ABSTRACT
One of the greatest seventeenth-century innovators in the still-life genre was a woman artist with important ties to Venice: Giovanna Garzoni (Ascoli Piceno [?] ca. 1600–Rome 1670). This essay focuses on Garzoni’s conections to Venice, where she lived from about 1610 until 1630. It will be argued that the city not only furnished her with artistic, musical, and calligraphic training, but also exposed her to notions of natural magic such as the animistic beliefs behind stregamenti, charmed objects composed of ordinary natural material. These influences, as much as her artistic training in Venice, had a lasting impact on her approach to the representation of natural subject matter, which she made appear not only true to life, but also imbued with an anima (soul).
