Nationality Italy | Died 1594 | |
Born 1541 Mirandola | ||
Lucrezia Quistelli della Mirandola (1541–1594) was an Italian painter.
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Biography
Lucrezia’s father was Messer Alfonso Quistelli of Mirandola. She was taught to paint by the prominent Florentine painter Alessandro Allori, himself a student of Agnolo Bronzino. She had married Count Clemente Pietra by the publication date of Vasari’s 1568 edition of the Lives of the Artists. Pietra was a special ambassador of Cosimo I to Spain and other nations. Giorgio Vasari confirmed that after her marriage she continued to paint. Vasari indicated that her portraits deserved “to be praised by all”.
Artistic Legacy
Vasari’s inclusion of Quistelli is found in his Life of Properzia de’ Rossi, along with the names of several other prominent women artists such as Sophonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. She is also mentioned in Girolamo Tiraboschi’s 1785 treatise, Notizie de’Pittori, Scultori, Incisori, e Architetti. Tiraboschi laments the fact that no other news of her work has survived other than Vasari’s short mention of her. However, one surviving altarpiece of hers can be found at the Church of Santa Maria e San Pietro in Silvano Pietra, "The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine", an oil-on-canvas painting measuring 180x120 cm (c. 1576). A chapter on Lucrezia Quistelli, authored by Sheila Barker, will be in the forthcoming book, Women Artists in Early Modern Italy: Careers, Fame, and Collectors [Brepols, May 2016].