Artemisia Gentileschi

Martyr self-portrait, ca.1615

Gentileschi's signature

Artemisia Gentileschi [ʤentileski] (*  8. July 1593 in Rome ; † after 31 January 1654 in Naples ) was an Italian painter of the Baroque . She is considered to be the most important painter of her era.

Life

Gentileschi was the daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi , who was then living in Rome, and the Prudentia Montone. Due to the death of her mother in 1605, she became a half-orphan . Artemisia often stood as a model for her father, who recognized her talent early on and taught her painting .

To learn the perspective, her father probably sent her to his fellow painter and friend Agostino Tassi , who raped Artemisia. With a promise of marriage (at that time it was socially impossible for a woman not to be married to a man with whom she had sexual contact) he extorted her silence, but he did not marry her - Tassi was probably already married. As a result, Orazio filed a lawsuit against Tassi in May 1612, during which Artemisia was tortured with a thumbscrew-like device to check her testimony and also subjected to a degrading gynecological examination to prove that she was not a prostitute . Tassi wanted to get out of the affair with this accusation; however, he was eventually sentenced to eight months in prison, including for stealing pictures. Despite Tassi's conviction and Artemisias immediately following marriage to the Florentine painter Pietro Antonio di Vicenzo Stiattesi, her good reputation could not be fully restored, which is why she moved to Florence . Her daughter Palmira was born there in 1620. Artemisia was given the honor of being the first woman to be accepted into the local Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno in 1616 . As early as 1615 she received her first major commission from Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger , a great-nephew of Michelangelo .

Artemisia soon cultivated friendly relationships with painters, poets and other illustrious personalities, such as Cristofano Allori and Galileo Galilei . She became very well known and made a number of works for the Medici , with particular support from the Grand Duke of Tuscany , Cosimo II . In doing so, she also developed her own personal style, which no longer reminded of her father. Around 1620 she made her most famous picture Judith beheaded Holofernes . Tintoretto , Caravaggio , Casa Coppi and Adam Elsheimer also painted this motif . Judith interprets her version as a cold-blooded murderer and stands out due to the extremely realistic representation. Gentileschi dealt with the biblical story several times: The first two paintings were made as early as 1612/13, another around 1625.

In 1623 she was so famous that she was able to return to Rome with her two daughters, where she had several clients, including Cardinal Francesco Barberini , the nephew of Pope Urban VIII , and the Commendatore Cassiano dal Pozzo . In 1630 Artemisia went to Naples , which was then one of the most important cities in Europe and three times the size of Rome. She ran her own workshop there and received higher fees than her male colleagues. In 1635 she received an invitation to London to the court of King Charles I , where her father was now a court painter. However, she probably did not accept this invitation until 1637 and possibly supported the already sick father Orazio with the design of the ceiling painting in the Queen's House in Greenwich . The following year her father died in England.

She returned to Naples and was particularly encouraged by the patron Don Antonio Ruffo of Messina. At this point, the style of her painting also changed. The last years of her life were marked by health and financial difficulties. Letters from 1648 to 1650 to their client Ruffo prove their burdens. She died in Naples around 1652/53.

plant

Gentileschi self-portrait, 1638–39

Artemisia Gentileschi was strongly influenced, especially in her early work, by her father, who was also her teacher, and adopted his love for precision in details and baroque pathos . Like her father, she was strongly influenced by Adam Elsheimer and Caravaggio , both of whom were personally acquainted with the Gentileschi. Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi can be regarded as important representatives of the painting style Caravaggism , named after Caravaggio , which impressed with its realistic representation and dramatic lighting effects.

When she was married in 1612 and moved to Florence, she further developed her painting style and broke away from that of her father. Her pictures became even more lively and emotional. She also developed Caravaggism further by making the colors shine even brighter and brighter. Their characteristic colors are brown and ocher tones, bright red and strong blue as well as shades in orange tones. Typical of them are also precisely painted folds and the high materiality of the clothes.

However, both daughter and father were able to adapt their style to the respective artistic landscapes in which they were active. And just as Orazio adapted to the taste of the English court in his late work in England, Artemisia adopted a Florentine style of painting in Florence and a Neapolitan style in Naples. In her late work, she also changed her conception of femininity and approached the Bolognese painting style, which again demanded the idealized exaggeration of the human being. Their figures became more delicate, the female figures lost activity and strength.

It is known that in later times she studied nude models for her compositions, but in many of her pictures her own facial features and body shapes appear, for example in the self-portrait as an allegory of painting .

