COVid recovery of a Baroque Master, Artemisia Getileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi, COVid Sufferer Recovers as Exhibition Opens
Esther before Ahasuerus
Artemisia Getileschi (1593-1656)
Artemisia Getileschi (1593-1656) had a complicated life. Born into a storied artistic family, she became one of the pillars of the Italian baroque period, until recently overshadowed by Caravaggio and others, probably due to the abundance of great artists serving wealthy patrons with immense projects. She began painting at fifteen, focused on biblical and mythological subjects with women, endured a rape by painter Agostino Tassi (1578-1644) and brutal trial which is known through her letters and official records. Tassi a talented landscape painter, rogue and serial convict, was imprisoned, then pardoned. Artemisia went on to success upon success, eventually painting at the court of Charles I in London.
Her ‘Judith Slaying Holofernes’ in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence painted early in her career captures the story of Judith, told in the book of the same name in the Apocrypha of the Bible, about a beautiful widow who saves Israel by ingratiating herself to an Assyrian general, whom she beheads. Judith, the book, has a checkered reception not being included in the Jewish canon of the Bible, nor by Protestants, but the image of Judith, a strong, beautiful woman has been painted numerous times, by artists from Caravaggio in the Barberini
https://www.barberinicorsini.org/en/opera/judith-beheading-holofernes/
to Gustav Klimt, whose erotic 1901 painting is a brazen, byzantine and dazzling interpretation.
https://www.belvedere.at/en/museum
In the trial transcript of her rape, Artemisia is quoted “After he had done his business he got off of me. When I saw myself free, I went to the table drawer and took a knife and moved towards Agostina, saying ‘I’d like to kill you with this knife because you have dishonored me.” In her painting, Judith, wears a bracelet with the figure of Artemis, who threatened anyone who tried to rape her with violence, it’s easy to understand why Artemisia probably identified with Judith.
The exhibition postponed by COVid but now opening is at the National Gallery in London and if you cannot attend, get the catalog.