Artemisia Gentileschi
Over the last few decades, admiration for the figure of Artemisia Gentileschi has grown like that of no other painter before modernity. At times, it seems that this admiration conceals some kind of condescension, as if such interest was only caused by the injustices (and even a case of rape) that Gentileschi had to suffer during her lifetime, when, in fact, the simple study of her work, without even knowing the difficulties that the artist had to endure, is enough to place her among the most important figures of Baroque painting, and to mark her out as the most original of the caravaggisti.
Imagen: Artemisia Gentileschi: “Self-portrait as an allegory of painting”, c.1638-39. Oil on canvas, Royal Collection, London.
Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome in 1593, the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, another important Baroque painter. Her talent came to the fore early and before the age of eighteen she painted a remarkable work, “Susanna and the Elders”, in which Susanna is harassed by two old men. In this youthful work, “Susana’s attitude, her situation, her inner state, dominate the atmosphere” (Francisca Pérez Carreño, “Artemisia Gentileschi”, 1993). The work is interesting for its quality (unbecoming of such a young artist) and for its subject matter, which seems to foreshadow the traumatic episode the artist was to experience the following year.
In 1611, Gentileschi was raped by her personal teacher (since access to the Academy was forbidden to women), Agostino Tassi. The details of this event and the terrible trial that followed are well known, as is the ridiculous sentence (one year imprisonment) imposed on Tassi. The following year Gentileschi painted “Judith Beheading Holofernes”, sometimes interpreted as a desire for revenge on her rapist. Be that as it may, this painting shows a considerable advance in the artist’s technique with respect to her already notable “Susanna and the Elders”
Artemisia Gentileschi: “Susanna and the Elders”, c.1610. Oil on canvas, 170 × 119 cm. Schönborn, Pommersfelden ·· Artemisia Gentileschi: “Judith Beheading Holofernes”, 1612-13. Oil on canvas, 199 × 162.5 cm Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
That same year Artemisia Gentileschi married Pierantonio de Vincenzo Stiattesi and the couple moved to Florence, where Gentileschi was the first painter to be admitted to the Academy of Drawing. After her time at the academy her fame in Florence increased and she received some relevant commissions, including from the still powerful Medici family. However, rumours about her private life and the death of her son Cristofano caused her to separate from her husband and later return to Rome, in 1620.
In Rome, Gentileschi enjoyed a good reputation among various collectors and during her stay in the capital she painted some of her finest works, including “Judith and her Maid”, arguably her greatest masterpiece and one of the highlights of Italian Baroque painting. However, she failed to secure major commissions such as large altarpieces. Perhaps for this reason, in 1627 Artemisia travelled to Venice, and three years later to Naples, where she obtained her first truly important commissions, a large “Annunciation” now in the Museo di Capodimonte, and “The Birth of Saint John the Baptist“, commissioned by the viceroy of Naples for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, and now exhibited in the Museo del Prado.
Artemisia Gentileschi: “Bathsheba”, c.1636-37. Oil on canvas, 265.4 x 209.5 cm. Columbus Museum of Art Artemisia Gentileschi: “Judith and her Maid”, 1625-27. Oil on canvas, 182.2 × 142.2 cm. Detroit Institute of Arts.
As early as 1626, Orazio Gentileschi, Artemisia’s father, had settled in England at the invitation of the Duke of Buckingham. Artemisia joined her father in London in 1639, where King Charles I himself was attracted by the painter’s works, such as her “Self-Portrait as an Allegory of Painting”. However, shortly after Orazio’s death that same year, Artemisia returned to Naples, where she lived until her death in 1656.
Artemisia Gentileschi is particularly famous for her mythological and religious paintings, while her portrait paintings remain somewhat less known. On the occasion of the auction of a hitherto unknown portrait of a gentleman (possibly Antoine de Ville), Sotheby’s explained in the catalogue of the work: “with only one surviving portrait, art historians previously believed these references were evidence of male writers playing to the assumption that female artists were forced to specialize in portraiture as they were unable to study the male nude, considered a requirement for history painting. Now that three portraits have emerged, the historical sources are supported, and more portraits may yet surface to confirm Artemisia’s mastery of the genre”.
G. Fernández · theartwolf.com
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