Portrait of Tognina Gonsalvus

Around 1594 the Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi examined a girl of about 15 who was covered head to foot in fine hair. Her name was Antonietta Gonsalvus, called Tognina. She and her father had a rare condition we now call hypertrichosis, and courts across Europe treated the family as living curiosities, passed between noble households as gifts. Soon after, Lavinia Fontana painted her. Fontana was one of the very few women earning a living as a painter in Italy then, and she dressed the child in fine court clothes and gave her a calm, steady look. In Tognina's hand is a written note that explains, matter-of-factly, how she and her father came to be at the French court.