FRATELLINI, Giovanna - b. 1666 Firenze, d. 1731 Firenze

Italian painter (née Marmocchini Cortesi). After training with Livio Mehus and Pietro Dandini she was appointed lady-in-waiting to Vittoria della Rovere, dowager Grand Duchess of Tuscany, who had her instructed in painting and music. She studied painting in miniature with Ippolito Galantini (1627-1706) and in pastel with Domenico Tempesti (c. 1655-1737). She also learnt to paint in enamel and she finished her studies with Anton Domenico Gabbiani. Grand Duke Cosimo III, Grand Prince Ferdinando and his consort Violante Beatrice of Bavaria and numerous other members of the nobility commissioned portraits from her. The oval-shaped miniature enamel Portrait of a Young Man (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore) perhaps depicts Cosimo III’s son Gian Gastone de’ Medici. Fratellini married in 1684, and her unidealized Self-portrait (Uffizi, Florence) shows her painting a portrait of her son Lorenzo. She also painted fables, bacchanals and historical subjects, such as the Death of Lucretia (untraced). The painter Violante Beatrice Siries (1709-83) was her pupil.

Self-Portrait

Although she depicted herself working with oil paint, Fratellini was considered the second-greatest pastelist in Florence - after her teacher, Domenico Tempesta. Legend has it that the subject of the miniature was her son Lorenzo, a promising artist who died in 1729. Fratellini’s signature elements were the fluttering ribbons she is jauntily wearing.