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_Artemesia Gentileschi _
By: Hadley
Artemesia Gentileschi was very different from other artisis of her time. Being
a woman painter was all but unheard of during the High Renaissance. She had
the style of Caravaggio, while at the same time bringing in women's characters
who were in the position of power. Throughout art history, an idea that women
are present solely for men to look at has been shown. This could be abecause
men have generally been the target audience, and naked women the subject. In
her paintings, Gentileschi shifted the focus to women and showed them as real
people. She was both praised and scorned by the critics of her time. She was
thought a genious, yet terrible because she was a woman in what was thought to
be a man's area of expertise. Like many other women artists of her time who
were banned from apprenticeship with successful artists, Gentileschi was the
daughter of a painter. She was born in Rome on July 8, 1593, the daughter of
Orazio and Prudentia Monotone Gentileschi. Her mother died when Artemesia was
only twelve. Her father trained her as an artist and introduced her to some of
the artists of Rome, including Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, whose
chiaroscuro style (contrast of light and shadow) greatly influenced Artemesia
Gentileschi's work. Other than artistic training, she had little or no
schooling. She did not learn to read or write until she was an adult. However,
by the time she was seventeen, she had produced one of the works for which she
is best known, her beautiful version of Susannna and the Elders (1610). Orazio
worked with a Florentine artist, Agostino Tassi, whom Artemesia accused of
raping her in 1612, when she was nineteen. Her father filed suit against Tassi
with the help of family and friends attempted to be alone with her repeatedly,
and raped her when he finally succeeded in cornering her innher bedroom. He
tried to appease her afterward by promising to marry her. Tassi gained access
to her bedroom (and her person) repeatedly, because of this promise. However,
he always avoided following through with the actual marriage. The trial
followed a pattern familiar even today. Artemesia was accused of not having
been a virgin at the time of the rape and of having many lovers. She was
examined by midwives to determine whether she had been "deflowered" recently
or a long time ago. Perhaps more disturbing for an artist like Gentileschi,
Tassi testified that her skills were so bad that he had to teach her the rules
of perspective. This is awhat he said he was doing the day she claimed to have
been raped by him. Tassi denied ever having sexual relations with Gentileschi
and brought many witnesses to testify that she was an "insatiable whore." One
witness, atenant and friend of Gentileschi's, Tuzia, supported Tassi in the
age old defense of "seduction". Orazio fought their testimony and brought
countersuit for perjury. Artemesia's accusations against Tassi were confirmed
by Giovanni Battista Stiattesi. Stiattesi (a former friend or possible lover
of Tassi's bragging about his sexual abuse at Artemesia's expense. Tassi was
imprisoned earlier for insest with his sister in law and was charged with
arranging the murder of his wife. Yet the trial ended with the charges against
him being dismissed. During and soon after the trial, Gentileschi painted
"Judith Slaying Holofernes" (1612-1613). The painting is special, not only for
the original way in which Gentileschi portrays Judith, who had long been a
popular subject for art. One month after the long trial ended, in November of
1612, Artemesia was married to a Florentine artist, Pietro Antonio di Vincenzo
Stiattesi, and they moved to Florence, probably the next year. While there,
she had a daughter named either Prudentia or Palmira. In Florence, Gentileschi
returned to the subject of Judith, completing "Judith and Her Maidservant" in
1613 or 1614. Again, Gentileschi's treatment of the familiar subject matter
was unexpected and original. Both she and her husband worked at the Academy of
Design, and Gentileschi bacame an official member there in 1616. This was a
remarkable honor for a woman of her day and was most likely made possible by
the support of her Florentine patron, the Grand Duke Cosmo II of the powerful
Medici family. During her years in Florence, he commisioned quite a few
paintings from her, and Gentileschi left Florence to return to Rome upon his
death in1621. From there, she probably moved to Genoa that same year,
accompanying her father who was invited there by a Genovese nobleman. While
there she painted her first "Lucretia" (1621) and her first "Cleopatra"
(1621-1622). She also had assignments in nearby Venice during this period and
met Anthony Van Dyck, a very successful painter of the era. She may have also
met Sofonisba Anguissola who was a generation older than Gentileschi and one
of the handful of women who worked as artists. Gentileschi later had another
daughter, and both are known to have been painters, though neither their work
nor any record of it has survived. During this stay in Rome, a French artist,
Pierre Dumostier le Neveu, made a drawing of her hand holding a paint brush.
He called it the drawing of the hand of the"excellent and wise noble woman of
Rome, Artemesia." Her fame is also evident ina commemmorative medal bearing
her portrait made sometime between 1625 and 1630 that calls her pitrix
cellebris or celebrated "woman painter." Also at this time, Jerome David
painted her portrait with the inscription calling her "the famous Roman
painter".
Word Count: 924
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