Caravaggio | The Alexandria Papers

Tag Archives: Caravaggio

by Alexandria | 29 September 2018 · 10:32 am

Artemesia Gentileschi

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
1593-1656 Italian Baroque painter, influenced by the work of Caravaggio

Self-Portrait as Allegory of Painting, 1638-39 pic.twitter.com/jWCggfnVS7

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi learned painting in her father’s studio, where she proved much more talented than her brothers.

Susanna and the Elders (first known work), 1610 pic.twitter.com/z8CHMiC95L

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
1611: Gentileschi’s father was involved in a time-consuming commission, so he hired Agostino Tassi to be her private tutor and to continue her lessons.

Madonna and Child (also, Virgin and Child), 1610 pic.twitter.com/tn5ewbENp1

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
1610-1611: Gentileschi was violently raped by her tutor, Agostino Tassi. Some scholars suspect another man was also involved.

St Cecelia Playing a Lute, 1610 pic.twitter.com/mR3RIWVTxq

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi’s father assumed that the rapist Tassi would marry Artemesia, which would have “restored” her honor and reputation.

Mother and Child, 1612
(woman’s wound, inflicted by male, is considered by many to be an allegory of Tassi’s rape) pic.twitter.com/6N19myOcUA

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi’s father expected that Tassi would marry his daughter, so Tassi continued having sexual relations with Artemesia. It is not known whether these relations were consensual.

Judith Slaying Holofernes, Naples version, 1612 pic.twitter.com/tZy9dPrK5R

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
9 months after the rape, when Tassi refused to honor his promise to marry Artemesia, Gentileschi’s father sued Tassi for rape.

Mary Magdalene in Ecstacy, 1613 pic.twitter.com/uZEqscNl49

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi’s father sued Tassi for rape on the grounds that his daughter had been a virgin: had she not been a virgin, her father would have been unable to sue her rapist.

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, 1613 pic.twitter.com/TfTgt06xPF

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
The rape trial lasted several months. During the trial, Gentileschi was subjected to a gynecological examination and tortured with thumbscrews to ensure she was telling the truth.

Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1614 (Florence version) pic.twitter.com/tUlWbsr3N3

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Though Tassi was found guilty of raping Gentileschi and sentenced to prison for 5 years and exile from Rome, he was never actually punished for the crime.

Self-Portrait as a Lute Player, 1615 pic.twitter.com/x3KyUwVTrV

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
A month after Tassi was found guilty and sentenced for the rape of Gentileschi, her father arranged a marriage for her to another artist.

Self-Portrait, 1615 pic.twitter.com/dnUnzlyPTa

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi and her husband moved to Florence where she became a successful court painter: she was financially rewarded and artistically respected.

Self-Portrait as a Female Martyr, 1615 pic.twitter.com/6UgQEhh2sR

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
1618: Gentileschi had a daughter, whom she named Prudentia (sometimes called Palmira), whom Gentileschi trained to be a painter.

Allegory of Inclination, 1615 pic.twitter.com/8fKR89cLn3

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
1618-1620: Gentileschi had a passionate love affair with wealthy Florentine merchant Francesco Maria Maringhi. Her husband knew about the affair and apparently did not object.

Virgin Nursing the Child, 1616-1618 pic.twitter.com/Gz59CP12Wn

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Despite her own artistic and financial success, Gentileschi had difficulties with her husband’s financial excesses and all his creditors. In 1921, she separated from him and returned to Rome.

The Penitent Magdalene, 1615 pic.twitter.com/QOJN1L1H0F

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
As an artist, Gentileschi is known for convincingly and realistically depicting the female figure, at a time when women’s bodies and faces were idealized in art.

Mary Magdalene, 1617 (Pitti version) pic.twitter.com/gRh63RkUV8

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi often depicts women who are said to resemble her physically and facially, and who are misunderstood or portrayed negatively in the Bible or other sources.

Jael and Sisera, 1620 pic.twitter.com/mGkkGQs9SV

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Because Gentileschi painted multiple versions of Judith and Holofernes, during and after the beheading, many male critics have claimed that Gentileschi had “repressed anger” for her rapist Tassi.

Judith, 1612, 1613, 1614 pic.twitter.com/oETwRU2yK8

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Many women and other feminist art historians recognize that Gentileschi’s anger was justified, and contribute her portrayal of strong women characters to her being a woman, a woman painter, and a woman who had been raped.

Lucretia, 1621 pic.twitter.com/IkGh6W05kh

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Some art historians view her portrayal of violent, sexually charged female characters as “catering” to the predominantly male patrons of the time.

Susanna and the Elders, 1622 pic.twitter.com/asldwSyg7R

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
During her lifetime, her own rape and prosecution of her rapist overshadowed her own talent as an artist and her work.

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, 1625 pic.twitter.com/NMR5ueOeoC

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi’s rape, the expectation that her rapist must marry her in order to restore her honor, and her treatment during the trial led to a feminist view of Gentileschi’s work in the past 50 years.

Cleopatra, 1633 pic.twitter.com/QGMPOQkzKm

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Appreciation for her art during her lifetime slowly dwindled, leaving her only mostly commissions for portraits and for depictions of biblical figures.

Lot and His Daughters, 1635-38 pic.twitter.com/lhOxthRiRc

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi

Samson and Delilah, 1638 pic.twitter.com/sHiMlqRCUX

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi

David and Bathsheba, 1640 pic.twitter.com/lcBunuKc8O

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi

Bathsheba at her Bath, 1640-45 pic.twitter.com/ed4Q0NZ9ai

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Long considered a “curiosity” because her rape and the trial overshadowed all of her work, Gentileschi is now considered one of the most expressive and talented artists of her generation.

Virgin and the Child with a Rosary, 1651 pic.twitter.com/mKaJp6Kdy5

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

#ArtSaturday Artemesia Gentileschi
Previously thought to have died in 1652 or 1653, it was later learned that she was still accepting commissions as late as 1654. It is now surmised that she may have died in the great Plague of 1656.

Self-Portrait, as Allegory of Painting, 1637 pic.twitter.com/EbSQl5vUe1

— Alexandria Constantinova Szeman, Ph.D. (@Alexandria_SZ) September 29, 2018

Caravaggio & Vermeer & R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion”

The last weekend of March, I went to San Francisco to see Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring and other famous paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. I’d hoped to see more of Vermeer’s paintings, like The Milkmaid,

or his Woman in Blue, Reading a Letter,

or his Woman with a Balance,

but the only Vermeer in the exhibit was his most famous: Girl with a Pearl Earring, considered the Dutch Mona Lisa. And she was beautiful.

Since I’m getting ready to do a blog on the exhibit, and those painters were hugely influenced by Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio — another one of my favorite painters, with his dramatic, virtually theatrical lighting — I thought I’d look at some of his paintings again.

He dealt with both secular and religious subjects, but his religious ones seem to be the most popular. I love his Judith Beheading Holfernes,

his The Entombment of Christ,

his The Calling of St. Matthew,

his David Beheading Goliath,

as much as I love his mythological Narcissus.

Looking over Caravaggio’s wondrous paintings again brought to mind R.E.M.’s marvelous visual tribute to that influential painter, their video for “Losing My Religion.”

Lovely.
Do they even make music videos that look like Renaissance paintings any longer?