Trailblazer and Rule Breaker Lavinia Fontana

The National Museum of Women in the Arts’s (NMWA) monthly talk show connects viewers to the museum and its mission to champion women artists. In this episode, Dr. Aoife Brady, curator of Italian and Spanish art at the National Gallery of Ireland, join NMWA hosts to discuss her upcoming exhibition, Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker, which celebrates the portraits of the first female artist to achieve professional success. This exhibition will include NMWA’s Portrait of Costanza Alidosi (ca. 1595). Brady will also discuss the Gallery’s Fontana Conservation and Research Project.

About the Speaker

Aoife Brady is the Curator of Italian and Spanish art at the National Gallery of Ireland. A specialist in Bolognese painting, Brady holds a doctorate in the History of Art from Trinity College Dublin, and has held curatorial roles with The National Gallery, London, and the Paintings Department of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Her primary research interests relate to the study of painting techniques, materials, and artists’ studio practices, with focus on seventeenth-century Italy and Spain. Brady’s recent curatorial projects have included an exhibition of work by Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla entitled Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light in partnership with the National Gallery, London, and an in-focus exhibition of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s series of paintings depicting the parable of the Prodigal Son, a collaboration with the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and the Meadows Museum, Dallas. Brady is currently working on a large-scale exhibition examining the work of Lavinia Fontana, scheduled to open in Dublin in May of 2023.

For more information, email education@nmwa.org.