User:AliceCeleste/The Game of Chess (Sofonisba Anguissola)

Lead section

- correct sister's name to Europa

- Jill Burke talks about this painting as definitely about feminist issues and chess being a game needing intellect

History
(details about its commission, production, and the artist)

Composition and Subject Matter
- material thats already there

Portrayal of Women Playing Chess
The extravagant, “queenly attire” the three Anguissola sisters wear serve as indications that Sofonisba Anguissola did not paint this scene to recreate a specific event of chess playing between the sisters. The luxurious costume Anguissola dresses her sisters in draws the connection back to the domestic traditions of embroidery or weaving, but by portraying this group immersed in an activity completely different from the normal skills that were vital to a girl’s education during this time period, Anguissola shows these young women in a new realm.

The Game of Chess features an all female group. New chess rules were in place in Italy by the time of the creation of Anguissola’s painting, changing the hierarchy of power so that the queen held most importance out of all chess pieces. Anguissola includes her sisters and maidservant in this composition but excludes her younger brother, Asdrubale. The fully female cast is unlike many of the sixteenth-century artworks about chess that preceded it, like Giulio Campi’s The Chess Game or Lucas van Leyden’s Chess Game. Anguissola's work acts as a "self-celebration of women's accomplishments and talent" in how it challenges past "exclu[sions of] women from the representation of chess and an intellectual pursuit."


 * Chess pieces reflect this too somehow (capture of queen?)