Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was a highly accomplished Italian Baroque painter, known for her skill in colouring and her ability to convincingly depict the female figure. In an era when female painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community, she was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and had an international clientèle of nobility and royalty. A survivor of torture, a single mother, and a painter of incredible talent, Artemisia blazed a trail for women artists for centuries to come.
Throughout her career, she worked in Florence, Naples, Rome, and even the English court at the invitation of Charles I. Her letters show a strong-willed, industrious artist navigating the troubles of the seventeenth century.
Leading Gentileschi scholar Sheila Barker has collected enlightening early biographies of Gentileschi and the most relevant of her many letters, creating a fascinating and rounded picture of the life of this influential artist. Barker is the editor of the collection Artemisia Gentileschi in a Changing Light, and founder of the Jane Fortune Research programme, which won a Society for the Study of Early Modern Women Prize for digital scholarship.
47 colour illustrations
Introduction SHEILA BARKER p. 9 Extracts from the testimony at the trial of Agostino Tassi for the rape of Artemisia Gentileschi, 1612 p. 39 Letter to Christine de Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, 1612 ORAZIO GENTILESCHI p. 65 Biography of Artemisia Gentileschi, c. 1618-19 CRISTOFANO BRONZINI p. 75 Letter to Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1620 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI p. 79 Letters to Francesco Maria Maringhi, 1620 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI & PIERANTONIO STIATTESI p. 83 Letters to Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1630-37 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI p. 105 Letter to Galileo Galilei, 1635 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI p. 115 Letter to Andrea Cioli, Secretary to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1636 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI p. 123 Letter to Francesco d’Este, Duke of Modena, 1639 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI p. 127 Letters to Don Antonio Ruffo, 1649-51 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI p. 131 Life of Artemisia Gentileschi, c. 1682 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI p. 151 Memorial of Artemisia Gentileschi, 1792 AVERARDO DE’ MEDICI p. 161 Artemisia Gentileschi, 1792 ALESSANDRO MORRONA p. 185 List of illustrations p. 190
Reviews for Lives of Artemisia Gentileschi: By Herself and Others
""The London publishing house Pallas Athene has come up with the very welcome and worthwhile project of assembling English translations of early biographies of artists in an easily accessible publication."" - Historians of Netherlands Art Reviews
