Barbara Longhi – painter

Artist created small portraits in soft colours with strong feeling

Longhi's painting of Saint Catherine of
Alexandria is a supposed self-portrait 

The talented portrait painter Barbara Longhi was born into a family of artists on this day in 1552 in Ravenna. Her work was much admired by her contemporaries but, sadly, only a small part of it has survived.

Daughter of the painter Luca Longhi, Barbara painted a portrait of herself as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and thankfully this can still be seen in Ravenna’s Museo dell’ Arte della Città. She also modelled for her father and his representations of her in his paintings confirm that the portrait of Saint Catherine was a good likeness of herself at that time.

Barbara and her older brother, Francesco, were both taught to paint by their father and as they grew up they would help in his workshop with major projects such as altarpieces. Barbara was depicted by her father as Saint Barbara in his 1570 painting Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints. 

She had completed her training by the time she was 18, but always stayed close to her father’s workshop in Ravenna.

Many of the surviving works that have been definitely attributed to Barbara Longhi depict the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ. Her picture of the Madonna and Child, which shows the Virgin Mary breast feeding, painted between 1575 and 1580, was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2021.

Barbara Longhi did not sign all her paintings but on one, she wrote "B.L.F.", which means "Barbara Longhi fecit" (made by Barbara Longhi). On another, she wrote "B.L.P.", meaning "Barbara Longhi pinxit (painted by Barbara Longhi). Since most of her work was not signed, it is not known exactly how many pictures she painted, and only 15 works have been definitely attributed to her up to now.

One of her best-known paintings, Portrait of a Camaldolese Monk, is the only one of her known works to show an adult man. It is also one of the few paintings that has a date on it, though it is hard to read and could be either 1570 or 1573.

It is thought that Barbara probably posed for her father Luca Longhi’s painting of Nuptials of Cana for the Church of the Camaldolese in Ravenna. In the picture with her are her brother, Francesco, and the Abbot of the church’s convent, Don Pietro Bagnolo da Bagnacavallo. 

Longhi's Portrait of a Camaldolese
Monk, a rare depiction by her of a man

Barbara Longhi’s portrait of herself as Saint Catherine was painted when she was still a young woman and it shows her to be poised and elegantly dressed. It was painted for a monastery, but was acquired by the Museo dell' Arte della Città di Ravenna in 1829 and was cleaned in 1980.

One of her few paintings that does not show the Madonna is her 1570s work, Judith with the Head of Holofernes. It differs from other pictorial versions of the same story because it does not depict the violence of the act, but shows Judith looking up to heaven as if asking for forgiveness, reflecting the ideas being put forward by the Counter Reformation at the time.

Barbara Longhi’s paintings were typically small and composed with just a few people in them, rather than recreating huge scenes from the Bible. 

Experts have praised her use of soft colours and her ability to capture the feelings of her subjects. It has been claimed that her own father, Luca, once said he was astonished by her ability to portray a subject, after only a short glance at them, with more skill than other artists could achieve with the sitter posed in front of them for a longer period.

Barbara Longhi died at the age of 86 in her home town of Ravenna. A few of her paintings have since found their way to art galleries in France, Romania, the US, and Canada, as well as throughout Italy.

The Lombard Loggetta in the former monastery that
houses the Museo dell’ Arte della Città di Ravenna

Travel tip:

There are seven paintings by Barbara Longhi, as well as works by her brother, Francesco, and father, Luca, on display in the Museo dell’ Arte della Città di Ravenna, which is in the centre of the city. The museum is housed in the former monastery of Santa Maria in Porto, which has a 16th century cloister and a loggia overlooking its gardens, known as the Lombard Loggetta. Today the museum preserves works of art ranging from the 14th century, right up to examples of contemporary art. It also houses a contemporary mosaics collection. The museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 09.00 to 18.00 and on Sundays and during holidays from 15.00 to 19.00. It is situated in Via di Roma, at number 13.

