Seaman 1 the DEPICTION of FEMALE EMOTION AS SEEN
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Seaman 1 THE DEPICTION OF FEMALE EMOTION AS SEEN THROUGH THE WORK OF ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ARTISTS ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI AND MICHELANGELO CARAVAGGIO'S JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES AND ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI AND CAVALIERE D’ARPINO’S SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS Leah M. Seaman This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Research Honors Program of Marietta College Marietta College Marietta Ohio Spring 2021 Seaman 2 This Research Honors thesis has been approved for the Research Honors program and the Honors and Investigative Studies Committee by Dr. Robert McManus 4/21/21 Dr. Robert McManus, Chair Date Dr. Dawn Carusi 4/21/21 Dr. Dawn Carusi, Member Date Assistant Professor Katy Scullin 4/21/21 Assistant Professor Katy Scullin, Member Date Professor Jolene Powell 4/21/21 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Professor Jolene Powell, Member Date Seaman 3 Acknowledgments: Firstly, thank you to my family for being my greatest fans, my most vocal cheering squad, and my most patient listeners. Thank you to my thesis committee, especially Dr. McManus, for their dedication and constant support as they guided me through the entire process of writing this thesis and helped me grow into the writer I am today. Finally, a heartfelt thank you to Artemisia Gentileschi, whose spunk, grit, and talent has inspired this young artist to pursue her own passions and re-discover her love for the arts. I am forever grateful. Seaman 4 Abstract: An Analysis of the Differing Perspectives on Italian Renaissance Gender Norms as seen Through the Work of Artemisia Gentileschi, Michelangelo Caravaggio, and Cavaliere d’Arpino Western Europe has long been established as a highly patriarchal culture that has established strict and rigorous gender norms and values for men and women. Such gender norms have determined how men and women behave, dress, work, and are depicted in the arts. During the time of the Italian Renaissance, these distinct gendered divisions were apparent in the works of male artists painting both male and female subject matter and themes. When artistic pieces were not catering towards the Catholic Church’s goals, they were centered around the external male audience, focusing on appealing to male ego, arousal, and comfort. The depiction of strong female emotion during the Italian Renaissance illustrates not only the cultural and gender norms surrounding women during that time, but also how both men and women interacted with those norms. This paper analyzes the perspectives on the Italian Renaissance’s gendered norms as seen through the work of Artemisia Gentileschi and Michelangelo Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes and Gentileschi and Cavaliere d’Arpino’s Susanna and the Elders. Utilizing feminist criticism and historical analysis, this paper examines whether the hegemonic messaging of the Italian Renaissance permeates both male and female-created artwork, or if the differences in experience and gender brings a new narrative to the Judith and Susanna themes. Seaman 5 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………6 Review of Literature……………………………………………………………………………25 Historical Analysis……………………………………………………………………………...42 Analysis of the Arpino and Gentileschi Susanna Paintings………………………………….69 Analysis of the Caravaggio and Gentileschi Judith Beheading Holofernes Paintings……...95 Citations………………………………………………………………………………………..141 Seaman 6 Chapter One Introduction Introduction "Women are depicted quite differently from men," says Ways of Seeing author John Berger, “not because the feminine is always different from the masculine—but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (64). For centuries, the female figure has been under the control of the (predominantly male) artist’s brush when brought to life on a canvas. She has been assigned multiple identities and fulfilled many duties required of her within the space of the wooden frame that surrounds her canvas. Women in art are used, according to Lise Vogel, as “stand-ins,” becoming “vehicles through which artists express their and society’s attitudes and ideas on a variety of issues” (Raven 46). During the days of the early 6th century BCE Greece, the female figure was referred to as Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love, and fertility (Clark 71-72). The object of passion, desire, and need, the Aphrodite of Greek art later assumed the more commonly recognized title of Venus, taking on one of two selves for the pleasure of both her creator and her patron: Venus Coelestis (celestial or heavenly) and Venus Naturalis (vulgar or desirable) (Clark 71). She became the embodiment of righteousness and purity or the embodiment of lasciviousness and lust. This duality of identity remained attached to the female figure long into Western art’s development and growth. The rise of Christianity in Western Europe between the 3rd and 5th century CE, as well as the