LIFE AND LEGACY
sofonisba anguissola lived to the advanced age
of 93. She died in 1625 in Palermo, Sicily, after long
outliving the siblings whom she had depicted with
such freshness and joy. The young baroque art-
ist Anthony Van Dyck visited her sometime in the
year before her death; he was intrigued to meet a
woman who had painted the “old” king of Spain and
corresponded with Michelangelo. He later painted
her portrait (opposite). Alongside a line drawing of
the elderly Sofonisba, Van Dyck describes meeting
her in the pages of his sketchbook: “She recounted
how she had been a miraculous painter from life,
and the greatest torment she had known was not
being able to paint anymore, because of her failing
eyesight. Her hand was still steady, without any
trembling.”