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| Cleopatra by Artemisia Gentileschi (c.1620-26) Private Collection Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi |
(Venice, Italy) More than four hundred years ago, Artemisia Gentileschi rocked the world with her intense depictions of the female spirit. After four centuries, the #MeToo movement is finally catching up to the crusade she pioneered.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was a female painter during the Baroque period when the art world was controlled by men. Her gripping talent and fiery resilience featured female protagonists of myth and biblical lore as heroines in control of their own destinies, not submissive damsels as portrayed by men.
Artemisia was born in Rome on July 8, 1593, the eldest of four children; her siblings were boys. Her father was the well-known artist Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), who supported his family with commissions for altarpieces and chapels. When the brilliant wild child Caravaggio (1571-1610) exploded on the scene in Rome in July 1600 with his two Saint Matthew works, Orazio was enthralled.
Artemisia was just seven-years-old when Caravaggio inspired the art movement that would become Baroque. Caravaggio painted directly from life on to the canvas without drawing first, using real people to model the saints and sinners he whisked alive with his brush. His dramatic use of chiaroscuro -- dark and light -- exhilarated and shocked Rome. Artemisa's father, Orazio, fell under Caravaggio's spell. The younger man's influence seeped into his work.
At one point, Orazio was such good friends with Caravaggio
that he was famously sued for libel in August 1603 by painter and
biographer Giovanni Baglione (1566-1643) author of the artists' bible The Lives of Painters, Sculptors, Architects and Engravers, active from 1572-1642
(if you weren't in that book, you were nobody). Orazio was part of
Caravaggio's circle who had distributed crude poems about Baglione's art
around Rome.
The tumultuous Caravaggio was not just a provocative
painter, he went to trial at least 11 times for charges that included
brawling and assault, and had to flee Rome in 1606 after being accused of
murder. He died at the age of 38. People are still arguing if his death was the result of a vendetta.
Artemisia's mother died in childbirth in 1605 when Artemisia was 12-years-old. After that, she was raised by her father. Orazio had planned on his daughter becoming a nun, but through her impressive talent and ambition, she convinced him to teach her what he knew.
Caravaggio had greatly influenced Orazio with his revolutionary technique. Orazio, in turn, influenced Artemisia, who developed her own distinct style. Her earliest surviving work is Susanna and the Elders painted in 1610 at age 17. A popular subject for many male painters from the Old Testament Book of Daniel, two old lechers -- respectable members of the community -- spy on the beautiful and youthful Susanna while she is bathing. They try to blackmail her for sex, saying they will accuse her of cheating on her husband if she doesn't acquiesce. She refuses and then is put on trial for their false claims. She wins; they lose, and are stoned to death. Many male artists have depicted the scene -- researching it can take you down a predictable rabbit hole.
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| Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentileschi (1610) |
Artemisia's version was the first to capture the female point of view. The two elders are a couple of perverts right in her face, teamed up to intimidate Susanna into having sex. Susanna is naked and horrified, hands up in protest as one elder whispers threats into her ear, urged on by the other elder who whispers into his ear.
Astonishingly, the next year, Artemisia Gentielschi would be raped in real life by her father's colleague, Agostino Tassi. We know this because the records of the seven-month trial are in the State Archive in Rome. During Artemisia's testimony, they used thumbscrew torture to be sure she was telling the truth, which could have broken her fingers and destroyed her career as an artist. We can only imagine her trauma.
Agostino Tassi turned out to be the Harvey Weinstein of his day. "Never have I had carnal relations..." The trial revealed other rapes in his wake. Artemisia won. Tassi was convicted and imprisoned, but his verdict was later annulled...
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| Cleopatra by Artemisia Gentileschi (detail) Photo: Cat Bauer |
Instead of living her life hounded by the rape, Artemisia funneled her emotions down through her fingertips and out through her paintbrush. We know she was beautiful because she often used her own image in her paintings. Her intense storytelling made her a star -- she was commissioned by royalty and nobility. Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici and the Grand Duchess, Cristina di Lorena, wife of Ferdinando I de’ Medici were her patrons. She was friends with Galileo Galilei.
We also know Artemisia was in Venice in the 1620s, but only recently do we know it was probably from the end of 1626 until 1630. She painted her striking Cleopatra shortly before her arrival in the lagoon.
At that time there was a mysterious society in Venice called the Accademia degli Incogniti -- the Academy of the Incognitos, or Unknowns. Composed of free-thinking intellectuals, mostly noblemen, with Giovan Francesco Loredan as one of the founders, they impacted Venetian political and cultural life. They wrote in their own language and pioneered opera as a public event.
The Ospite a Palazzo press notes describe The Incogniti as "one of the most original and lively realities in Venice at the time, and among the freest and most innovative in the whole of seventeenth-century Italy." Wikipedia notes that The Incogniti were often depicted as a group of "sceptical libertines extolling a peculiarly Venetian brand of (im)morality." In addition to literature and musical theater, The Incogniti were interested in the role of women in society and dedicated about 20 missives and poetic compositions in honor of Artemisia. Did her work influence other artists in Venice?
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| Renata Codello, Vittore Sgarbi, Luca Massimo Barbero, Giovanni Alliata di Monterale Opening of Cleopatra L'Ospite a Palazzo Cini Photo: Cat Bauer |
Artemisia Gentileschi's dramatic Cleopatra is a Guest of Palazzo Cini until July 16 thanks to the Collezione Cavallini Sgarbi. In fact, the always entertaining Vittorio Sgarbi, who is currently the Italian Undersecretary of State to the Minister of Culture, was here at the opening because it is basically his painting.
Go to Palazzo Cini for more information.
Cat Bauer