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Magnificent mosaics adorn the
Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna

Travel tip:

Ravenna, in Emilia-Romagna, was the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites within the city. The Basilica di San Vitale, with its magnificent mosaics, is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe. Ravenna also houses the tomb of the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who lived and died in the city after he was exiled from Florence. The English poet Lord Byron also lived in Ravenna in the 19th century and was said to have found Dante’s tomb in the centre of the city inspirational. He would regularly visit the tomb and sit writing his poetry close by it during his time in the city. Florence has repeatedly asked for Dante’s remains to be sent back to them, but Ravenna has always refused to relinquish them.

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More reading:

Luca Longhi, the ‘quiet scholar’ who trained his children to follow in his footsteps

When Lord Byron became a Ravenna revolutionary

The mother of 11 who was Italy’s first female professional painter

Also on this day:

1559: The birth of painter Lodovico Cardi, known as Cigoli

1744: The birth of architect Giacomo Quarenghi

1960: The birth of conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan

1998: The death of actress Clara Calamai

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20 September

Sophia Loren – actress

Glamorous star one of just three Italian Oscar winners

The actress Sophia Loren, who came to be regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful women and is the most famous name in Italian cinema history, was born on this day in 1934 in Rome.  In a career spanning more than 60 years, Loren appeared in almost 90 films made for the big screen and several others for television.  Although she was often picked for her looks and box-office appeal, she proved her acting talent by winning an Oscar for her role in Vittorio De Sica’s gritty 1960 drama Two Women, released in Italy as La ciociara.  In doing so she became one of only three Italians to win the Academy Award for Best Actor or Actress and the first of either sex to win the award for an Italian-language film. She followed Anna Magnani, who had won in 1955 for The Rose Tattoo, as the second Italian Oscar winner in 1961. Read more…

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Election of Pope Clement VII

Appointment that sparked split in Catholic Church

The election of Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII by a group of disaffected French cardinals, prompting the split in the Roman Catholic Church that became known as the Western Schism or the Great Schism, took place on this day in 1378.  The extraordinary division in the hierarchy of the church, which saw two and ultimately three rival popes each claiming to be the rightful leader, each with his own court and following, was not resolved until 1417.  It was prompted by the election in Rome of Urban VI as the successor to Gregory XI, who had returned the papal court to Rome from Avignon, where it had been based for almost 70 years after an earlier dispute.  The election of Cardinal Bartolomeo Prignano as Urban VI followed rioting by angry Roman citizens demanding a Roman be made pope. Prignano, the former Archbishop of Bari was not a Roman. Read more…

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Sant’Eustachio – Roman saint

Christian convert martyred by Hadrian became world famous 

The feast day of Saint Eustace, Sant’Eustachio as he is known in Italian, is celebrated on this day every year in Rome, as well as throughout Italy, and elsewhere in the world.  Eustace is revered as a Christian martyr because he was killed by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 118 for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. He was thrown to the lions initially but the animals are said to have refused to eat him, so Hadrian ordered another unpleasant death for him and his family, using a brazen bull, a lifesize model of a bull cast in bronze, which was a particularly cruel torture and execution device of the day.  After Eustace and his family’s deaths, their bodies were secretly recovered and buried by Christians in Rome.  A church and minor basilica in Italy’s capital city is named after Eustace in Rione Sant’Eustachio, an area between Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.  Read more…

Capture of Rome

Troops enter the capital in final act of unification

Crack infantry soldiers from Piedmont entered Rome and completed the unification of Italy on this day in 1870.  Rome had remained under French control even after the first Italian parliament had proclaimed Victor Emmanuel of Savoy the King of Italy in 1861.  The Italian parliament had declared Rome the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy even though it had not yet taken control of the city.  A French garrison had remained in Rome on the orders of Napoleon III of France in support of Pope Pius IX.  But after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, Napoleon III had to withdraw many of his troops. Italian soldiers from the Bersaglieri regiments in Piedmont led by General Raffaele Cadorna seized their chance and after a brief bombardment were able to enter Rome through a breach in the Aurelian Walls near Porta Pia.  Read more…

