Thursday, October 9, 2025 @ 10:00 AM
at Peoria Riverfront Museum
Working Women: Italian Women Artists, 1500-1800
lecture by Dr. Eve Straussman-Flanzer
Curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings, National Gallery of Art
This lecture will trace the avenues for success of women artists in Italy from 1500 until 1800. Starting with the rise of women artists in the Renaissance, the talk will explore in what media (painting, drawing, and sculpture) women artists had the most success, how a woman become an artist in the early modern period, what family backgrounds did most women artists come from, did many of them marry and have children, could women artists support themselves? This talk will explore th0se questions and many more through the lives and art of over a dozen women artists of the period—from more famous Italian women artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Rosalba Carriera, to lesser-known ones such as Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani. Attendees will come away with a better sense of what it took to succeed as a women artist in Italy of the early modern period as well as the rich and deep artistic legacy that they have left behind.
An authority on Italian painting in the early modern period and an expert on early modern women artists and patrons, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer joined the National Gallery of Art in 2020 as curator and head of Italian and Spanish paintings. She was previously the head of the European art department and the Elizabeth and Allan Shelden Curator of European Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) from 2016-2020, and has held posts at Wellesley College's Davis Museum in Massachusetts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Free for members of Fine Arts Society, $12 non-members, $5 students
lecture by Dr. Eve Straussman-Flanzer
Curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings, National Gallery of Art
This lecture will trace the avenues for success of women artists in Italy from 1500 until 1800. Starting with the rise of women artists in the Renaissance, the talk will explore in what media (painting, drawing, and sculpture) women artists had the most success, how a woman become an artist in the early modern period, what family backgrounds did most women artists come from, did many of them marry and have children, could women artists support themselves? This talk will explore th0se questions and many more through the lives and art of over a dozen women artists of the period—from more famous Italian women artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Rosalba Carriera, to lesser-known ones such as Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani. Attendees will come away with a better sense of what it took to succeed as a women artist in Italy of the early modern period as well as the rich and deep artistic legacy that they have left behind.
An authority on Italian painting in the early modern period and an expert on early modern women artists and patrons, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer joined the National Gallery of Art in 2020 as curator and head of Italian and Spanish paintings. She was previously the head of the European art department and the Elizabeth and Allan Shelden Curator of European Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) from 2016-2020, and has held posts at Wellesley College's Davis Museum in Massachusetts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Free for members of Fine Arts Society, $12 non-members, $5 students