Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Sofonisba's Lesson, New Edition: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work

Sofonisba's Lesson, New Edition: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work

Cole, Michael W.

Hardcover

Art HistoryArtistsGeneral Art

Publisher Price: $68.00

ISBN10: 0691263418
ISBN13: 9780691263410
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: Aug 11 2026
Pages: 392
Weight: 3.09
Height: 1.30 Width: 7.70 Depth: 9.70
Language: English

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.

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