The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi

Portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, by an unknown artist, c. 1614-1620.

Artemisia's signature from a letter to Andrea Cioli, Secretary of State to Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Dated 11th December, 1635.

Hand of Artemisia Gentileschi by Pierre Dumonstier le Neveu, 1625.

Miscellany

Google No. 1 (often) with the search words:
"Artemisia Gentileschi" (295,000+ webpages).
Google Top 3 with the search word:
"Gentileschi" (200,000+ webpages).
Google Top 10 with the search word:
"Artemisia" (2,000,000+ webpages)

The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi

his website is dedicated to the life and art of Artemisia Gentileschi. It features a guided tour of thirty-four of her paintings in approximate chronological order. Each painting is on a separate page with details about the work itself along with biographical details of the artist's life contemporaneous with the work.

rtemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1652/1653), daughter of well-known Roman artist, Orazio Gentileschi (1563 - 1639), was one of the first women artists to achieve recognition in the male-dominated world of post-Renaissance art. In an era when female artists were limited to portrait painting and imitative poses, she was the first woman to paint major historical and religious scenarios.

orn in Rome in 1593, she received her early training from her father, but after art academies rejected her, she continued study under a friend of her father, Agostino Tassi. In 1612, her father brought suit against Tassi for raping Artemisia. There followed a highly publicised seven-month trial. This event makes up the central theme of a controversial French film, Artemisia (1998), directed by Agnes Merlet.

he trauma of the rape and trial impacted on Artemisia's painting. Her graphic depictions were cathartic and symbolic attempts to deal with the physical and psychic pain. The heroines of her art, especially Judith, are powerful women exacting revenge on such male evildoers as the Assyrian general Holofernes. Her style was heavily influenced by dramatic realism and marked chiaroscuro (contrasting light and dark) of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 - 1610).

fter her death, she drifted into obscurity, her works often attributed to her father or other artists. Art historian and expert on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia "has suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her calibre." Renewed and overdue interest in Artemisia in recent years has recognized her as a talented seventeenth-century painter and one of the world's greatest female artists. The first book devoted to her, Artemisia Gentileschi - The Image of The Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art. by Mary D. Garrard, was issued in 1989; her first exhibition was held in Florence in 1991. A TV documentary, a play and, more recently, a film have advanced her notoriety .

NEW FILM ABOUT ARTEMISIA! (Soon to be released)
A Woman Like That
"Filmmaker Ellen Weissbrod merges her own coming of middle-age story with her pursuit of the truths behind the legends of 17th century female painter Artemisia Gentileschi's dramatic art and life."
NEW!
Artemisia Gentileschi Forum.
Discuss Artemisia and her life and art, ask questions, share your thoughts about her.