Painter, born in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi. She lived in Naples, but visited England (16389) and left a self-portrait at Hampton Court. Her chief work is Judith and Holofernes in the Uffizi, Florence.
Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 - 1653) was an Italian Early Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio (Caravaggisti).
Biography
Roman beginning
Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome, on July 8, 1593, the first child of the painter Orazio Gentileschi, one of the greatest representatives of the school of Caravaggio. Artemisia was introduced to painting in her father's workshop, showing much more talent than her brothers, who worked alongside her.
The first work of the young 17-year-old Artemisia (even if many suspect that she was helped by her father) was the Susanna e i Vecchioni (Susanna and the Elders) (1610, Schönborn collection in Pommersfelden). The picture shows how, under parental guidance, Artemisia assimilated the realism of Caravaggio without being indifferent to the language of the Bologna school (which had Annibale Carracci among its major artists).
In 1612, despite her early talent, Artemisia was denied access to the all-male professional academies for art. During this tutelage, Tassi raped Artemisia. Even though Tassi initially promised to marry Artemisia in order to restore her reputation, he later reneged on his promise and Orazio reported Tassi to the authorities. During the trial Artemisia was given a gynecological examination and was tortured using a device made of thongs wrapped around the fingers and tightened by degrees — a particularly cruel torture to a painter. The trial has subsequently influenced the feminist view of Artemisia Gentileschi during the late 20th century.
The painting Giuditta che decapita Oloferne (Judith beheading Holofernes) (1612-13), displayed in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples, is impressive for the violence portrayed, and has been interpreted as a wish for psychological revenge for the violence Artemisia had suffered.
One month after the trial, in order to restore her honor, Orazio arranged for his daughter to marry Pierantonio Stiattesi, a modest artist from Florence. Shortly afterwards the couple moved to Florence, where Artemisia received a commission for a painting at Casa Buonarroti and became a successful court painter, enjoying the patronage of the Medici and Charles I. During this period, Artemisia also painted the Madonna col Bambino (The Virgin Mary with Baby), currently in the Spada Gallery, Rome.
While in Florence, Artemisia and Pierantonio had four sons and one daughter.
Florentine period (1614-1620)
In Florence, Artemisia enjoyed huge success. Among her estimators there was Buonarroti the young (nephew of the great Michelangelo): busy with construction of a mansion to celebrate his notable relative, he asked Artemisia to produce a painting to decorate the ceiling of the gallery of paintings.
The painting represents an allegory of Allegoria dell'Inclinazione (Allegory of the Inclination) (natural talent), presented under the form of a young nude woman who holds a compass. It is believed that the attractive woman bears a resemblance to Artemisia, who - as the mundane informants of the period say - was extremely beautiful. Indeed, in several of her paintings, Artemisia's curvy and energetic heroines have a similar appearance to her self-portraits;
Notable works from this period include La Conversione della Maddalena (The Conversion of the Magdalene), and Giuditta con la sua ancella (Judith and her Maidservant), now in the Pitti Palace. Artemisia painted a second version of Giuditta che decapita Oloferne (Judith beheading Holofernes), this one larger than the Naples version and now housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence.
Again in Rome and after in Venezia (1621-1630)
Artemisia arrived in Rome the same year her father Orazio departed for Genoa. Some believe that Artemisia followed her father there;
Artemisia remained in Rome, trying to find a home and raising her daughters. Artemisia tried, with almost no success, to teach them the art of painting.
Rome in that period was highly influenced by the style of Caravaggio (many similarities exist between her style and the style of Simon Vouet), but during the papacy of Pope Urban VIII both the classicism of the Bolognese school and the baroque style of Pietro da Cortona were highly successful as well.
Artemisia joined the Academy of Desiosi. The absence of sufficient documentation makes it difficult to follow Artemisia's movements in this period.
Although it is sometimes difficult to date her paintings, it is possible to assign to this period the Ritratto di gonfaloniere (Portrait of Gonfaloniere), today in Bologna (the only known example of her capacity as portrait painter);
Naples and the English period (1630-1653)
In 1630 Artemisia moved to Naples, a city rich with workshops and art lovers, in search of new and more lucrative job opportunities. The Neapolitan debut of Artemisia is represented by the Annunciation in the Capodimonte Museum. Naples was for Artemisia a kind of second homeland where she took care of her family (both her daughters were married in Naples).
