Orsola Maddalena Caccia, born Theodora Caccia (1596-1676) was an Italian Mannerist painter and Catholic nun.
She painted religious images, altarpieces, and still lifes.
The daughter of painter Guglielmo Caccia and Laura Olivia, she was baptized Theodora Orsola on December 4, 1596.
In 1620, she entered the Ursulines convent at Bianzè, where she changed her name to Orsola Maddalena after she took her vows.
Four of her sisters had already taken their vows there and two years later, her other sister joined the same convent.
At the time, Bianzé was a fortified outpost on the frontier between the lands of the Gonzaga, the dukes of Mantua and Monferrato, and the duchy of Savoy and was often in the path of warring armies.
To find a safer home for his daughters, Guglielmo requested and received permission to found the Ursuline convent at Moncalvo.
He used his own money and made the houses he owned available to pay for this project.
In 1625, Orsola and her sisters moved to the newly founded convent.
Her father died a few months after the convent was established and left drawings, set squares and other art tools for his daughters.
Before his death, he had fostered painting as a vocation for the Ursulines of Moncalvo.
Out of his six daughters and two sons, Orsola and her sister Francesca, who died at a young age, were his only two children to become painters.
She was known as a leader of women in religious painting.
Without her, nuns would not have been able to explore their artistic side.
Later in her life, Orsola became the abbess of the convent.
She outlived all of her sisters and devoted herself to painting until her death in 1676.
Career
Sister Orsola began her career working as her father's assistant.
She learned to paint by mixing the colored pigments for paint and depicting the secondary figures in her father's paintings.
She was a prolific artist and the majority of her works are scattered across the many small localities in Monferrat.
It is claimed that she painted the first recorded flower painting in Italy.
She went on to organize a painting studio within the convent at Moncalvo, where took on students and assistants of her own.
Painting as a trade was encouraged at the convent as it provided a means of support.
Several of Sister Orsola pieces were painted on commission.
Not only did she commission her works, which she did privately and publicly but she paved the way for nuns to become artists.
In two letters addressed to Christine of France written in 1643, she asked to be given an opportunity for paid work as her convent was suffering from poverty.
She helped bring still life painting to Northwestern Italy.
The idea of extremely detailed religious art was also because of Orsola.
She brought people to realize that scenes of the Bible were very important to the story.
She also started to use symbolism in her paintings, such as roses meaning virgin and Ox meaning Jesus’s deat.
Works
Sister Orsola created religious genre paintings, altarpieces, and still lifes which varied little over the course of the fifty years she painted.
Most of her works convey the repertoire of figurative models and types of composition that she studied in her father's studio during her adolescence.
In comparison to her many altarpieces and religious paintings, Sister Orsola created few still life works.
She commonly inserted pieces of still life in many of her religious works.
These elements of still life are a reflection of the types of objects she had access to in the convent and could study from.
Many of her still lifes are considered unusual and notable in their invention and stylistic quality.
Each element of her still lifes is meticulously placed and balanced by other figures in the composition.
She also depicted various species of flowers and other plants in her works.
Orsola's paintings are recognizable as her creations since they are filled with spirituality and are lifelike in their precision.
As the years go on, more of her works continue to be discovered and are correctly attributed to her after initial mislabeling. | Source: © Wikipedia
Orsola Maddalena Caccia Flowers in a Grotesque Vase, 1635 | Metropolitan Museum of Art
Orsola Maddalena Caccia ran a painting studio that supported a convent at Moncalvo founded by her father, the painter Guglielmo Caccia (1568-1625).
The strongly individuated elements evenly distributed across a monochrome background result in a captivating effect of surface pattern.
These features were well suited to religious meditation and were probably derived from her study of Northern European botanical prints. | Source: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Orsola Maddalena Caccia Flowers in a Grotesque Vase, 1635 | Metropolitan Museum of Art
Orsola Maddalena Caccia gestiva uno studio di pittura che sosteneva un convento a Moncalvo fondato dal padre, il pittore Guglielmo Caccia (1568-1625).
Gli elementi fortemente individuati distribuiti uniformemente su uno sfondo monocromatico danno luogo a un effetto accattivante del motivo della superficie.
