A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Rossi, (Propertia de)
ROSSI (PROPERTIA DE); born at Bologna, at the Close of the 15th Century;
Was not only versed in sculpture, but professed painting and music, in both of which she had reached no common excellence. Her first works were carvings in wood, and on peach-stones, eleven of which were in the museum of the Marquis Grassi, at Bologna, each resenting, on one side one of the apostles, and on the other several saints. In these minute attempts having gained universal applause, she then gave a public proof of her genius, in Two Angels, which she finished in marble, for the front of the church of St. Petronius. A bust of Count Guido Pepoli was equally admired. The rules of perspective and architecture were not only familar to her, but she is known to have sketched many designs in those arts; yet with all those talents, and unrivalled fame, Propertia was most unfortunate. In early life, she had been married without sympathy, and had fixed her affections on one whose heart was totally insensible. As her health was daily yielding to despair, she undertook a bas-relief of the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, which she lived just long enough to finish, and died young in 1530. It was at once a monument of her hopeless passion and admirable skill.