subsequent 8th century CE iconographic era that followed, gave Venus new identities to add to her repertoire—Madonna, the Holy Mother, Mary Magdalene, Ruth, Esther, —as well as more Seaman 7 secular women like Lucretia, Helena, and Ios. The female figure assumed a more multi-faceted identity within the art world. As Madonna, she became the Mother and nurturer. As Rahab, she took on the mantle of prostitution and lascivious and passive behavior. As Lucretia, she was the tragic martyr for virginity and chastity. However, even with new names and archetypes, the Venus still could not shake the duties of her initial identity, to be either Venus Coelestis or Venus Naturalis. From the moment of her conception by prehistoric artists during the Paleolithic period, the female figure was given one primary task— to fulfill the deepest desires of her audience, which were predominantly men (Clark 71). One must wonder who bears more responsibility for constraining the Venus to the limiting and unbending archetypes of her gender—the artist who created her or the surrounding gender norms that influenced the artist. Because gender is the societal construction of how men and women should behave based on their biological sex, gendered norms have existed to tell biological men and women their assigned social roles since birth. This binds women to the restrictions and freedoms dictated by their surrounding culture, as we see through the examples of the Venus archetypes. Joan W. Scott’s definition of gender expands upon this idea, describing it as “ a [primary field with which or by means of which power is articulated” (Scott 1069) These strict rules, collectively created and re-affirmed by the human population at large, indicated the amount of importance assigned to both genders, the culturally accepted occupations that each could assume, and how each gender could be treated and viewed. Although I understand there are multiple interpretations of gender, this thesis will be utilizing a traditional view of two genders —male and female— unless otherwise stated. In discussions pertaining to the Western World, I am referencing both a geographic location and a specific worldview. The physical Western World of this thesis encompasses the Seaman 8 western-most European nations (specifically Italy, the Mediterranean region, Spain, Portugal, and France). The specific worldview created by the Western World draws upon ancient civilizations such as Greece and Rome, the centrality of the Roman Catholic Church and the adoption of Christianity followed by the Reformation, as well as historical periods such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution paving the way for more democratic systems of government and economic capitalism (88-92). It is within both this geographic location and worldview that the man dominated the woman in almost every area of life. During early 4th century BCE Greece, for example, Aristotle declared men the physical manifestation of the gods on earth and that women were malformed males who had not reached their true potential in the womb, making them both physically and intellectually inferior to their masculine counterparts (Walton 88). This male superiority appeared in ancient Greek artistic circles as well, with a prioritization of the naked male figure over the covered female figure. For example, although there were a small number of female images produced during prehistoric times, the sensualized Venus did not appear until the 4th or 5th century BCE, some two hundred years after the first prominent male figures were created by the ancient Greeks (Clark 71-72). Such a separation of time is largely due to societal indignation over an exposed female figure. As the subordinated sex, ancient Greek women (except for Spartan women) were expected to remain modestly covered and hidden for the entirety of their lives (Clark 73). This modesty culture was in turn reflected through Grecian art. Some of the earliest female sculptures, such as the Aphrodite on Ludovisi Throne and the Nike of Painios, were not as nude as their male counterparts, including the Doryphoros or the Diadoumenos. Rather, these women were draped in sheer cloths and fabrics to cover their nakedness (Clark 77-78). It would take decades for the covered female form to yield to artistic progress and finally see her nudity exposed fully (72). Seaman 9 Thanks to Aristotelian philosophy, the notion of a subordinate female was popularized and widely accepted in Western culture (Walton 88). With the birth of the Venus figure into the Aristotelian era of feminine inferiority, the female body existed only under the dominating rule of the male gaze, a concept that will be explored more fully in this thesis. Christianity carried on the Aristotelian ideas of feminine inferiority and the tradition of artistic female subordination (Walton 89). Because the majority of artistic patrons were men, much of the art that came from the 8th century CE onward in the Western World catered only to the male gaze. When it came to painting Venus, nearly everything, from the background to the positioning of her body, appealed to her male audience's sexual prowess and power.