Review: [untitled] Author(s): Richard E. Spear Reviewed work(s): : Ten Years of Fact and Fiction Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Sep., 2000), pp. 568-579 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3051402 Accessed: 13/10/2009 20:36

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ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI: TEN YEARS OF FACT AND FICTION

"I find myself with a female daughter and three other sons, and this daughter, as it pleased God, having been trained in the profession of paint- ing, in three years has become so skilled that I dare say she has no equal today, for she has made works that demonstrate a level of understanding that perhaps the leading masters of the profes- sion have not attained." With these words, in mid-1612 (1563-1639) as- sured Cristina di Lorena, the Dowager Grand Duchess in Florence, of the talent of eighteen- year-old Artemisia (1593-ca. 1653). "In the proper time and place," he added from Rome, he would show Her Serene Highness that what he said was so.1 Nearly four centuries later, art historians, novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers remain focused on issues raised by Orazio's brief pledge: the father-daughter relationship; Ar- temisia's artistic education; whether she was a prodigy and thus capable of painting on her own a Susanna and theElders inscribed with her name and dated 1610; her standing compared to the leading (male) masters; Orazio's man- aging of her career; and, above all, what Orazio emphasized through redundancy, that, although an artist, Artemisia was " unafigliuola femina," a woman. What he did not mention, however, has proven to be even more captivat- ing in the modern mind: the rape of Artemi- sia a year earlier by Orazio's artist-associate, Agostino Tassi; the resultant trial that was still under way when Orazio was writing to Flor- ence; and Artemisia's penchant for painting powerful, often-nude female protagonists. Among the various myths surrounding Artemi- sia Gentileschi is that she was badly neglected by writers of her time (as this essay attests, there has been a compensatory outpouring during the past decade thanks to the women's movement, so 1 Artemisia Gentileschi. ca. 1620. 1.99 x 1.625 m. Oil on much so that attention can be given only to Judith Decapitating Holofernes, canvas. Florence, Galleria Uffizi. representative titles).2 It is true that she was not degli discussed by Mancini, Scannelli, Bellori, or Pas- and that she deserved mention because she seri, two-thirds of his attributions to her (generous tal "New Documented Chronology," pub- worked for some clients in prominent Rome, allowance must be made for the primitive lished in thisjournal a generation ago.5 A few and London. But it is Florence, Naples, impor- state of research on Italian Baroque painting years later, six of her best pictures were se- in mind as a she tant to bear that, woman, then), and especially that his discussion of lected for the exhibition WomenArtists: 1550- predictably painted no frescoes and scarcely any Artemisia's work, as Laura Benedetti recently 1950 (1976), which for the first time offered in or altarpieces (not one Rome Florence)-that emphasized, was full of sexist criticism, nota- the modern public an opportunity to see what is, those works that were the most obvious signs of bly with regard to her dramatic versions of a good painter Artemisia could be.6 a history painter's significance and success. Other Judith DecapitatingHolofernes (Fig. 1): "This is a Mary Garrard's Artemisia Gentileschi: The biographers-Baglione, Sandrart, Baldinucci, terrible woman! How could a woman paint all Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art and De Dominici-nevertheless took notice of this? We beg for mercy.... Unbelievable, I tell appeared a decade ago and changed the her career. Thereafter little of substance was you!" and more such ranting.4 discourse entirely. Except for Ann Sutherland written until Roberto Longhi devoted a youthful In time, Longhi's primitive catalogue of Harris's perceptive entries in Women Artists: essay (1916) to "Gentileschi padre e figlia."3 Artemisia's work was slowly corrected and 1550-1950 and a section of Germaine Greer's It is ironic, if seldom noted, that Longhi, enlarged, often by Longhi himself, although a The Obstacle Race (1979), the art historical who is credited with resurrecting Artemisia firm documentary basis for understanding literature on Artemisia had been fundamen- from scholarly oblivion, was mistaken in fully her career awaited Ward Bissell's fundamen- tally conventional, meaning that it dealt fore- BOOK REVIEWS 569

most with attributional, chronological, and Rome ca. 1611-12, that is, shortly after the Psychoanalysis. Then their approach can be iconographic problems from a traditional per- assault (May 1611), possibly while the trial was contrasted with more recent studies. spective, and was biased by androcentric, still under way (March-October 1612), and The central idea, advanced by Marcia often misogynist, rather than feminist values. before Artemisia married Pierantonio Stia- Pointon in the first of these articles, is that Garrard overthrew that tradition by adopting tessi (November 1612) and moved with him "Artemisia reorganized Caravaggio's composi- what she called "a line of investigation ... to Florence (most likely in early 1613). This tion in such a way as to render the murder of whose premise [is] that women's art is inescap- later version is the image that disturbed Holofernes through the imagery of child- ably, if unconsciously, different from men's, Longhi so much, whose defensive sarcasm birth." Her argument hinges on what she calls because the sexes have been socialized to and thinly veiled sexism in referring to its a V-shape formed by Holofernes's arms, which different experiences of the world." painter as "Signora Schiattesi" fits the sexual is "characteristic of the 'V' formed by the Working from the premise that Artemisia's dualism underlying Garrard's reductive view open thighs of a woman at the point of giving reflects her and more imagery gender specifi- that "the most dangerous and frightening birth." Holofernes's "gaping mouth" be- her of sexual harassment and cally suffering force on earth for Man [is] women in control comes a vagina surrounded by a "mass of Garrard traditional connois- rape, replaced of his fate."9 And it fits Agnes Merlet's script- beard-like pubic hair." Judith attends to the with what be called seurship might "gendered ing of Tassi's lawyer at the trial, who first "delivery," while her maid Abra "appropri- as an attributional basis. expression" Thus, exhibits Artemisia's "lewd" drawings of naked ately exerts pressure on the abdomen. Their "while the formal differences between Artemi- men as evidence of her wanton sexuality positions ... are precisely those of midwife sia and her father are subtle, the expressive (Orazio interrupts, claiming that they are by and assistant." Viewers thus become "wit- differences are vast. Hers is an art of energy him instead, but the defense declares, "it's nesses to this shocking conjunction of birth and drama, not mood and silence. And poetic not the work of a painter, but of a woman!"). and death." Artemisia's female characters although may Judith and Holofernesthen is displayed as other With good reason Bissell characterized this resemble those of Orazio, they superficially incriminating evidence, for obviously Tassi is interpretation as a misreading of the visual and act in an different respond entirely way."7 cast as Holofernes, Artemisia is and evidence, because there is no real From this essentialist on human Judith, essentially perspective hence she is a criminal, a traitor, and Tassi is to with.14 This of the one can V-shape begin aspect behavior, theoretically distinguish "the victim of her "Who is the of arms over Holofernes's between narratives men and scheming." design-a crossing designed by by victim of whom?" asks Tassi's in the inverted was derived from a women. lawyer head-probably film. lost Rubens (where Ho- Another characteristic of Garrard's method, painting by anyway The operative assumption here, which is at lofernes's arms are more spread open), and which is noted only as background for discus- the core of most, but not all, modern thus was not invented a woman. Still less sion of the literature under consideration, ap- by to is the is Pointon's strained notion that should be in the proaches Artemisia, that, "given convincing kept mind-namely assump- artist's unusual and the vali- "it is not that a whose sex tion that Artemisia borrowed many motifs biography, given improbable painter dation modern of the Aristote- tended to her from the immediate from earlier art with complex, high-minded by psychology protect lian of catharsis, it is of murder and on the intentions, and that by recognizing such pur- principle surely justifi- experience brutality able to the [of battlefield, view childbirth as an poseful imitation of, and identification with, interpret painting Judith might equiva- at least on one lent source of esteemed models, her own worthy place in the Decapitating Holofernes], level, empirical knowledge, especially as a cathartic of the artist's if she was a follower of and canon and genial status are confirmed.8 expression private, Caravaggio"; that, When I refer to "the literature under con- and perhaps repressed, rage."10 As a writer by reversing sex roles, Artemisia "punishes" sideration" I mean more than numerous who has adopted a psychoanalytic approach Holofernes though the pain of childbirth: it is scholarly articles, a Florentine exhibition cata- for studying Guido Reni's imagery, I have a a "sadistic inversion of the natural order."15 logue of 1991 devoted to Artemisia's work, stake in defending the validity of this working Building on this improbable analysis, Jo- and Bissell's recent monograph (which will be premise, though only stating my bias begs the seph Slap saw unlikely symbols in Artemisia's discussed in detail in the third section of this question of which psychoanalytical method is late version of Judith and Her Maidservant essay). I am interested, too, in exploring the most suitable for Artemisia, and how persua- (Capodimonte Museum, Naples): "the ob- varied approaches taken by Sally Clark and sive analyses have been."1 jects on the table may represent the valued Olga Humphrey in their plays about the artist, I vacillate in raising this subject for two products of this event [childbirth]; if a castra- by novelists who have re-created her life, reasons. Not only cannot its methodological tion, then these objects represent the genitals especially Alexandra Lapierre, and by the complexities be considered in the scope of of the murdered general. And, it may be director Agnes Merlet, whose controversial this essay, but by opening the question of the argued, the round helmet by virtue of its film Artemisia in many ways epitomizes the relationship between Artemisia's rape and shape is symbolic of a scrotum and the plum- dilemma that historians and writers face, imagery at all, which has dominated and age is symbolic of pubic hair; the cuisse would whether feminists or when with a not, dealing sensationalized the literature and Artemisia's then represent a phallus." woman and the of long-dead artist, question fame in a way that CNN should envy, I am With regard to the first Judith Decapitating what constitutes fact or fiction. adding further weight to an already bloated Holofernes, Graeme Taylor added in the third Anna Banti's novel, Artemisia (1947), early discourse, inescapably becoming party to what article that "on close inspection the anterior wants mention as well, more will be though Mieke Bal calls a "problematic of the politics folds of Holofernes's neck resemble a wom- said about its nature later. For, like the essay by of citation," in which endless discussion, no an's labia ... the scene suggests an act of her husband, Roberto Longhi, the article by matter how well intended, ends up with a castration." For him, the painting is not only Bissell, and Garrard's which Mary monograph, effect.'2 of childbirth, but "Artemisia has laid the foundation for negative suggestive together subsequent Garrard's "sen- the unconscious mechanism of dis- art historical Banti's book lies be- Despite apt warning against exploited research, sationalist fascination with the melodrama of so that the arms of Ho- hind later fiction, and still remains one of placement powerful Artemisia's and of lofernes resemble and the scene the most of Artemisia rape" oversimplification thighs sug- intriguing portrayals as an an act of castration." of Gentileschi. Judith Decapitating Holofernes "purely gests Thus, by way expression of fantasy revenge against a rap- these dim echoes of Panofsky and Freud, it is a ist,"13 a lot of psycho-babble has distorted short step from Pointon's conclusion that I both Artemisia's art and the worth of psycho- "Artemisia creates the image of Judith's ven- analytical investigation. I will leave aside ama- geance through the sexuality that she has Artemisia'sJudith Decapitating Holofernesin the teurish writings on the subject in favor of used to achieve her end"-it is vengeance Uffizi (Fig. 1) is the second, bloodier version summarizing three linked articles that focus because "the act of birth is woman's of the subject. It was painted ca. 1620 for the on Judith Decapitating Holofernes, all published curse"-toJudith-Artemisia as the archetypal Florentine court, whereas the first one (Capo- during the 1980s in American Imago, the offi- castrating virago. dimonte Museum, Naples) was executed in cial journal of the Association for Applied A more recent essay that focuses on the 570 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2000 VOLUME LXXXII NUMBER 3

