Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. She began her career painting religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects but gained fame for her botanical subjects painted in tempera and watercolour. Her works were praised for their precision and balance and for the exactitude of the objects depicted. More recently, her paintings have been seen to have female bodily associations and proto-feminist sentiments. She combined objects very inventively, including Asian porcelain, exotic seashells, and botanical specimens. She was often called the Chaste Giovanna due to her vow to remain a virgin. Scholars have speculated Garzoni may have been influenced by fellow botanical painter Jacopo Ligozzi although details about Garzoni's training are unknown. Early life Giovanna Garzoni was born in 1600 in Ascoli Piceno in the Marche district of Italy to Giacomo Garzoni and Isabetta Gaia. Both of Garzoni's parents were of Venetian origin and are believed to have come from a long line of Venetian painters - a fact that is often disputed. Garzoni's grandfather Nicola and Uncle Vincenzo from her mother's side were both goldsmiths while her other uncle, Pietro Gaia, was a painter who studied under Palma the Younger. Historians have widely speculated that Garzoni started off her career as an apprentice under her uncle sometime before 1615. Garzoni also had a brother, Mattio, with whom she would travel throughout her career. Career Garzoni's first known commission was in the city where she grew up, Rome. It was in 1616, from the chemist Giovanni Vorvino to paint a herbarium. Garzoni visited the Medici court in Florence sometime between 1618 and 1620, where she probably encountered Artemisia Gentileschi. Four years later in 1620 Garzoni arrived in Venice and painted a Saint Andrew for the Venetian Church of the Ospedale degli Incurabili. Garzoni stayed in Venice for a few more years and during that time attended the calligraphy school of Giacomo Rogni. Shortly after her studies, Garzoni produced a book of cursive characters illustrated with birds, flowers and insects called the Libro de'caratteri Cancellereschi Corsivi (Biblioteca Accademica di San Luca, Rome). After finishing her education, Garzoni and her brother Mattio left Venice in 1630 for Naples where she worked for the Spanish viceroy, the Duke of Alcalá. Garzoni may have travelled with Gentileschi. Garzoni remained in Naples for a year before returning to Rome in 1631. Garzoni's stay in Rome was short lived however, due to Christina of