Artemisia Gentileschi By: Jim Lane La Pittura, Artemesia Gentileschi, 1630, oil on canvas, Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, Kensington Palace, London, Collection of Her Majesty The Queen. Click on picture for large image of La Pittura and Judith Decapitating Holofernes

It is difficult to contemplate the work of Artemisia Gentileschi without the temptation to also contemplate her as a woman. In fact, given the times in which she lived, and the indignities she suffered because of her sex, we might even go so far to say it was UNFORTUNATE she was a woman. Yet in terms of originality and the technical qualities, her paintings stand up quite well next to those of Caravaggio, Agostino Tassi, and her father, Orazio Genteleschi. Moreover, until recently, many of her works were attributed to these men, and others who lived and worked during the first half of the seventeenth century. She was an artist admired for her work and yet detested for the fact that she dared compete and succeed in what was otherwise a completely male-dominated world where art was concerned.

The details of her life read like something from a supermarket tabloid. Born in 1593, her mother died when she was twelve. Raised by her father, a disciple of the dramatic, baroque, chiaroscuro work of Michelangelo de Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, her work is evidence of a careful tutelage under her father's watchful eye. When he could no longer advance his daughter's art training, he arranged for her to study under a prominent fresco painter, Agostino Tassi. Little is known as to how much he may have taught her, but he did managed to seduce and rape her. When he refused to marry her, Artemesia's father brought suit. During the brief trial, she was subjected to thumb screws as a "lie detector" test. Despite witnesses and evidence to the contrary, the charges were dismissed. Her outrage can be seen in her painting, Judith Decapitating Holofernes, painted in 1620.

Artemisia nearly always painted strong women from history or mythology yet there is nothing feminine about her work. (However today we might call it "feminist.") Her Judith Decapitating Holofernes is probably one of the most gruesomely bloody works of art ever painted--far more so than Caravaggio's handling of the same subject some twenty years earlier. In addition to Judith, she also repeatedly painted such figures as Bathsheba, Cleopatra, and Lucretia. Perhaps her best work however, is that of another very strong woman--herself. Her self-portrait, La Pittura, painted in 1630, shows her wielding a tiny brush in one hand, palette in the other, against the backdrop of a huge blank canvas, strong, dramatic lighting on her face and bare bodice, eyes turned upward, intent on studying the source of her inspiration. It's design and execution make it one of the most expressive self-portraits ever.

The content, technical virtuosity, and details of her paintings bear witness to an artist consumed by her work to a degree unmatched by few painters in ANY era. Later in life, because of their widespread travel and work all over Europe, she and her father were very much responsible for spreading Caravaggio's style all over Europe, making it international in scope. Though she at various times lived in Rome, Florence, and Naples, she also painted for Charles I in England and Catherine Di Medici in Paris. And unlike Caravaggio, a surprising number of her works still exist--some 34 pieces, spread over the forty or so years of her career. She died in 1653. Her passing was little noted except for two epitaphs, one calling her an adulterer, the other a nymphomaniac. Neither mentioned her work.

Jim Lane is fifty-ish, balding, bearded, bespectacled, professorial, outgoing, knowledgable about a lot of things, expert on a very few. He grew up in the small town of Stockport, situated on the Muskingum River in Southeastern Ohio. He graduated from a un-noteworthy business college in Cincinnati, from the U.S. Air Force, and from Ohio University where he also obtained a masters degree and wracked up several hours of post-graduate work as well. For most of his professional life he's run a portrait business out of his home, specializing in sports portraits done in pencil and colored pencil.

Happily married for almost 30 years, Jim taught elementary and high school art for 26 years and also spent many enjoyable hours in the front of a local community college classroom. Recently he has retired from teaching in favor of painting, traveling, writing, designing web pages, and "...doing things I've never done before."

E-mail Jim at: jimlane@jimlaneart.com

Visit The Jim Lane Collection at:   http://www.jimlaneart.com

Or Jim Lane's Arty-fact Archives at:   http://www.1st.net/users/jimlane/Archive.html