While in Boston, I absolutely fell in love with a portrait in the Isabella Stuart Gardner Gallery. We had seen any number of really beautiful items, but this one simple blew me away. I stopped dead and stared at it, I lusted after the gown and cursed that the museum did not allow photography. Once we got the to gift shop, I further cursed that there was not a single good picture of the painting in any of the guidebooks or postcards. Tragedy!

They did, however, have pictures of one of my other favorite pieces of the collection, Juana of Austria with a young girl by Sofonisba Anguissola.



I had seen Sofonisba's work before and had been interested to learn more about her.

I got a little derailed reading A Perfect Red and Moda a Firenze, but before long had several books on Sofonisba from the library. Ironically, reading Moda and Red first were helpful, as they helped me understand and appreciate some of the details in Sofonisba's work and understand the general time and place where she grew up.

Sofonisba was born in Cremona around 1532. As the daughter of a nobleman, being allowed to be educated as and work as a professional painter were somewhat unusual. However, she was quite talented, so these studies paid off and she was able to study under Campi, Gatti, and even (to some small extent) Michaelangelo. She came to specialize in detailed, intimate portraits, including self portraits and many of her immediate family.


The Chess Game (Check out those dresses! See why I love her?)

The new icon (see above) is also of Sofonisba, in one of my favorite of her self-portraits. I really am tempted to make her outfit... Also, I recently discovered that my hair is finally long enough to wear in such a style again (braided, then looped up around the top of the head). Happiness. :)

In 1559, Sofonisba was invited to come to Spain to be one of the court painters. There she befriended the newly arrived queen, Elizabeth of Valois and eventually the Infantas Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela.


Portrait of Queen Elizabeth by Sofonisba


Portrait of the Infantas by Sofonisba

Sadly, the Queen died young. Sofonisba stayed in the Spanish Court for some time, as painter and governess to the girls, but eventually the King of Spain arranged a marriage for her to a son of the Prince of Paterno. She was 38 or so at the time of this first marriage, quite old for a first time bride! While it seemed to be a reasonably happy marriage, she outlived him to marry again (at the age of 47!) to Orazio, who was to be the love of her life. They settled together back in Italy where, against all the odds, she happily painted and lived with her husband for nearly another fifty years.

Toward the end of her life (1623), she was visited by the young artist Van Dyke, who drew and painted her on several occasions and took notes on her recommendations for said works. Having recently been in contact with the Archduchess of Austria, he could have been bringing her letters and greetings on his visit as well, but that information is not actually recorded anywhere. Sofonisba died in 1625, aged 93 years.


Self portrait from 1610, about 80 years old

On the 100th anniversary of her birth, her husband placed an her tomb a commemorative stone that reads, in part:

"To Sofonisba, my wife...who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world, outstanding in portraying the images of man... Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for the loss of his great love, in 1632, dedicated this little tribute to such a great woman."





Oh, and the name of that Archduchess of Austria? Isabella Clara Eugenia, the little Infanta Sofonisba knew as a child and the beautiful lady whose portrait so enchanted me at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Gallery in Boston.



Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria (1566-1633), c.1598
Frans Pourbus II
Oil on canvas, 134.9 x 98.2 cm 
© Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

My thanks to the wonderful folks at the museum who were so kind as to send me a *huge* scan of the beautiful portrait, so that I may study it in greater detail.

Tidbits from here and there around the East Coast trip - the trimmings and selvages as it were...



Friends Old and New

One of the best parts of my trip to the East Coast was time spent with friends. I got to spend a lot of time with jtdiii but I also got to meet and catch up with a lot of other folks. We spent New Year's Eve at a local SCA house party, which seem to be the same the Knowne World over - large house, multiple roommates, LOTS of food, a moderate amount of alcohol. I got to meet a lot of people from the East Coast groups and enjoy hearing about the local activities and stories. As a special delight, I spent a significant part of the night on a squishy couch, geeking out about early period metalwork with Cariadoc of the Bow. Sadly, I had not brought my laptop to the party, so my ability to share the geekiness was limited to what I could remember or pull up on my iPhone. The following day was even better - I spent the morning wandering the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with jtdiii and mtgordon. I had not seen mtgordon for about seven years, since he was last in town for a friend's wedding. It was wonderful to see him and spend some time catching up. Then, we went back to his apartment and I got to meet his wife, son, and mother-in-law. Hi little son is so cute! Even if he didn't seem so sure of me, scowling up at me and only cautiously approaching the strange girl. *grin* Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the conversation and company overpowered my shutterbug tendencies and I failed to take any photos.  I know that mtgordon has a lot of photos online, and now some video too, so if you know him and want to see the spawn, drop him a line. Seeing him was definitely a highlight of the trip...



