Lavinia Fontana (1552– 1614) was an Italian Mannerist painter.
She was trained by her father, Prospero Fontana who was a painter and later she studied under the Netherlandish artist Denis Calvaert. She also attended classes at the University of Bologna and began her commercial practice by painting small devotional paintings on copper, which had popular appeal as papal and diplomatic gifts, given the value and lustre of the metal.
In the 1580s, she gained renown as a portraitist of Bolognese noblewomen and she is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe.
She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also produced paintings on mythological allegorical and religious themes.
She was the first female elected into the Academia di San Luca of Rome, and her fame spread to Rome, where she moved in 1604. There she became a portraitist at the court of Pope Paul V and was the recipient of numerous honors.
