The much-neglected history of women artists is the focus of a major new exhibition opening here on Tuesday, which explores little-known female artistic talent from the last four centuries.
Featuring over 200 works on loan from top museums around the world, the exhibit kicks off with the Renaissance and runs through to the Surrealist period.
Paintings by 110 different artists will be on display.
While some of the more modern painters represented, such as Tamara De Lempicka (1902-1980) or Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), are widely known, others have vanished into near obscurity.
The exhibit seeks to restore the name of these 'lost painters', uncovering the talent of women who frequently broke the conventions of their age in order to purse their passion.
The first name is that of Sofonisba Anguissola (1535-1625) from Cremona, lucky enough to have a broadminded father who believed in women's abilities. Anguissola was consequently allowed to study with two respected painters, Bernardino Campi and Bernardino Gatti, setting a precedent for other women artists.
By the time she was old and blind, Anguissola's work was so widely admired, that she was visited by Anton Van Dyck, a great fan of her art.
Two of Anguissola's best-known pieces have made it into the Milan exhibit: 'Self-Portrait on an Easel' and 'Chess Game'.
Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) from Bologna was another portrait artist. Trained by her father, she became a respected Mannerist painter.
Other women to receive training from their fathers were the Venetian Marietta Robusti (1560-1590), daughter of Tintoretto, and Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654), daughter of Orazio Gentileschi.
The former, represented by a self-portrait on loan from Florence's Uffizi Gallery, was little known, but the latter became famous in her own time for her tragic biblical scenes.
Work from the 1700s includes a self-portrait and 'Portrait of a Man' by Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), who specialized in pastel techniques, as well as 'Erminia' and 'Immortality' by the Swiss-born artist who lived in Rome, Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807).
Two keen Impressionists are among those from the 1800s, Berte Morisot (1841-1895) from France, and Mary Cassat (1844-1926) from the US.
Works by Suzanne Valadon (1867-1938) offer a foretaste of French Fauvism and Cubism and the exhibit also includes sculptures by Camille Claudel (1864-1944). Claudel gained notoriety as Auguste Rodin's mistress but she was also considered one of France's best 19th-century sculptors, evidenced by her famous portrait of Rodin and a bronze work entitled 'La Valse'.
Moving on into the 19th century, the exhibit features work by French artist Elizabeth Chaplin (1890-1982) and Britain's Vanessa Bell (1879-1961).
Pieces by three important female Expressionists are also on show: Germany's Gabriele Munter (1877-1962), the Russian-Swiss artist Marianne von Werefkin (1860-1938) and the German sculptor and printmaker Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945).
Surrealism is represented by Switzerland's Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985) among others, while the show wraps up with art by De Lempicka, from Poland, and Kahlo of Mexico.
The exhibit is on show in Milan's Palazzo Reale from December 4 until March 9.
