FORGOTTEN MEDICI WOMAN ARTIST RETURNS TO UFFIZI
A forgotten self-portrait by a 17th century woman artist has just been acquired by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and will take its place among the self portraits of masters of the calibre of Raphael, Rembrandt, Luca Giordano. Delacroix and “moderns” like Marino Marini, Pellizza di Volpedo, Ai Weiwei, the London Endless and Gilbert & George.
Camilla Guerrieri (born 1628) was celebrated in her day as “the first woman court painter of the Medici family”, for whom she worked for twenty years. She was so highly appreciated that she was awarded a life pension when her leading patroness, Vittoria della Rovere, died.
The self-portrait is a mirror composition that had languished for years in the back of the show-room of a Florentine antique dealer who had been unable to sell it until the Uffizi stepped in.
Among Camilla's other works is “The Madonna with the Infant Jesus, St. Giovannino and St. Aldebrando” in the Diocese Gallery of Senigallia (Marche), which is due to re-open on the 23rd March 2024 after a twelve-year closure for repairs due to the damage caused by the devastating 2012 earthquake in Northern Italy.
The Uffizi itself has been undergoing an extensive re-organization project in order to display more of its vast collection of 1,600 self-portraits, that cover 6 centuries of art history.
Guerrieri is only one of many forgotten women artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, whose talent and worth are gradually being rediscovered.
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STENHOUSE
Info: www.uffizi.it
