The Role of Art in Recent Biofiction on Sofonisba Anguissola

Abstract

In recent years the life stories of early modern women artists have inspired many works of biofiction; yet often authors know more about what the artists created than the facts of their lives. This essay will explore the intermediality between visual and verbal content by exploring the role of art in two recent novels on the Italian Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola: Donna DiGiuseppe’s Lady in Ermine: The Story of a Woman Who Painted the Renaissance and Chiara Montani’s Sofonisba: Portraits of the Soul . In the process I will explore the Renaissance paragone debate and consider how verbal descriptions of artworks may (or may not) enhance our understanding of the artist’s fictionalized character.