relationship between Artemisia's art and rape was at stake, as Merlet recognizes in her film and/or to this presumed ideological bent is and raises issues of audience response should when she has Orazio tell Tassi, "You have to unacceptable." Allowing that the images of be mentioned as well. George Hersey pro- marry her ... you can't do this to me!" and as Judith, Susanna, Lucretia, etc., "might not be posed that what "fascinated Artemisia and the Humphrey, too, understands when in her play devoid of sexual appeal," Bissell ducks the key the curious con- patrons who commissioned these pictures she has Orazio remind Artemisia, "You forget. psychosexual questions with that "eroticism" does not were the possible inversions, the possible role- I am the wronged party here, daughter. This clusion "prevail over and gender-reversals, that rape could un- case involves property." meaning." dergo, and the different fatal outcomes it Another documented case brought by could have." all of Artemi- "Anna" "Sebastiano" Artemi- Accordingly, nearly against parallels II sia's "worthy women" are involved in rapes, sia's, at least in that Anna "was to allow or reverse rapes as Hersey calls them, mean- [Sebastiano] further sexual favors," as Artemi- There are other, more in- ing that "women turn sanguinary violence sia allowed Tassi, undoubtedly with the hope psychoanalytically formed of the Artemisia literature against males who have sought their favors." of marriage, which collapsed only when it was critiques that do not sex and Griselda Artemisia's work as a whole "explores wom- revealed at the last minute that Tassi's wife still separate meaning. Pollock in on Lacanian en's demands for sexual justice" and should was alive.17 "I hoped to have you as my particular, drawing concepts andJulia Kristeva's work ("like Julia elicit guilt from men. "Artemisia's by no husband," Artemisia testified at trial, "but Kristeva, I think that historical materialist and means dishonorable, indeed rather dashing now I don't, because I know you have a psychoanalytical theories can be, and indeed enterprise, then, was to play the beautiful wife-it's two or three days I've known you must be, put injoint harness in the analysis of defamed rape-victim by painting unsettling have a wife." And she said, "we didn't bring cultural texts"), has tried to expand the way protest pictures about rape, its variations and suit earlier because something else had been Artemisia's imagery is read, by which I mean antitheses." arranged so that this disgrace would not that she, like Roland Barthes and Mieke Bal, Because Freud was the product of 19th- become known." Marriage, it must be empha- privilege audience response over authorial century Vienna, it does not follow, as some sized, rather than rape, was the core substance meaning. "For my money Gentileschi's paint- skeptics would claim, that either the patterns of the litigation. ing of Judith and Holofernes has nothing to of human behavior he or The social framework of Artemisia's rape recognized psycho- do with her life What is being are anachronistic when and trial was and in experience.... analytic methods ap- very complex, significant so here is the art of of distant from our of sexual calculatedly decapitated plied retrospectively. Earlier manifestations ways understanding these artistic 'fathers' in the act of aesthetic what later were codified and named were no assault and violence against women, whose space-clearing and self-definition as a painter less real for want of and effects are determined by physio- study terminology. psychological among painters, but 'in the feminine.' Genti- The with these is not their aim chemical and sociocultural factors alike. Ves- problem essays leschi borrows the heroic mould of the politi- to read Artemisia's of its Seicento which imagery psychoanalyti- tiges setting, marginal- cal conspirator Judith to define, within the but that to outdated, reduc- ized the victim in favor of interests, cally, they cling family world of public representation, a figure or androcentric instead of have in modern Italian tive, premises, profit- actually lingered poli- identification for woman as self-creating art- from a wealth of and tics of In 1983, Italian feminists still had ing post-Freudian rape. ist. Of course, mine isjust a different story and feminist fail to contex- to demonstrate in Rome the theory. Moreover, they against govern- no more 'true' than any of the others."21 tualize Artemisia's and uncriti- ment's alteration of the definition experience proposed Odd as it is to suggest that the anxiety of assume that the and trial were the of as a crime a to as cally rape rape against person, rape influence has nothing to do with life experi- most events of the artist's a crime "social consequential long against morality."18 ence (nor do I see why the painting can't life. Efforts to discredit method- psychoanalytical reflect Artemisia's documented experience of The basis of the trial was the of the charge ologies persist through sweeping allega- harassment and her artistic anxiety), there is violent whose tion that it is and a rape (stupro violente), implica- subjective speculative, an important lesson here for all of the authors from the mod- view when the inevita- tions were very different way particularly retrograde concerned with Artemisia (or any other sub- ern law and For of authorial bias is interprets punishes rape. bility widely recognized ject for that matter): Pollock's critical self- victim mat- and the link between and knowl- instance, the marital status of the objectivity awareness as author, and her recognition of If the was not but weakened. As Foucault the visual tered. married, charge rape edge noted, the contingencies of interpretation. "How do in discourse of one's time determines what one adultery, and the case was heard another I know that what I take to be the signs of a Bissell court. This logically follows from the under- sees. In his monograph on Artemisia, woman's consciousness at work are not merely of the that because "there are standing that stupro violentemeant violation accepts position the imposition of culturally stereotyped ideas informed a virgin. not enough facts to permit conjec- of social femininity and that have shaped me, The archival work of Elizabeth Cohen on ture concerning the impact upon Artemisia that define 'woman' in my own time and trials of rapes of young virgins in Rome from Gentileschi of the circumstances of her early culture, in my own class and ethnic back- 1602 to 1604 makes clear that the legal and life," one cannot make "a fully satisfactory ground?"22 social dimensions of violent rape centered on psychoanalytical case for the connection be- Hence she perceives a conflict between questions of family and marriageability, in tween her known traumatic experiences and hers and other feminists' readings on the one which women resembled (male) property for her paintings."19 What would constitute hand, and on the other "the historical condi- exchange.16 Indeed, the rape of nonvirgins "enough facts," or count as a "fact," is vague, tions of production" when "elite masculine seldom was prosecuted in the venue of Artemi- let alone what would be "fully satisfactory." taste" prevailed, and therefore that Artemisia sia's trial, the governor's court, where usually Reluctantly, Bissell discloses that, although he "could not have functioned as an artist on the poor girls sought not the rapist's imprison- is "convinced that special caution is impera- public market" were she the rebel intent on ment or abstractjustice, but either his hand in tive, I am certainly not dissuaded from the challenging masculinist authority she often is marriage or payment of a dowry. Cohen's presumption that experiences in the real made out to be (for example, making what microhistorical study suggests that evidence world might well inform creative acts."20 Hersey called protest pictures). Still, could of the girl's resistance, the presence of blood, Regardless of this naive admission, Bissell Artemisia's art, while calculated for male tastes and the defendant's promise of marriage implies that his "factual" approach produces and desires, also offer "traces of an other were crucial for conviction. more positive, satisfactory results, a conten- economy of meaning," traces, as Pollock calls Artemisia's testimony in support of Ora- tion that will be examined below. With regard them, "in the feminine" with "inscriptions of zio's accusation of stupro violente fits this pat- to Judith Decapitating Holofernes, it is "highly difference"? "Which meaning will prevail ulti- tern so perfecty that Cohen raises the possibil- debatable," he says, if it bears any reference to mately depends upon the desire of the viewer. ity that Artemisia's deposition was prepared in Tassi or reveals Artemisia's bitterness toward That desire is gendered, hence it is always advance. It was Orazio who filed the com- men. "That the picture owes its very being political."23 plaint, inasmuch as it was his family honor that and character to these supposed hostilities Some constants of Pollock's position al- BOOK REVIEWS 571

ready were stated in her review of Garrard's desire for a certain kind of artistic identity, takes as Bal looks and relooks atJudith Decapi- book, namely that a painting does not "ex- that of an active woman who can make art."27 tating Holofernes and discovers its Barthesian creates press," but is a "productive site"; that to deal Pollock also challenges the feminist assump- indeterminacy. It "cognitive anxiety." with the fictive category "woman" flattens out tion that pertains more to Artemisia's repre- A "locus of confusion, 'Judith' as a topos of and so history and human diversity; and that an sentations of Susanna and Cleopatra than to thought representation challenges of our most held certainties that image is a site of social, economic, and ideo- Judith: that men paint beautiful women for many dearly scares of us out of our wits." Part logical power.24 In her recent discussions of their own and their patrons' visual pleasure (I she/it many of the confusion is created "the resem- Artemisia, those same ideas persist, all the am reminded of Dudley Carleton's reference by blance between Holofernes' arms and while she practices "social semiotics" by deci- in 1618 to a Susanna by Rubens that would be old This confusion the re- phering and processing signs in Artemisia's "beautiful enough to enamor men"), thighs.... emphasizes semblance between three in wom- work, for instance, with regard to the paint- while female artists "are ruggedly prosaic or major jobs This is an en's lives according to the tradition to which ings of Cleopatra, as they point to maternal realistic vis-d-vis the body." "impov- 'Judith' belongs: life-giving, life-taking, and, loss. She rejects the psychoanalytical notion of erished way of looking" at art by women-it or I in between, hard work." Thus, ignoring Ar- "a vicarious therapeutic violence" in Judith "does not allow for desire, fantasy.... have no real as we temisia's life (and without any reference to Decapitating Holofernes because what she calls idea, however, why, women, real of wrinkles over the earlier publications that see the image in the model of art history fails in the should favour the prosaic expressive terms of childbirth), Bal finds in it of the mechanisms idealised perfection which is as much a fan- conflicting "understanding psychic of birth and death. defend us the of trauma tasy we carry in our heads and discipline our signs that against pain by Bal's own bodies to conform we A more extended passage characterizes it, and also by not understand- to-and, besides, symptomising writing about Artemisia's Judith Decapitating what it takes to 'work to want her to be an artist able to compete on ing through' represen- Holofernes and her book Double Exposures in tation of it." That is, rather than equal terms in the art world."28 inciting general: verbal or visual discourse, trauma inhibits the Roland Barthes and Mieke Bal also adopted semiotic to Ho- victim from dealing with the unspeakable.25 approaches Judith Decapitating Gentileschi's work radiates a contained In his short essay "Deux femmes/Two Pollock further challenges the equation lofernes. and serious, almost organized passion that Women," Barthes makes no reference to Ar- that narratively Artemisia can equal Judith, enhances the sense of efficacy of the work temisia's life whatsoever, that biography that biographically the biblical story is even given being done. This is the feature that for me is extraneous to a semiotic