TEACHERS AND IMITATORS
in 1562 a friend of Michelangelo wrote to Duke
Cosimo I de’ Medici of Florence enclosing one
of Sofonisba’s sketches, a work titled “A Boy
Bitten by a Crawfish” (left). The work came
about, he explained, “because Michelangelo,
having seen her drawing of a laughing girl, said
he would like to see a weeping boy, this being
more difficult. So she sent him this, a portrait of
her brother whom she studiously made to cry.”
Sofonisba would have been familiar with the
works of Michelangelo, who created works with
similar emotion. The relationship between the
young woman and aged genius was conducted
via letters, supervised by her father. Despite the
limitations of her encounters as a woman, the
effect of her drawing was profound: Forty years
later, its gestures and expression inspired one of
Caravaggio’s most expressive works (below).“BOY BITTEN BY A LIZARD,” BY CARAVAGGIO,
CA 1595. FONDAZIONE ROBERTO LONGHI, FLORENCE
ALBUM/AKG/RABATTI & DOMINGIE