Artemisia Gentileschi was a 16th-century Baroque painter and, like many other women in art history, her name remained hidden for many years.
Historians and collectors have attributed Gentileschi’s works to other male artists, so the life and work of Artemisia Gentileschi illustrate 16th-century machismo.
- Artemisia has been recognized as a painter since the beginning of the Italian Baroque.
- Her works showing the characteristic character and brushstrokes of the time.
- As well as a unique depth in the characters.
In this article we will try to address this woman forgotten by history, but who certainly deserves an important place in it.
Artemisia Gentileschi was born on 8 July 1593 in Rome, in the region known as the Papal States, Italy. He was the talented firstborn of Prudentia Montone, who died when Artemisia was 12, and Orazio Gentileschi, a well-known painter.
His father was one of the main followers of the revolutionary Baroque painter Caravaggio. The artist was an important supporter of the second generation of Caravaggio’s dramatic realism.
Artemisia quickly showed great gifts for art and began to learn from her father. Orazio was a friend of Caravaggio, the provocative and savage painter at the head of Rome’s art scene.
Orazio and Caravaggio were once accused of writing defamatory graffiti on the streets of Rome about another painter. During the trial, Orazio told a story about Caravaggio’s visit to his home to borrow angel wings.
With this data, we know that the great artist should have maintained a close relationship with the Gentileschi family, and suggest that Orazio’s eldest daughter, Artemisia, would have known him.
As a student of his father and landscape architect Agostino Tassi, Artemisia’s works are difficult to distinguish from these painters. At first, Artemisia Gentileschi painted in a style that is not distinguished from his father’s somewhat lyrical interpretation, following Caravaggio.
Her first known work is Susanna ei vecchioni (Portuguese: Susana y los ancianos, 1610), work done by her and attributed to her father. He also painted two versions of a scene already repeated by Caravaggio (but never attempted by his father). ), Judith beheading Holoferne (in Portuguese, Judith beheading Holoferne, c. 1612-13; c. 1620).
In 1611, Orazio was commissioned to decorate the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome, with the painter Agostino Tassi. Hoping to help 17-year-old Artemisia perfect her painting technique, Orazio hired Tassi to help her.
Tassi had individual contact with Artemisia and, during one of her orientation sessions, raped her. After the rape, Artemisia began a relationship with Tassi thinking they were getting married.
Soon after, however, Tassi refused to marry her. Orazio made the unusual decision to report him for the rape, and the trial that followed lasted seven months.
Artemisia was a virgin until the time of the rape and the trial revealed other outrageous details, such as several accusations that Tassi had murdered his wife.
As part of the judicial process, Artemisia had to undergo gynecological examinations to show that she had lost her virginity at the time of the rape, as well as being forced to testify under torture to prove the veracity of her testimony.
For an artist, this form of torture could have been devastating, but Artemisia, fortunately, avoided permanent damage to his fingers.
His moving testimony, in which he claims he may have killed Tassi after the rape, gives a series of clues as to his unusual nature for the time and his determination.
Tassi was eventually convicted and exiled from Roma. La sentence never carried out, as Tassi received the pope’s protection due to his artistic ability.
Many later paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi show scenes of women attacked by men or occupying positions of power in search of revenge.
A month after the conclusion of the trial, Orazio arranged for Artemisia to marry artist Pierantonio Stiattesi and subsequently the couple moved to Stiattesi’s hometown of Florence.
In Florence, Artemisia received one of his first major commissions, a fresco at Casa Buonarotti. The painter’s nephew had turned Michelangelo’s house into a monument and museum.
In 1616 she entered the Florence Academy of Design, becoming the first woman to do so, an attitude that allows her to buy her artistic materials without her husband’s permission and sign her own contracts.
He has also received the support of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosme II de Medici, from which he has received several lucrative commissions.
In Florence, he began to develop his signature style. Unlike many other 17th-century artists, Artemisia Gentileschi specialized in the history of painting, more than in still life and portraiture.
In 1618, Artemisia and her husband had a daughter, Prudentia, named after Artemisia’s late mother. At this time, Artemisia began a passionate romance with a Florentine nobleman named Francesco Maria di Niccolo Maringhi.
The story of this love is documented by a series of letters from Artemisia to Maringhi, which were discovered by academic Francesco Solinas in 2011.
Unconventionally, Artemisia’s husband discovered the subject and used his wife’s love letters to get money from Maringhi.
“Excellency, I’m going to show you what a woman can do. -Artemisia Gentileschi-
Noble Maringhi was partly responsible for the couple’s financial support, and finances were a frequent concern for them due to the mismanagement of Stiattesi’s money.
Economic problems, not to mention widespread rumors about Artemisia’s romance, caused disagreements between the couple and, in 1621, Artemisia returned to Rome without her husband.
In the city he reconnected with his influences and Caravaggio’s innovations, as well as collaborating with several of his disciples, including the painter Simon Vouet.
He was not as successful in Rome as he expected, and until the end of the decade spent some time in Venice, probably looking for new commissions.
The colors of Artemisia Gentileschi were brighter than those of her father, however, she continued to use the dark popularized by Caravaggio long after her father had already abandoned this style.
Around 1630 he settled in Naples and in 1638 he arrived in London, where he worked with his father for King Charles I.
Father and daughter collaborated in the painting of the ceiling of the large hall of the house of Queen Henry Mary, wife of King Charles I, in Greenwich. After her father’s death in 1639, she remained in London for a few more years.
In this city, Artemisia painted some of his most famous works, including his Autoritratto come allegoria della Pittura (Portuguese: Self-Portrait as allegory of painting, 1638).
According to his biographer, Baldinucci (who joined Artemisia’s life to his father’s biography), the artist painted many portraits and quickly surpassed his father’s fame.
Later, around 1640 or 1641, he moved to Naples, where he painted several versions of the story of David and Bathsabé, but little is known about the last years of his life. The last correspondence was in 1650 and suggests that he was still actively working.
The date of his death is uncertain. Some evidence suggests that he was still working in Naples in 1654, so it has been assumed that he may have died as a result of the plague that devastated the city in 1656.
Artemisia Gentileschi’s legacy was controversial and complex. Although he was highly respected and known throughout his life, after his death, he was almost completely omitted from historical accounts of the art of the time.
This is partly because his style used to be similar to that of his father, so many of his works were attributed to Orazio.
Artemisia’s work was rediscovered in the early 20th century and was especially defended by Roberto Longhi, a scholar of Caravaggio.
“As long as I live, I will be in control of my being. ” – Artemisia Gentileschi-
The academic and popular accounts of his life and painting, however, are marked by exaggerated and highly sexualized interpretations, due in some way to the dissemination of a sensational novel about Artemisia, published by Longhi’s wife, Anna Banti, in 1947.
In the 1970s and 1980s, some feminist art historians, such as Mary Garrard and Linda Nochlin, defended the artist, who have focused on her important artistic achievements and influence throughout art history, more than her biographies.