Baroque A century later, in the early 1600s, Neapolitan painter Luisa Capomazza sought an escape from her potential future husbands, finding refuge in a convent. She “sent back every advantageous marriage proposal, [instead] nobly enjoying herself with painting, with which she was exceedingly in love,” writes her biographer, the late-art historian and painter Bernardo de Dominici. “Luisa, seeing herself almost constrained by the irksome pleadings of [a suitor] and his parents, decided to become a nun.” In the habit, Capomazza was free to paint a range of subjects, including altarpieces and landscapes. (The latter was an especially challenging genre for all women artists working in her time—direct study of nature was limited by rules of decorum, which dictated that women be chaperoned outside the home.)

During the Renaissance, it was a common practice for families to send women who weren’t in line to receive the hefty dowry reserved for the eldest daughter off to convents; but for a variety of economic reasons—plus the inclinations of women like Capomazza—convent populations exploded in Italy during the High Renaissance. In 1515, there were 2,500 nuns in Florence alone, and by 1552, 1 out of every 19 Florentines was a nun. The popularity of this lifestyle is unsurprising, considering the often-repressive alternative. In a way, convents have served as one of the most supportive artist residency programs available to women in the history of Western art.