Why such careful consideration, snail?
—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

Four Chambers to the Heart pays tribute to Italian Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the most renown female artists of her time. She was particularly famous for her psychologically sensitive portraits and active at the Spanish court in Madrid under Philip ll from 1560 to 1572.

Largely written out of history due to her gender, her significance in art history was only rediscovered with the rise of the feminist movement in the 20th century.

In Four Chambers to the Heart, the 94 years old painter writes during a quarantine due to the plague, her final letters to her pupil and young Flemish master-in-the-making Anton van Dyck.