Allegory and Artemisia

Artemisia Gentileschi "Allegory of Painting" 1620's Musée de Tessé, France   

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593- 1656) needs no introduction from me, but this painting might. It has only fairly recently begun to be attributed to Artemisia, and was for some time thought to be the work of Giovanni Baglione (1566-1643) a contemporary and fierce enemy of Gentileschi's father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639.) In fact, as the young woman looks very much like Artemisia herself, it was felt that this piece was intended by Baglione as a cruel barb for Orazio's pride, showing his daughter lying degenerately on the floor amongst the tumbled attributes of painting, nude but for a convenient length of cloth. However, other interpretations have since arisen. The currently prevailing thought is that this piece was painted by Artemisia herself as a sort of demonstration piece of her own abilities, especially as the foreshortening of a figure on the diagonal is a very difficult technical achievement. The piece also seems more somnolent than seductive. The model's naked state is muffled with rich fabric, and softened with shadow. We should also remember that at this time, nudity was a double-edged sword visually, being employed to show erotic love scenes from mythology but equally frequently employed by artists to signify innocence and naturalness, the very opposite of artifice and deceit. Moreover, the handling of the paint is softer than Baglione's generally more hard-edged style.

As Artemisia

Terry Strickland "Mary Lee as Artemisia Gentileschi" 2011

Terry Strickland is a contemporary figurative painter based in Birmingham, Alabama. For several years she has been engaged on a painting series she calls "the Incognito Project" in which she paints friends and family members dressed up as their alter egoes. An interesting review of the project, The Very Serious Dress-Up Playtime of the Soul, can be read here. Mary Lee is a friend of Strickland who is also an artist and identifies with many qualities exhibited by Artemisia Gentileschi. 

The Allegory of Painting

Artemisia Gentileschi "Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting"  1630s

This iconic painting by the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) is in the Royal Collection in London, purchased in the 1600s by fanatical art collector Charles I of England. Signora Gentileschi's father Orazio Gentileschi was for a time court painter to this art-hungry monarch and in about 1638 Artemisia traveled to England to assist her parent with some large commissions. Signor Gentileschi died suddenly in 1639 and after winding up her own and her father's affairs, Signorina Gentileschi returned to Italy in about 1641, narrowly missing the start of the English Civil War and the subsequent beheading of her royal patron.

It has long been a common painterly conceit for an allegory of painting to have an idealized female figure represent the concept of painting . Historically, such scenes typically involve much garlanding with flowers and neo-classical architecture as a setting. There is usually very little actual painting being performed. It was typical of Signorina Gentileschi's idiosyncratic style to paint herself in so un-idealized a manner, hard at work in a cramped and dimly lit space. She is thought to have achieved this dynamic pose through the use of several mirrors.