It is unusual that Artemisia was active in a professional field that was particularly dominated by men at the time and had her own workshop with male employees. Furthermore, unlike the few other female painters of her time known by name, she did not limit herself to genres typical of women at the time - such as portrait painting , flower and fruit still life , miniature painting , landscape painting  - but chose what was regarded as the finest genre of painting at the time and history painting, usually reserved for male painters, as well as mythological and biblical subjects, which she implemented in large formats. The protagonists of her pictures are often female heroines, for example Judith or Lucretia .

Artemisia's pictures show women of unusual charisma, whose poses express psychological rather than physical drama. Your female characters are courageous, determined, energetic and show above all the feelings of fear, powerlessness and distress.

reception

Although she was very famous during her lifetime, she was forgotten after her death. It wasn't until the 1960s - in the wake of feminist movements - that people became aware of them again.

The feminist artist Judy Chicago dedicated one of the 39 place settings at the table to her in her work The Dinner Party .

“Two more women painters should be mentioned, who did honor to the fatherland. One was Marietta Robusti , the daughter of Tintoretto […] Artemisia Gentileschi was born in the year she died. She developed under the direction of Guidi Reni and achieved great fame during her life, especially for her excellent portraits. She lived in Naples, then in England, where she also died and left valuable works. But there are also paintings of her in the Pitti Palace and in the Museum of Naples . In this museum - significant enough - a room is adorned with four classic paintings by four different painters: by Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani , Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana . "

- Report in the Wiener Hausfrauen-Zeitung from November 16, 1902

Catalog of works (selection)

The paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi were cataloged by Raymond Ward Bissell in 1999 under the title Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art: Critical Reading and Catalog Raisonné . The 50 or so works of art have since been provided with catalog numbers [WB ...]. Paintings that no longer exist are marked with the prefix "L-". Paintings that are not clearly created by Artemisia are marked with the prefix "X-".