apt, because Judith's killing of Holofernes strictly analysis. underlies the confusion, which can then Rather, he is interested in the of "results from a disturbance created by plea- story Judith be spelled out as: a serious and passionate as a rare union of a narrative sure, sexual arousal, jouissance and not from strong (recitfort) commitment to confusion, to complexity and an available structure (structure rape." (Bal observes that rape cannot really disponible), over clarity, to mobility over fixity, to collu- that is, the union of fixed events in a solid be visualized anyway because the experience, sion over collision, to intersubjectivity over narrative with ever-changing psychological mo- physically and psychologically, is inner: "in this objectivity. This gives the struggle an episte- tivations. But unlike literature, a painting sense, rape is by definition 'imagined'; it can mological slant. It puts knowledge, as it is "cannot define the meaning of the episode" only exist as experience and memory, as image traditionally construed, at risk.30 because it cannot represent the before or translated into signs, never adequately objecti- after, but only a moment. As an example, Bal that her based cul- fied.")26 With regard to sexual pleasure, Pol- hopes semiotically Barthes reads Artemisia's carefully rendered tural be of crucial lock acknowledges Kristeva's ideas, which al- analysis "might importance bed as the biblical lectulus, which can be a to the of cul- low one "to explore not a woman's intent, understanding contemporary table, a funerary bed, or a nuptial bed. ture" and that it has "a lot to offer in the what she is expressing because she is a woman, Through this (and other) multivalent signs, area of reflection on the condition but rather feminine desireand feminine pleasure important the scene forever oscillates between narration of concern is that all of the that can be realised only be being inscribed knowledge." My of butchery and love; it "checkmates" any literature summarized in this section, somewhere and somehow, masquerading (or regard- interpretation.29 less of its ideas, is too "self- rather within the conventions) and stimulating passing Artemisia's life is irrelevant to Bal's "cul- involved" in the sense that the them) at the same philosopher transgressive (disturbing tural analysis," too, which foregoes "recon- Martha Nussbaum defines a of writ- time." category structing the original ideology, literary genre, ing which is so remote from most people that Resuming her Bloomian argument, Pollock of formal background, and intertexts" Artemi- its efficacy as political activism, if so intended, suggests that Artemisia had to cast off her sia's work. "The goal of cultural analysis is not is seriously compromised. In other words, not fathers-Caravaggio and Orazio-"who were archeological reconstruction [which is the art just the problems of Artemisia, but the prob- both of necessary identification and figures historian's task] but analysis of today's culture lems of women, in self-involved writing be- It a professional rivalry. required specifically as the messy, by no means straightforward come the problems of theory.31 filial with the feminine, engagement 'anxiety product and respondent of the past." With of influence.' ... These were a paintings even more opaque and more self-indulgent the of a working through place being daugh- writing than Barthes's or Pollock's, Bal de- III in of father ter-painter-a woman a genealogy scribes Judith's story in a way that is compat- have much to offer and must figures, who yet ible with Pollock's, and likewise applies Laca- What if, after all this learned discussion, we be for fear the vanquished they deny daughter nian theory. Bal terms Judith's an ideo-story, discover that the invention (the conception of her creative That would have to space. space meaning "a narrative whose structure lends the story) of Judith Decapitating Holofernes is hollowed out from a visual world be already itself to be the receptacle, or projection screen, not Artemisia's? This is exactly what Mario occupied and figured by their artistic inven- of different, often opposing ideologies which Modestini and John Spike decided after see- tions and freighted images." the narrative appears to emblematize." So, ing it in the exhibition curated by Roberto Thus, "the painting Judith is not about too, are Susanna's, Cleopatra's, and Lucretia's Contini and Gianni Papi at the Casa Buonar- revenge. Yet it is about killing. But it is a stories, in which "characters are strongly op- roti in 1991. Spike, who also suggests that the metaphor, a representation in which the liter- posed so that dichotomies are established as if Susanna and the Eldersof 1610 "is best seen as a alness of killing a man is displaced on to a 'naturally.' Their fabulas are open enough for collaboration directed by Orazio," published mytheme wherein the action is necessary, opposing ideologies to be projected in them their conclusion that the picture in Naples is politically justified, not personally motivated. with ease. Ideo-stories are not closed but by Orazio and only the later variant in the There would be my difference. Not in her extremely open; yet, they appear to be closed, Uffizi (Fig. 1) is by his daughter.32 To my tragic biography, 'expressed' in the violent and this appearance of closure encourages knowledge, their opinion has found no sup- scene of revenge on seducers and rapists. the illusion of stability of meaning." port (nor do I endorse it), though the Floren- Judith' could become a means to structure a The signs on the surface elicit multiple tine exhibition hardly provided the right fo- 572 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2000 VOLUME LXXXII NUMBER 3

rum for settling connoisseurial problems. The in method and plan, is altogether traditional. were published in time to be incorporated chance to see nearly twenty paintings by The book is well produced, well indexed, and into Bissell's book, including the missing ver- Artemisia (according to scholarly consensus) richly illustrated, with a generous number of dict that Tassi was found guilty and sentenced certainly was welcome, but nearly a third of all color plates (twenty-seven). Its greatest value to choose between five years on the galleys or the attributions were highly problematic and is the impressive compilation of opinions and banishment from Rome. Probably through obscured rather than clarified Artemisia's oeu- data, although its stilted prose and tiresome influential connections, the sentence was re- vre. The selection of loans for a forthcoming graduate seminar syndrome of rehearsing voked only months later.38 exhibition in Rome, New York, and St. Louis everyone's opinion make it overweight. Cer- * Bissell corrects the assumption that Ar- of Orazio's and Artemisia's paintings prom- tainly it will be indispensable for future study, temisia was paid more for her portion of the ises to be made with much greater rigor, but only in tandem with Garrard's book, ceiling in the Casa Buonarroti than other though hopefully without the exclusion of all which uniquely has a full (English) transcrip- artists received. borderline cases or the opportunity to re- tion of both the trial and Artemisia's letters, * A long summary of her Florentine work examine the question of Artemisia's auto- and generally is a more stimulating read. and its relationship to Florentine taste reveals graph replicas.33 Moreover, some of the descriptive passages in that probably seven of the ten known commis- A more egregious failing of the Florentine Garrard's book are unsurpassed in Bissell's or sions were for the Medici, and that "all but exhibition was its cavalier dismissal of Gar- any other writings.37 one of the pictures present either the isolated rard's reading of Artemisia's career. By simply Nonspecialists might choose to turn to female figure or narratives in which women ignoring it, Contini and Papi wrongly imply chapter 6 of Bissell's book, though to do so are protagonists." that Artemisia's sex is irrelevant to art histori- would overlook some important information, * The inscription and signature on the cal inquiry. (The actress who plays Artemisia opinions, and conclusions, which I summa- Conversion of the Magdalene (Palazzo Pitti), as in Merlet's film, Valentina Cervi, similarly rize selectively: Spike suggested, probably are later additions maintains that, "le fait qu'elle soit une femme * Bissell rejects the lingering suspicion that and therefore cannot be read as self-referen- n'a meme aucune importance [the fact that Susanna and theElders, signed and dated 1610, tial to Artemisia. (If so, Mann's elaborate she is a woman has no importance].")34 At the should be read 1619 instead, and he dismisses interpretation of it falters.)39 least, one must acknowledge that there was a Spike's idea that it is Orazio's design. Concern- * Bissell speculates that, as the first woman strong market for images of female protago- ing its execution, he concludes after much admitted into the Florentine Accademia del nists from Artemisia's hand and that it war- wavering that it "came substantially from the disegno, Artemisia was allowed to study the rants explanation. brush of Artemisia Gentileschi," though he male nude model and continued to do so In his recent monograph with the first repudiates the notion that it reflects Artemi- thereafter. (In her film, Merlet depicts this catalogue raisonn6 of Artemisia's paintings sia's erudition and knowledge of patristic happening, but it seems improbable socially. (there are no known drawings by her, nor by literature. Nor is there any "justification for Artemisia nonetheless could have studied her Orazio either), Ward Bissell aims to address believing that personal concerns dominate" husband's or lovers' bodies, even though these and other shortcomings. He discusses in the image (thus Bissell disagrees with an there is a conspicuous absence of male nudes five chapters the artist's life and work, paying assumption that has informed many feminist in her known oeuvre.) particular attention to attribution, chronol- readings of the picture, as well as Slap's * Despite a gap in the documents during ogy, formal sources, financial arrangements, improbable idea that the painting "deals with 1620-21, Bissell abandons his earlier, influen- and Artemisia's artistic relationships in Flor- an oedipal girl's struggles against yearnings tial proposal that Artemisia traveled to Genoa ence and Naples. A sixth, concluding chapter, for her father ... her wish to display her at the time (Lapierre independently reached entitled "Myths, Misunderstandings, and Mus- pretty body and win him from her mother ... the same conclusion). He redates her first ings," evaluates the prior literature, including [and that Susanna] found the pair of old Lucretia (private collection, Genoa) to about feminist and psychoanalytic studies. lechers as tempting as they found her"). 1611 rather than the 1620s. Four appendices provide a very thorough * A clear, reliable summary of the trial is * New documentation places Artemisia with register of documents, including new informa- provided, reiterating that it is wrong and her husband back in Rome by March 1621. tion from the Roman stati delle anime (spring- sensationalizing to interpret the use of the Previously, 1622 was thought to have been the time census data); a careful review of the thumbscrews (sibille) on Artemisia as unusual earliest date that she returned, alone. evidence about Artemisia's daughter(s), with or misogynist; nor was it an attempt to force a * Bissell proposes, unnecessarily I think, speculation that one was born out-of-wedlock truth out of her against her will. The sibille that, because of her subsequent taste for in Naples (with regard to Artemisia's difficult were used like a lie-detector, applied in Artemi- luxurious fabrics and ornamental effects, Ar- life in Florence, notice that she was pregnant sia's case supportively, as the court documents temisia returned to Florence in 1627 or some- more than 50 percent of the time, thirty-six of reveal: "Then the judge, in order to remove time during 1628-29. seventy-one months, and she may even have any mark of infamy and any doubt that might * Undoubtedly in Venice in 1627-28, Ar- had a fifth child between the first two);35 an arise against the person of the said sum- temisia, Bissell suggests, possibly belonged to appendix of supplemental documentation; moned woman or about things she said, from its Accademia de'Desiosi, which would ex- and an interesting if inconclusive discussion which she could appear to be a partner of the plain the puzzling reference "ACCAD. by Melville Holmes of the Gentileschi's paint- crime, and most of all, to corroborate and Ne'Desiosi" inJer6me David's engraving after ing technique and use of amber varnish as strengthen her statement [et ad magis conrobo- a lost portrait of her. Lapierre retains the idea described in the Mayerne ms., the most impor- randum et fortificandum eius dictum] ... de- that it refers to the Roman Accademia dei tant 17th-century source on materials and creed and ordered that the summoned Desiosi instead, whose membership, Bissell techniques.36 Mayerne actually tells that he woman, in the presence of the witness, be points out, contained no painters or women. got his recipe for amber varnish from Nicho- subjected to the torture of the sibille." It is In a recent note, Costa speculates that Artemi- las Lanier, who in turn "had the recipe from wrong as well to imagine Artemisia giving her sia may have remained in Venice until early Signora Artemisia ... who paints extremely testimony or being examined physically in 1630. well." In her novel, Lapierre picks up on this public, as Humphrey's play, Perez Carrefio's * Neither the iconography nor the "expres- and Richard Symonds's remark that Lanier reference to a "public gynecological exam," sive content" of Corisca and the Satyrs, Esther was "inamorato di Artemisia Gentileschi," to and other authors would have it. Just as in the beforeAhasuerus, and other paintings from the construct a passionate affair between Lanier cases studied by Cohen, the interviewing of Neapolitan years is accepted by Bissell as and Artemisia. witnesses took place one-by-one semiprivately, reflecting Artemisia's sex. A very long catalogue of Autograph Paint- not in open court. Artemisia herself was * When in London (1639-40) and presum- ings, Incorrect and Questionable Attribu- interviewed at home and examined there by ably at work with her father on the ceiling of tions, and Lost Works constitutes the heart of two midwives with a notary present. the Queen's House at Greenwich, Artemisia's Bissell's monograph, which unapologetically, Alexandra Lapierre's archival discoveries "independent spirit was permitted to assert BOOK REVIEWS 573

