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Home , Artemisia Gentileschi, Bathsheba (painting), Caravaggio, Casa Buonarroti

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FOR LOVERS OF TRAVEL, ARCHAEOLOGY AND ART Judtith beheading Holofernes

Photograph: © Gallery

Art, Intrigue &

Gentileschi’s Florentine years: 1613-1620

Jane Fortune, author of Invisible Women, Forgotten Artists of , tells the story ofArtemisia one such artist, the remarkable

he words, “passion”, for interpreting his revolutionary style. From in her , especially Judith, “drama”, “torture” and when she was a young child, her father trained Artemisia, the Jewish heroine who beheaded “art”, describe the life of the oldest of his four children, in his workshop/studio in Holofernes, an invading Assyrian Artemisia Gentileschi . Her school book training, though, was limited and general, are powerful women (1593-1652/3), one of the she did not learn to read or write until she was an adult. exacting revenge on a male. Tworld's greatest artists; Even with these obstacles, she became famous for grand a life that has all the scale works depicting biblical or mythical heroines, as in Life in Florence trappings of a romance novel. her first work, and the Elders (1610, Schonborn Upon her arrival in Florence, Even her exotic name, “Artemisia”, Collection, Pommersfelden, Germany) painted when she Buonarroti the captures one’s attention. She was was seventeen. younger, a great nephew of named after a Greek queen from Many attributed this work to her father, whose Michelangelo Buonarroti the Great, the IV Century, Queen of Caria, works are more idealized and hers more naturalistic, commissioned Artemisia, then in Artemis, who was responsible for because the critics felt no one that young could paint an advanced state of pregnancy, to the building of the Mausoleum of such a dramatic and sensitive painting. Much later her paint Allegory of the Inclination in Halicarnassus, one of the Seven signature was found in the painting in the shadow cast the Casa Buonarotti, Michelangelo’s Wonders of the Ancient World, in by Susanna’s legs, leaving no question that the work was home in which he never lived. honour of her husband. hers. The painting, which depicts a young woman being Completed in 1615, this painting is Queen Artemis, a strong woman sexually harassed by the elders of her community who located on the ceiling in the second full of intrigue, was ahead of her falsely accused her of adultery, was painted before her floor gallery. This was part of a series time, in a man’s world, as was traumatic rape experience, two years later. of fifteen personifications dedicated Artemisia Gentileschi. The latter to the life of his great uncle, was among the first to Trial and torture Michelangelo, and she was paid achieve success in the seventeenth Because she was a girl, she could not attend an art three times more than any other century, and brought to her work academy, so her father hired Agostino Tasso, a co-worker, artist who participated in painting an electric sense of narrative drama as her private tutor. At the age of nineteen, he raped her this series. The subject of the and a unique perspective that both and promised to marry her, although he was married. allegory said to resemble Artemisia, celebrated, and humanized, strong Her father later brought suit against Tassi and a seven- is of a young woman holding a women characters. month criminal trial ensued, during which Artemisia was compass. Artemisia’s energetic Today, she is regarded as one of forced to publicly recount the rape and undergo torture – and dramatic heroines often bear the most progressive painters of her metal rings, thumbscrews, which were tightened around a resemblance to their creator. The generation, particularly since her her fingers to assure she was telling the truth. figure was originally , but later interpretations of powerful and brave Tassi was found guilty and was sentenced to one year her lap was partly painted with a women in history (such as Cleopatra, in prison, which he did not serve. Shortly after the trial, drapery by another artist. Diana, and Mary Artemisia Gentileschi‘s father arranged for her to marry Magdalene) was unprecedented. a minor Florentine painter, Pierantonio Stiattesi, and Medici patronage Her father, Orazio Lomi they moved to Florence in 1613. While in Florence, Artemisia became Gentileschi (1563-1639) was an Italian The trauma of the rape and the trial had a definite good friends with the astronomer, Baroque painter who came under impact on her paintings – her graphic depictions were , presumably because

Photograph: © Uffizi Gallery Photograph: the influence of , famous symbolic attempts to deal with her pain. The heroines of his connection to the Medici

