Portrait Medal of Diana Scultori, 1580, verso showing her holding an engraving tool
Diana Scultori (ca. 1535-1612) led a life worthy of a major motion picture or at least a rollicking historical romance/adventure novel! While relatively unknown today, she was famous in her time, receiving a papal privilege to make and market her own work, receiving honors, and working for noble patrons and such celebrated authors as Giorgio Vasari.
Diana was born in Mantua, the daughter of a well-known engraver, Giovanni Battista Scultori. This lucky circumstance enabled her to bypass the laws forbidding women from formal apprenticeships. It wasn't unusual for daughters of artisans to be trained in the family trade, although engraving was not commonly pursued as an independent career by women. Diana is one of earliest known female printmakers in Europe.
Diana married architect Francesco Capriani di Volterra and in 1575 the couple moved to Rome. Diana had a gift for business and promotion and was soon hard at work advancing both her husband's career and her own. Several of her prints between 1579-1580 were made to promote her husband's architectural designs. Their son was born in 1578 when she was in her early forties. The couple were well-regarded as an exemplary Renaissance couple, representing many of the new ideals of the times. They were fully integrated into the milieu of the artistic and architectural movers and shakers of the day, joining various societies and professional organizations. Interesting note, after Capriani's death, Diana married another architect, Giulio Pelosi, twenty years her junior.
As well as architectural engravings, Diana successfully pursued other work for wealthy and noble families, engraving drawings and paintings of well-known artists. She worked for the art biographer Giorgio Vasari, as he revised and expanded the second edition of his iconic "Lives of the Artists." He included her in this edition, one of the very few women Vasari mentioned, despite the many gifted women artists of the age. Diana received numerous other honors and accolades in her day. She was notably scrupulous about maintaining "a spotless reputation" despite her exciting life of work, travel, high level socializing, business dealings, and personal fame.
Diana used several different last names, including Mantuana and Ghisi. This was not uncommon at the time. She apparently actually never signed any work as Diana Scultori, her family name. Her engraving work is included in books, and held in library and museum collections, world-wide.
The above modern day print depicting Diana Scultori working with Vasari was from a series of engravings on the history of printmaking made by Evan Lindquist (American, 1936-2023.) Mr. Lindquist was the first Artist Laureate for the state of Arkansas, where he lived and worked during his long and successful career.
P.S. I actually didn't realize this when I was originally writing this blog post, but Diana is currently is the subject of an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art! Diana Scultori: An Engraver in Renaissance Rome
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