Artemisia Gentileschi — The OG Savage.
In the 17th century, on another side of the world, born in Rome to a famous baroque painter and teacher, Orazio Lomi, was Artemisia Gentileschi, the OG Savage. Being a woman, she could only participate in very few of the arts classes taught by her father. Others, like the life drawing classes with nude models, were a no-go.
First. Who were the Caravaggisti? This is a term that was given to artists who followed the style and picked up the subject matters of the 16th century artist Caravaggio. His style was particularly marked with the heavy use of black to enhance the game of light and shadows (the ‘chiaroscuro’), realism and sombre atmosphere in the scenes, mostly religious subject matter and effeminate representation of young men. Amongst his followers were the Roman Manfredi, the French Valentin and Vouet, the Neapolitan Caracciolo and the Spanish Ribera, even the Utrechters Ter Brugghen, Honthort and Van Baburen. And of course… Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi.
Being a passionate artist as she was, Artemisia also trained on her own and earned herself a reputation of a talented artist at the same level as her fellows Caravaggisti, which in itself was worth more than a lifetime for a female artist, with, in addition, a very distinctive take on the representation of women. We have got to say that she went through hell to finally get to that level of acknowledgement and respect, but I will say more about that later.
Her fellow male artists continued in the tradition of representing ‘the male gaze’ for ‘the male gaze’, depicting idealised women, whose purpose was to aesthetically please the viewer. The women in their paintings seem to be passively experiencing whatever is happening to them in the scene, a proper prey for the men in the painting and the men — viewers. If they are looked at while bathing or simply naked, both the male characters and the viewer are allowed to have a peek into a delicious, yet innocent view, unaware of the indiscrete invasion of their private space. If they are breastfeeding a child, they are represented as blissful, careless, in perfect shape, beautiful and fresh. Even when they are committing an action, which requires strength and determination, they are shown as weak and uncertain, almost awkward, because this was not ‘how a lady was expected to behave’. Artemisia turns these misconceptions upside down and takes Caravaggio’s ‘realism’ to the next level.
At the age of 17, Artemisia painted “Susanna and the Elders”. In this painting, a young lady named Susanna, is seated outside, preparing to bathe, while two middle aged white men are leaning over to have a look at her naked body. One of them seems to be whispering in his mate’s ear. While Vignon shows her being caressed by the breast by these intruders, almost enjoying being watched — which was the desired intent for the ‘male gaze’.
Artemisia however shows what would have really happened. Her Susanna is blushing, frozen, horrified and disgusted with the idea of being watched by these men and the viewers. She turns her legs to one side and twists her torso to the other to cover her up to not let these men get what they want. She conveys how the weight of their gaze is suffocating her and perhaps the men are not really this close, but she knows they are there and she can hear them, which psychologically she feels as if they were literally leaning over her, so unacceptably close and whispering to each other, discussing her and her nudity as if she and her nudity were a free show intended to entertain them. Seeing this, the viewer does not enjoy her nudity like that of Vignon’s Susanna. Instead, the viewer feels sorry for her and judges these men, their unacceptable behaviour. Here, she makes it very obvious that the uninvited, unconsented male gaze is simply wrong.
When she was some 19 years old, she painted the “Madonna and Child”, a classical subject matter of the renaissance. Raphael alone painted Zillions of them. Artemisia’s representation is drastically different from Caravaggio’s whose Madonna looks young, fresh, sexualised even….in other words, perfect. Artemisia’s Madonna looks more like a real life new mother. Unidealised in her physical appearance, she is sleepy, perhaps as a result of so many sleepless nights, while breastfeeding. Yet, at the same time, the viewer can almost see and feel the tenderness of this intimate moment, the bonding of a mother with her child, for whom at this age, she is everything, the entire world. The tender touch of the baby, the worried look caring for mommy’s wellbeing and the tender, but strong embrace of the mother making sure the baby is safe. This emphasis on the sacrality of the moment and on the unconditional love between the mother and the child often lacks in the classical representations of this subject matter by men, where the focus is mainly on the aesthetics of the woman and the depiction of the breast corresponding to that sexualised idea 🌶 of the male viewer, who imagines himself sucking that nipple 🔞🔥. Yes ew 🙈, it is a religious scene 😇 , but hey, look at Freud waving back at us 👋.
