page_title: Properzia de' Rossi
section_title: De' Rossi in The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
hierarchical_section_title: Properzia de' Rossi / De' Rossi in The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
caption_attribution_description: Illustratio from "Le Vite" by Giorgio Vasari, edition of 1568. For the artist portrayed see filename
context_page_description: Properzia de' Rossi, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. She studied under the Bolognese artist and master engraver Marcantonio Raimondi, who is best known today for his engravings after paintings by Raphael.
context_section_description: De' Rossi was one of about 40 woman artists, mostly painters, in Renaissance Italy. Female sculptors were rare, for sculpting was considered masculine due to the strength and stamina the medium required of the artists. She was one of four women included in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, collecting biographies of those he viewed as the most prominent artists of the recent centuries. However, his comments about de' Rossi make his view clear: sculpting is not an art form that women should attempt. For example, while he calls her fruit pit sculptures "miraculous," he also asserts that de' Rossi's depiction of the Egyptian officer's wife was a self-portrait. He claimed that de' Rossi had an unrequited affection for Anton Galeazzo Malvasia, a young nobleman, and the bas-relief panel allowed her to illustrate Malvasia's denial of a romantic relationship. Vasari's assertion was probably founded on an apocryphal story; however, his inclusion of the incident in his biography of Properzia is probably due to a belief in the Renaissance that women were prone to be overcome and hindered by melancholia. Vasari used Properzia's San Petronio as an example of how all women, even those who are great artisans, cannot escape their "female" nature.
caption: A supposed portrait of Properzia, from Vasari's Lives
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