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Asia Argento - actress and director

Twice winner of Italian ‘Oscar’ with turbulent private life

The actress and director Asia Argento, whose father is the influential horror movie director Dario Argento, was born on this day in 1975 in Rome.  Argento’s mother was the actress Daria Nicolodi, granddaughter of the composer Alfredo Casella. She appeared in her first movie at the age of nine and turned out to have such a talent for acting she had won two David di Donatello best actress awards - the Italian equivalent of an Oscar - by the time she was 21.  As well as appearing in around 50 movies, some of which she also wrote and directed, and a number of television productions, Argento’s artistic talents have ranged to writing short stories and novels and recording solo albums as a singer.  Her private life has been somewhat turbulent. Married for five years to the director Michele Civetta, she was previously in a long-term relationship with the Italian rock musician Morgan. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life, by Sophia Loren

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is Sophia Loren's definitive autobiography, revealing her personal journey from the hardship of her childhood in Naples to her life as a screen legend, sharing stories of work, love, and family.  Each chapter begins with a letter, a document, a photograph, or object that prompts her reminiscences. In her own words, these memoirs originated as, "Unpublished memories, curious anecdotes, tiny secrets told, all of which spring from a box found by chance, a precious treasure trove filled with emotions, experiences, adventures."  Loren vividly recounts her difficult childhood in Naples during World War II, remembers her parents and their tempestuous relationship, and reveals the pain of growing up in her grandparents' house with her single, unmarried mother and younger sister. She tells how she got her start by winning a beauty pageant and how her ambition drove her success in cinema before revealing the influence of the producer Carlo Ponti, who cast her in her early roles and later became her husband. Loren takes us behind the scenes , with stories of her famed co-stars: Brando, Newman, Burton, Peck, Heston, and many more. With emotional honesty, Loren goes on to discuss her long desire to become a mother and the disappointments she suffered on that path, the ultimate joy she felt at having her two sons.

Sophia Loren, who turned 92 in 2026, lives mainly in Geneva but also has a ranch in California, an apartment in Manhattan, a condo on Williams Island in South Florida and a villa in Rome. 

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19 September

Italo Calvino – writer

One of 20th century Italy's most important authors

Novelist and journalist Italo Calvino died on this day in 1985 in Siena in Tuscany.  Calvino was regarded as one of the most important Italian writers of fiction of the 20th century.  His best known works are the Our Ancestors trilogy, written in the 1950s, the Cosmicomics collection of short stories, published in 1965, and the novels, Invisible Cities, published in 1972 and If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller, published in 1979.  Both of Calvino’s parents were Italian, but he was born in Santiago de Las Vegas, a suburb of Havana in Cuba, in 1923, where his father, Mario, an agronomist and botanist, was conducting scientific experiments. Calvino’s mother, Eva, was also a botanist and a university professor. It is believed she gave Calvino the first name of Italo to remind him of his heritage.  Calvino and his parents left Cuba for Italy in 1925 and settled permanently in Sanremo. Read more… 

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Umberto Bossi - politician

Fiery leader of separatist Lega Nord

Controversial politician Umberto Bossi was born on this day in 1941 in the town of Cassano Magnago in Lombardy.  Until 2012, Bossi was leader of Lega Nord (Northern League), a political party whose goal was to achieve autonomy for northern Italy and establish a new independent state, to be called Padania.  With his distinctive, gravelly voice and penchant for fiery, sometimes provocative rhetoric, Bossi won a place in the Senate in 1987 representing his original party, Lega Lombarda. He was dismissed as an eccentric by some in the political mainstream but under his charismatic leadership Lega Nord became a force almost overnight.  Launched as Alleanza Nord in 1989, bringing together a number of regional parties including Bossi’s own Lega Lombarda, it was renamed Lega Nord in 1991 and fought the 1992 general election with stunning results.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Saragat – fifth President of Italy

