#120 Raphael and the Ladies II, The Prince of Painters and Female Patrons, Collectors, and Viewers: A Conversation with Dr. Sheryl Reiss

Saturday, March 28th Live on Zoom

10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence

During his all-too-brief career, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (1483-1520), frequently benefited from the patronage of women and painted works intended for female viewers ranging from nuns to noblewomen. Raphael’s women patrons and viewers came from different social classes and were often linked via bonds of kinship, marriage, and friendship. This conversation with Sheryl Reiss continues a Studiolo presentation in November 2022, when Dr. Reiss discussed the networks of female patrons who helped to shape the artist’s career; how Raphael catered to women’s tastes in different locales; and how he varied his style to suit different female patrons. 

This follow-on talk will look at other case studies both during and after Raphael’s lifetime, including an unusual example of a female observer in Cinquecento Florence and a pious woman collector of erotic art in late 16^th century Rome; female viewers in the writings of 16^th century authors Paolo Giovio and Baldassare Castiglione; the gendered reception of Raphael in the works of three Victorian women writers (Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, Anna Jameson, and Julia Cartwright Ady); and the insatiable art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston’s Gilded Age. Dr. Reiss’s presentation will coincide the with opening of the exhibition “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (March 29–June 28, 2026) and is dedicated to the memory of Patricia Rucidlo who was a devoted member of Paola’s Studiolo.

Sheryl Reiss received her PhD from Princeton University in 1992; she is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Newberry Library and teaches at the Graham School of the University of Chicago.  She is a specialist in Italian Renaissance art and architecture with particular interest in the history of patronage.  She is also interested in women and gender; archaism in early modern art; exchanges between Italy and Northern Europe; and funerary art.  She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships and has published widely on Italian art and art patronage of the early 16^th century, focusing on the patronage of members of the Medici family on Raphael and Michelangelo.  She has co-edited two books, Beyond Isabella: Secular Women Patrons of Art in Renaissance Italy (2001, with David Wilkins) and The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture (2005, with Kenneth Gouwens).  She is currently completing The Making of a Medici Maecenas: Giulio de’ Medici (Pope Clement VII) as Patron of Art and, has coedited a collection of essays, Reconsidering Raphael with Yvonne Elet and Linda Wolk-Simon, to be published in 2026.

To RSVP: Paola50122@gmail.com

Minimum suggested donation: $28

This talk is free for Friends of Paola's Studiolo!

Look forward to seeing you on Zoom!