In Naples for the first time Artemisia started working on paintings in a cathedral, dedicated to San Gennaro nell'anfiteatro di Pozzuoli (Saint Januarius in the amphitheater of Pozzuoli) in Pozzuoli. In these paintings Artemisia again demonstrates her ability to renew herself with the novelties of the period and handle different subjects, instead of the usual Judith, Susanna, Betsabee, and Maddelene penitenti, for which she was still known anyway.
In 1638 Artemisia joined her father in London at the court of Charles I of England, where Orazio became court painter and received the important job of decorating a ceiling (allegory of Trionfo della pace e delle Arti (Triumph of the peace and the Arts) in the Casa delle Delizie of Queen Henrietta Maria of France in Greenwich. The fame of Artemisia probably intrigued him, and it is not a coincidence that his collection included a painting of great suggestion, the Autoritratto in veste di Pittura. Artemisia had an autonomous activity which she continued to follow for a while even after her father's death, although there are no known works assignable with certainty to this period. It is known that Artemisia had already left England by 1642, when the civil war was just starting.
Some works in this period are Susanna e i vecchioni (Susanna and the elders) today in Brno and Madonna e Bambino con rosario (Virgin Mary and Baby with Rosary) today in El Escorial.
Artistic profile
A research paper of Roberto Longhi, an important Italian critic, dated 1916, named Gentileschi padre e figlia (Gentileschi father and daughter) pointed out the artistic merits of Artemisia Gentileschi in the sphere of the Caravaggeschi in the first half of the 17th century. Longhi described Artemisia as "the only woman in Italy who ever knew about painting, coloring, doughing and other fundamentals". Longhi also wrote of Judith Slaying Holofernes:
Who could think in fact that over a sheet so candid, a so brutal and terrible massacre could happen [...] but - it's natural to say - this is a terrible woman! And also please give Mrs. Schiattesi - the conjugal name of Artemisia - the chance to choose the hilt of the sword!
Feminist studies increased the interest towards Artemisia's artistic work and life. In a research paper from the catalogue of the exhibition "Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi" which took place in Rome in 2001 (and after in New York), Judith W. Mann gives a feminist opinion of Artemisia:
An opinion like that presupposes that the full creative potential of Artemisia is only about strong capable women, at the point that seems impossible to imagine her busy doing conventional religious images, like a Virgin Mary with a Baby or a virgin submissively waiting for the Annunciation;
The most recent critic, starting from the difficult reconstruction of the entire catalogue of the Gentileschi, tried to give a less reductive reading of the career of Artemisia, placing it more accurately on the context of the different artistic environments in which the painter actively participated. A reading like this restores Artemisia as an artist who fought with determination, using the weapon of personality and of the artistic qualities, against the prejudices expressed against women painters;
Artemisia and contemporary female painters
For a woman at the beginning of the 17th century, being a painter like Artemisia represented an uncommon and difficult choice, but not an exceptional one. Before Artemisia, between the end of the 1500 and the beginning of 1600 other female painters had successful careers.
Other female painters began their career while Artemisia was alive. Judged on their artistic merits, Longhi's statement that Artemisia was "the only woman in Italy who ever knew about painting" may be questioned, but there is no doubt that Artemesia continues to be most highly regarded of female artists of this period.
Artemisia in popular culture
Although there were other female painters in the Renaissance, there is something in the art and the biography of Artemisia Gentileschi that makes her especially fascinating, which explains the continued interest in her life and work.
The first writer who produced a novel around the figure of Artemisia was Anna Banti, wife of Roberto Longhi. Banti's book is written in an "open diary" form, in which she maintains a dialogue with Artemisia, trying to understand why she finds her so fascinating.
More than 50 years later, in 1999, the French writer Alexandra Lapierre became fascinated by Artemisia and wrote a novel about her, derived from scrupulous study of the painter and the historical context of her work. The novel seeks to understand the relation between Artemisia the woman and Artemisia the painter, and ends with describing as "leitmotiv" the relation between her and her father, composed of both love insufficiently expressed, and a latent professional rivalry.
Artemisia, and more specifically her painting Judith Beheading Holofernes, are referred to in Wendy Wasserstein's 1988 play The Heidi Chronicles, where the main character Heidi lectures about it as part of her art history course on female painters.
The 1997 film Artemisia, directed by Agnès Merlet and starring Valentina Cervi, was loosely based on this painter's life, but controversially portrayed the relationship between Tassi and Artemisia as a passionate affair rather than as rape.
The Passion of Artemisia, recently published in Italy by Susan Vreeland, positions itself in the wave of the popularity of the feminist account of Artemisia Gentileschi.
User Comments Add a comment…