Laia’s Selfie (maybe)

Laia was a groundbreaking female artist in a male-dominated era. Born in Cyzicus (present-day Turkey) in the 1st century BCE, she earned her place in history with her exceptional portraits of women, a rarity at that time. Pliny the Elder praised her quick and high-quality work, noting she could crush her male peers in both quality and speed. With both quality and speed at her command, Laia earned more coin than any of the male painters. Her art focused on female subjects and self-exploration. Though none of her works survive, ancient texts like Pliny’s and Boccaccio’s elaborate at length about her artistic superiority, marking her importance in history as a great dame in art.

Unfortunately, Laia was born minutes before the Romans invented wifi, so she doesn’t have a professional webpage or social media presence. I can’t even find her on YouTube. I found only a few articles about her, and the apparent variety of articles all seem to be quoting from one source article, so basically I found one article and some copies. There are a few mentions of Laia in association with this painting, but Encyclopedia.com, perhaps the most reputable source from the handful I found, said there are no (as in zero) remaining images of her works. The pic above is credited to Laia by many, but actually was likely painted in the medieval era by Maria, possibly the same person who painted this one but who the heck really knows:

This concludes another installment of “no one really knows” art history. At least the painting was interesting. More questionable but well illustrated facts coming soon!