By Julie Zigoris Published May 02, 2024 • 5:00pm - The San Francisco Standard
A professional female painter working in the 16th century was the rarest of things. But even rarer was Lavinia Fontana’s marriage contract, a document that included a stipulation to allow Fontana, who ended up birthing 11 children, to continue in her artistic career “unburdened by housekeeping.”
“She’s able to continue her career as a painter,” said Emily Beeny, the chief curator of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, “and she’s able to take on commissions for public projects of increasing importance.”
That contract gave Fontana the freedom to produce one of the most striking masterpieces of the era: "Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Her Children," a family portrait painted between 1603 and 1605 and recently acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which operate the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum. Hung on the walls of the Legion of Honor Wednesday morning, the painting features seven striking figures dressed in Elizabethan collars, velvet and brocade, who seize the viewer with their arresting gazes and glittering jewels. The family dog is included, too.
The acquisition of the artwork is part of a larger initiative by the museum, which, under director Thomas Patrick Campbell, is ramping up to celebrate its centennial beginning in November. For the yearlong celebration, the museum is soliciting 100 transformative works of art for its collection. Multiple supporters of the museum came together to fund the painting’s purchase, said the museum’s spokesperson, Helena Nordstrom, for an undisclosed sum.
The painting represents another milestone of sorts: Of the 800 European paintings at the Legion of Honor, only eight are attributed to women.
This masterpiece is on display after 400 years. The woman behind it is yet more remarkable
Greg
Margaret Bourke-White atop Chrysler Building 1930