Reproduced from Timeless • Issue 1 3 Travels ITALY What makes us particularly happy about this project is that a painting relegated to the deposits of the Pitti court. Their friendship lasted represent her daughter-in-law, Anne until his death through written is now, after our restoration, of Austria. The painting, which is correspondence after she left the property of the Polo Museale Florence. deemed fit for public exhibition Fiorentino, hangs in Florence's In 1616, she became the first Procura Generale della Repubblica woman to be inducted as a member (not open to the public) located on of Florence’s Accademia dell’arte chair. In Florence, she signed her works, ‘Lomi’, rather the via Cavour. dei Disegno, Europe’s first academy than Gentileschi, because of her strained relationship for drawing, where Galileo was also with her father caused by the rape trial. After Florence a member. Although drawings by The Uffizi Gallery’s Sala del Carravaggio holds Though Artemisia and her work her are rare, a charcoal drawing of Gentileschi’s most well known work, Judith Beheading were quite popular in Florence, St. 's Decapitation Holfernes (1620), a terrifying scene of female financial and marital problems can be found in the archives of retribution, filled with power and intense violence. forced her family in 1621 to return the Uffizi's Gabinetto di Disegni e Artemisia is said to have painted it as revenge for her to Rome. In 1622, her husband was Stampe in Florence. rape (it is worth noting that the blood spurting in a wild not listed as a household member She achieved widespread creative arc from Holofernes’ neck illustrates her friend Galileo’s and he is lost to the annals of success under the patronage of Grand discovery of ‘the parabolic path of projectiles’). The history. In Rome, for eight years, Duke Cosimo II de' Medici and the Uffizi version is larger than the earlier one (1612-1613) her painting style matured and Grand Duchess, Cristina di Lorena, she painted, hanging in the Museum of Capodimonte in the sophistication in her imagery wife of Ferdinando I de' Medici. . In the eighteenth century, the Florence version of the female figure brought her While women artists at that time became the property of the Grand Duchess Maria Luisa considerable artistic success which were generally limited to portraiture de’Medici, but she found it so horrible to look at that lasted her lifetime. and still-life painting, Artemisia she hid the work, which was not seen again until an She moved to Naples from 1630- became famous for grand-scale exhibition in 2000 at the Uffizi Gallery. 1638, and from 1638 to 1640 she works, depicting biblical and Also, in the same room at the Uffizi Gallery, is her joined her ailing father in London, mythological heroines (no frail where they painted together for the female ever graced her canvases). first time in fifteen years. After her Judith and her Maidservant (1614), father’s death in 1639, she moved housed in 's Palatine back to Naples, where she lived Gallery, in the Sala dell’Iliade, is a until her death. She is reputed to be stunning example of Artemisia's buried in Naples in the church of St. . It is one of six variations she Giovanni dei Fiorentini, which was painted on that subject (one version destroyed in WWII. is in Michigan’s Detroit Museum She left thirty four paintings and of Art). Her style was strongly 28 letters, and though she enjoyed influenced by Caravaggio’s use of a successful career, after her death chiaroscuro, which shows a painterly she was forgotten. This was until two contrast between light and dark. decades ago when a renewed interest in her by feminist art historians, saw Work in Florence Artemisia recognized as one of the Photograph: Schönborn Collection, Pommersfelden Collection, Schönborn Photograph: Other works by Artemisia greatest female artists. Gentileschi in the Sala della Mary Garrard’s, Artemisia Allegorie in the Palazzo Pitti’s Gentileschi - the Image of the Palatine Gallery, include Female Hero in , and Child (1615) and The Conversion published in 1989, was the first book of the Magdalene (1620), also known Suzanna and the Elders, 1610 devoted to her, and in 1991 her first as The Penitent Magdalene, which exhibition was held in Florence at showcases the richness of the deep Saint (1619), commissioned by the in Florence, gold (called ‘Artemisia gold’) and the Medici family. This work was damaged in the 1993 more than 300 years after her death. the dark green of Magdalene's dress, Mafia bombing, which exploded in one of the streets Gentileschi fought for the right newly developed colours she had behind the Uffizi Gallery. The debris from the bomb cut to be a successful woman artist not used in her earlier works. The a vertical slit along the saint’s right hand and damaged centuries before the women’s equal work is thought to be the portrait Saint Catherine’s face and eye and was restored in 1994. rights movement, and it is her life of Maria , the wife of This work, once displayed in the Academia, was not struggles that makes her recognized Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici, originally recognized as a work by Artemisia Gentileschi as one of the world’s greatest and Gentileschi’s patron in Florence. until the 1960s. artists. In her words: “my illustrious Her signature “Artemisia Lomi”, her Gentileschi’s Minerva/Sapienza (1615) was probably lordship, I will show you what a uncle Aurelio’s last name, is on the commissioned by Maria de' Medici and is said to woman can do”, and that she did!