itself" sufficiently that her hand is said to be Venice or London, her imagery thereafter is ingly, there are 21 Old Testament and Apocry- discernible in many figures (this problematic conspicuously less, not more, "feminist."40 phal subjects, but just 4 from the New Testa- conclusion is discussed below). Bissell breaks the only early tie with feminism ment, including the Madonna, plus 10 of * One of Bissell's most controversial deci- proposed by Garrard, namely that, by paint- saints. Altogether, only 11 known works might sions, based on an intricate reading of docu- ing Anne of Austria as Minerva around 1615, be said to depict women who "directly control ments and judgment of physiognomy, is that Artemisia became familiar with Marie de' or directly attempted to control men," while the famous Self-Portrait as Painting in the Medici's orbit of powerful women. Convinc- 15 depict women as "subjected to male con- Queen's collection is an allegory of painting ingly, he argues that it is not a portrait of Anne trol or male lust or otherwise owe their fates by, but not a portrait of, Artemisia. He be- of Austria and probably dates from ca. 1635-36 to men." More than half of the known sub- lieves that the "Arthemesia gentelisco. done instead. jects of Artemisia's paintings (excluding por- by her selfe" inventoried at Hampton Court Besides Garrard's, there is a host of similar traits) "carry implications of sexuality," and in 1649 is lost. While I agree that the features feminist analyses of Artemisia's life and art: more than a third of those contain female of the woman in the Queen's picture are not Judith Mann's explanation of the gendered nudes. securely Artemisia's, I see a stronger resem- narratives of Danae, Cleopatra, and Mary Of course, these are raw statistics, depen- blance with her known likeness than Bissell Magdalene; a related, improbable reading of dent on one's definition of what constitutes does. Danae "as a metaphor for the physical sub- control, what is a sign of sexuality, and so on, * Bissell argues that renewed exposure to jugation of prostitution" by Jeanne Morgan and they are subject to multiple interpreta- Orazio's art in London deeply affected Artemi- Zarucchi; two slight paperbacks (neither is in tions of what it means when a woman depicts sia's work upon her return to Naples. Bissell's bibliography) that recapitulate the women "subjected to male control or male * With a few minor exceptions, none of the earlier literature, one by Francisca Perez Car- lust." However, Bissell's general conclusion is latest pictures is seen as depicting a heroic refio, which is richly illustrated in color, the echoed by Ann Sutherland Harris: Artemisia's woman performing a brave deed; instead, other by Tiziana Agnati and Francesca Torres; "willingness to depict what 20th century femi- "the sexual appetites of men are often in- an ambitious but no more original mono- nists have labelled 'woman as sex object' dulged, not in the least avenged" in the graph by Susanna Stolzenwald; and Janice would seem, I think, to preclude any feminist representations of Bathsheba, Susanna, Ju- Jaffe's strained comparison of Artemisia's Lu- awareness on her part of a kind we would now dith, Diana, and Galatea. cretiaswith writings by the Mexican Hieronym- regard as elementary."42 * Artemisia's extant and lost paintings from ite nun Sor Juana, which are said to be Other parts of "Myths, Misunderstandings, 1640-52 number twenty-four; in more than similarly revelatory of "how early women of and Musings" dispel the notion that Artemi- half of them nude female bodies are "put on genius expressed their concerns for women's sia was given her name in reference to ancient display, first and last, for the delectation of the rights." Rejecting such ideas, Bissell reads women worthies (she was named after her men depicted within and without who or- Artemisia's imagery as fundamentally the re- godmother, Artemisia Capizucchi); that she dered" them (this high percentage of female sult of the artist's competitive response to excelled, as Baldinucci maintained, in still-life nudes repeats a pattern Bissell discerned in market conditions, not to feminism. painting (Bissell speculates that this might the 1620s, too). This does not preclude the importance of have been a mix-up with the artist Giovanna * The later style as a whole lacks "genuine Artemisia's sex. To the contrary, Bissell fol- Garzoni, but Costa has called attention to expressiveness," a concept used to disparage lows the views of other 17th-century scholars evidence that Artemisia in fact made "a book some of the Florentine works as well. But who have emphasized that Artemisia's success of drawings with a great variety of flowers and Bissell's judgments-"too carefully choreo- with private patrons resulted from her un- plants"); and that, despite her own testimony graphed," "ornamental and rhetorical grand usual position as a woman able to cater to in 1612 that she "could not write and could manner," "false airs," "more demonstrative male desires for images of women, whether read very little," she became literate and even and less genuine," and similar critical terms because she had easier access to female nude had good linguistic skills. Bissell allows that of approbation-are unhistorical, privileging models and could paint them better; had she might have learned to read and write a bit, the author's taste for the "natural" over the been channeled into her specialization be- though he emphasizes that her known letters rhetorical and intentionally artificial. Bissell cause commissions for frescoes, altarpieces, were written by scribes, reveal little linguistic disregards his own caution against "imposing and even subjects such as Christ were rarely sophistication, and are entirely practical rather our standards of beauty upon the past." given to her; or because for male viewers than theoretical or feminist ("her own words Throughout the text, Bissell bends over there was a special frisson in knowing that a do not buttress the case for Artemisia as a backward to respect Garrard's and other schol- woman made the work ("I believe that as far woman of feminist convictions"). The ques- ars' interpretations, so much so that he often as the male viewer was concerned it was the tion of 17th-century artists' education in gen- equivocates, possibly because new critical strat- painter not the painting that titillated" says eral and Artemisia's in particular has been egies seem to have been insufficiently assimi- Hersey).41 In her play, Humphrey turns these addressed in a provocative essay by Ann Suther- lated. This pertains not just to psychoanalytic thoughts into the words of Artemisia's early land Harris, who also concludes that Artemi- approaches, but to more recent feminist patron ("a dirty old man," the painter calls sia might have learned to read some simple theory, though Bissell's basic disagreement him), who admits with regard to her use of texts but little more, and that there is no with Garrard's analysis of Artemisia's work is models, "it's so fascinating to think of a reason to assume that her "visual intelli- evident. Above all, he rejects the idea that beautiful young woman such as yourself gaz- gence" required much literacy.43 Artemisia should be called a feminist, even by ing upon the nakedness of four other women," In studying Artemisia, Bissell apparently 17th-century standards, whether on the basis and who then offers to pay Artemisia double if contracted an art historical virus, influences, of the imagery itself or because the women's he could watch her paint naked women "while which thrives on the supposition that artists movement in early modern Europe generally you are also unclothed." are so uninventive that a formal source, or occurred away from where Artemisia was ac- "The Subject Matter of Artemisia's Pic- preferably multiple sources, must be found tive (it would be more accurate to refer to tures" constitutes an important part of Bis- for virtually any posture, and that there is feminist voices reacting to misogynist texts sell's final chapter and should be studied with something meaningful in pointing out these than to a movement as we know it). care. Of the 57 works he catalogues (6 are alleged influences. The bug is widely spread. The great majority of early feminists were lost), 52 are not portraits. Of those, 49 "fea- Although Garrard's contention that Artemisia French and English. The most important ture women as protagonists or, occasionally, borrowed many motifs with complex inten- Italian feminist of Artemisia's time was the give them equal billing with men." Of the tions has been doubted, at least there is a clear Venetian poet Lucrezia Marinella, but there is same 52, more than half (30) are variations on purpose, a feminist agenda, behind her claims. no compelling evidence that links Artemisia seven themes: Judith (7), Bathsheba (7), the But not for Bissell, who writes, "I take it as a to any of those women. And even if one Magdalene (6), Susanna (3), the Madonna truism that the search for prototypes, justified assumes that she absorbed their views while in (3), Lucretia (2), and Cleopatra (2). Surpris- by the venerable custom of receptivity among 574 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2000 VOLUME LXXXII NUMBER 3

2 Artemisia (or Orazio?) Gentileschi, Cleopatra,1.18 x 1.81 m., oil on canvas, formerly Milan, Amedeo Morandotti.

artists to the creative acts of others, is consis- underscore Artemisia's independence of herself is "in the position to adjudicate"attri- tenty more rewarding and leads to more mind"!44 butions. She nonetheless notes that if another defensible conclusions when it is focused Inasmuch as Bissell's and all analyses de- Cleopatra(formerly with Matthiesen,London) upon examples of the same or related subject pend on what Artemisia painted, the reliabil- is also by Artemisia (as many authors assume), matter." While I am skeptical that the latter ity of his catalogue raisonn6, thirty-fiveyears then the idea should be dismissedthat one can point about subject matter is sound for the in the making, obviouslyis of primary impor- tell that they are by a woman because they are study of 17th-century Italian art, the more tance. Its entries are exhaustive, based more so dissimilar.49 serious problem is the confusion, the lack of on library work, it would seem, than dogged Judith Mann's feminist reading of Danaein differentiation, between considered Imitation looking at the objects, for, by my count, he has St. Louis is dependent on Artemisia'sauthor- and unmotivated "borrowing."This results in not studied firsthand eleven, or a fifth, of the ship of the Morandotti Cleopatra,too, whose a proliferation of "prototypes"for Artemisia's pictures he accepts as autograph. Some might design it replicates.50Bissell, however, assigns designs that are improbably numerous, turn- be difficult to see in private collections, but both the Morandottiand St. Louis paintings to ing her art into a mosaic of quotations, many others that are in public museums also were Orazio, not to Artemisia, concluding that it of which are nothing more than approximate catalogued from photographs. was he, not she, who about 1612 "inaugurated formal analogies. Garrard,who did not aim to catalogue the the Gentileschian line of reclining nude For instance, Bissell rejects (as did I and paintings, included about 34 originals in her women." For Mann, however,the Danae "un- other reviewers) Garrard'sproposal that Ar- book; Bissell has 57, of which 6 are lost. doubtedly"is byArtemisia. This consequential temisia