Artemisia Gentileschi: Expression through art

    Hello everyone! I hope you are having a good day, and that you've had enough water. Today's topic will be one of Europe's earliest famous female artists. Though I would like to add a trigger warning for the topic of sexual assault and rape. If you do not feel comfortable reading about it, please refrain from continuing through this blog.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653)
Judith and  Holofernes (1612-13)
Museo Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

     An article titled "Artemisia Gentileschi: Further Notes" written by Joseph Wm. Slap for American Imago. This article is mainly focused on analyzing Gentileschi's art in comparison to her life, taking into context important figures taking place in her story. More specifically, Joseph Slap links the art to the rape incident that took place during her teen years. Though it is not an objective fact, as Joseph explains "there is not enough primary evidence for a fully satisfactory explanation of the relationship between Artemisia's rape and her art"(Joseph, 335). Still, he continues to write how it is a very possible explanation of all of the given facts by providing all the available information.




     Chapter 15 of Cunningham & Reich's Cultures and Values Volume 2 discusses the Baroque world in the 17th century and makes a mention of not only Artemisia but her father, the famous painter who brought the dramatic naturalism style of art from Italy to France. The chapter also dives into Artemisia and her painting Judith and Holofernes then mentions the rape but only briefly, saying "It is not inconceivable that the painter, a rape victim in her youth, poured her own passionate protest into this painting of a woman taking retribution against a would-be defiler"(Cunningham, 362). Then moves on to describe the event and biblical characters taking place in the painting without making a true link to the incident itself.

     The article however not only gives all the needed information but dives deep into how the positioning and the art style represent that incident. First Joseph goes "most modern scholars see a relationship between the painting and Artemisia's rape by Agostino Tassi, an artist employed by her father to teach Artemisia perspective"(Joseph, 335) as a quick introduction to name and identify the assailant, then moves on to describe the situation in better detail. He does this to help make the symmetry with the painting clearer, like for example mentioning that he had an accomplice named Cosimo Quorli. He explains that in the same way Tassi deceived her and went to "deflower" her with an accomplice, Judith deceives general Holofernes and decapitated him with the help of an accomplice. This mirror image better illustrates the link between her art and life.

Judith Beheading Holofernes, Artemisia, National Gallery
September 29th, 2020

     I selected this JSTOR article in particular because it didn't shy away from diving into the details of a usually avoided topic. Joseph Slap was also very structured in speaking not only of the topic but the actual painting which made it easy to follow along. Lastly, it wasn't only based on his opinion alone, but also sometimes refers to important people like Pointon and uses themes and ideas by Freud too. I also like how it was objective when speaking of her father's involvement in this case. For example, it cleared Artemisia's birth year and the reason behind why it was switched up. "There is a presumption that Ozario falsified her age during the trial in order to make the charges more serious"(Joseph, 336). Overall, this article is very good at being factual when dealing with a topic that heavily relies on symbolism, which is admirable.

WORK CITED
Cunningham & Reich. Cultures and Values Volume 2. Chapter 15.
National Gallery, Judith Beheading Holofernes, Artemisia. September 29th, 2020
Slap, Joseph Wm. “Artemisia Gentileschi: Further Notes.” American Imago, vol. 42, no. 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, pp. 335–42, 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26304021
The National Gallery, Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1654 or later) | National Gallery, London

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