The novel Passion of Artemisia is based off of Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi and tells of her life and how it was later reflected in her art work, helping to create along with other artists, this new era for women. In Northern Italy before works like Artemisia’s, it was common for art to be of Virgin Mary or some other idealized women figure. After paintings like Artemisia’s Judith Slaying the head of Holofernes, women were portrayed as more violent and emotionally involved.
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland is a novel that illuminates mediation on the nature of art. This book richly displayed the life of Artemisia, one of the first female artists of her time period, as well as life and principles in Italy in the early 1600's. It contains many
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historical facts and references including the actual instance when Artemisia was seduced by her father's business partner and her tutor. He is, at the time, nearly twice her age. Susan Vreeland uses what information is available about Artemisia and fills it in completely using her own imagination. It is the tragic yet glorious story of Artemisia’s relationship with her distant father as well as her struggle to become an independent woman artist in a male dominated society. Artemisia Gentileschi was a woman female painter who started a new era of how women were portrayed in art. Since the Renaissance, writers, intellectuals, and artists have been increasingly engaged with gender issues, particularly in discussing the social role of the feminine.
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
viewer. In paintings, such as Salome with the Head of John the Baptist by Andrea Solario, he adapts to Artemisia’s nontraditional way of depicting women. The portrayal of women changed from the common Virgin Mary or other religious idealized beings, to women in the act of nontraditional subject such as Artemisia and the beheading of Holofernes. Unlike Caravaggio’s portrayal of Judith Beheading Holofernes, Artemisia has the women more involved and the scene is more intense. Artemisia had several different versions of Judith, the painting was said to a reflection of her hidden revenge fantasies because of its brutal depiction. Unlike other artists who focused on idealized beauty, Artemisia chose to paint the biblical story’s gruesome climax. Because of its violence and virtue, it endures as a masterpiece of Baroque art. Andrea Solario depicted a similar portrayal in his painting Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, it was painted before Artemisia’s time, being from 1520, but is still Italian Renaissance; it resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Artemisia’s work is still in Italy at Museo di Capodimonte, which is in Naples.
I had never heard of the artist Artemisia Gentileschi before this introductory Art course. Of all the paintings and sculptures found within the book, it was her work that stood out and spoke to me. "Judith and Maidservant with the head of Holofernes" is a particularly rich oil painting by the Italian Gentileschi, painted circa 1625 Europe. Her large canvas measures 72 and 1/2 inches by 55 and 3/4 inches and began as a biblical story telling inspiration come to life within the oil. Located at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the painting was a gift to the institute from Art collector Mr. Leslie H. Green in 1952. Artemisia was the daughter of a painter (and caravaggio influenced) Orazio Gentileschi, she was also the wife of little known artist Pierantonio Stiattesi. Artemisia had four sons and one daughter during her marriage. A student of the Chiaroscuro technique and during a time when women were not believed capable of painting competitively and intelligently as the men of the day. Artemisia proved them wrong with stunning work and artistry over her artistic career.
Women were not allowed to draw naked people, so instead she painted women in informal environments as seen in “The Chess Game”. Her paintings helped break gender and class barriers and led the way for women to be accepted in society as artists. Historian Whitney Chadwick wrote that she was “placed her within a critical category of her own”. (New World Encyclopaedia, 2012) During the middle ages, the only artists were nuns, and Sofonisba’s newfound success influenced the art of today. Many famous male renaissance artists copied her artwork style, which can be seen in the works of Peter Paul Rubens. Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian credited her work: “…she has not only succeeded in drawing, colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very choice and beautiful works of painting.” (Oxford,
The Baroque era was born out of the Roman Catholic Church’s Counter Reformation, during which the church made considerable efforts to strengthen the relationship between the secular world and the religious order. In an effort to engage the common people and create piety, the Catholic Church wanted art to appeal to human emotions. Gentileschi successfully accomplishes this in her painting, Judith Slaying Holofernes. By infusing the Apocryphal tale of Judith with dramatic techniques such as chiaroscuro and foreshortening, she created a deeply moving and realistic piece of art that engages the viewer physically and emotionally, which is quintessential to the Baroque style.
Fantham, Elaine, et al. Women in the Classical World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Undoubtedly Artemisia made a big effort to rehabilitate from the story of the rape through a combined marriage, but especially through her career. Unfortunately, the episode clouded part of the artistic achievements of Artemisia, who was long considered a “curiosity...