had the Orestes Sarcophagus in mind Garrardrejected 3 he includes, and doubted 3 disagreement possibly will be resolved if all when designing her Susanna and theElders.For others. Thirteen paintings in his catalogue of three works are available for study in the Garrardit was one of variousways that Artemi- authentic works were discovered or entered forthcoming Gentileschi exhibition.51 sia used antique gestures freighted with tragic the Artemisia literature during the past de- Three other paintings Bissell catalogues as significance to "restore to the Susanna theme cade or so. Just 5 are new to the literature,2 of being by neither Artemisia nor Orazio will be the tone of high seriousness that it surely which are lost and recorded only in prints, and in the exhibition, with good reason. He doubts deserves." Yet, for this relatively uncompli- 2 of which I think are problematic.45Bissell the Bolognese-inspired Susanna and the Elders cated if highly effective design, which uses modifies Garrard'schronology of some indi- at Burghley House, which is fully signed and common gestures, Bissell allows that the Or- vidual pictures by a few years; 4 are adjusted dated by Artemisia.He also rejects a Madonna estesSarcophagus was transmitted to Artemisia more radically.46He catalogues 42 rejected and Child and Saint Ceciliain the Galleria by way of Orazio's previous citation of it, and works,8 of which were accepted by Garrard.47 Spada, without realizing that both pictures that compositions by Rubens and d'Arpino The final section of the catalogue includes 108 were described and attributedto Artemisiain were instrumental as well (the proposed con- lost works, though most of their attributions 1637 when the artistwas alive.52Garrard, too, nection with d'Arpino is especially far- are late. In sum, taking into account only the doubted the Susanna at Burghley House (its fetched). Likewise,we are led to believe that, works published a decade ago, Bissell and inscription was unknown to her), but she in composing Judith Decapitating Holofernes, Garrardagree on attributing to Artemisia 26 accepted both of the paintings in the Galleria Artemisiawas notjust challenging Caravaggio paintings. While Bissell's catalogue contains Spada. and his Judith (which surely she was), but that twice that number, there are no unproblem- Bissell and Garrard have isolated Artemi- three other paintings by Orazio, Rubens, and atic, important new discoveries.48 sia's hand from Orazio's in the Greenwich Elsheimer were all "mined in effecting this Whether one chooses Bissell's practice of commission. On the basis of a recent inspec- considered synthesis." traditionalconnoisseurship or Garrard's"gen- tion of the canvases,however, Gabriele Finaldi With regard to these and similar cases of dered expression" as the basis for assigning decided that their poor condition precludes motif hunting for "obvious links" that are paintings to Artemisia, problems remain, of making any such distinctions. Still more unset- "indeed relevant" with "relationships too which a few representativeexamples might be tling is his reasoning that Artemisiacould not patent to be fortuitous," Bissell maintains, cited. A Cleopatraformerly with the dealer have worked on the ceiling at all. Because it "the exercises in prototype identification to Morandotti (Fig. 2), for instance, is pivotal in was installed no later than September 1638, which these three works by Artemisia Gentile- feminist readings of Artemisia'sdepictions of and because there is no mention of Artemisia schi from the years 1611-12 have just been nude women. Like most writers, Pollock as- when Orazio drew up his will the following subjected prove to be invaluable ... they sumes that it is by her, but disclaims that she January (he left his estate to his three sons), BOOK REVIEWS 575

then it is unlikely that Artemisia had yet the trial testified, against Tassi's interests, that husband, but her creative energy derives from arrived in London. No early sources, he ob- Artemisia could read some, "ma lei non sa Orazio's inspiration. "Oh Lord," she declares serves, say that she helped Orazio with the scrivere" ("but she doesn't know how to when reflecting back on her life, "a lover, a commission. write").56 Still, her literacy has been ex- father, brothers, a husband: of one of these, in The last example of connoisseurial prob- panded to fit a more intellectual profile. the end, does a woman have need."59 Likable lems pertains to replicas, typically the most Likewise, she stressed that she did not repeat or not, this is wholly verosimile. difficult category of works to sort out. In her compositions; yet every scholar, when Before deciding what form her writing on Artemisia's case, however, there is direct testi- confronted with the visual evidence, refuses to Artemisia should take, the French novelist mony from the painter herself. In 1649 she believe her. And the extensive court records, Alexandra Lapierre did extraordinary re- declared that she "never repeated her inven- which are central to understanding Artemi- search. In order to substantiate and expand indeed not even a hand." Bissell tions, single sia's life, are exceptionally hard to interpret the known information, she checked pub- observes that there are no exact rightly copies because of the conflicting testimony and high lished transcriptions while combing through attributed to Artemisia, yet this begs the ques- stakes involved. archives for new documents. To do so, she tion of the close variants in many that, fact, The third example concerns a much- learned Italian and Latin, and studied paleog- and much repeat inventions, certainly replicate discussed painting of Galatea recently ac- raphy. She haunted the places where Artemi- more than hands. Like Garrard, Harris, single quired by the National Gallery of Art in sia and her associates lived and worked. When and others, Bissell that Lapierre, speculates Washington, D.C. Bissell catalogues it as a writing her book, she took care to adjust for some of the late, works, some of repetitive collaborative work by Artemisia and Bernardo the calendars of England, Florence, and Rome, which are but often show a decline in signed Cavallino (I discern only one hand, Cavalli- and to recognize the differing values of money are studio Artemi- quality, products, possibly by no's), and more specifically a commission and dimensions from place to place. sia's daughter, Prudentia. One of these, a late documented in letters from Antonio Ruffo to The extensive notes in her Annexes record Bathsheba by Bissell as autograph, is catalogued Artemisia dated 1649, and cited again in a which literature she read, which archives she a conspicuous pastiche of three figures from Ruffo inventory of 1673. But Ruffo's painting searched, and when she fabricated episodes.60 three different two Artemisia, one pictures, by had five tritons, not the four in the "And still, I came to discover that this re- Orazio.53 sense is that the preserved by My multiple and it was much The search did not suffice. To tell their I had versions attributed to Artemisia still await clari- picture, bigger. logical story, explanation, that the canvas was cut down to try to put Orazio and Artemisia back into fication, and that some of them, like a Penitent later, is firmly rejected by the conservators the historical, religious, and social context of Magdalene in a private collection accepted by who examined and restored it (I agree with the world they had crossed." The novel Bissell, which replicates a picture in the Cathe- their judgment.) In defense of his view that it seemed to be "the only form suitable for dral of Seville, are early copies.54 is Ruffo's painting anyway, Bissell writes, "while reconstructing the multiple-shaped reality I great respect must be accorded evidence gath- wanted to account for." IV ered from conservation procedures, it need Lapierre's research paid off handsomely. not perforce take precedence over the conclu- She found new evidence concerning Tassi sions of and his circle of friends, and onetime friends, This final section separates novels, plays, and connoisseurship."57 in these few such as the minor artist Valerio Ursino, whose film from all of the foregoing titles that deal My purpose citing examples (there are countless more) is not to refute the of his former friend in 1613 with facts, or in any case are never thought of prosecution authors' or conclu- resulted in Tassi's banishment not from as fiction. Before turning to the work by interpretative strategies just sions when faced with unwelcome evidence, Rome but from all the States. The Lapierre, Clark, Humphrey, and Merlet, how- Papal but to that what is true about sentence, however, was annulled the next ever, my neat division should be questioned: emphasize day what constitutes a fact about Artemisia Genti- Artemisia depends upon who is asking the with a general absolution, which revoked the And to that boundaries sentence from the trial, too. Other discov- leschi? One of her easel pictures? Perhaps in question.58 emphasize rape between the vero and the true and eries that Tassi's nickname, "lo Smar- some cases, but obviously not many. Art histo- verosimile, suggest the are fluid, as 17th- the or was more than rians preparing catalogues or other mono- plausible, inescapably giasso," bully braggart, historians understood better than warranted (he was accused of criminal activi- graphic studies therefore prefer to start with century most authors ties in and aside firmer, more positivistically knowable things, today. Pisa, Livorno, Naples, Lucca, such as evidence from historical documents But not Anna Banti, which is one reason from Rome, including incest with his sister-in- her novel Artemisia works so well as she law and murder of his .61 There and scientific data. Three examples problema- slips arranged wife) back and forth from her own life as a creative is new information on Artemisia's tize even this method with regard to writing godmother writer in modern Florence in the who came from an illustrious Ro- about Artemisia, and thus the supposition (living Artemisia, shadow of to Artemisia's In an man She was well connected in Tus- that analysis of her life and work based on Longhi) story. family. excellent of the Cannon because her Florentine husband's facts is a priori truer. analysis book,JoAnn cany family observes that it "is informed the Manzo- was to the Order of Malta My examples come from bedrock data for by noble, belonging nian notion of the verosimile"as Banti builds and San Giacomo did not the study of old pictures: the artist's signature, (it escape Lapi- the historical record and "the erre's in her own testimony, and laboratory analysis. on captures sharp eye that, much later Naples, The data has been cited already, though fatto supposto," the conjectured fact. Yet, Banti Artemisia's out-of-wedlock [?] daughter mar- without emphasis on how adaptable they might confesses, "it is impossible to recall to life and ried a cavaliereof the Order of San Giacomo). be. The first case pertains to Susanna and the understand an action that happened three Lapierre also found copious material about Eldersat Burghley House, which bears Artemi- hundred years ago, far less an emotion." the mysterious Vatican paymaster Cosimo sia's full name and a plausible date (1622) in Banti was acutely aware of her author- Quorli, whom Artemisia named at the trial as the original paint layer, according to conserva- position, that she was constructing, not discov- having tried to seduce her but failed, where- tion reports. Troubles have arisen, however, ering, a life (weaving "its rhythms and images upon in a Susanna-like scenario he said he'd because it conforms neither to Garrard's con- together in a joint collaboration, active and boast about it anyway and tell everyone. But ception of how Artemisia as a feminist should shared," as she put it). With feminist insight Quorli died before he could testify or respond depict this scene of male harassment, nor that I find entirely persuasive, she under- to the notary G. B. Stiattesi's assertion that he, Bissell's more traditional, Morellian style crite- stands Artemisia's life story as exemplifying Quorli, claimed that Artemisia was his daugh- ria. Therefore both authors have rejected a the rupture between woman and artist, the ter. (Stiattesi's graphic query is preserved: work that is signed and dated.55 tension between living as daughter-mother- "Can it be possible that you would brag that Artemisia's recorded statements are no less wife and professional painter. That tension she is your daughter and yet you wanted to susceptible to varied readings. She said that justifies Banti's illusory failure to give Artemi- fuck her?"). While concluding that Quorli she "could not write and could read very sia adequate agency: not only is Artemisia's indeed was closely involved with the complex little," and even a witness for the defense at mind forever occupied with her father and case, Lapierre conjectures that Stiattesi was 576 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2000 VOLUME LXXXII NUMBER 3