Socialist politician opposed Fascism and Communism

Giuseppe Saragat, who was President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971, was born on this day in 1898 in Turin.  As a Socialist, he was exiled from Italy by the Fascists in 1926.  When he returned to Italy in 1943 to join the partisans, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazi forces occupying Rome, but managed to escape and resume clandestine activity. Saragat was born in Turin to Sardinian parents and graduated from the University of Turin in economics and commerce. He joined the Socialist party in 1922.  During his years in exile he did various jobs in Austria and France.  After returning to Italy, he was minister without portfolio in the first post-liberation cabinet of Ivanoe Bonomi in 1944.  He was sent as ambassador to Paris and was then elected president of the Constitutional Assembly that drafted postwar Italy’s new constitution.  Read more…

Mariangela Melato - actress

Versatile star excelled on stage and screen

Mariangela Melato, who won acclaim for her work with the brilliant director Lina Wertmüller, played a camp villain in the comic book send-up Flash Gordon, and later excelled as a classical stage actress, was born on this day in 1941 in Milan.  She enjoyed her peak years on screen in the 1970s, most notably in Wertmuller’s The Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy and Swept Away.  From the mid-80s onwards, Melato was based at the Teatro Stabile in Genoa, where she played many of the great classical parts in works by authors such as Pirandello, Euripides and Shakespeare.  She made her mark in television, notably winning praise for her portrayal of Mrs Danvers in an Italian adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca in 2008.  Melato’s father emigrated to Italy from Nazi Germany, changed his name from Honing to Melato and became a traffic policeman in Trieste. Read more…

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Festival of San Gennaro

Worldwide celebrations for patron saint of Naples

Local worshippers, civic dignitaries and visitors meet together in the Duomo in Naples every year on this day to remember the martyrdom of the patron saint of the city, San Gennaro.  Each year a service is held to enable the congregation to witness the dried blood of the saint, which is kept in a glass phial, miraculously turn to liquid.  The practice of gathering blood to be kept as a relic was common at the time of the decapitation of San Gennaro in 305.  The ritual of praying for the miracle of liquefaction of the blood on the anniversary of his death dates back to the 13th century.  Gennaro is said to have been the Bishop of Benevento and was martyred during the Great Persecution led by the Roman Emperor Diocletian for trying to protect other Christians.  His decapitation is believed to have taken place in Pozzuoli but his remains were transferred to the Duomo in Naples in the 15th century.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italo Calvino Vintage Classics Collection: Invisible Cities & If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller (2‑Book Set), by Italo Calvino

Discover visionary narratives in this 2‑Book Vintage Classics set, showcasing the imaginative brilliance of Italo Calvino. Journey through realms where the boundaries of reality and fiction blur, and storytelling becomes an art of infinite possibility.  Invisible Cities – In this poetic masterpiece, Marco Polo describes a series of fantastical cities to Emperor Kublai Khan. Each imagined metropolis serves as a meditation on memory, desire and the fragile architecture of human thought, blending lyrical prose with deep philosophical insight.  If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller – A daring meta‑fictional experiment that alternates between your perspective as a reader and the opening chapters of ten different tales. Calvino’s playful structure challenges conventional narrative, exploring themes of identity, authorship and the elusive quest for meaning.  Perfect for lovers of literary innovation and intellectual exploration, this collection honours Calvino’s genius and invites you to experience the endless possibilities of fiction. Each volume is a gateway to new ways of seeing language, narrative and the world itself.

Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. Admired in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death.

