{{Short description|Italian artist (1552–1638)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox artist | name = Barbara Longhi | image = Presumed Self-Portrait as St. Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara Longhi.jpg | alt = | caption = Self-portrait, as<br />''Saint Catherine of Alexandria'' | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1552|9|21|df=y}} | birth_place = Ravenna, Papal States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1638|12|23|1552|9|21|df=y}} | death_place = Ravenna, Papal States | field = Painting | father = Luca Longhi | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = | elected = | website = }}
'''Barbara Longhi''' ({{IPAc-en|lang|b|ɑr|ˈ|b|ɑr|ə|_|ˈ|l|ɒ|ŋ|ɡ|i}} {{respell|bar|BAR|ə|_|LONG|ghee}}, {{IPA|it|ˈbarbara ˈloŋɡi|lang}}; 21 September 1552 – 23 December 1638)<ref name="nmwa"/> was an Italian painter. She was much admired in her lifetime as a portraitist, although most of her portraits are now lost or unattributed. Her work, such as her many Madonna and Child paintings, earned her a fine reputation as an artist.
==Life and work== Barbara Longhi was born on 21 September 1552 in the northern Italian city of Ravenna, where she spent her entire life.<ref name="nmwa"/> Her father, Luca Longhi (1507–1580), was a well-known Mannerist painter,<ref name="cheney454"/> and her older brother Francesco (1544–1618) was also a painter. Both siblings received painting education from their father and were part of his studio,<ref name="af"/> with Barbara assisting in such projects as work on large altarpieces.<ref name="cheney454"/> She also modeled, and gained some familiarity with the process of marketing her artwork to patrons.<ref name="nmwa"/> Although her training was completed by 1570, her ties to her family and to her father's workshop remained strong. Very little is known of her life, not even whether she was ever married.<ref name="nmwa"/>
thumb|left|''Virgin and Child with Saint'', ca. 1590–95 Longhi was very respected as a portraitist, but only one of her portraits, the ''Camaldolese Monk'', is known today. This is also her only known painting depicting an adult male, and one of only a few that includes a date (although the last digit is not entirely legible; it may be 1570 or 1573).<ref name="cheney454"/>
Longhi's father had depicted her as Saint Barbara in his 1570 painting ''Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints''. Longhi also probably modeled for her father's ''Nuptials of Cana''.<ref name="nmwa"/> Her ''Saint Catherine of Alexandria'' (''above'') bears a strong resemblance to her father's depictions of her in the two paintings mentioned above, and it is generally acknowledged as a self-portrait.<ref name="nmwa"/><ref name="cheney454"/><ref name="ceroni170"/> Of Longhi's portrayal of herself as the aristocratic, cultured Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Irene Graziani writes that "when she exhibits an image of herself, Barbara, too, is presented according to the model of the virtuous, elegant and erudite woman, revisiting the themes which Lavinia [Fontana] had developed several years earlier in Bologna, according to a repertoire tied to late Mannerism".<ref name="ceroni170"/> It has been suggested that Longhi may have presented her self-portrait as the devotional image of a saint in order to avoid the appearance of indulging in the sin of vanity.<ref name="ceroni170"/> Originally commissioned for the monastery of Sant'Apollinare in Classe,<ref name="nmwa"/> the painting was acquired by the Museo d'Arte della Città di Ravenna in 1829, and underwent a restoration in 1980.<ref name="ceroni170"/> Several other of her depictions of Catherine of Alexandria exist.<ref name="cheney454"/>
Most of Longhi's paintings are unsigned, but on one she included the initials "B.L.F.", standing for "Barbara Longhi fecit" ("made by Barbara Longhi")<ref name="af"/> and on another, "B.L.P.", for "Barbara Longhi pinxit" ("painted by Barbara Longhi").<ref name="ceroni167"/> As almost all of her work was unsigned, it is unknown how many paintings she created or are still in existence. Only about fifteen are definitively attributed to her.<ref name="cheney454"/><ref name="life"/> Of those, about twelve are paintings of the Virgin and Child;<ref name="cheney454"/> such paintings were very popular during the Counter-Reformation.<ref name="af"/> It is thought that some of her works may be erroneously attributed to her father.<ref name="ceroni167"/>
Among Longhi's paintings which do not depict the Madonna is ''Judith with the Head of Holofernes'' (ca. 1570–75). This subject was also painted by other female artists including Fede Galizia, Elisabetta Sirani and Artemisia Gentileschi. Longhi's version differs greatly from two versions painted by Gentileschi in that it does not depict the violent act; instead, her Judith appears to seek forgiveness as she looks heavenward. This is consistent with Counter-Reformation ideas about willingness to admit guilt, and believing in absolution for the penitent.<ref name="cheney455"/>
thumb|''Madonna Adoring the Child'', ca. 1600–05 The simplicity of composition and subtle colour palette used in her paintings also reflect the doctrines of the Counter-Reformation. Her relatively small works, as opposed to the large altarpieces created by her father, are indicative of their intended emphasis on devotional thoughts. She sought to evoke empathy in the viewer with her subjects. She resisted the trend to create huge Biblical scenes, instead concentrating on serene depictions of the Virgin and Child.<ref name="nmwa"/>
Her artistic influences included Raphael, Antonio da Correggio, Parmigianino, Marcantonio Raimondi, and Agostino Veneziano.<ref name="nmwa"/><ref name="cheney454"/> The international success of famed female Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola may have also served as an inspiration.<ref name="ndwb"/> While influenced by these major figures, her own unique style evolved; for example, her delicate rendering of features such as arms and necks on her Madonnas, and her use of a "warm and subtle golden palette".<ref name="cheney454"/> She "links traditional composition with intensity of feeling and innovative colouring."<ref name="ndwb"/>