WB	image	title	year	Size / material	Exhibition / collection / owner	Remarks
1		Madonna and Child	1609-1610	118 × 86 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Palazzo Pitti , Galleria Palatina
2		Susanna and the elders	1610	170 × 121 cm, oil on canvas	Pommersfelden , Weißenstein Castle , Schönborn art collection
3		Lucretia	around 1611	54 × 51 cm, oil on canvas	Genoa , Palazzo Cattaneo-Adorno
4th		Judith beheads Holofernes	around 1612	162 × 126 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Museo di Capodimonte
5		Judith with her maid	1612-1614	114 × 93.5 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Palazzo Pitti , Galleria Palatina
6th		Saint Catherine of Alexandria	around 1614-1615	77 × 63 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Uffizi Gallery
X-6		Cleopatra	around 1611-1612	118 × 181 cm, oil on canvas	Milan , Amedeo Morandotti collection	possibly painted by or with Orazio Gentileschi
7th		(Self-portrait as) martyr	around 1615	32 × 24.5 cm, oil on panel	New York , Newhouse Galleries
X-7		Danae	around 1611-1612	41.3 × 52.7 cm, oil on copper	St. Louis , The Saint Louis Art Museum	possibly painted by Orazio Gentileschi
8th		The natural talent	around 1615-1616	152 × 61 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Casa Buonarroti
9		The repentant Magdalena	around 1615-1616	65.7 × 50.8 cm, oil on canvas	Los Angeles , Marc A. Seidner Collection
10		Conversion of Magdalena ( Repentant Magdalena )	around 1617-1620	146.5 × 108 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Palazzo Pitti , Galleria Palatina
11		Jaël and Sisera	1620	86 × 125 cm, oil on canvas	Budapest , Szépművészeti Múzeum
X-11		Joseph and the wife of Potiphar	around 1622–1623	231.8 × 194.9 cm, oil on canvas	Cambridge , Massachusetts , Fogg Art Museum	possibly painted by Paolo Finoglia
12		Judith and Holofernes	1614-1620	199 × 162.5 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Uffizi Gallery
13		Portrait of a Gonfaloniere	1622	208 × 128 cm, oil on canvas	Bologna , Palazzo D'Accursio, Collezioni Comunali d'Arte
14th		Judith with her maid	around 1623-1625	184 × 141.6 cm, oil on canvas	Detroit , Institute of Arts
L-14		Christ blesses the children				lost
15th		Aurora	around 1625–1627	218 × 146 cm, oil on canvas	Rome , private property
16		The repentant Magdalena	around 1621-1622	122 × 96 cm, oil on canvas	Seville , cathedral
17th		The repentant Magdalena	around 1621-1622	136.5 × 100 cm, oil on canvas	Mexico City , Museo Soumaya
L-17		Cupid and Psyche	around 1624			lost
X-17		Lucretia	1642-1643	206 × 182 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Palazzo Reale
18th		Venus and Cupid ( Sleeping Venus )	around 1625–1627	94 × 144 cm, oil on canvas	Richmond , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
X-19		Madonna and Child	around 1610	116.5 × 86.5 cm, oil on canvas	Rome , Palazzo Spada
L-20		David with his harp				lost
21st		The repentant Magdalena	around 1627-1629	100 × 73 cm, oil on canvas	Sorrento , Museo Correale di Terranova
22nd		Cleopatra	around 1627-1629	117 × 175.5 cm, oil on canvas	Rome , private property
L-22		David with the head of Goliath	1631			lost
24		Annunciation to Mary	1630	257 × 179 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Museo di Capodimonte
X-25		Saint Catherine of Alexandria	around 1620	Oil on canvas	El Paso , Texas , Museum of Art, The Kress Collection	painted with Orazio Gentileschi
27		Klio, Muse of History ( The Glory )	1632	127.6 × 97.2 cm, oil on canvas	New York , privately owned
L-27		Diana in the bath with Aktaion	around 1649-1650			lost
28		Esther before Ashaver	around 1630	208.3 × 273.7 cm, oil on canvas	New York , Metropolitan Museum of Art
X-28		Lute player / Saint Cecilia	around 1610-1612	108 × 78.5 cm, oil on canvas	Rome , Palazzo Spada
30th		Corisca and the satyr	around 1633-1635	155 × 210 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , private property
31		Venus in an embrace with Cupid	around 1634	121 × 160 cm, oil on canvas	Kreuzlingen , Heinz Kisters collection
32		The birth of John the Baptist	1635	184 × 258 cm, oil on canvas	Madrid , Prado
33a		Saint Proculus and his mother Nicea	around 1635	300 × 180 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Museo Nazionale di San Martino
33b		St. Januarius with his companions in the amphitheater	around 1635	308 × 200 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Museo Nazionale di San Martino
33c		Adoration of the Magi	around 1635	308 × 205 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Museo Nazionale di San Martino
35		Samson and Delilah	around 1635 (original), around 1640 (copy)	Oil on canvas	Naples , Museo di Capodimonte , Collection of the Banco di Napoli (copy)
36		Minerva ( Sapienza )	around 1615	131 × 103 cm, oil on canvas	Florence , Procura Generale della Repubblica
37		Bathsheba in the bath	around 1636	265 × 210 cm, oil on canvas	Columbus , Ohio , Museum of Art	painted together with other artists
39		Lot and his daughters	around 1636–1637	230.5 × 183 cm, oil on canvas	Toledo , Ohio , Museum of Art
L-39		Hercules	1620			lost
40		Bathsheba in the bath	around 1637-1638	204.5 × 155.5 cm, oil on canvas	Halle , private property
41		Allegory of Peace and the Arts under the Rule of the English King	1636-1639	892 × 1070 cm, oil on canvas	London , Marlborough House	Ceiling painting, painted together with Orazio Gentileschi
42		Allegory of Painting Self-Portrait as La Pittura	around 1638–1639	96.5 × 73.7 cm, oil on canvas	London , Kensington Palace , The Royal Collection
X-42		Susanna and the elders	1622	161.5 × 123 cm, oil on canvas	Stamford , England , The Burghley House Collection	possibly not painted by Artemisia
45		Bathsheba in the bath	around 1640	225 × 226 cm, oil on canvas	Vienna , Alexander Haas Collection
46		Bathsheba in the bath	around 1640-1645	288 × 228 cm, oil on canvas	Rome , private property
47		Judith and her maid	around 1640-1645	235 × 172 cm, oil on canvas	Cannes , Musee de la Castre
48a		Bathsheba in the bath	around 1645-1650	258 × 218 cm, oil on canvas	Potsdam , New Palace , Upper Gallery
48b		Tarquinius and Lucretia	around 1645-1650	261 × 226 cm, oil on canvas	Potsdam , New Palace , Upper Gallery
48c		Judith and her maid Abra with the head of Holofernes	around 1645-1650	272 × 221 cm, oil on canvas	Naples , Museo di Capodimonte
49		The triumph of Galatea	around 1650	152.1 × 205.1 cm, oil on canvas	New York , Washington , National Art Gallery	probably painted together with Bernardo Cavallino
50		Susanna and the two old people	1649	205 × 168 cm, oil on canvas	Brno , Moravská galerie v Brně
51		Madonna and Child (with rosary)	1650-1651	59.5 × 38.5 cm, oil on copper, mounted on wood	El Escorial , Museo de Pintura
L-53		Bathsheba in the bath	around 1650–1652	269 ​​× 222 cm, oil on canvas		Destroyed in 1940
L-75		John the Baptist				lost
L-104		Susanna and the two old people	1652	263 × 233 cm		lost
without WB		Self-portrait as a lute player	around 1615-1617	65.5 × 50.2 cm, oil on canvas	Hartford , Wadsworth Atheneum	possibly not painted by Artemisia