“The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas” is a document written in ancient Roman times that exhibits the role religion plays in the forming of a culture and the lives of individuals in the ancient world. For her belief in Christianity, they throw Perpetua into jail. Her execution is fighting animals in an arena. She does not renounce her faith in the face of persecution and thus becomes a martyr. This text is a unique key into the past in many ways. Part of it is written by a woman, it gives a detailed account of her martyrdom and gives us some insight into the culture of ancient Rome. For these reasons, this document provides us with valuable knowledge, specifically concerning the purpose for the composing and preservation of this document.
A rediscover of their history and recognition of early Greek philosophers changed the way that the influential families and Princes, in Italy, considered themselves. Their way of thinking of the Devine and need to promote one’s own aspirations through sponsorship of the arts, as well as, civic duty became not only fashionable but important to progress in the city states. Although Donatello’s David and Botticelli’s Primavera are master pieces in their own right, their influence on future generations of artists cannot be ignored. The spark that ignited the fire which we call the Renaissance was a transformation of societies thinking and values to a Humanistic approach to one duties to society and the church. These two works are a reflection of the changing attitudes which would eventually change all of
Ortiz, Judith Cofer. "The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María." [Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry, 1993.] The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. 11th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill , 2011. 365-369. Print. 11 Nov. 2013
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1652), daughter of a well-known Roman artist, was one of the first women to become recognized in her time for her work.. She was noted for being a genius in the world of art. But because she was displaying a talent thought to be exclusively for men, she was frowned upon. However by the time she turned seventeen she had created one of her best works. One of her more famous paintings was her stunning interpretation of Susanna and the Elders. This was all because of her father. He was an artist himself and he had trained her and introduced her to working artists of Rome, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 1. In an era when women artists were limited to painting portraits, she was the first to paint major historical and religious scenes. After her death, people seemed to forget about her. Her works of art were often mistaken for those of her fathers. An art historian on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia “has suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.” Renewed and long overdue interest in Artemisia recently has helped to recognize her as a talented renaissance painter and one of the world’s greatest female artists. She played a very important role in the renaissance.
In the Iliad we saw women as items of exchange and as markers of status for the men who possessed them (Chryseis and
Beneath Christina Rossetti’s poetry a subtext of conflict between the world of temptation and the divine kingdom exists. Hugely aware of her own and others desires and downfalls her poetry is riddled with fear, guilt and condemnation however her works are not two dimensional and encompass a myriad of human concerns expanding beyond the melancholy to explore love and fulfilment.
Most people would define a great female protagonist as intelligent, strong minded and willing to fight for what she believes in. Both Bernarda Alba from Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba and Medea by Euripides fit this description. One is a tyrannical mother who imposes her choices on her five daughters, the other is arguably the strongest non-Olympian woman in all of Greek mythology. If we take a closer look, we notice that these two characters have many things in common. From their positions of strength, to the masculine aspects of their personalities; from the way they deal with situations to the part they play in the deaths of their children. In this essay we will attempt to seek out their similarities, as well as discover how two playwrights, who wrote for distinct audiences millennia apart, could have created two women so alike.
Dee, J. (2013). Eclipsed: an overshadowed goddess and the discarded image of Botticelli’s Primavera. Renaissance Studies, 27(1),4-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2011.00769.x
The Renaissance art that I've included contains a piece by Robert Campin entitled “Annunciation Triptych,” and another work by Fra Filippo Lippi, called “Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels.” In both of these paintings we see some of the typical themes of Renaissance art. For example, Lippi included in his scene a background which wouldn't have necessarily been needed. Really he could have chosen just about anything, like the woods or the sea, that might have been easier to paint. He chose though what appears to be the inside of a building, likely a church. Not only that but he went to great lengths to ensure everything was in perspective, and the lines and angles are straight and sharp. Similarly Campin has also chosen an interior scenes with strong perspective and exacting details. In both of these the artists seem to be capturing an event, much like with a photography in modern times. While both images portray fictional scenes, the artists wanted to capture the moment to tell a precise historical story. They both go to some lengths to include background details which also capture architectural details. To me it seems that they both approached their work meticulously and with reason and mathem...
Smith, R. “Eternal objects of desire. Art Review- Art and love in Renaissance Italy” in New York Times Art and Design, November 20, (2008)