the one who really "pulled the strings" in the Two other women have published novels admit to her that her reason for prosecuting whole affair, essentially because he wanted to about Artemisia during the past decade, Maria Tassi is to gain publicity; at the end of the play settle accounts with his enemy (and first Angels Anglada (writing in Catalan) and she leaves for Florence, unmarried. cousin) Quorli. Rauda Jamis (a Franco-Mexican author writ- Should these plays and other works of Among the new information concerning ing in French). Like Lapierre's book, Sally fiction be judged on their artistic merits- Pierantonio Stiattesi, Artemisia's enigmatic Clark's and Olga Humphrey's plays, and Agnes merits that are intertwined with response to husband, Lapierre discovered that he was Merlet's film, their novels raise complex ques- perceived social meanings-or more strictly nine years older than his wife, was G. B. tions at the core of all these inquiries: the on an alleged abuse of history and conse- Stiattesi's brother, and was a painter in his source(s) of Artemisia's creativity (the men in quent breach of artistic license?66 In my opin- own right. He returned from Florence to her life? her experiences as a woman? her ion not on historic grounds, any more than Rome with Artemisia but disappeared from sexuality? market forces? which combination Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of the stati delle anime in 1623. The same year a of these and other factors?), and whether an Christ (1988) should have been censured by Spaniard filed a complaint against him for author is ethically obligated to tell a story fundamentalists for misrepresenting and deni- assault, which Lapierre speculates could have according to the historical record.65 Clark's grating the "real" Jesus, regardless if more is been a set-up by Artemisia in order to get rid play and Merlet's film particularly have pro- known about the life of Artemisia than of of her husband. voked sharp criticism for altering events. Jesus. Truth is a slippery yardstick for measur- All of this rich information and more is In Clark's two-act Life without Instruction, ing fiction. Merlet's film Artemisia was at- woven into the novel, but unfortunately Lapi- one actress plays Artemisia and Judith, one tacked, fairly, for misleading advertising-it erre is not as refined a writer as Banti is, or actor Tassi and Holofernes, as the scenes was billed as "The true story of the first half as skilled in moving from the vero to the move back and forth from Old Testament female painter in art history," of which nei- verosimile; nor does she recognize lengthy Bethulia to 17th-century Rome. All of the ther claim is valid. The "true story" assertion historical digressions as extraneous to her modern action is compressed into the year was withdrawn (Miramax now calls it a "fasci- plot. Ironically, the fruits of her research "1610" and deals exclusively with the rape nating, extraordinary story"). A fact sheet, cripple her storytelling, for she seems unable and trial, when Artemisia erroneously is said "Now You've Seen the Film, Meet the Real to decide if she is writing as an art historian, a to have been fifteen. Probably the play's most Artemisia Gentileschi," was distributed at the biographer, or a novelist. As a consequence, blatant disregard for history is Tassi's admis- film's premiere and posted on the Internet. her shifting viewpoints break the fictive spell.62 sion that he killed Caravaggio. Shortly after (May 1998), a protest symposium The long novel starts and ends in London, Tassi is portrayed as a scoundrel, Orazio as at the Richard Feigen Gallery in New York because Lapierre's Artemisia is obsessed with stupid yet loving of his daughter, and Artemi- included the historians Leonard Barkan, Mary her father, but over half of it takes place in sia as inconstant: both wise and naive, both Garrard, Rona Goffen, Simon Schama, and Rome before 1613. In a sense there is a loving and hating Tassi. Clark thinks of her Bette Talvacchia. parallel with Banti's story here, which also work as a "revenge play," in which Artemisia The protest was not against the distortion stops in England, with the depressing notion emerges from the ordeal as an artist. She says of history in the abstract, but Merlet's abuse of that "whether she stayed here or went back to to Orazio, crying, "You've done what you set her subject and failure to inform her public of Italy Artemisia knew that her task was to die." out to do, Daddy. I'm not your little girl, the truth. As Garrard expressed this advocacy Banti, however, was not as caught up in the anymore. I'm something else. Something truly position, "the real story is much more interest- story of the rape or the intrigue among the unspeakable. An artist! GOD DAMNYou!!" For ing than the film version [and] it is also more trial's characters.63 Clark's Artemisia, it takes rape, humiliation, genuinely feminist.... [The film] raises trou- Nor did Banti conceive of her book as an and understanding the facts of (male) life to bling questions about the responsibility of art oedipal tale. The subtitle of Lapierre's Artemi- transform a woman into an artist. Thus, refer- to truth... this misrepresentation, this dishon- sia: Un duel pour l'immortaliterefers to Artemi- ring to Orazio, Tassi tells Artemisia, "He's oring, of Artemisia Gentileschi matters very sia's artistic-filial struggle with an indecisive, treated you like a son. He's taught you his much because she has been an important paper-thin Orazio, who wants his daughter to craft and now, he wants you to live like a cultural role model for women, especially become a great artist, sees her as a freak of man.... It's a fact of life. Women never get a artists."67 nature ("like a bearded woman, a fetus with proper introduction to the facts of life. Your The first time I saw the film I couldn't two heads"), teaches her everything he knows, father has done you this immense service escape my historian's critical role. Its inaccura- resents her achievements, decides she has no [by arranging the rape] and you don't even cies were as obvious as its sex-and-nudity talent, becomes completely estranged from appreciate it." Act II, scene 12, the trial, is box-office appeal. The chronology of Artemi- her, etc. The theme that he is "the man of her scripted for humor and reads like madcap sia's work is thrown to the wind; painting life" (Orazio redoes her Susanna and turns it Pandemonium. techniques are misunderstood; nude female into a masterpiece) dominates and ruins the Olga Humphrey's play, TheException, seems models are ridiculously paraded beneath Ora- book as plausible history, partly because so to have escaped art historical notice, though zio's scaffolding in the Casino of the Muses; little is said about Artemisia as an artist (un- undoubtedly it would disturb Artemisia's sup- Artemisia cries out to Tassi, when the thumb- like in RaudaJamis's novel and Merlet's film, porters still more. Again, it all takes place screws are applied, "I love only you" instead where Artemisia's dedication to art is always during 1611-12 and deals solely with the rape of the transcript's "this is the ring that you foregrounded). and trial. The one clever idea in the play give me, and these are your promises"; under To her credit, Lapierre recognizes that (there are many funny lines, too) is having Tassi's spell she takes up painting sea- Artemisia's early loss of her mother might Artemisia seek out a woman to represent her scapes-to cite just some examples of gross have had a profound effect,64 yet the story's in court, because "I need a woman to under- distortions. emphasis remains solely on daddy (Orazio stand me." But little else might be called On a second and third viewing, I became opposes the marriage to Stiattesi and de- feminist: Artemisia, who is the aggressor in more conscious of the beauty of the film, its clares, "Choose, Artemisia! Choose between the affair, invites Tassi to teach her the stages wonderful costumes, the admirable original smallness and grandeur, between nothingness of seduction and to pose for her in the nude; music, and how well it is cast and acted.68 I and immortality, between him and me!"); on Tassi rapes her (there is some ambiguity) after rethought the basis not only of Garrard's other men who rule her life; and on the birth contemplatingJudith Decapitating Holofernesall criticism, but also Benedetti's and Pollock's. of a son, which ultimately gives Artemisia night; then he wants to marry her, but she says Like Garrard, Benedetti objects to Merlet's self-confidence and control of her work. Her no (never is there mention of a Mrs. Tassi); at rendition ofArtemisia's relationship with Tassi paintings of femmesfortes are given an entirely the trial, Artemisia requests that she be tor- as loving, the rape as successful (measured by new twist as expressions of resistance to father, tured with the sibille; she deceives her lawyer its amorous and artistic outcome), and gener- not to Tassi. With Orazio's burial, Artemisia (who in despair becomes a nun) by withold- ally that the film "oversimplifies the historical no longer needs to paint them. ing crucial information, though she does complexities of Artemisia's predicament" BOOK REVIEWS 577

within the Orazio-Artemisia-Tassi triangle (in to have realized that her lover has betrayed ffolliott, Sheila, "Reviewof MaryGarrard's Artemisia Merlet's story Orazio breaks up the affair). her, and to feel totally isolated and yet, through Gentileschi,"Women's Art Journal 12, no. 1 (1991): 41-42. Pollock's more nuanced reading recog- it all, Artemisia remained strong, defiant, and OrazioGentileschi at the nizes that Merlet's Artemisia "was never in- unashamed." Nonetheless, at the end of the Finaldi, Gabriele,ed., Courtof CharlesI (exh. cat.), The National Lon- tended as art but instead should be film Artemisia is seen taking her easel and Gallery, history," don (and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, assessed "in relation to cinema's un- to the seashore in order to under mostly palette paint and Museo del Prado, Madrid), 1999. of the artist's Tassi's such as these happy history biopic-the point inspiration. Episodes Garrard, Mary D., Artemisia Gentileschi. The Image of troubled viewers because where ideologies of biography and the cre- understandably they the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (Princeton: ative individual collide with the demands of suggest that Artemisia was dependent on Tassi Princeton UniversityPress, 1989). fictional narrative cinema."69 The film's emotionally and professionally.72 The closing , "Artemisia'sTrial by Cinema,"Art inAmerica scene indeed is nonsense" no. 10 65-69. premise, as identified by Pollock, is that Ar- "only historically, 86, (1998): since it was Orazio Banti's and Gash, "Review of Garrard'sArtemisia temisia's sexuality was of her creativity- (as story John, Mary part Art in America no. 5 "a scenario that founders on the historical Bissell's book rightly tell it), rather than Tassi, Gentileschi," 77, (1990): 67, 69. who taught and motivated Artemisia. reality of the inequities of gender embodied Edward "Review of Garrard's I do not believe, however, that it is because Goldberg, L., Mary in contemporary institutions: the convent, the Artemisia AmericanHistorical Review this fiction into one of the most Gentileschi," papacy, the academy, the law." The prototypi- "plays damag- 96 (1991): 547-48. of for women," "the cal Hollywood notion of the great artist as a ing stereotypes namely Harris, Ann Sutherland, "Fresh Paint [review of idea that a female artist is the of a mythical, unfettered genius, as sexually driven product Mary Garrard'sArtemisia Gentileschi]," Women's male mentor," that it is also and socially unrestrained, does not work for a "dangerous ReviewofBooks6, no. 12 (1989): 8-10. nonsense."73 it is far from verosimile, "ArtemisiaGentileschi: The LiterateIlliter- woman in 17th-century Rome. Merlet's film Certainly , and offense, to Artemisia ate or Learning from in DocereDelec- opens with what Pollock calls a "hungry eye," courting portray Example," after the trial as absorbed with her deceitful tareMovere. Affetti, devozione e retorica nel linguaggio an eye longing for knowledge through seeing, rapist-lover. Yet it is altogether verohistorically artisticodel primobarocco romano (Rome: Istituto especially knowledge of the male body. As Olandese and Bibliotheca 105- to accept that she had, indeed had to have, a Hertziana,1998), Pollock stresses on the basis of recent gender 20. male mentor, predictably her father, espe- studies, the effort to present Artemisia as Haskell, Francis, "Artemisia'sRevenge? [review of cially if she wanted to become a competitive woman-as-eye is compromised by the way she Mary Garrard'sArtemisia Gentileschi]," The New history painter and not a specialist in still becomes woman-as-seen, a conventional ob- only YorkReview of Books, 20July 1989, 36-38. life or portraiture. Merlet's story, like all of "Femaleand Male Art:Postille to ject of desire of the male gaze.70 From a Hersey,George L., the fiction discussed here, neglects what I Garrard's ArtemisiaGentileschi," in 17th-century perspective, however, a counter Parthenope's think is the most remarkable aspect of Artemi- Splendor:Art of the GoldenAge in