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The Matchless Beauty of Widowhood: Vittoria Colonna’s Reputation in Nineteenth‐century England
Author(s) -
ØstermarkJohansen Lene
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
art history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8365
pISSN - 0141-6790
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8365.00152
Subject(s) - portrait , protestantism , art , beauty , context (archaeology) , poetry , parallels , popularity , mythology , painting , art history , literature , history , religious studies , philosophy , law , political science , archaeology , engineering , aesthetics , mechanical engineering
Bronzino’s portrait of Maria Salviati was in the latter half of the nineteenth century believed to be Michelangelo’s portrait of his woman friend, the poet and Protestant reformer Vittoria Colonna. A Victorian misreading of Michelangelo’s poems found evidence of such a portrait in his verses, and the article discusses the myth of the artist’s portrait of his beloved within the context of the Petrarchan tradition. It furthermore establishes Vittoria Colonna’s great popularity in Victorian England as the faithful widow, devout Protestant and female poet, and draws a number of parallels between sixteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century attitudes to the intellectual woman.