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18 September

Domitian – Roman emperor

Efficient tyrant rebuilt parts of Rome

The Emperor Domitian, who kept the Roman upper classes under control by subjecting them to a 15-year reign of terror, died on this day in 96 AD in Rome.  He has been described as ‘a ruthless, but efficient, autocrat,’ who clashed with the Senate and drastically reduced their powers. But he strengthened the Roman economy and started a massive building programme to restore the city of Rome, which had been damaged by successive wars and fires.  The last member of the Flavian dynasty, Domitian was the son of Vespasian, and the brother of Titus, who were his two predecessors as Emperor.  He played only a minor role during their reigns, but after the death of his brother, Titus, who had no children, Domitian was declared Emperor by the Praetorian Guard.  Domitian revalued the Roman coinage and strengthened border defences. Read more…

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Rossano Brazzi - Hollywood star

Actor quit as a lawyer for career on the big screen

The movie actor Rossano Brazzi, whose credits include The Barefoot Contessa, Three Coins in the Fountain and South Pacific, was born on this day in 1916 in Bologna.  Brazzi gave up a promising career as a lawyer in order to act and went on to appear in more than 200 films, more often than not cast as a handsome heartbreaker or romantic aristocrat.  He was at his peak in the 50s and 60s but continued to accept parts until the late 80s. His last major role was as Father DeCarlo in Omen III: The Final Conflict in 1981.  Brazzi's family moved to Florence when he was aged four. His father Adelmo, a shoemaker, opened a leather factory in which Rossano, his brother Oscar and his sister, Franca, would all eventually work.  Adelmo had ambitions for Rossano, however, helping him win a place at the University of Florence, where he obtained a law degree. Read more…

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Alberto Franchetti - opera composer

Caruso sang his arias on first commercial record in 1902

The opera composer Alberto Franchetti, some of whose works were performed by the great tenor Enrico Caruso for his first commercial recording, was born on this day in 1860 in Turin.  Caruso had been taken with Franchetti’s opera, Germania, when he sang the male lead role in the opera’s premiere at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in March 1902.  A month later, Caruso famously made his first recording on a phonograph in a Milan hotel room and chose a number of arias from Germania and critics noted that he sang the aria Ah vieni qui… No, non chiuder gli occhi vaghi with a particular sweetness of voice.  A friend and rival of Giacomo Puccini, Franchetti had a style said to have been influenced by the German composers Wagner and Meyerbeer. He was sometimes described as the "Meyerbeer of modern Italy."  Read more…

Francesca Caccini – singer and composer

Court musician composed oldest surviving opera by a woman

Prolific composer and talented singer Francesca Caccini was born on this day in 1587 in Florence.  Sometimes referred to by the nickname La Cecchina, she composed what is widely considered to be the oldest surviving opera by a woman composer, La Liberazione di Ruggiero, which was adapted from the epic poem, Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.  Caccini was the daughter of the composer and musician, Giulio Caccini, and she received her early musical training from him. Like her father, she regularly sang at the Medici court.  She was part of an ensemble of singers referred to as le donne di Giulio Romano, which included her sister, Settimia, and other unnamed pupils.  After her sister married and moved to Mantua, the ensemble broke up, but Caccini continued to serve the court as a teacher, singer and composer. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome, by Chris Scarre

Focusing on the succession of the rulers of imperial Rome, Chronicle of the Roman Emperors uses timelines with at-a-glance visual guides to each reign and its main events. Biographical portraits of the 56 principal emperors from Augustus to Constantine, together with a concluding section on the later emperors, build into a single-volume history of imperial Rome. Biographical information is illustrated with busts of each emperor, coin portraits, battle plans and cutaway diagrams of imperial monuments. Supporting datafiles for every emperor list key information such as name at birth, wives and children, full imperial titles and place and manner of death. Genealogical trees and over 90 sidebars and special features on subjects ranging from Nero’s Golden House to Diocletian’s Palace allow the reader to delve deeper. Colourful contemporary judgments by such writers as Suetonius and Tacitus are balanced by judicious character assessments made in the light of modern research. The famous and the infamous – Caligula and Claudius, Trajan and Caracalla – receive their due, while lesser names emerge from the shadows for the first time. It is at once a book to be enjoyed as popular history, an essential work of reference, and a source of visual inspiration, bringing to life one of the most powerful and influential empires the world has ever known.

Chris Scarre is an academic and writer in the fields of archaeology, prehistory and ancient history. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Durham and was head of its archaeology department from 2010–2013.

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