Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) is widely considered to be a woman of many firsts in western Europe. She was the first woman to achieve professional success as an artist beyond the confines of a court or a convent. She was the first woman to run her own workshop at a time when women were not allowed to conduct business of their own. She was the first woman to paint large-scale public altarpieces and nudes. All this while giving birth to eleven children, only three of whom survived her.
An exhibition at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt shows that the baroque painter’s idealised figures are certainly an acquired taste, writes Christopher Baker