LE SIGNORE DELL’ARTE. Storie di donne tra ’500 e ’600

Palazzo Reale, Milano March 02 - August 22, 2021

The show ‘Le Signore dell'Arte. Storie di donne tra '500 e '600' (The Ladies of Art. Stories of women between the 16th and 17th century), rediscovers the art and the extraordinary lives of 34 different women artists through over 130 works. Testimonies of intense, lively all-female creativity, in a unique exhibition that tells the inspiring stories of women who were already “modern”. They include celebrated artists, others less familiar to the general public, and new discoveries, like the Roman noblewoman Claudia del Bufalo, who is making her debut in this story of female art. There are works on show for the first time, such as the Madonna dell'Itria Altarpiece by Sofonisba Anguissola, executed in Paternò, Sicily, in 1578, which has never left the island before; the Immaculate Madonna and St Francesco Borgia altarpiece of 1663 by Rosalia Novelli, the only work attributed with certainty to the artist, which is leaving the church of Gesù di Casa Professa in Palermo for the first time, and the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine of 1576, by Lucrezia Quistelli, from the parish church of Silvano Pietra in the province of Pavia. The works selected for the exhibition, under the curatorship of Anna Maria Bava, Gioia Mori and Alain Tapié, come from no less than 67 different lenders, including many Italian museums, namely the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Museo di Capodimonte, Pinacoteca di Brera, Castello Sforzesco,

Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Galleria Borghese, Musei Reali in Turin, the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, and international institutions such as the Musée des Beaux Arts in Marseille and Muzeum Narodowe in Poznan, Poland. The Ladies of Art exhibition explores, in 5 sections, the extraordinary talents of women artists who were the daughters, wives and sisters of painters, and sometimes even nuns… It also tells their personal stories and considers the role they played in the society of their day; the success some of them achieved at the great international courts; their ability to relate to others, to stand out and to establish themselves, sometimes becoming actual businesswomen; and their knowing how to manage their ideals and diverse lifestyles. Some are famous, but the show also spotlights a group of young female talents who, though their stories and career paths differed, show that the role acquired by women during the 16th and 17th century was not limited to exceptional cases, but constituted a phenomenon that embraced the whole of Italy. Main Sponsor of the exhibition, Fondazione Bracco has always kept abreast of new developments in the world of art and science, showing a special interest in the feminine universe. The Fondazione has enthusiastically committed to this project, which is part of the programme I Talenti delle donne devised by the Milan City Council, of which Fondazione Bracco is the Main Partner.