4 Reproduced from Timeless • Issue 1 Travels ITALY

About the Author Author, lecturer, art collector and philanthropist, Dr. is author of To Florence, Con Amore, 90 Ways to Live the City; Invisible Women, Forgotten Artists of Florence and Art by Women in Florence: A Guide Through 500 Years. Her book Invisible Women, Forgotten Artists of Florence was the basis of a PBS (Public Broadcasting System) documentary of the same title, and the documentary won a coveted Emmy in 2013. She is the Cultural Editor of The Florentine, the English Speaking News magazine in Florence, and is known in Florence as ‘Indiana Jane’ because of her efforts to identify, rescue and restore art treasures by women, in Florence’s storages and museums. She serves on several Museum Boards of Trustees in the United States. Her next book, When the World Answered: Women Artists for Florence After the 1966 Flood, with Linda Falcone, will be published October 2014. It is about thirty-one, of one hundred and seven, works by women artists that were donated to the city of Florence to replace works of art destroyed in the 1966 Flood. The city of Florence promised the artists that their works would Artemisia be housed in a yet-to-be built Contemporary Museum Gentileschi, of Art – that promise was made 48 years ago, while the Penitent , works have been languishing, never seen, in storage. 1620 c., Palatina On June 24, 2014, the ‘Museum of the 1900s’ was finally Gallery, Pitti inaugurated in Florence – this book is their story. Palace Advancing Women Artists Foundation by Jane Fortune My passion, as an author and became part of the Medici collection, but documents emerged from the balcony – it was researcher, is to rediscover works show that it hung in the grand duke’s apartment in 1662. King . The royal protagonist of art, by women, languishing, for Also, in 1662, it was given to Pietro Fevere, the then head was found! centuries, overlooked and unseen, weaver of the Florentine tapestry workshop, so he could It is perhaps in the words of in the deposits of the museums in reproduce the painting into a tapestry (the tapestry is in one of the restorers, Nicola Ann Florence. I am very fortunate: I live storage in the Pitti Palace). The painting was returned MacGregor, who embodies the in Florence several months a year. to the Pitti Palace, but never again was it hung in the unique nature of this project: ‘In In 2007, I founded the Advancing Granducal apartments. all the 38 years of my career as a Women Artists Foundation (AWA) The work, at first glance, seems to be a tranquil scene conservator in Florence, this is the whose mission is to preserve, from the Old Testament when King David first sees the first time I have ever restored a conserve and restore ‘lost’ works by married Bathsheba as she is bathing. But how deceiving! painting by a female artist. women artists, and find a “space” in David’s subsequent seduction of Bathsheba and the Being a woman myself, of a museum in Florence to hang the events that followed are thought to be the beginning of a course, this enhanced the sense restored works. curse on the House of David. of “bonding” nearly always During my five years of Artemisia’s painting, particularly Bathsheba’s face and established between the restorer research for my book, Invisible body, was in a state of considerable deterioration; much and the author of the painting he or Women, Forgotten Artists of of the paint had flaked off because of improper storage she is working on. Florence (2009), I had read that conditions and humidity damage. Restorers Nicola Ann What makes us particularly Gentileschi’s work, David and MacGregor, Sandra Freschi and Elisabetta Codognato happy about this project is that a Bathsheba (1635) was considered undertook the daunting task in restoring David and painting relegated to the deposits ‘lost’, last known to be in the Bathsheba. of the Pitti Palace is now, after our “deposits” of the Uffizi Gallery. The Pitti Palace Palatina Gallery’s former director, restoration, deemed fit for public After a year of asking the women Serena Padovani, who directed the restoration, said exhibition.’ museum directors (there are about the delicate process: “Our task was to consolidate 31 in Florence) to search their the painting’s remaining colour and improve the For more information click here. storages, the work was discovered composition’s legibility, lowering the numerous lacunae Watch the restoration of the in the Pitti Palace’s attic storage, [missing pieces of paint] with neutral tones, so to obtain painting of David & Bathsheba: languishing, unseen, for 372 years! an image that is recomposed, rather than repainted.” One Gentileschi painted six other use of these neutral tones was on Bathsheba’s missing eye, versions of this subject and the and is somewhat disturbing when first viewing the work. Florence painting is closest to the The restoration took over a year and just before its one in Potsdam, Germany, where unveiling to the public (in 2008, in the Pitti Palace’s Sala Bathsheba’s servant is white. In her Bianca), the restorers found a surprise. For months they had Pitti version the servant is African. been looking for David, who eluded them. As they finishing It is not known how this work putting the final touches on the work, a dim silhouette

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