Naples(Papers in case could be made for this aspect of the film: sia's life: that after the rape and trial, and Art Historyfrom ThePennsylvania State University, inasmuch as Artemisia herself seized the op- despite persistent serious family and financial VII), ed. J. C. Porter and S. S. Munshower portunity to capitalize on male voyeurism, the problems, she had the talent and guts to find (University Park, Pa.: The Pennsylvania State sex-and-beauty attraction of Merlet's film is 322-35. her way within a male discourse of image- UniversityPress, 1993), ironically apt. and Humphrey, Olga, The Exception(Woodstock, Ill.: Merlet moreover Artemisia as an making marketing.74 Dramatic depicts RICHARD E. SPEAR Publishing, 1997). impassionately committed artist. She moves Jaffe, Janice A., "SorJuana, Artemisia Gentileschi, and talks with obvious She is Universityof Maryland and Lucretia: Worthy Women Portray Worthy determination. MD 20742 CollegePark, Women," Romance 141-55. resolute at all costs to master anatomy ("I'll Quarterly40(1993): Jamis, Rauda,Artemisia ou la Renommee(Paris: Presses never get anywhere if I can't paint naked de la Renaissance, 1990). men," she argues in defense of her social Lapierre, Alexandra, Artemisia. Un duel pour Whereas Orazio states transgressions). prag- Frequently Cited Sources l'immortalite(Paris: Robert Laffont, 1998). matically that "I paint for those who buy my Mann, Judith W., "The Gentileschi Danae in the Artemisia declares, "I for Saint Louis Art 143 paintings," paint Agnati, Tiziana, and Francesca Torres, Artemisia Museum," Apollo (June While none of this is knowable or 39-45. myself." Gentileschi.La pitturadella passione (Milan: Selene, 1996): necessarily likely, it is empowering behavior, 1988). , "Caravaggio and Artemisia: Testing the Limits of Studiesin 18 and exceptional in the works of fiction, includ- Bal, Mieke, DoubleExposures (New York and London: Caravaggism," Iconography 161-85. ing Banti's, for giving Artemisia that much Routledge, 1996). (1997a): , "Danae," in into Rococo: Seventeenth agency.71 Barthes, Roland, "Deux femmes/Two Women," in Baroque Mot Word Yvon Lam- and Eighteenth CenturyItalian Paintings, an issue of Following passionate, consensual foreplay, pour mot/Wordfor (Paris: bert), 8-13. the St. Louis Art Museum Bulletin (Winter 1997b): Tassi rapes Artemisia in the film. She resists Benedetti, Laura, Artemisia:Twen- 6-9. and is heard no, the "Reconstructing saying though vigorous tieth-CenturyImages of a Woman Artist," Com- Merlet, Agnes, Artemisia(Miramax Films and Pre- she described to the court is miss- opposition parativeLiterature 51 (1999): 42-61. miere Heure Long Metrage, 1998), 96 minutes. ing. Confusion, not anger, besets her, and Bissell, R. Ward,Artemisia Gentileschi and theAuthority Papi, Gianni, "Artemisia,senza dimora conosciuta," soon the couple is reconciled in love and sex. of Art (University Park, Pa.: The Pennsylvania Paragone,nos. 529-531-533 (1994): 197-202. This part of the movie in particular has been State UniversityPress, 1999). Perez Carrefio, Francisca, Artemisia Gentileschi Historia criticized for turning sexual assault into ro- Cannon,JoAnn, "Artemisiaand the Life Story of the (Madrid: 16, 1993). mance. But can one ever recover Artemisia's Exceptional Woman," ForumItalicum 28 (1994): Pointon, Marcia, "ArtemisiaGentileschi's TheMur- der American 38 once Tassi Does 322-41. of Holofernes," Imago (1981): feelings promised marriage? withoutInstruction Talon- 343-67. version of Artemisia's dilemma Clark,Sally, Life (Vancouver: Lapierre's books, 1994). Pollock, Griselda,"Review of MaryGarrard's Artemi- seem after the she plausible: rape, capitulates Contini, Roberto, and Gianni Papi, eds., Artemisia sia Gentileschi,"Art Bulletin 72 (1990): 499-505. to Tassi both because he promised marriage (exh. cat.), CasaBuonarroti, Florence, 1991. , "A Hungry Eye [review of Agnes Merlet's and she no longer had her honor to protect? Costa, Patrizia, "ArtemisiaGentileschi in Venice," Artemisia],"Sight and Sound 8, no. 11 (1998): "[W]ith this promise," Artemisia did tell the Source19, no. 3 (2000): 28-36. 26-28. the court, "he induced me later to yield lovingly, Cropper, Elizabeth, "Reviewof Mary Garrard'sAr- , Differencing Canon (London and New temisia Renaissance York: many times, to his desires [mi ha indotto a Gentileschi," Quarterly42 (1989): Routledge, 1999). 864-66. Salomon, "The Art Historical Canon: Sins consentir doppo amorevolmentepiu volte alle sue Nanette, "Artemisia La in of in ed. since times he has also recon- , Gentileschi, 'Pittora'," Omission," (En)genderingKnowledge, voglie], many Barocco al ed. Giulia Calvi Lat- E. Hartman and Ellen Messer-Davidow firmed this to me." femminile, (Bari: Joan promise marry erza, 1992), 191-218. (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, In the climactic trial scene, Merlet hoped to ,"New Documents for Artemisia Gentiles- 1991), 221-36. show how Artemisia felt when her world was chi's Life in Florence," Burlington Magazine 135 Slap, Joseph Wm., "ArtemisiaGentileschi: Further "condemning her as an immoral woman ... (1993): 760-61. Notes," AmericanImago 42 (1985): 335-42. 578 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2000 VOLUME LXXXII NUMBER 3

Spear, Richard E., "Images of Heroic Women [re- Genderand theItalian Renaissance, ed. MarilynMigiel show, for sharing with me the preliminaryloan list view of Mary Garrard's ArtemisiaGentileschi]," and Juliana Schiesari (Ithaca: Cornell University of about thirty paintings by Artemisia and forty by TimesLiterary Supplement, 2-8 June 1989, 603-4 Press, 1991), 169-91. Benedetti, 45, by overlooking Orazio. The exhibition is scheduled to open in (with a reply from MaryGarrard, 30 June-6 July this important publication, mistakenlysuggests that Rome in October 2001, in New York in February 1989, 719). Artemisia'swas "the first documented rape trial in 2002, and in St. Louis inJune 2002. Spike,John, "Reviewof Artemisiaat the CasaBuonar- western history." 34. As cited by Benedetti, 48. roti, Florence," BurlingtonMagazine 133 (1991): 17. Whether there is a further parallel cannot be 35. See Cropper, 1993, for the documentation of 732-34. known: "PossiblyAnna and Sebastiano had flirted Artemisia'sand PierantonioStiattesi's children, only on earlier Spike, John, and Barbara Rose, "The Gentileschi occasions and the rape was not so unpro- one of which survived (Prudentia/Palmira), as well voked as it was Cohen for Papers," The Journal of Art (November 1991): portrayed," speculates, as of the couple's financial difficulties in Florence, 12-13. "surelythe plaintiffswould wish to present the girl due in part to Pierantonio'srunning up large debts. in the role of victim." 36. See the Ana Taylor,Graeme J., "Judithand the Infant Hercules: complementaryessay by Sanchez- 18. Cited Lucia Chiavola Liberazione Lassade Its American 41 101- by Birnbaum, los Santos on "Techniqueand Materialsin Iconography," Imago (1984): della donna/Feminismin Conn.: the 15. Italy (Middletown, Paintings of Orazio Gentileschi," in Finaldi, WesleyanUniversity Press, 1986), 220. 78-97. Villien, Bruno, "Cris et chuchotements autour 19. Bissell, 126-31, for his views on psychoanalyti- 37. For example, apropos JudithDecapitating Ho- d'Artemisia Gentileschi," L'Oeil,no. 488 (Sept. cal methodology. lofernes,she has written (323): "Artemisiaestablishes 6-7. 1997): 20. Bissell, 8. her heroine as a fully-sexed,mature woman, who is 21. Pollock, 1999, 147, and Pollock, 1998, 28, physical without being beautiful, a rare female respectively. character who escapes the stereotypes of maiden, 22. For discussion of authorial subjectivityin the virago, and crone. This Judith is plausibly the Notes writing of biography of women, see Carolyn G. sexually experienced widow of the biblical account, Heilbrun's Writinga Woman'sLife (New York: Ballan- whose sexualitycould be drawnupon in the entrap- 1. Bissell, 1, and 393, n. 1, for the Italian. Full tine Books, 1988). Garrard,8, understood that "it ment and conquest of Holofernes but was not citations for all of the literature under review are has remained for the twentiethcentury to provide accessible to others-not even the connoisseur- provided in FrequentlyCited Sources. [Artemisia's]true audience,"because the expressive voyeur of the painting." Regarding the documents, 2. Garrard,3, is not alone in taking the view that content of her art "could not be acknowledged,nor Garrard's transcription of the trial now is aug- Artemisia "has suffered a scholarly neglect that is perhapsconsciously recognized," in misogynistItaly. mented by Lapierre's discoveries (see below); the almost unthinkable for an artist of her caliber." In 23. Pollock, 1999,102, 112,145. original Italian and Latin texts are published in this essay, "Garrard" without a qualifying date 24. Pollock, 1990. ArtemisiaGentileschi/Agostino Tassi: Atti di un processo alwaysrefers to Garrard,1989. I will basicallydiscuss 25. Ibid., 108ff. per stupro,ed. Eva Menzio (Milan: Edizioni delle the literaturesince publication of her book, leaving 26. Bal, 230-31. donne, 1981). out numerous masters' theses, honors papers, as 27. Pollock, 1999,116,121-23. 38. See Lapierre, 214-15, 456-57, and the discus- well as video tapes. 28. Ibid., 143, 146-47, which see also with regard sion below of her archivalwork. 3. Reprinted with annotations in Longhi's Scritti to Kristeva'stheories. 39. Mann, 1997a. giovanili: 1912-1922 (Florence: Sansoni, 1961), I, 29. Barthes's essay, which has been often re- 40. All scholars remain indebted to Joan Kelly's 219-83. printed and translated, was part of an exhibition pioneering study, "EarlyFeminist Theory and the 4. Benedetti, 42-44, though she is not quite fair to project of 1979 that invited writers and artists Querelledes Femmes,1400-1789," reprinted in her Longhi by extracting only his misogynistbarbs and (among others, Daniel Buren, Sarah Charlesworth, Women,History and Theory(Chicago: University of ignoring his laudatoryremarks. Douglas Huebler,Joseph Kosuth,Jannis Kounellis, Chicago Press, 1984), 65-109. UnlikeJaffe, 145, who 5. R. WardBissell, "ArtemisiaGentileschi-A New Joan La Barbara,Duane Michals,and Cy Twombly) solely on the basis of the character of Artemisia's Documented Chronology," Art Bulletin50 (1968): to respond to Artemisia's Judith DecapitatingHo- paintings assumes that they "represent strong evi- 153-68. lofernesin the Uffizi;the resultantbook/catalogue is dence that she was well versed in the subject of the 6. It was organized by Ann SutherlandHarris and not cited by Bissell. querelle,"Harris, 1998, 119, justly concludes, with Linda Nochlin for the Los Angeles County Museum 30. Bal's discussion of Artemisia'swork appearsin regard to calling Artemisia'sSusanna and theElders a of Art, 1976; Artemisia's paintings, nos. 10-15, her chapter entitled "The MissingHead," 289-311, feminist manifesto, that it is "a concept inconceiv- notably included Susanna and the Eldersof 1610 which includes brief discussionof Freud'streatment able in seicento Rome." (Pommersfelden) and Judithand Abrawith theHead of Judith, 295-96. The same material without ac- 41. In varyingways, these factorshave been empha- of Holofernes(Detroit). knowledgment reappears as exemplary of semiotic sized by Cropper,Gash, Harris, Haskell, and Spear, 7. Garrard,5. analysis in The Subjectsof Art History,ed. Mark among others. I might note with regard to the 8. Garrard'sbook was widely reviewed,often with Cheetham, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith Moxey conspicuousabsence of paintingsof Christby Artemi- discussion of method. See, e.g., Cropper, 1989, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), sia, that the two exceptions documented during her ffolliott, Gash, Goldberg, Harris, 1989, Haskell, 85-90. For analysis of the Judith story in Renais- lifetime (both are lost) deal with themes focused on Pollock, 1990, and Spear. sance art, with further remarkson Freud'sviews, see children and a woman (Bissell cat. nos. L-14 and 9. Garrard,279. Elena Ciletti, "PatriarchalIdeology in the Renais- L-15, Sufferthe Little Children Come unto Me and Christ 10. Garrard,311. sance Iconography of Judith," in RefiguringWomen and theSamaritan Woman). 11. See my The"Divine" Guido: Religion, Sex, Money, (as in n. 16), 35-70. 