Portrait of Elena Anguissola as the Blessed Osanna Andreasi

Anguissola Elena

(Cremona c. 1535 - Mantua after 1585)

Traditionally ascribed to the painter Sofonisba Anguissola of Cremona, this small panel has been recently attributed to her sister Elena, who presumably painted her self-portrait in the guise of the Blessed Osanna Andreasi of Mantua. The artist in fact used her own features to portray the face of the Dominican tertiary. She is depicted here holding a lily, symbolising purity, and a small heart pierced by a crucifix, alluding to her strong love for the passion of Christ, which the mystic experienced on her own body in the form of stigmata.

Object details

Commentary

Listed in the 1611 inventory of the belongings of Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio (Schütze 1999), this painting was donated by him to Cardinal Scipione together with other works. It was first documented in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1693, when the inventory of that year described it as ‘a small work on panel of about one span with a nun holding Christ in one hand and a lily in the other, no. 267, with a black frame’. While both the Inventario Fidecommissario (1833) and Giovanni Piancastelli (1891) ascribed it to the Venetian school, Adolfo Venturi put forth the name of the Sienese painter Raffaele Vanni. For his part, Roberto Longhi (1928) proposed a Florentine artist of the first half of the 17th century.

Based on a comparison with a painting in the picture gallery of Lord Yarborough in London, in 1955 Paola della Pergola published the work under the name of Sofonisba Anguissola, recognising the face of Elena in the portrait, sister of the painter from Cremona and a talented painter in her own right. While Maria Kusche (1989) unhesitatingly accepted this theory, Anastasia Gilardi (1994) was less certain, identifying the artist as part of the ‘circle of the Anguissola sisters’ and tentatively proposing that the work could be Elena’s self-portrait. For their part, Mina Gregori (1994), Valerio Guazzoni (1994) and Rosanna Sacchi (1994) suggested that the work depicted a Dominican nun which the painter executed in her convent. On the occasion of the exhibition on the Blessed Osanna Andreasi of Mantua, held in that city in 2005, Angela Ghirardi put an end to the debate, claiming that the subject is indeed a self-portrait of Elena. Here she depicted herself in the guise of the Dominican tertiary with a lily, symbolising purity, and a small heart pierced by a crucifix, a characteristic attribute of the saint which alludes to her strong love for the passion of Christ, which the mystic experienced on her own body in the form of stigmata.

While critics have dated the work to 1555-58, we are justified in proposing the more specific year of 1556, when ‘sor Minerva’ – alias Elena – entered into contact with the Gonzaga court together with Sofonisba and their father. Here the memory of the Blessed Andreasi was much cherished: according to a tradition, it was the prayers of the Dominican sister that allowed Francesco Gonzaga to return alive from the Battle of Fornovo; subsequently, Mantuan dukes often sought her advice. It is probable, then, that the panel was painted in Mantua and left here by the painter, subsequently entering into the possession of Girolamo Bernerio, who was nominated vicar-general of the Lombard city in 1572.

Antonio Iommelli