# Self-Portrait at the Spinet [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [FONTANA, Lavinia]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 27 x 24 cm ## Commentary Lavinia Fontana specialized in portraits and was the first woman accepted into the prestigious Accademia di San Luca, the organization of painters, in Rome. Of her self-portraits, one of the most interesting seems to be this marriage portrait. Sitting on the spinet is a piece of coral carved into the shape of a love-knot, a symbol of betrothal. The inscription on the painting, "Lavinia, the unmarried daughter of Prospero Fontana, took this, her image, from the mirror, 1577," indicates that the painting was made before Fontana's marriage that same year to Giovan Paolo Zappi, a fellow pupil in his father's studio. They had eleven children, and it is said that Zappi assisted her by painting the backgrounds in some of her works. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 4 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/16\_cent/massaino\_canzon.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Tiburtio Massaino: Canzon XXXIII</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [Apollo and the Muses \(Parnassus\)]() - [Family Portrait]() - [Head of a Youth]() - [Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene]() - [Judith with the Head of Holofernes]() - [Minerva Dressing]() - [Minerva Dressing]() - [Portrait of a Girl]() - [Portrait of a Lady]() - [Portrait of a Newborn in a Cradle]() - [Portrait of a Noblewoman]() - [Portrait of a Notary]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()