Lavinia Fontana's 1604-1605 Portrait Reveals Symbolic Jewelry in Renaissance Children's Portraiture
In early modern Europe, jewelry for children served as a reflection of identity and social status. Lavinia Fontana's painting from 1604-1605, titled 'Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Her Children,' exemplifies this concept through its symbolic elements. Bianca degli Utili Maselli is shown alongside her five sons and daughter Verginia, who is adorned with coral bracelets for protection, a necklace made of coral and pearls denoting purity, and earrings similar to her mother's. Her brothers wear simple gold rings and chains. Additional symbols include a quill and inkwell representing education, a songbird signifying innocence, and a silver cup filled with figs, possibly alluding to fertility. This artwork, highlighting both individuality and family unity, is housed at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA.
Key facts
- Lavinia Fontana painted 'Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Her Children' around 1604-1605
- The portrait depicts Roman noblewoman Bianca degli Utili Maselli with her five sons and daughter Verginia
- Verginia wears coral bracelets, a coral-and-pearl necklace, and five-drop earrings mirroring her mother's
- Red coral was believed to have apotropaic qualities to ward off evil and illness in Renaissance Europe
- Pearls symbolized purity and connected to religious traditions like baptism
- The painting is housed at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in San Francisco, CA, USA
- Fontana used symbolic objects including a quill and inkwell, songbird, and silver cup of figs in the composition
- Seventeenth-century European portraiture used jewelry to signal wealth, family networks, and social position
Entities
Artists
- Lavinia Fontana
- Bianca degli Utili Maselli
- Verginia
Institutions
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Locations
- San Francisco
- California
- USA
- Rome
- Europe