Inter-Kingdom Anthropolgy - East Kingdom 12th Night
On my trip, I also had the opportunity to attend the East Kingdom's Twelfth Night. It was a fun, low key event. I picked up several nice little treasures in the merchants, got to see that defector, rufinia, and got to observe SCA life in the East. I had been hoping to go to the Laurel meeting, but missed it, in part because I kept seeing Ice wandering about the event. However, apparently in the East the King does not go to the Laurel meetings, that is a job for the Prince. Since it was a Twelfth Night, they were serving a King Cake with the lunch buffet. The tradition is that the finder of the bean baked into the cake becomes the King or Queen of Misrule for the day.



Sadly, they chose to award a prize to the finder, instead of a crown. *sigh* I got a lovely little deck of cards, but was sad to not have the opportunity to create some havock - that IS my specialty, after all! ;)




Going places - Miscellaneous Sites seen

In addition to the other places mentioned in previous blogs, I visited several other places on my trip. I stopped into the Elizabeth Ann Seaton home, in large part out of curiosity about these tiny red brick buildings huddled at the foot of metal and glass skyscrapers. Elizabeth Ann Seaton is the first American to be canonized a saint, so I picked up a few holy cards for my mom and other devout relatives.

Of course, in my travels around the city, I passed through Grand Central Station on several occasions. On a couple occasions, I wandered around a bit, admiring the architecture, the painted ceiling, and - of course - the beautiful chandeliers!



One of the more surprising little jewels was the New York Medical Library  -  they had some interesting displays about medical equipment from the 20's, but the real joy was seeing their newly-restored Flemish Tapestry. If you should have the opportunity to go see it yourself, be forewarned that it is mostly a medical library and they are not used to tourists. They will ask you to sign in the building's lobby and check your jacket and purse with the front desk of the library, but they will allow you to take photos of the tapestry.



The Museum of the City of New York was right next door to the Medical Library, so I thought it would be fun to dally there for a bit as well. The museum was largely a disappointment, however. The exhibit on antique toys was interesting, but limited. The top floor was filled with recreations of rooms from the Rockefeller mansions, and was probably the best part of the museum, but probably not worth the price of admission by itself. I would not recommend going unless you have an interest in one of the special exhibits.



Things I missed...

Of course, even with a lot of time on the East Coast, there were a lot of things I did not have the opportunity to see. Most of Boston was canceled because of  weather and other misfortunes, so the MFA and the "Freedom Trail" are things for a later, and hopefully warmer, visit. I did get to the Met, but even spending seven solid hours there (and deciding that I could sacrifice lunch to the need to see more of the exhibits), I could have spent another week there. I never did get to the Cloisters, in part because of other priorities and again in part because of the weather making the outside gardens inaccessible, so that is also a must-see for a future trip. Likewise, I saw very little of Central Park, which would be fun to stroll some time... when it is warm... and dry... :P And while I did acquire a huge amount of fabric, I will, of course, need to visit the fabric stores again. ;) After all, 10 yards have already found a home with mightyjesse, more went to PJ as a belated birthday present, three more are slated for Twelfth Night gifts as-is, and several more have already been cut and sewn into Twelfth Night gifts for next weekend. See? I clearly need more... Both more fabric and more East Coast! :)

What can I say… I got to the Met at 10AM and left when they threw me out at 5PM and could have spent several days more wandering about. I spent some time in the Greek and Roman exhibits before realizing that I could not continue at that pace and still see even a quarter of the collections. I had to admit to myself that I had little interest in modern art and absolutely none in the art of Africa, Oceania, or the Americas, so I only browsed the former and simply took the shortest route through the latter.

There is entirely too much to even begin to summarize the few galleries I did see, so I’ll simply highlight my very favorite pieces.

I am now done (or at least nearly done) organizing my photos from the trip. I have organized them into a number of folders. Many of them include SCA-related images. The available folders include:

I very much love my house, with its Tardis-like levels and Sweet Midori kitchen, but I have long dreamed of someday building a lovely castle… I now have an amendment to that. I don’t need a castle as if I could move into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Mrs. Gardner built the building to house her collection and opened it to the public as a museum in 1903.

In any event, this was a wonderful museum and I very strongly recommend you see it, should you find yourself in Boston.