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Female and male portraiture in the Renaissance
Masculinity in art
Artemisia gentileschi self portrait as the allegory of painting
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Recommended: Female and male portraiture in the Renaissance
The painting I chose was done by the Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, entitled “Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting” and also called “Autoritratto in veste di Pittura” in Italian. Artemisia Gentileschi is boldly stating that she is the emblem of art, especially during a time when men dominated the world of art and women weren’t respected as artists or as functioning people in general. To me, this painting captures her looking beyond the struggles that female artists faced, and creating a new future of women composing art that surpasses them only being nude in paintings. Her facial expression is determined and focused, but also insightful and hopeful. Rather than painting herself in a way that accentuates her body in a desirable way,
Alice Neel’s painting Suzanne Moss was created in 1962 using oil paint on canvas. As the title suggests, the painting depicts a woman’s portrait. Now resigning in the Chazen Museum in Madison, WI, this portrait of a woman lunging is notable for the emotional intensity it provokes as well as her expressionistic use of brush strokes and color. The scene is set by a woman, presumably Suzanne Moss, dressed in dull back and blues lounging across a seat, staring off to the side, avoiding eye contact with the viewer. The unique style and technique of portraiture captures the woman’s piercing gaze and alludes to the interior emotions of the subject. In Suzanne Moss, Alice Neel uses desultory brush strokes combined with contrast of warm and cool shadows
One of my favorite paintings is a painting by Diego Rivera. Diego Rivera, 1886-1957, is a famous artist from Mexico, known for his murals and paintings. Much of his work shared historical, social, and political ideas, which took place in his life time. Nude with Calla Lilies, is a less known painting of Rivera’s, it seems to lack a social and political commentary so frequently found in his paintings. Despite its lack of fame, it is still a beautiful and meaning piece of art that I have admired for many years.
Seeing the art in person truly made me see the beauty and captivity a painting can hold. Each gallery was filled with different American works. My favorite kind of paintings are the ones I can look at and immediately write a story in my head about what is happening, even if it not what the artist intended. As I was going through the galleries one painting in particular stuck in my mind. I was fortunate enough to experience a special exhibition called, “Audubon to Warhol.” It was composed of different works acquired from private and public collections. I was lured to the emotions that was captured by the main figure in one of the works. I was drawn not only to the beauty of the painting, but the story it shared. The painting I chose was Peeling Onions, by Lilly Martin Spencer.
Throughout history art has played a major role in society. It started out with paintings and went to photography and eventually to films. Artistic interpretation depended on whom the artist was and what he or she wanted to present to the audience. When it came to portraiture, whether it was paintings or photography, the idea of mimesis was very important. However important this may have been, the portraits were mostly products of the media and fashions during that time period. Whatever was popular during the time was used such as columns or curtains in the background. The face was the main focus in the painting and there was little focus on the body. Later on during photography the body was focused on more. Even though photography was used much later after paintings were used, it allowed the artist even more artistic interpretation because of the ability to play a different role and not having to be ones self. The artists that will be focused on are Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman. They lived during different periods and their artistic intentions varied because of that. They also had similarities in that they thought outside of the conventional roles. These women were both self-portraiture artists and although they were considered that their interpretations did not always make their portraits self-portraits. Traditionally the artist was an outsider, but when it came to self-portraiture they became the subject and the audience became the outsider. The similarities and differences of Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman’s art were tied into the strength and also vulnerability they had because of their roles as women. They wanted the audience to see a background story to the portraits and not just an image of a beautiful face.
Overall Titian was able to convey the most ideal embodiment of female sensuality and grace all the while still upholding the artistic standards or composition. He took a subject matter(the female portrait) and supported her beauty with imagery that solidified and already iconic ideal
Throughout Chapter 23, the two paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi drew my attentions the most. Both of these paints offer rare occurrences of a woman’s perspective in the 17th century art scene, which are unique and refreshing. In Susannah and the Elders, Gentileschi depicts a scene from a story in the book of Daniel, where the young Susannah is threatened by two elder men while bathing alone in her garden. The subject matter was popular among Roman catholic arts, perhaps because it offered a rare chance to display the female nude. Non-allegorical female nudes were highly stigmatized, subsequently paintings of female nudes were often cloaked in the framework of biblical/ mythological narratives. Following this tradition, female nude figures, including the depiction of Susannah, were often highly idealistic and unrelatable.
