Sofonisba's Lesson, New Edition

A Renaissance Artist and Her Work

Michael W. Cole

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9780691263410
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691294247
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

The landmark study of the first major woman painter of the Renaissance—now revised and expanded to include new discoveries

Since it was first published, Sofonisba’s Lesson has ushered in a major reassessment of Sofonisba Anguissola (1532–1625), a remarkable painter who changed the image of women’s education in Europe and transformed Western attitudes about who could be an artist. In this revised and expanded edition, Michael Cole reconsiders some central questions of authorship and shares the major discoveries that have been made since this influential book first came out.

The daughter of minor Lombard aristocrats who made the unprecedented decision to have her trained as a painter outside the family house, Sofonisba produced more self-portraits than any known painter before her. She was the first known artist to use her parents and siblings as primary subjects and may have painted the first group portrait featuring only women. Recent research also reveals her to have been not only a key model for painters around her but also the rare Italian Renaissance artist to take up a subject demonstrably related to the reform of the Catholic Church.

The expanded volume offers new assessments of paintings whose status has long been uncertain. Providing a comprehensive and up-to-date illustrated catalog of the more than two hundred known paintings and drawings that writers have associated with Sofonisba over the centuries, Sofonisba’s Lesson will remain the definitive account of the artist and her work for decades to come.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Frontispiece
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface to the New Edition
• Introduction
• 1. “In the Presence of Her Father”
• 2. “The Most Affectionate Disciple”
• 3. The Image of Learnedness
• 4. The Image of Teaching
• 5. Spain
• 6. Painting and the Education of Daughters
• Catalogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Photography and Copyright Credits
• Acknowledgments