Now my absolute favourite and perhaps most discussed painting by Artemisia: “Judith Slaying Holofernes”. She actually painted 2 versions of the scene, one in 1612–1613 and the other, most familiar version in 1620–21 (as seen above). Just take a moment to look at it and feel the tsunami of passionate anger, pain and desperation, but also of sweet revenge and victory that she conveys in this scene. Look at the energy with which the primary woman is caught in action. Look at that assertive hold of the sword, which in both versions is the centre of attention. Particularly in the second one. The maid looks just as determined to help as she holds Holofernes still. Here, Holofernes is also depicted as a big and robust man, but the two young women appear to be strong enough nonetheless.
This scene shows a biblical story of Judith, a Jewish woman from Bethulia, a town besieged by the Assyrians, who creeped into the enemy camps, seduced and beheaded the Assyrian general Holofernes, in the process. She then brought his head to her people as a trophy and encouragement for the populace to defend their territory more vigorously. In the end, inspired by her bravery, the Bethulians drove the aggressors away.
By contrast, in Caravagio’s “Judith Beheading Holofernes”, the murderer is a beautiful and attractive young lady, yet very hesitant and physically weak. She is keeping a distance from her victim, as if she wants to take no part in this scene, as if it was not her, but some invisible spirit that is manipulating her hands. Holofernes also appears weaker in Caravaggio’s rendition and his drunk state is more apparent as well. In such a state, any man could be easy to physically manipulate and he would not be able to fight with full force, again a suggestion that Judith is kinda weak. The difference can be heard even in their choice of titles, “Slaying” versus “Beheading”. This scene was picked up by many other reputable artists, including Donatello, Boticelli, Mantegna and Klimt, but none of their works is merely as energetically charged as Artemisia’s rendition. I don’t know how about you, but everytime I look at this work, I feel like it is me slaying that head, holding that knife, bringing justice that no one else would, pouring all the pain and rage out. Knowing Artemisia’s personal story and the fact that she used herself as a model for Judith’s image, the first instinct is to see this as her powerful message about her own fight with tyranny, a loud inner cry, an assertive revenge on oil on canvas. A beautiful catharsis. And here is why:
At the age of 17, Artemisia was raped by another painter Agostino Tassi, her father’s friend and somewhat her mentor. She filed a complaint against the aggressor, but oh, the, at that time, naive young girl had to learn how unfair society was in a very tragic way. The trial did take place, but instead, the perpetrator watched Artemisia being publicly humiliated and tortured with ‘sibille’ thumbscrews, cords wrapped around the fingers and pulled tight, crushing the fingerbones…. imagine how it feels for an artists who creates and lives of own fingers to have them damaged. And as it hurt like m*fck*r, she continued shouting out that she was telling the truth.
“I have told the truth and I always will, because it is true and I am here to confirm it wherever necessary”, she said. She writes that she then looked at Tassi and denounced his promises of marriage: “This is the ring that you give me and these are your promises”.
Her letters were found in 2011 and are now on display at Artemisia Gentileschi’s personal exhibition at the National Gallery in London. Learn more about this here :
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/artemisia/artemisia-in-her-own-words
Later she did marry and moved to Florence, but she quickly got divorced and got into the favour of the Medicis. She enrolled into the Academy of the Arts of Drawing (Accademia delle Arti del Disegno), being the first woman to be accepted to the prestigious school. She had lovers. She was a single mother. She was rich and successful.
Savage. Classy. Boogie. Ratchet.
