Laura Bernasconi

Born and died in Rome, she trained with Mario Nuzzi, and like him, painted still life paintings of flowers. She worked in Rome from 1622 to 1675. Little is known about her: she was a pupil of Mario Nuzzi, known as Mario de 'Fiori, from whom she learned to compose large bunches of multicolored flowers. In L'Abecedario pittorico ('ABC of Painting') by the Bolognese writer and art historian Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi [1] we read: Laura Bernasconi, a Roman painter, she learned how to paint the flowers from Mario Nuzzi, and succeeded in perfection, she made the ornamentation of the painting St. Gaetano, painted by Andrea Camassei in St. Andrea della Valle. In the sacristy of this church there is the altar with the altarpiece of San Gaetano, portrayed in prayer among the Angels. The flowers that embellish the painting are executed by Laura Bernasconi. Mario Nuzzi was also a master of Francesco Mantovano, Pier Francesco Cittadini and Paolo Porpora. Laura Bernasconi painted, with Carlo Ruthard and her son Filippo, between 1665 and 1668, the ceiling of the Gallary in Palazzo Colonna. Her works are visible in Rome, at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.Still life paintings of flowers had been favored by Giovanna Garzoni, another woman painter in Rome who died in 1670.

• Farquhar, Maria (1855). Ralph Nicholson Wornum (ed.). Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Jun 27, 2006. p. 24.