Women artists from the early modern period throughout Italy are rarely still known in identifiable drawings. In this regard, Venice is not unusual: few of its women artists produced drawings that are still extant, raising questions about their practices in designing their works. Does this mean that they rarely drew? Or, if not, what accounts for the paucity of surviving works on paper by Venetian women? When their drawings are still extant, what do these exceptions signify?

Presented by Dr. Babette Bohn, Professor Emerita of Art History, Texas Christian University

Babette Bohn, a specialist on Bolognese art, is professor emerita of art history at Texas Christian University, where she received several awards for her teaching and research. Her most recent book, Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna, was published in 2021 by the Pennsylvania State University Press. This book won the Prose Award for the outstanding publication in Art History & Criticism, awarded by the Association of American Publishers in 2022. Several of Bohn’s other books examine Bolognese prints and drawings, such as two commentary volumes in The Illustrated Bartsch series; Ludovico Carracci and the Art of Drawing (2004); and Le “Stanze” di Guido Reni: Disegni del maestro e della scuola, the catalogue of an exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery (2008). In addition, she co-authored the exhibition catalogue Federico Barocci, Renaissance Master of Color & Line, with Judith Mann in 2012. Her latest publications largely focus on women artists in Italy, including essays for two exhibition catalogues: one on Lavinia Fontana and Bolognese material culture and another on drawings by women artists throughout the Italian peninsula. 

*Offered exclusively to current members: Join or Renew

Image: Giulia Lama, Study of a Male Nude, Museo Correr, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (on deposit in Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice)