🖌️🎨Orsola Maddalena Caccia (1596–1676) was an Italian artist and Piedmontese nun.

 🖌️🎨Orsola Maddalena Caccia (1596–1676) was an Italian artist and Piedmontese nun.

Orsola's exact date of birth is unknown, but she is said to have been around eighty years old at the time of her death in 1676.

Orsola was born into a family of "artists": her mother was Laura Oliva, daughter of the painter Ambrogio Oliva.

Her father was Guglielmo Caccia, known as Moncalvo, also known as Raphael of Monferrato.

Moncalvo received the title of baron after executing, together with Federico Zuccari, a painting in the Royal Gallery of Turin (1605–1607).

The Caccias had eight children, six of whom were girls, four of whom were sent to a convent.

So, four nuns: Orsola Maddalena, Agatha Rosa Anna, Laura Margherita, Cristina Serafina and Anna Guglielma.

The father even founded a new monastery in Moncalvo, where he moved his daughters, who formed a religious community there, which was only abolished in 1802.

The monastery, dedicated to Sant'Orsola, was located in a house that belonged to the artist, which later became part of the monastery complex, where the Palazzo Civico is now located.

Two of the sisters-nuns became artists: Anna Guglielma, who changed her name to Francesca, who died at the age of twenty, and Orsola, who was also the abbess of the monastery.

Orsola owed her artistic education to her father, and her first works were greatly influenced by her father's writings. She continued to use Guglielmo's drawings for her own works for a long time, and also finished the paintings that were left in the studio as sketches.

Her style is very similar to that of her father, although she deviates slightly from the chromatic point of view in favor of icier and bluer tones and a more noticeable use of contrasts. Her work was influenced by the Flemish, Caravaggio, as well as Leonardo and Raphael. But these influences are sporadic and limited to formal examples.

Orsola had commissions for churches and monasteries, as well as for families and even for the Savoy court, with which she is connected by a personal relationship with the Infanta Margherita of Savoy.

Her works were completely forgotten for centuries, although Orsolina completed a hundred works.

Her name began to appear again in the mid-1960s, when she was credited with some still lifes exhibited at the 1964 Still Life Exhibition.

Orsola introduced still lifes to Piedmont, albeit in a somewhat expanded style.

The little-known artist's name is almost always attributed to the still life genre, although there are not many works of this type by her. There are various paintings by the artist on the antique market, albeit small works for personal use, but very interesting. However, it was in this genre that Orsola was able to express her own style best, since Moncalvo did not paint still lifes.

In a much more restrained style compared to Caravaggio, Orsola Caccio creates compositions that are real still lifes, far from memento mori, but these are high-quality and original images of things and animals.

In three still lifes of the town hall of Moncalvo, she uses a vertical format and a symmetrical structure. These are very archaic compositions, endowed with great charm thanks to the bright colors that stand out against the dark background.

Still life fragments are also present in religious works and make up their painting.

In addition to the iconology of these elements, carefully selected according to the idea that needs to be conveyed, flowers, fruits and animals, especially birds, allow Orsola to add something personal to the compositions.

If you look closely at her still lifes, you will notice that there is always a small bird to admire. Orsola is very attentive to the details of the description, she is a great observer of the surroundings.

A small hint: the artist's signature is often represented by a flower, a branch or a bird.

Orsola painted not only still lifes, but also religious and religious works, images of saints and saints for churches and monasteries. In fact, these are the compositions that are most based on the teachings and style of her father. She often reuses her father's drawings for several canvases.

The painting "Musician Angels" has a very feminine style of execution.

The landscape around is fantastic, almost fairy-tale-like. The Nordic influence is strongly felt here, which is also characterized by the sharp drapery of the dress and several examples of spontaneous colors. The treatment of the clothes in the paintings is completely different, a little freer, where, however, the Flemish echo is preserved in the red wings of the angels.

✍️ For materials: art4arte, wordpress, 100torri, Art Herstory.