... 1614, Lavinia Fontana (self-portrait at left), "the first woman in Western Europe to establish a painting career on par with her 
male counterparts outside of a court or convent," died in Rome. She'd been born in Bologna 62 years earlier, and received early training there from her father, also a painter. Unlike other women of the time, she was commissioned to paint not only portraits, but also large-scale works. Some, like the study of Minerva dressing at right, included figures of female nudes -- a subject that women were not then typically permitted to paint. Married at age 25 to another artist, Fontana continued to paint even as she gave birth to 11 children.... 2003, declaring "History will remember me kindly," Charles Taylor resigned as President of Liberia and went into exile in Nigeria. As we've posted, he's now in custody at The Hague, facing trial on charges filed by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
