CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC PRACTICES OF LAVINIA FONTANA IN EARLY MODERN BOLOGNA AND ROME

Abstract

The goal of the study is to identify and clarify the specifics of the cultural and artistic practices of the Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana of the early modern period of Italian culture. The methodology is based on a comprehensive approach consisting of historical research methods: biographical, historical-chronological, historical-comparative, as well as iconographic and iconological. The study is based on the principles of objectivity and logic in combination with scientific approaches from the standpoint of socio-anthropological determinism and the dialectical relationship of the historical-cultural context and the life world of the individual, which made it possible to achieve substantiated research results. The scientific novelty of the study lies in substantiating the importance of Lavinia Fontana's cultural and artistic practices in Early Modern Bologna and Rome for modern cultural studies, art studies, and museology. For the first time, a comprehensive examination of her works of art has been carried out in the context of museum collections, deepening the cultural discourse, and the development of museum practices. As a result of the study, the cultural and artistic activities of women in Bologna were analyzed, which indicates a certain freedom of production in various spheres. The special role of the University of Bologna (1088), where girls had the right to study, is revealed, and the cultural influence of patrons of art is emphasized. The professional fulfillment of women artists lies not only in the nature of individual genius, but in the availability and access to art education. It is determined that the role of the father-artist, husband, or lover-artist is significant in the professional development of many women artists. However, a more successful artist could be a nun in a monastery, or an artist's daughter in her father's studio. To pursue a career in art, a female artist had to be unconventional, strong, especially in times past, to resist or find strength in the attitude of her family. It was found that thanks to her studies at the Mannerist school, the artistic and patronage contacts of her father, the artist Prospero Fontana, and the cultural academic environment of Bologna, Lavinia Fontana was able to obtain a diploma from the University of Bologna, build a successful career as a professional artist, and receive prestigious orders from the Italian nobility, cardinals, popes, the Spanish king, the king and ambassador of Persia for portrait, historical, mythological, and religious paintings, which are now in museums and private collections around the world.
It was found that Lavinia Fontana was the first artist to depict nude nature. The managerial and promotional qualities of her
husband, Gio. P. Zappi, who often acted as her guarantor, helped her to find new social connections and orders, and receive
decent pay for her professional cultural and artistic practice. Thus, Lavinia Fontana carried out a quiet female revolution, combining a successful career as an artist, an academician of the Roman Academy of St. Luca, with the role of mother of 11 children. The cultural, artistic and socio-humanitarian realities of early modern Bologna and Rome testify to the transformation of the paradigm of perception of the image of a female artist.