The “Vite” of Women Artists in Venice (Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century)

Important steps have been taken, especially in recent years, in the research and systematic study of the work of women artists in Italy. However, a lack of extant “Vite” of these artists by their contemporaries hampers our study, especially in the case of Venice. This essay will explore the function of existing “Vite” as a historiographical source for women artists and how they were filtered through the “eyes” of male writers and art critics. The study of the biographies of women artists who lived and worked in Venice during the long period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries is the aim of this research, to identify literary stereotypes and biographical patterns. An appendix of Venetian and Venetan women artists and sources is provided.