The Convenient Forgetting

During the Renaissance, dozens of women worked as professional painters, sculptors, and manuscript illuminators. Sofonisba Anguissola was invited to paint at the Spanish court of Philip II. Lavinia Fontana ran a busy portrait studio in Bologna and supported her family on her commissions.

They were celebrated in their own lifetimes. Then art history quietly dropped them from the story — not because their work faded, but because no one kept retelling it.

So what happened? Women did make art during the Renaissance, but institutional barriers kept them from the training, the big public commissions, and the lasting fame that built male reputations.

And when their paintings survived, the credit often drifted elsewhere — to a father, a husband, or a teacher. The talent was real. The recognition went to someone else.