Lavinia Fontana

Lavinia Fontana was an Italian Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious painting. She was trained by her father, Prospero Fontana. She is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe, as she relied on commissions for her income. Her family relied on her career as a painter, and her husband served as her agent and raised their 11 children. She was perhaps the first female artist to paint female nudes, but this is a topic of controversy among art historians.

24 August 1552

Born on the same birth day (24 August): Andreas Kisser • Anjali Devi • Arthur B. C. Walker Jr. • Fernand Braudel • Jackie Brenston • James Calhoun (soldier) • Jared Harris • José Bosingwa • Linton Kwesi Johnson • Marion Bloem • Max Beerbohm • Nancy Spero • Salizhan Sharipov

Born in the same month (August 1552): Naushah Ganj Bakhsh • Paolo Sarpi