Giovanna Garzoni
Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) was born in a family of craftsmen. Against all social conventions she was given a full artistic education and training. Her first recorded work a Holy Family is dated on 1616. She married the Venetian portraitist Tiberio Tinelli when she was 22 years old but they split up one year later. There would be no other love adventure in her life, no source of scandal. She was free so she decided to focus on her artistic vocation and this during her entire life. At that time, oil painting wasn’t an option for any woman so she was devoted to scientific illustration (animals and plants), calligraphy and miniatures, ‘all those things a honest woman can do at home’ according to this period customs and standards. She looked for…