42. Harris, 1998, 113. and Art in the Worldof GuidoReni (New Haven:Yale 31. From my remarks above and what follows 43. Harris, 1998, see which for her viewson other University Press, 1997), especially part I and, for below, it should be evident that I am not distrustful issues that affect interpretationof Artemisia'simag- discussionof psychohistoryin particular,4-11. With of theory, but critical only of authors whose writing ery. reference to Garrard's analysis, Goldberg distin- and ideas are accessible to a small, privileged circle 44. The same applies to his analysis of the later guishes between interpretations that depend on of like-minded academics. For another example in work. Artemisia's Aurora,e.g., is said to rely on "personal and intuitive psychologicalinsights" and which Artemisia's work is primarily a vehicle for neo-Atticreliefs, a fresco by Reni, and a painting by those that are backed up with "reference to the discussion of (aesthetic) theory, see Anita Silvers, Pagani, none of which is particularlysimilar to the literature or methods of clinical psychoanalysis," "Has Her(oine's) Time Now Come?" in Feminism posture or "maenad-likefrenzy" of Aurora.Nor are withoutwhich "the reader is ... hard put to confirm and Traditionin Aesthetics,ed. Peggy Zeglin Brand many of the parallels drawn between her work and or deny her findings." and CarolynKorsmeyer (University Park: Pennsylva- Manetti'sconvincing. Bissell is not alone in succumb- 12. Bal, 274. See Salomon's apt remarks on the nia State UniversityPress, 1995), 279-304. By con- ing to the game of motif hunting. Roberto Contini, (mis)use of Artemisia's biography (Salomon criti- trast, as a national bestseller Carolyn Heilbrun's for instance, posits that the profilperdu stance of cizes Vasarifor lumping together all Northerners as Writinga Woman'sLife (as in n. 22) must have Abrain Artemisia'sJudith and HerMaidservant in the fiamminghi,but she falls into the same reductivetrap opened the eyes of more women and men about PalazzoPitti was derived from a figure by Cigoli way with her use of the category "women"). how patriarchalculture has shaped or suppressed up in the dome fresco of the CappellaPaolina in S. 13. Garrard,278. Perhapsthe least responsible of "famous" women's lives than all self-involvedcriti- MariaMaggiore, Rome (Contini and Papi, 120-21). pseudo-psychological readings of Artemisia's life cism put together. Harris,1998,114-15, suggests that, in designing the and imagery is Rose, in Spike and Rose. 32. Spike, 1991, with caution, though his re- three-figured Susannaand theElders, Artemisia had 14. Bissell, 130. attributionis considered to be certain in Spike and in mind works by Caravaggio, Annibale, Do- 15. The usual view that Artemisiawas a follower of Rose, 12-13. Another unexpected judgment is that menichino, Sisto Badalocchio, and Rubens. A ver- Caravaggio is challenged by Mann, 1997a, who Artemisia"only came into her artisticmaturity, and sion of the game builds elaborateinterpretations on argues her case from the dubious premise that did her most original and influential work, during shaky "influence"-foundations,such as Mann's ef- iconography can be separated from style in the her two decades in Naples, c. 1627-52" (Spike, fort to link Artemisia'sConversion of theMagdalene to production of "meaning." 1991, 734). the lower portion of Michelangelo's Lorenzode' 16. ElizabethS. Cohen, "No Longer Virgins:Self- 33. I am grateful to Keith Christiansen of the Medici(Mann, 1997a). Representation by Young Women in Late Renais- Metropolitan Museum who, together with Judith 45. Garrardrejected Bissell cat. nos. 1, 25, 35, and sance Rome," in RefiguringWomen: Perspectives on Mann of the St. Louis Art Museum,is organizingthe doubted 16, 26, 46. The pictures published after her BOOK REVIEWS 579

book appeared are cat. nos. 7, 9 ,11, 15, 19, 21, 23, real letter he wrote to FerranteCarlo from Naples in sional time in the company of visually interest- 47. New in Bissell's are 1637 Artemisia was active and 29, 34, 38, 43, 44, catalogue (when there) pub- ing things. These are not just the objects in nos. 9, 19, 21, 23, 29. lished by Giovanni Bottari and Stefano Ticozzi, which one has a deep professional stake: the 46. Cat. nos. 3, 28, 36, 42. Raccoltadi letteresulla pittura, scultura ed architet- Rembrandt scholar is free to wander into the 47. Cat. nos. X6, Xll, X12 (after publication of tura..., I (Milan: Giovanni Silvestri, 1822-25), her book), X15, X17-X19, X28. 304-6, no. CVIII.With reference to an earlier work 20th-century galleries of a museum and spend 48. I have reservations regarding the autograph of his own, which he admits is not his best and was as much time there as she wishes. This happy status of about a quarter of all the works Bissell judged to have been painted by a woman, Lanfranco situation does not hold for students of illumi- as include cat. nos. 1, 17, 18, writeswith irony that, were it by a woman, then it'd accepts autograph:they nated medieval manuscripts. Because manu- 43-47, 49, 52-53, the of be worth three times as much, presumablymeaning 21, 26, 29, though degree are in libraries rather than in my doubts varies greatly and is seriously compro- that it'd be a rarity,a marvel,by equaling a mediocre scripts typically to mised by my not having seen all of the pictures, Lanfranco. I am grateful to Donatella Sparti for museums, scholarly access them is cumber- some of which purportedlyare signed and might be discussing with me the text of this interesting if some at best, close to impossible at worst. And letter. authentic though studio products. opaque there is almost no freedom to range outside 49. Pollock, 1999, 153. 61. In addition to Lapierre's notes on Tassi's one's own narrowly defined field. While my 50. Mann, 1996, and 1997b. criminality,see Cropper,1992, and the appendix of credentials allow me, with consider- 51. Mann, 1997b, 9, nn. 2 and 3, lists the scholars documents in PatriziaCavazzini, Palazzo Lancellotti ai scholarly who have attributed Danai to Orazio versus those Coronari(Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello able effort and calling in of favors, to get my who say Artemisia. Danaewill be in the exhibition; Stato, Libreriadello Stato, 1998). hands on most 9th-century Western manu- whether the ex-Matthiesen Cleopatraand/or ex- 62. For example, the document Lapierre discov- the that I would be able to ered Tassi's sentence introduces the scripts, possibility Morandotti Cleopatraalso will be included is un- containing turn the of one of the Ro- verdict as rather than contrathe in the pages great known at this time. To judge from good photo- pro accused; novel her authorial voice manesque manuscripts is slight; it is as if our graphs, Garrard's suspicion that perhaps neither disruptivelyponders why that occurred. Rembrandt scholar were unable to look even Orazio nor Artemisia painted Danaeis understand- able. 63. Banti's subsequent play (CorteSavella, 1960) at the Vermeers in the next gallery, much less devotes more attention to Artemisia'samorous rela- 52. Bissell cat. nos. X42, X19 and X28, respec- the Matisses one floor up. But even those tions and the trial (see Benedetti, 57-59). tively. For the document regarding the two Spada familiar with the restrictive (dare I say Byzan- Madonna d'Artemisia Gentilesca 64. Pollock, 1999, makes the point that the psycho- pictures ("Una tine?) access to manu- con un in braccio" and "Una Santa Cecilia logical impact of maternal loss has been neglected, regulations governing putto must She della medesima sone un leuto simile though Garrard, 21, and Cropper, 1992, offered scripts pity Leslie Brubaker. has grandezza"), astute observationson its for Artemi- see MariaLucrezia Vicini, "L'ereditaVeralli e Rocci," consequences spent much of her career (this book had its sia. in Palazzo Artee Storia,ed. Roberto Cannata origin in a 1983 Johns dissertation) Spada: 65. For a brief characterizationand discussion of Hopkins Editore, 1992), 44, and on a that she has never (Rome: Bonsignori Papi, and see who working manuscript 198-99 is cited Bissell). Anglada's Jamis's novels, Benedetti, (neither publication by deals with these broader too. I note seen and will never see, the 9th-century copy 53. Bissell cat. no. 46 (cf. his figures 180, 182, and questions, might the familiar in book: half of it of the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus 188). pattern Jamis's long pre- 54. Bissell cat. no. from it looks takes place up until the time of the rape, by which served in the Bibliotheque nationale de France 17; photographs date Artemisiahad while a small to me like a stiff of cat. no. 16. painted little, only with the shelfmark manuscrit grec510. The ban copy is concerned with Artemisia's 55. As noted above, the inscription was unknown portion post-Floren- on seeing the manuscript has considerable tine career, when she produced the majorityof her to Garrard,who kindly informs me that her forth- legitimacy; the miniatures are flaking so badly ArtemisiaGentileschi around 1622: Two pictures. coming book, 66. See Benedetti for criticism of Clark's on that consultation them. Even in CaseStudies in Formation Univer- play any damages Identity (Berkeley: the latter the eccentric world of of California focuses on the grounds. manuscript studies, sity Press), Burghley 67. 1998. House a work Artemisia but Garrard, however, the tale of Paris gr. 510 is an unusual picture (as begun by 68. is too to finished another and the two versions of Tassi, however, good looking, judge one.1 by hand), from his sister's at the trial: "E referred to above. description questo In the the PenitentMagdalene mio fratello e di barba" light of the postmodern insistence 56. Menzio (as in n. 151. piccolotto grassoto, poca 37), 433). that simulacra are omnipresent, authenticity a 57. Bissell cat. no. 49, with an exhaustivereview of (Lapierre, 69. Pollock, 1998. chimera, this frustrating situation might have the documents and other scholars' opinions. 70. For Merlet's own comments on the film, see led many contemporary art historians into a 58. See the recent essay on this much-discussed her "Director's Note" at http://www.miramax. contemplative speculation about originality issue by Naomi Scheman, "Who Wants to Know? = 2& The Value of in com/mm_front/owa/mp.entryPoint?action and truth the lines of Mi- Epistemological Values," (En)gender- midStr=559, and also the interview with her (something along ed. E. Hartman and Ellen pub- chael Camille's Master The Art ing Knowledge, Joan lished by Villien. ofDeath: Lifeless Messer-Davidow(Knoxville: of Tennessee University 71. On the question of agency, see, e.g., Joan E. of Pierre Remiet, Illuminator [1996]). But that is Press, 1991), 179-200. Stories: The Construction of not Brubaker's she is hardheaded and 59. I have drawnon Cannon's sensitive discussion Hartman, "Telling style; Women's in (as in in these remarks. For the from Agency," (En)genderingKnowledge avoids flights of fancy. She has an agenda of passages quoted n. 58), 11-34. Banti's Artemisia,see the translation important, if relatively standard questions to by Shirley 72. For example, Benedetti, 49. D'Ardia Caracciolo (Lincoln, Neb.: University of 73. 67. ask about the Paris Gregory: How and why was 111. Banti Garrard,1998, Nebraska Press,1988), 95, 109, Further, 74. After the film closes with Artemisia on the Paris gr. 510 made and used? What did Paris has Artemisia "to be the of this declare, daughter beach Tassi, a series of texts scrolls 510 mean to the who and to her hand on his sleeve, emulating by. gr. people produced gentleman, lightly place The first reads, "Artemisia never saw Agostino used it? Brubaker is interested in reconstruct- to talk only in monosyllableslike a high-classyoung Others include the false statement that she to make her feel exonerated again." as and as as the lady, this was enough "was the first woman in the history of art to be ing, fully accurately possible, from every memory [of the rape and trial], from commissioned for her work,"and the belated recog- meanings ascribed to the book when it was every obligation." When considering going to Flor- nition that "ArtemisiaGentileschi's paintings bear made. Fortunately, the Paris Gregory is closely ence with a husband chosen her Artemisia witness to her and as a woman and by father, genius singularity dated and its audience known; a "would her look after her as a original forget painting, family painter." series of miniatures of the instead." Once there, "she no longer remembered Byzantine emperor Basil I and his indicate that the book that she was a Gentileschi, artistand daughter of an family artist. She was redeeming old debts that were owed was made in Constantinople between late 879 to her, debts of family love, of family respect. She and 882 for presentation to Basil. Further, it is had-and the word continued to fulfill her LESLIE BRUBAKER all but certain that the manuscript's patron thoughts-she had a husband." Then, having was the Byzantine patriarch, Photios. The painted JudithDecapitating Holofernes, "an immense Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century of swells her the awful of meaning given to the images in Paris gr. 510 feeling pride breast, pride Byzantium: as in the a woman who has been avenged, in whom, despite Image Exegesis in this closely circumscribed geographical, her shame, there is also room for the satisfactionof Homilies of Gregoryof Nazianzus chronological, and sociopolitical context is the artistwho has overcome all the of her problems Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Brubaker's subject. art and the of her father, of the speaks language 1999. 561 177 b/w ills. $95 The sermons of the of the chosen" 37, 46, pp.; 4th-century Cappado- pure, (ibid., 64). cian of Nazianzus were 60. She also cites any evidence behind her fictive bishop Gregory among episodes. An exception is the letter by Lanfranco One of the art historian's greatest joys is the most important and influential Byzantine she quotes (p. 376), which in fact is adapted from a spending large chunks of sanctioned profes- religious writings; there are more Greek manu-