In the sixteenth century, the revival of ancient ideas and the development of the treatise on art

created new bases for collecting rare and precious objects, and patrons and artists alike
monopolized the positions of expert and connoisseur. The Medici family, for example, collected
ancient statuary, coins, medals, gems, jewels and other precious objects. The painter Giorgio Vasari
collected not only artists' drawings, but also their paintings and sculptures. Sixteenth-century views
on collecting were associated with the genius of the artist. Historiography as a criterion of art
collecting was introduced by Vasari, who endowed the artist with autonomous artistic value. In
1547, he created the first Florentine museum, La Tribuna, located on the second floor of the
Galleria degli Uffizi.
In addition to art collecting, the sixteenth-century patron and artist became fascinated with
collecting scientific and exotic objects of curiosity. This included naturalia (objects of natural
sciences) as well as artificialia (objects made by human hands, including books and musical
instruments). The cabinets of curiosities, so called "marvelous cabinets," combined the synthesis of
objects from the natural world and objects to measure the heavenly world. Among the Bolognese
collectors with these interests known to Fontana were Ferdinando Cospi and his anatomical
collection in Bologna (now in the Museo Civico di Bologna) and Aldrovandi whose Monstrorum
historia (Bologna, 1642) contains a curious portrait of Pedro Gonzalez' bearded daughter by
Fontana. The development of collecting naturalia and artificialia influenced representations in
paintings, in particular genre and portrait paintings like Fontana's, which included cabinet pictures
as background decoration, and studioli, which illusionistically recreated a cabinet of curiosity.
In the sixteenth century, particularly in Rome, this fascination with art collecting expanded to
excavations, as recorded in Aldrovandi's Delle statue antiche. For the first time, these discoveries
were carefully documented. Artists, too, began to record visually what they saw as the excavations
progressed, depicting ruins and fragments found in archeological digs, like the LaocOon noted in
Zuccaro's drawing (Fig. 9). In addition, artists made cast models, as seen in Niccolo della Casa's
Portrait of Bandinelli (Fig. 14) and Enea Vico's The Academy of Bandinelli (Fig. 15).
Fontana must have succumbed to the spell of art collecting as a result of her training and contact
with her patrons, like Aldrovandi. In her earlier apprenticeship in Bologna, Fontana assisted her
father, Prospero, a student and frequent assistant of Vasari, who, as mentioned earlier, was an avid
collector. Earlier it was also stated that in Rome, Fontana worked under the papal patronage of
Gregory XIII and Clement VII, and would have developed an interest in antiquity and collecting
while in their service. In portraying herself with her cast collection in the background, she placed
herself among the knowledgeable collectors of her era. The cast collection depicted in her painting
also speaks of the importance of studying ancient works of art to achieve fame as a painter. Felice
Antonio Casoni's commemorative medal of Fontana of 161 1 (Fig. 16), with the inscription "Per te
stato gioioso mi mantene" ("Because of you [painting], I am in constant joy,") attests to her
attainment and enjoyment of that fame.
Fontana's use of models and plaster casts as a source for drawing and painting, reveals her
inventiveness in coping with the artistic training of female painters of the era. Since women were
not permitted to attend art classes in the academies and often did not have access to the nude model,
their study of art depended on the instruction received from their fathers. Fontana's painting
demonstrates that she overcame this obstacle by collecting casts to learn from ancient artists who in
turn created works from nature. Although her private studiolo contrasts with a public academy of
art, such as the accademie del Disegno in Florence (Fig. 15) or di San Luca in Rome , Fontana's
painting displays similar antique casts as objects of study.

In her Self-Portrait in Her Studio, Fontana also addresses the paragone, which deals with the
superiority of painting versus sculpture. She indicates by her action that it is the art of drawing that
is superior to painting and sculpture, since both art forms depend on its merit. Fontana reveals her
opinion to the viewer by depicting herself in the act of drawing. At a work table are two antique
bronze or perhaps marble statues on pedestals deriving from antique sources--a crouching Venus
and a standing Mercury-as Fontana is about to draw, with a stylus in one hand. In the other, resting
on the arm of the chair, she holds a handkerchief used to correct errors in the drawing.