Throughout human history, the only consistency in the world is war and bloodshed. This curation explores war through three phases: the cause, the battle, and the aftermath with pieces that transcend time, but each of their meaning resonates no matter the period. This collection of pieces shows the furthering of art techniques and the expression of human emotion to fully encapsulate the experience of war, not as glory but as a sacrifice of knowledge, blood, and power. Lucretia by Artemisia Gentileschi expresses the cause of war, that hopeless feeling where revenge is the only option. Battle Before a Walled City by an unknown from a Florentine school shows a siege during the Trojan War, where men and horses are piled on top of each other. The …show more content…
The story of Lucretia is tragic. After being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the king of Rome, she takes her own life, asking her husband and father to take revenge for her. Lucretia is used as a symbol of freedom and a catalyst for change, a reason to overthrow the king’s government to establish the Roman Republic. In Gentileschi’s painting, Lucretia, the arms of Lucretia form a reverse pyramid, leading to a sense of unease in the viewer. This freeze frame, moments before she takes her life, fully immerses the audience into the painting, taking them into her mind, and the dark background, along with the use of foreshortening, further closes the gap between the audience and the subject. The vulnerable position of her neck and the purposeful angle help bring a sense of regret to anyone viewing her. There is this reluctance in her eyes, conflicting gazes positioned away from the knife as if to say, “Why is it me?”. Why did he have to choose me?” Along with anger, expressed with her mouth and the knife grip, Gentileschi has the subject appear strong, as if nothing is holding her back
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
types of female figures she would see. Her models were mostly passive and objects of beauty or femmes fatales. This is no longer the case as artists like Artemisia Gentileschi defies traditional depiction set by patriarchal society. While her contemporaries believed women were timid creatures that were weak in mind and body, Artemisia Gentileschi argues that the female gender is not helpless and meek but intellectually and emotionally strong in their own right. Through her paintings, she contradicts