Background
Barbara Longhi was born on September 21, 1552 in Ravenna, Italy. Her father Luca Longhi (1507-1580) was a well-known Mannerist painter, and her older brother Francesco (1544-1618) was also a painter.
Barbara Longhi was born on September 21, 1552 in Ravenna, Italy. Her father Luca Longhi (1507-1580) was a well-known Mannerist painter, and her older brother Francesco (1544-1618) was also a painter.
Barbara Longhi received painting education from her father and was part of his studio, assisting in such projects as work on large altarpieces. She also modeled, and gained some familiarity with the process of marketing her artwork to patrons. Completing her artistic training in 1570, Barbara remained connected with her family and her father’s studio.
During her time as her father's assistant, Barbara Longhi worked as his model and marketed her work to patrons.
Although Longhi was admired for her skill as a portraitist during her lifetime, the "Camaldolese Monk" (circa 1570) is her only known portrait that has survived. This is also her only known painting depicting an adult male, and one of only a few that includes a date.
The painting "Saint Catherine of Alexandria" (1589), is believed to be a self-portrait of Barbara based upon its strong similarity to the portrait of her as St. Barbara in "The Madonna Enthroned with Saints" (1570), by Luca Longhi.
The beliefs of the Counter-Reformation are reflected in Longhi’s devotional paintings. These works are characterized by a gentle palette of colors and simple compositions. Mature examples of Longhi’s paintings of Madonna and the baby Jesus combine themes of femininity and motherly love.
It is unknown who Barbara’s patrons were, but she was able to continue to paint and support herself in Ravenna after her father’s death in 1590.
Barbara Longhi died on December 23, 1638 in Ravenna, Italy.
Barbara Longhi gained a fine reputation as an artist for her many Madonna and Child paintings. She is also one of the few female artists mentioned in the second edition (1568) of Italian painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari's epic work "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects".
The Museo d'Arte della Città di Ravenna owns seven works by Barbara Longhi. Despite a measure of fame in her home town of Ravenna, Longhi was not well known elsewhere during her lifetime.
However, her work is represented in the collections of the Musée du Louvre (Paris), Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Museo Biblioteca del Grappa, Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, Maryland), and Indianapolis Museum of Art, and also in the Santa Maria Maggiore (Ravenna).
Quotes from others about the person
Giorgio Vasari: "Longhi "draws very well, and she has begun to colour some things with good grace and manner."
Germaine Greer: "Barbara's output was considerable, all small pictures, remarkable for their purity of line and soft brilliance of colour... Barbara Longhi brings to her extremely conservative picture-making a simplicity and intensity of feeling quite beyond her mannerist father and her dilettante brother."
Muzio Manfredi: "You should know that in Ravenna lives today a girl of eighteen years of age, daughter of the Excellent painter Messer Luca Longhi. She is so wonderful in this art that her own father begins to be astonished by her, especially in her portraits as she barely glances at a person that she can portray better than anybody else with the sitter posing in front."
It is unclear whether Longhi was ever married.
