two angels, and a pair of bas-relief panels, including a panel depicting Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
. In the scene, Joseph
attempts to escape from the wife of an Egyptian officer. De' Rossi uses fluid drapery to illustrate the tension in this dynamic scene.
While de' Rossi won important commissions in her life, she died before reaching forty, bankrupt and without close relatives or friends.
De' Rossi was one of about 30 woman artists, mostly painters, in Renaissance Italy
. Female sculptors were rare. She was included in the Giorgio Vasari
’s Lives of the Artists, collecting biographies of those he viewed as the most prominent artists of the recent centuries. However, his comments about de' Rossi are sometimes pejorative. For example while he calls her fruit pit sculptures “miraculous,” he also asserts, probably wrongly, that de' Rossi’s depiction of the Egyptian officer’s wife was a self-portrait. He claimed that de' Rossi had an unrequited affection for Anton Galeazzo Malvasia, a young nobleman, and the bas-relief panel allowed her to illustrate Malvasia’s denial of a romantic relationship. Vasari’s assertion was likely founded on an apocryphal story, however, his inclusion of the incident in his biography of Properzia is likely due to a belief in the Renaissance that women were prone to be overcome and hindered by melancholia. Vasari used Properzia’s San Petronio as an example of how all women, even those who are great artisans, can not escape their "female" nature.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
female Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. This daughter of a notary studied under the Bolognese artist and master engraver Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists mainly of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figure in the rise of the reproductive print...
, who is best known today for his engravings of the paintings by Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
.
Biography
Early in her career, Properzia was celebrated for her complex but small-scale sculptures fashioned from stone-fruit pits, such as from apricots, peaches and cherries. The subject of these small "friezes" was often religious, with one of the most famous being a Crucifixion in a peach pit.As she approached her thirties, de' Rossi began working in large scale. Her marble portrait busts from this period gained her prominence and public commissions, including the decorative program for the high altar of Santa Maria del Baraccano in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
. She also won a competition to create sculpture for the west facade of San Petronio in Bologna. Records show that she was paid to create three sibyls, two angels, and a pair of bas-relief panels, including a panel depicting Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
Potiphar's Wife
Potiphar's Wife is a 1931 British romance film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Nora Swinburne, Laurence Olivier and Guy Newall. It is also known as Her Strange Desire. It was based on a play by Edgar C...
. In the scene, Joseph
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
Joseph is an important character in the Hebrew bible, where he connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt....
attempts to escape from the wife of an Egyptian officer. De' Rossi uses fluid drapery to illustrate the tension in this dynamic scene.
While de' Rossi won important commissions in her life, she died before reaching forty, bankrupt and without close relatives or friends.
De' Rossi was one of about 30 woman artists, mostly painters, in Renaissance Italy
. Female sculptors were rare. She was included in the Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
’s Lives of the Artists, collecting biographies of those he viewed as the most prominent artists of the recent centuries. However, his comments about de' Rossi are sometimes pejorative. For example while he calls her fruit pit sculptures “miraculous,” he also asserts, probably wrongly, that de' Rossi’s depiction of the Egyptian officer’s wife was a self-portrait. He claimed that de' Rossi had an unrequited affection for Anton Galeazzo Malvasia, a young nobleman, and the bas-relief panel allowed her to illustrate Malvasia’s denial of a romantic relationship. Vasari’s assertion was likely founded on an apocryphal story, however, his inclusion of the incident in his biography of Properzia is likely due to a belief in the Renaissance that women were prone to be overcome and hindered by melancholia. Vasari used Properzia’s San Petronio as an example of how all women, even those who are great artisans, can not escape their "female" nature.