Queste caratteristiche si adattavano bene alla meditazione religiosa e derivavano probabilmente dal suo studio delle stampe botaniche del Nord Europa. | Fonte: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Orsola Maddalena Caccia | Fruit and Flowers, 1630 | Metropolitan Museum of Art
With its mountain of fruit and dance of flowers in the background, this is one of the most ambitious still-life compositions by Caccia, an important woman artist who ran a studio that supported an Ursuline convent at Moncalvo.
Her idiosyncratic way of individuating each stem of the tulips and irises should be compared to her Flowers in a Grotesque Vase, also in this gallery. | Source: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Orsola Maddalena Caccia | Fruit and Flowers, 1630 | Metropolitan Museum of Art
Con la sua montagna di frutta e la danza dei fiori sullo sfondo, è una delle nature morte più ambiziose di Caccia, importante artista donna che gestiva uno studio che sosteneva un convento delle Orsoline a Moncalvo.
Il suo modo idiosincratico di individuare ogni stelo dei tulipani e degli iris dovrebbe essere paragonato ai suoi Fiori in un vaso grottesco, anch'essi in questa galleria. | Source: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Suor Orsola Maddalena Caccia (Moncalvo, 4 dicembre 1596 - 26 luglio 1676) è stata una religiosa e pittrice Italiana.
Figlia del pittore Guglielmo Caccia e di Laura Oliva, nacque a Moncalvo il 4 dicembre del 1596.
È conosciuta per essere stata una delle poche artiste donna ad essersi affermata nello scenario pittorico del '600 italiano.
Nata nel 1596, figlia di Laura Oliva e del pittore Guglielmo Caccia, viene ricordata per le sue opere (precisamente affreschi e pitture).
Nel 1620 entra nel convento delle Orsoline di Bianzè, solo nel 1625 si trasferisce in un nuovo convento di Moncalvo con le tre sorelle per il volere del padre.
Nella sua pittura ripete temi trattati precedentemente dal padre quali dipinti devoziali per numerose chiese non solo piemontesi.
La sua pittura ebbe successo anche presso la famiglia dei Savoia.
Le fonti Settecentesche, in campo pittorico, però, tendono preferire la sorella Francesca.
Solo ultimamente sono state identificate alcune nature morte di Maddalena che hanno riscontrato l'interesse degli studiosi.
I primi dipinti a lei attribuiti sono l'Immacolata della parrocchiale di Rosazza, la Madonna col Bambino dormente della parrocchiale di Bianzè e la Natività dei depositi di Palazzo Bianco a Genova.
I soggetti affrescati riprendono le idee tipiche del padre e sono collocabili cronologicamente tra il 1615-1620.
Spetta ugualmente alla sua mano la parte alta del Martirio di san Maurizio nella chiesa di San Francesco a Moncalvo iniziato dal padre, ma non terminato a causa della morte improvvisa di quest'ultimo nel 1625.
L'attività tarda della Caccia è caratterizzata da un minore controllo formale accompagnato da un incupirsi dei colori utilizzati in precedenza.
Nonostante alcuni dipinti siano andati perduti la produzione della pittrice supera il centinaio di dipinti conservati.
È importante ricordare tale pittrice in quanto è un esempio di religiosa che ha esercitato l'arte pittorica in quell'epoca in cui la donna era artisticamente meno considerata dell'uomo.
Stile e caratteristiche pittoriche
Il suo stile pittorico è simile a quello arcaico fiammingo di Ludger Tom Ring e di Georg Hoefnagel, presentando una struttura compositiva semplice ed equilibrata, con ogni elemento situato con cura, con particolare attenzione alla verticalità, soprattutto nelle opere con motivi floreali.
Le sue nature morte includono normalmente pezzi di frutta e un animale, di solito un fagiano o un insetto.
Orsola dipinge, inoltre, oggetti di devozione e crea graziose miniature con uno stile assai delicato ereditato dal padre.
Queste opere si trovano oggi in collezioni private, palazzi, musei e chiese del Piemonte e si riconoscono dalla firma che contraddistingue l'artista, costituita da un fiore o un mazzo di fiori. | Fonte: © Wikipedia
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