| Abstract | Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) was a painter during the seventeenth century that enjoyed an itinerant career unusual for a woman of her time. Working in several cities, including Venice, Naples, Turin, Florence, Rome, and Paris, Garzoni benefited from the patronage of many influential patrons such as the grand dukes of Tuscany, the Medici. This led to a long sojourn in Florence between 1641 and 1652 as court artist to Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici and Vittoria della Rovere. There, and later while in Rome she produced a number of still life paintings on vellum. Most notably a series of twenty miniatures commissioned by Ferdinando II for the Villa del Poggio Imperiale. Garzoni’s still lifes consist of a centralized composition with a luminous background featuring diverse arrangements of fruit, flowers, and leaves. Insects and birds also appear in some of these works. Despite their small scale, these paintings show rich detail with vibrant colors and a naturalistic representation the Medici highly valued. This thesis will focus on five of the twenty still lifes. I will argue that the culture of art and science championed by the Medici along with her practice of botanical illustration encouraged Garzoni’s highly naturalistic approach in the still lifes for the Villa del Poggio Imperiale. The first chapter will place Garzoni’s career into context, through a discussion of the emergence of the Italian still life, scientific revolution, and women’s status as still-life painters and illustrators of scientific subjects, along with a discussion of the Medici’s scientific activities. The second chapter focuses on Garzoni’s reception by early biographers, her early artistic development in botanical illustration, and comparison to works by such contemporaries as Jacopo Ligozzi (1547-1627). Finally, the third chapter will explore Garzoni’s stay in Florence and the series of still lifes commissioned by Duke Ferdinando II for the Villa del Poggio Imperiale. As renowned patrons of both the arts and the sciences, the Medici greatly admired the ability of Garzoni’s still lifes to convey their contemporary cultural and intellectual interests. |
