Faustina Maratti (c. 1679–1745) was an

Italian Baroque Italian Baroque (or ''Barocco'') is a stylistic period in Italian history and art that spanned from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. History The early 17th century marked a time of change for those of the Roman Catholic religion ...

poet and painter.

Biography

Maratti was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, the natural daughter of the painter

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (18 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian Baroque painter and Drawing, draughtsman, active principallly in Rome where he was the leading painter in the second half of the 17th century. He was a fresco and canvas painte ...

(or Maratti). From an early age, she received a good education, which included music, fine arts, and, above all, poetry. Her beauty attracted the attention of Giangiorgio

Sforza Cesarini The House of Sforza () was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. Sforza rule began with the family's acquisition of the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti of Milan, Visconti family in the mid-15th century and ...

, a son of the Duke of Genzano, near Rome, where Maratta had retired. After her refusal, Sforza Cesarini tried to kidnap her as she walked to Mass with her mother and friends. He failed, but during the struggle she was wounded on the left temple, leaving a scar. Sforza Cesarini was sentenced to prison, escaped and fled to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. In 1704, her heroic resistance gained her a place in the Arcadia Literary Academy, under the name of Aglauro Cidonia. Here she met the poet Giambattista Felice Zappi, a lawyer from

Imola Imola (; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna ...

whom she married in 1705. Their house became a renowned literary circle: people attending included, among the others,

Georg Friedrich Händel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well-known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

Domenico Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (26 October 1685 – 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque music, Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical peri ...

Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina (20 January 1664 – 6 January 1718) was an Italian man of letters and jurist. He was born at Roggiano Gravina, a small town near Cosenza, in Calabria. He was the adoptive father of the poet Metastasio. Biography ...

and

Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni (9 October 16638 March 1728) was an Italian critic and poet. Crescimbeni was a founding member and leader of the erudite literary society of Accademia degli Arcadi in Rome. Biography Born in Macerata, which was then ...

. The two had two sons: Rinaldo in 1709 (who died two years later) and Luigi in 1712. She became a widow in 1719. Her works include 38 sonnets published in her husband's collection ''Rime'' in 1723. They are in

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

esque style, according to the rules established by the poetry theorist Crescimbeni. Some of them are inspired by her father's works, while others pivot around female figures of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

Selected works

The Canzoniere by Maratti (or ''Aglauro Cidonia'') includes only 38 sonnets which were published, together with the verses of her husband, for the first time in 1723 in the Rime collection ''by Giovanni Battista Felice Zappi and Faustina Maratti, his wife, added other poems by most famous of the Arcadia of Rome''. These are Petrarchian-style sonnets, formally elegant and balanced according to the canons of the theorist Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni. The youth sonnets had as their subject great female figures of the Roman world (Veturia, Tuzia, Porzia, Lucrezia), and often drew inspiration from the paintings of his father Carlo Maratta. Much more felt are the rhymes of mature age that sing, with measured style, the family affections or the pain for the death of their son Rinaldo. Some compositions that remained unpublished during Faustina's life are known: 5 sonnets and an epistoletta published in the fifteenth edition of the rhymes of the Zappi spouses; the epistoletta testifies that Maratti did not only write sonnets. She died in 1745 in Rome and is buried in the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maratti, Faustina 1670s births 1745 deaths 17th-century Italian women artists Painters from Rome Italian Baroque writers Italian Baroque painters Italian women poets Members of the Academy of Arcadians Writers from Rome 17th-century Italian women writers 18th-century Italian women writers 18th-century Italian women painters 18th-century Italian painters