SOFONISBA ANGUISOLA, ink and watercolor

SOFONISBA ANGUISOLA, ink and watercolor in my journal. This is a sketch of her painting: Self-Portrait with the Virgin and Child. Sofonisba was born in 1532. Her father sent samples of her work to Michelangelo, who invited her to work with him.  After a few years in Florence, she was invited to the court of Felipe II and Isabel de Valois, King and Queen of Spain.

Sofonisba was married at 38 . After her husband died, she fell in love and married again, at 47. She continued painting all over Europe,  up till a few days before her death at 93, in 1625. You can read the novelized version of her life in  Lynn Cullen's The Creation of Eve.

UMBRIA, ITALY, watercolor

Umbria, Italy, watercolor 6x9 in.

Walking around Assisi, in the province of Perugia, in Umbria, we often see grapevines attached to a wall, a building, and even to another tree for support.

Reading DANTE, A LIFE, by R.W.B. Lewis, I've just learned that when the first gold florin was minted in 1552, it became almost instantly the basic monetary measure in Europe. Its originality consisted in that instead of being engraved with the pope or the emperor, as it had been the custom, it had the symbols of the city of Florence (thus "florin"), St. Giovanni on one side, and the lily on the other, the city's secular emblem.

Silver Lake II

Silver Lake II, inkwash 4x6.
Did you know? Giovanni Bellini (1431-1516) introduced the oil techniques in Venice in the 1470s. He brought them from Holland, where the Dutch first thought of mixing oil with the color pigments. Soon the use of fabric or canvas for support, was also adopted in Venice, and the school of Venice was on its way to compete with the Racionalism of Florence.