Fede Galizia: The Overlooked Female Painter of Counter-Reformation Milan

Fede Galizia (ca. 1574–1578 – 1630) was a female painter active in late 16th- and early 17th-century Milan, whose work spanned portraits, biblical scenes, and still lifes. Born into an artistic family—her father Nunzio Galizia was a miniaturist and engraver who moved from Trentino to Milan—she trained in the family workshop. Her early portraits, now mostly lost, depicted intellectuals like Paolo Morigia and noblewomen. She is credited with pioneering the Judith and Holofernes theme, producing at least six versions that influenced later artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi. Her still lifes, inspired by Caravaggio's Basket of Fruit and Flemish painting, are noted for their elegance, simplicity, and memento mori quality. Few of her works survive, scattered across Italian and international museums. Key surviving pieces include the Portrait of Paolo Morigia at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which provides clues to her birth year, and her Judith with the Head of Holofernes, which emphasizes the subject's rich attire over dramatic expression. Galizia died of plague in 1630.