She died in Ravenna on 23 December 1638, at the age of 86.<ref name="nmwa"/>
==Assessment== Longhi is one of the few female artists mentioned in the second edition (1568) of Italian painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari's epic work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects''.<ref name="Phaidon Editors">{{cite book |title=Great women artists |year=2019 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0714878775 |page=249}}</ref> Vasari writes that Longhi "draws very well, and she has begun to colour some things with good grace and manner".<ref name="tinagli"/> But as Germaine Greer discussed in her ''The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work'', such "haphazard" selections of women artists including Longhi rarely offered "serious criticism of their achievement."<ref name="greer2-3"/> Greer then offered her own assessment: "Barbara's output was considerable, all small pictures, remarkable for their purity of line and soft brilliance of colour"<ref name="greer127"/> and "Barbara Longhi brings to her extremely conservative picture-making a simplicity and intensity of feeling quite beyond her mannerist father and her dilettante brother."<ref name="greer128"/>
thumb|left|''Madonna and Child'', ca. 1580–85 Muzio Manfredi assessed Longhi's talent in a 1575 lecture in Bologna: {{quote|You should know that in Ravenna lives today a girl of eighteen years of age, daughter of the Excellent painter Messer Luca Longhi. She is so wonderful in this art that her own father begins to be astonished by her, especially in her portraits as she barely glances at a person that she can portray better than anybody else with the sitter posing in front.<ref name="tinagli"/>}} Despite a measure of fame in her home town of Ravenna, Longhi was not well known elsewhere during her lifetime. Her paintings provide some insight into the Counter-Reformation's influence on regional art.<ref name="cheney455"/>
==Collections== The Museo d'Arte della Città di Ravenna owns seven works by Barbara Longhi, as well as eleven of her father Luca's and three by her brother Francesco.<ref name="ceroni167"/>
Her work is represented in the collections of the Musée du Louvre (Paris), National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest), Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Museo Biblioteca del Grappa, and Indianapolis Museum of Art, and also in the Santa Maria Maggiore (Ravenna).{{Clear}}
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="af">{{cite web|url=http://www.artfortune.com/barbara-longhi/artistbiographies-129011/|title=Barbara Longhi|work=Art Fortune|access-date=9 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320213856/http://www.artfortune.com/barbara-longhi/artistbiographies-129011/|archive-date=20 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="ceroni167">Ceroni, p. 167.</ref> <ref name="ceroni170">Ceroni, p. 170.</ref>
<ref name="cheney454">Cheney, p. 454.</ref> <ref name="cheney455">Cheney, p. 455.</ref>
<ref name="greer2-3">Greer, p. 2–3.</ref> <ref name="greer127">Greer, p. 127.</ref> <ref name="greer128">Greer, p. 128.</ref>
<ref name="life">{{cite web|url=http://www.lifeinitaly.com/art/women-artist-3.asp|title=Italian Women Artists 3|work=Life In Italy|access-date=9 June 2011}}</ref>
<ref name="ndwb">Uglow and Hendry, p. 20.</ref>
<ref name="nmwa">{{cite web|url=http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail&entity_id=10650|title=Barbara Longhi|year=2008|work=National Museum of Women in the Arts|access-date=9 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110625035141/http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail&entity_id=10650|archive-date=25 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="tinagli">Tinagli, p. 12.</ref>
}}
==Sources== {{Commons category|Barbara Longhi}} * Banta, Andaleeb Badiee and Alexa Greist, with Theresa Kutasz Christensen. ''Making her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800''. Fredericton, New Brunswick (Canada): Gooselane Editions, 2023. ISBN 9781773103181. * {{cite book|last=Ceroni|first=Nadia|editor=National Museum of Women in the Arts|editor-link=National Museum of Women in the Arts|title=Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque|year=2007|publisher=Skira Editore S.p.A|location=Milan, Italy|isbn=978-88-7624-919-8|chapter=Barbara Longhi|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/italianwomenarti0000unse}} * {{cite book|last=Cheney|first=Liana De Girolami|editor=Delia Gaze|title=Concise Dictionary of Women Artists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCduKb-ujO8C&pg=PA454|access-date=9 June 2011|year=2001|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-57958-335-4}} * {{cite book|last=Greer|first=Germaine|author-link=Germaine Greer|title=The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qnBu6eUvx18C&pg=PA3|access-date=9 June 2011|year=2001|publisher=Tauris Parke|isbn=978-1-86064-677-5}} * {{cite book|last=Tinagli|first=Paola|title=Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender, Representation, Identity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMB_ysyXfhsC&pg=PA12|access-date=9 June 2011|year=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-4054-2}} * {{cite book|last1=Uglow|first1=Jennifer S.|authorlink1=Jenny Uglow|last2=Hendry|first2=Maggy|title=The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlQKDvU1WV0C&pg=PA20|access-date=9 June 2011|year=1999|publisher=UPNE|isbn=978-1-55553-421-9}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Longhi, Barbara}} Category:People from Ravenna Category:1552 births Category:1638 deaths Category:16th-century Italian painters Category:16th-century Italian women painters Category:17th-century Italian painters Category:17th-century Italian women painters Category:Catholic painters Category:Catholic women artists