Eufrasia Burlamacchi

Available March 2025 

Loretta Vandi

Showcasing the beautiful illuminations of Sister Eufrasia Burlamacchi, this monograph is the first devoted to her life and work.

The illuminated manuscripts of Sister Eufrasia Burlamacchi (1478–1548) are truly a sight to behold. Her multifaceted illumination is a balanced blend of simplicity of forms, variety of colors, and fanciful inventions. Though born into a wealthy family, Sister Eufrasia was sent to live in a convent when she was a young girl. Within the convent walls of San Domenico in Lucca, Italy, where she lived and worked, Burlamacchi attained high levels of artistic proficiency through her knowledge of drawing and color technique, composition, treatment of space, and proportions.

Through the thorough scholarship of author Loretta Vandi, this volume argues that Sister Eufrasia not only became the primary illuminator in her Dominican convent in Lucca but was also exposed to the work of artists we now include in the High Renaissance. On this ground, she pursued a clear iconographic program, supported by a style that quickly reached its maturity. Ultimately, she passed her artistic solutions on to younger sisters in faith to establish a convent workshop where mutual exchange was the norm, thus participating in a long tradition of artistic tutelage. Here, for the first time, Eufrasia Burlamacchi is recognized and discussed as an influential and gifted artist in her own right.

Loretta Vandi retired as a tenured professor of art history at the Scuola del Libro, Urbino.

“Vandi’s thorough exploration of Eufrasia Burlamacchi’s career and manuscript production provides an essential analysis of archival evidence, visual analysis of her work, and a nuanced consideration of the conventual context during a tumultuous period of religious reform. Echoing the name of the series of which this publication is part, this monograph deftly illuminates a woman artist whose spiritual and artistic commitment deserves to be considered an essential part of the history of Italian Renaissance art.”
—Andaleeb Badiee Banta, Senior Curator and Department Head, Prints, Drawings and Photographs, The Baltimore Museum of Art

Additional titles in this series.

128 pages
7 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches
79 color and 1 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-956-1
hardcover

Getty Publications
Imprint: Getty Publications
Series: Illuminating Women Artists

2025