Artemisia Gentileschi Analysis

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Artemisia Gentileschi is considered to be one of the great painters of the Baroque era, and is especially venerated for her mastery of the Caravaggesque style. Her power as an artist comes not only from her technical and creative capabilities, but also from her acute understanding of and involvement in theoretical discourse on painting and the genius of the artist. Known for her vigorous depictions of powerful Biblical heroines that do not conform to typical images of femininity and through the intensity of the Caravaggesque style, Gentileschi’s work can be considered quintessentially Baroque.
As is the burden of many female artists, her work has consistently been read through the lens of her personal life and her sexuality. At the age of seventeen Gentileschi was assaulted by her painting instructor, Agostino Tassi. Much of her work has been read through the context of the trauma, particularly in her depictions of Judith and Susanna. Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock put it thusly:
“Confronted by the expressive, powerful or victimized images of Gentileschi’s women, writers have been unable to fit her paintings into the usual feminine stereotype: they cannot trace the expected signs of femininity, weakness, gracefulness or delicateness. Thus, unable to put her work into a stereotype, they turn instead to the dramatic events of her life” (10)
While there is validity in reading her strong heroines as reactions towards her sexual assault, it is important to recognize Gentileschi was part of a far more nuanced dialogue about the position of the artist as well as women in the Baroque era. Her life is often fictionalized and sensationalized, further feminizing her and created a greater void between her and her male counterparts. While...

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...elf in action and refuses to depict her body as a passive signifier for artistic perfection. In this she refutes the image of woman as one to inspire but not create art and reaffirms her agency. She also soundly rejects the concept of design being dependant on the perfection of the female form, critiquing the use of the inactive female body as a metaphor for man’s artistic genius. Being deeply absorbed in her work, the artist does not even address the audience, her face looking towards the work and not the viewer.
Perhaps this is a direct response to the eroticization of owning a painting produced by a woman; the representation’s realism prevents the presumably male audience from viewing her face in entirety. Her body is shown in action and foreshortened, removing any possibility for it to be compared to the perfectly proportioned female figures so often used to

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