literature

• Debra N. Mancoff: Women who changed art Prestel Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7913-4732-5 , pp. 8-10, 107-109.
• Christiane Weidemann, Petra Larass, Melanie Klier: 50 women artists you should know. Prestel Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7913-3957-3 , pp. 22-25.
• Christina Haberlik, Ira Diana Mazzoni : 50 classics - artists, painters, sculptors and photographers . Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 978-3-8067-2532-2 , pp. 23-29.
• Keith Christiansen: Becoming Artemisia: Afterthoughts on the Gentileschi Exhibition. In: Metropolitan Museum Journal. 39, 2004, ISSN  0077-8958 , pp. 101-126.
• Yvonne Dudziak-Kloe: Artemisia Gentileschis - Susanna in the bath. A picture investigation, library Schloß Weissenstein Pommersfelden catalog, 2005.
• Mary D. Garrard : Artemisia Gentileschi. The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1991, ISBN 0-691-04050-8 .
• Mary D. Garrard: Artemisia Gentileschi around 1622. The shaping and reshaping of an artistic identity. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. a. 2001, ISBN 0-520-22426-4 . ( California Studies in the History of Art. Discovery Series 11)
• Nadja Henle: The emancipated self-portrait. Music and eroticism in the works of Artemisia Gentileschi. VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken 2009, ISBN 978-3-639-12279-4 .
• Judith W. Mann (Ed.): Artemisia Gentileschi. Taking stock. Brepols, Turnhout 2005, ISBN 2-503-51507-X .
• Susanna Stolzenwald: Artemisia Gentileschi. Bonding and liberation in the life and work of a painter. Belser, Stuttgart et al. 1991, ISBN 3-7630-2073-X .
• Dagmar Lutz: Artemisia Gentileschi: Life and Work . Belser, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7630-2586-2 .
• Susan Vreeland: The Passion of Artemisia. Viking, New York NY 2002, ISBN 0-670-89449-4 .
  • German: The painter. Diana-Verlag, Munich a. a. 2002, ISBN 3-8284-0063-9 .
• R. Ward Bissell: Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. Critical Reading and Catalog Raisonne . Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-271-01787-2 .
• Christine Tauber: Judith, do your part. Act of revenge of the victim? Rational act of the heroine - and the painter: The supposed trauma of Artemisia Gentileschi as an example of feminist misinterpretation. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Geisteswissenschaften, No. 195, Wednesday, August 23, 2017, p. N3.
• Christa Wachenfeld (ed.): The rape of Artemisia . The process. With an essay by Roland Barthes. Translated from the Latin / Italian sources Gertraude Grassi. Freiburg (Breisgau): Kore, 1992. ISBN 3-926023-34-1 .
• Susanna Partsch : Gentileschi, Artemisia . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 51, Saur, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-598-22791-4 , pp. 402-406.

Film adaptations

• Artemisia . Direction: Agnès Merlet , France / Italy / Germany, 1997, with Valentina Cervi as Artemisia

Trivia

• The Prix ​​Artemisia for comics and graphic novels has been awarded in France since 2008 . It is awarded once a year to an outstanding work by an artist.
• On July 8, 2020, Artemisia Gentileschi was honored by the search engine Google with a doodle for her 427th birthday.

Web links

Commons : Artemisia Gentileschi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Artemisia Gentileschi in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi (English)
• Artemisia Gentileschi at ArtCyclopedia (English)
• Prix ​​Artemisia (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Volker Barth: Artemisia Gentileschi . In: PM History . January 2005, p. 81.
3. ↑ Brooklyn Museum page on the artwork, accessed April 15, 2014.
4. ↑ IB Münz: Important female artists from the XV. and XVI. Century . In: Wiener Hausfrauen-Zeitung . No. 46 , 1902, pp. 412 ( ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online [accessed July 22, 2020]).
5. ^ Artemisia Gentileschi: An artistic Google doodle for the 427th birthday of the Italian baroque painter - GWB. In: GoogleWatchBlog. July 8, 2020, accessed on July 8, 2020 (German).