Artist

Fede Galizia

Adoration of the Magi

• Fede Galizia (Italian, c. 1578–c. 1630)
• Oil on canvas, 240 x 171 cm
• c. 1610
• Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte

The available information about the life of Northern Italian painter Fede Galizia is sparse. Her father Nunzio Galizia, a miniaturist and metalworker, trained her. Nunzio Galizia was from Trent; it is possible that his daughter was born there. At some point he moved to Milan, the city where Fede principally lived and worked. Her earliest known paintings date to her teenager years. From as early as the 1590s her talent was recognized by her contemporaries; in their writings, such figures as Gian Paolo Lomazzo and Paolo Morigia praise the young artist.

Of the 60-some Fede Galizia paintings still in existence, about two-thirds are fruit still lifes. Galizia was one of the first Italian painters to specialize in the genre. Although she may be best known today as a still life painter, her oeuvre is diverse. She was commissioned to paint several altarpieces for Milanese churches. She also produced portraits, and religious paintings around themes from both the Old and New Testaments. For example, there are at least four known Fede Galizia paintings depicting the story of Judith and Holofernes.

According to the online database Female Artists in History, “Galizia never married. On June 21, 1630, she made her will and is thought to have died of the plague in Milan shortly afterward.“

Museums that hold works by Fede Galizia include the Uffizi; Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte; the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Pinacoteca Ambrosiana; Tokyo’s National Museum of Western Art; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Pinacoteca di Brera; the National Museum of Women in the Arts; Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie; Castello Sforzesco; Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts; Museo Civico Ala Ponzone; and Milan’s Museo del Duomo. A number of works by the artist are in private hands.

Recent and upcoming exhibitions including work by Fede Galizia:

Donne nella Napoli spagnola: Un altro Seicento at Gallerie d’Italia–Napoli, November 20, 2025–March 22, 2026.

A Feast of Fruit and Flowers at The Hyde Collection, October 25, 2025–March 8, 2026.

Maestras: Women Artists at Arp Museum, February 25–June 16, 2024, and at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, October 31, 2023–February 4, 2024.

Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400–1800 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, March 30–July 1, 2024, and at the Baltimore Museum of Art, October 1, 2023–January 7, 2024.

By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800 at the Wadsworth Atheneum, September 30, 2021–January 9, 2022, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, February 6–May 29, 2022.

Fede Galizia, mirabile pittoressa at Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trent (Italy), July 3–October 24, 2021. 

Le Signore dell’Arte. Storie di donne tra ’500 e ’600 at Milan’s Palazzo Reale, March 2–August 22, 2021.

Learn more online about Fede Galizia at:

The Art Herstory blog:

In defense of monographic exhibitions of female artists: The case of Fede Galizia, by Camille Nouhant

Fede Galizia: The Great Old Master of Her Time, by Anna Ingram for DailyArt Magazine

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