Artemisia Gentileschi is known as the most influential female painter in the Renaissance. She was born in Rome on July 8th, 1593, to Orazio Gentileschi and Prudentia Montone . Though she was the eldest of five children, she was the only one to show artistic talent and interests, which led to her father’s decision to begin tutoring her. Having grown up with an artist as a father, it is self evident that Artemisia learned the basics of the art world from her father, Orazio. It was not until the year 1614, “with the backing of powerful patrons and fellow artists, [that] Artemisia [became] the first woman to be admitted to Florence’s Accademia del Disegno,” and it was there that she became acquainted with Galileo Galilei. Interestingly enough, due to correlating dates, it is believed that from him, she learned about the parabolic path of projectiles, explaining the very realistic projectile blood spurting from the neck of Holofernes in her famous, Judith Slaying Holofernes (1620).
The artwork that I chose is by an American artist name Randolph Roger. He carved a beautiful sculpture of Nydia. He made the model in 1855 and carved it in 1860. The sculpture is named “Nydia, the blind girl of Pompeii”. Randolph used marble to carve the sculpture of Nydia. The subject is a young blind girl who has an expression of devastation. The way her face is frowned shows me that she is downhearted. Her eyes, eyebrows and mouth is slanted into a frown.
In Renaissance and Baroque visual arts, mostly made by men, female figures appear less often than depictions of men, irrespective of whether they are the central figures or not. In addition to their outnumbering presentations, males are mostly depicted in dominant and central positions. Similar to France, where women are depicted as objects as beauty and caregivers of children, renaissance portraits of women intend to convey beauty—almost archetypical—and social role. Female portraiture in Italian Renaissance art was not meant to be a direct representation of the individual. During the Renaissance and the Baroque Italian, female artists such as Lavinia Fontana and Sofonisba Anguissola, offering a distinctive view of female artistic perspective at the time, promoted a more assertive image of the woman. This is most apparent when the woman becomes a violent figure as in Artemisia Gentileschi's painting Judith Slaying Holofernes. Gentileschi's heroines, struggling with the other sex and evoking strong empathy in the
Women in media have been developed over many years to appear and pose a certain way, to achieve a certain appearance. Historical oil paintings, dated back to 1500s, have one customarily viewer, this being males. ‘Male gaze’ is described to be the ‘sexual objectification of women in fine art, as well as other various media outlets’, that the media/paintings, has a male spectator observing the female being painted or photographed. Females in historical oil paintings have been commissioned and painted by men, making them the typically viewer of media/paintings. Women learned to be aware of this ‘gaze’ as they have been under strict conditions by their fathers, husbands by being subjugated and kept illiterate, this being through the Renaissance
Artemisia was one of the first women artists to have an international recognition. However it did not come easy because she was born in a time period when women were not considered equal to men. Being an artist was not something a woman was supposed to do. Although her talent was much greater than most male artists of her era, she was brushed aside just because of her gender. “Gentileschi’s gestures are far more expansive than many contemporary or later self-portraits by male artists of themselves working in oil paint” (Chare, 2009). However, because of her sex she was ignored deliberately. During 16th century male artists were considered to be specialists. Female artists were nothing but insignificant exhibitions. Men were the decision
Woman V was created using oil and charcoal on canvas by Willem De Kooning in 1952-1953, during the period of Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionism was a period developed during the 1940s and 1950s where the goal was to create abstract art that was emotional and very expressive. This painting is considered abstract art and was influenced by the period through the use of very expressive charcoal and brush strokes. This painting is currently displayed at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and is part of a series of six other paintings made by Willem de Kooning. The subject matter of this series, and this specific painting, are portraits of women. Woman V is a portrait that contains a woman smiling broadly with pronounced breasts
Throughout history women have always struggled with equality in the art world. Men took most of the attention appearing as great artists, while women were barley recognized by their great artworks and fought discrimination. As a result, women found a way to show a sign of feminist meanings in artworks. (Feminism & Feminist Art, Art History Archive). An example would be Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith Slaying Holofemes”, a painting made in 1614-20. Artemisia was one of the few successful female artists who got recognition during a period where most weren’t. She was the first women member in Accademia di arte del disegno and had relations with other famous artists such as Cristofano Allori. The aim of her painting was to show the power of women
This particular statue of Artemis that I came across was hard for me to distinguish at first. In the statue, she looks to be a young girl and not a goddess. The one distinguishable aspect of this statue that after I read the informational card gave it away it was her was the deer next to her. One of Artemis’ many attributes are animals, in other paintings and sculptures she might be seen with a deer-skin cape or a bow and arrow to show that she is the goddess of the hunt.
The painting depicts two figures, the one of a woman and of a man. The dominating central figure is the one of the woman. We see her profile as she looks to the left. Her hands are crossed in a graceful manner. She has blonde hair and her figure is lit by what seems to be natur...