Artemisia Gentileschi in a Changing Light

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal , 2018

Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes, 60.3, 2018

Between roughly 1615 and 1622, Cristofano Bronzini (1580–1633) wrote Della dignità et della nobiltà delle donne, a defense of women that was partially published during his lifetime with the patronage of Medici women. This article brings to light the unpublished sections of Bronzini’s manuscript containing descriptions of some thirty-three early modern women artists, ranging from Properzia de’ Rossi to the female court artists of the Ming Dynasty. At the focus of this study is Bronzini’s profile of Artemisia Gentileschi, offering a narrative account of the discovery of her artistic talent at age twelve and detailing her earliest vocational training in Rome up until the time of her marriage to Pierantonio Stiattesi of Florence. Artemisia’s profile in the Bronzini manuscript stands out not only because it is the earliest biographical account ever written about her, but also because it is rife with statements that have no bearing upon the real facts of her life. It is argued here that Artemisia herself supplied Bronzini with this fictitious account and that she deliberately distorted the facts of her youth in order to fashion herself according to her own aspirations as well as her society’s morality codes, its female stereotypes, and its mytho-heroic archetype of the artist. In this account of Artemisia’s youth in Rome, the name of Agostino Tassi and Artemisia’s relationship with him are completely suppressed, while Artemisia’s own father, Orazio Gentileschi, is portrayed in a negative light as her primary antagonist. Moreover, the biography purports that Artemisia taught herself to paint by studying Caravaggio’s canvases, effectively asserting her place among the master’s earliest and most devoted followers.

Source: Notes in the History of Art , 2010

2013

This study focuses on three paintings--which I understand as of-the-spirit yet tangible--from Artemisia Gentileschi's and Elisabetta Sirani's early-to-mid-seventeenth-century bodies of artwork. These two Italian artists received wide-spread acclaim during the Baroque era, from approximately 1600-1750. The style of their three paintings, rich, earthy and thought-provoking, is exemplary of the dynamism of the era; Artemisia and Elisabetta portrayed these works' female protagonists, the biblical figures Susanna and Judith, in a way emphasizing the basic humanity of each. The pictures show the two subjects caught in mortal danger. The biblical narratives that inspired the paintings finish the trajectory of the women's actions by means of a close association with death and love of God. The painted images' revelation of the seventeenth-century penchant for the heroic female appeals to modern scholarship. Additionally, the seeming coupling of contraries, Beauty and violence, begs for an explication of these characteristics that are particular to the three images. For these reasons I have chosen the artists and their paintings for my investigation. The artists remind us observers that the subjects of the artworks are remarkable for their strength of character. More importantly, the three pictures that I highlight from the above artists' oeuvres project a "spirituality of Beauty," which inspired the artists and has continued to inspire observers--to apprehend Divine Beauty.

Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting, 2015

The Art Bulletin, 1980

Author's first publication on Artemisia Gentileschi, later developed as a chapter in her 1989 book on the artist (Artemisia Gentileschi: The Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art, Princeton, 1989)..

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654?) was one of the most prolific female painters of the Italian Renaissance; working for some of the most noteworthy patrons and rulers of Europe. Gentileschi’s success in such a male dominated field has made her somewhat of a feminist icon to modern scholars and commentators. Her early works adopting the style of the master Caravaggio seem to support this interpretation, depicting powerful women triumphing over weaker men, unapologetically violent and seemingly subversive within their patriarchal context. However, when taking into account the radically different style of Gentileschi’s later period and examining her oeuvre as a whole it is evident that these works do not adhere to any particularly subversive agenda. Instead, I argue that Gentileschi’s incredibly diverse body of work is symptomatic of her constantly shifting public persona, altered continually to best draw the attention of patrons and collectors. Utilising gender theory methodology particularly Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, this paper examines the artist’s correspondence with patrons and analyses her paintings within their socio-cultural contexts. I contend that Artemisia Gentileschi was incredibly versed in gender conventions and conceptions of the period, projecting either masculine or feminine traits in her works and letters in order to manipulate perceptions of her character, talent, and capability.