For painting III not only did I finish early, and do an extra painting, but it seems administration was not happy that the instructor was letting people go early, even though they were done for the day. So, he apologetically told us that he had to dock grades for people who didn't stay until the end of class, but he offered extra credit - a self portrait or an old master copy. I decided to do both.
Artemisia Gentileschi was a Baroque born in 1593, in Rome. She was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, a prominent painter in the traditio of Caravaggio. She trained in her father's studio - unusual for women back then, and was exceptionally gifted from a young age.
Self portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1615 (age 22)
In 1610, when she was 16, her father hired Agostino Tassi, his colleague, to train her. Instead, he raped her. Back then, it was hard for women to prove rape, and they would often be tortured to be certain they weren't making it up. Artemisia was subjected to humiliating questioning and torture to “verify” her testimony. She won, and he was convicted, though he didn't get much of a punishment because he knew people in high places.
The experience shaped much of her later work and reputation.
Susanna and the Elders, 1610 (age 17)
She went on to became one of the most accomplished painters of the Baroque, working in Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples. She was the first woman admitted to the Accademia delle Arti del Desegno (Academy of Art and Design) in Florence, a major professional honor.
She painted powerful, psychologically intense women from myth and the Bible — often shown as active, intelligent, and morally strong. Back then, women were often painted as objects of desire or beauty, or religious icons. They didn't, you know, "do stuff." At best, if they were doing something, they seemed dispassionate about it.
Side by side: Judith slaying Holofernes, on the left by Caravaggio, and on the right, by Artemesia.
Artemisia painted herself as "painting, personlified". She was not just a woman at work, but the embodiment of the art itself.
Self-portrait as an Allegory of Painting, 1638 (age 45)
Although Artemesia did several self-portraits, the key feature of this self-portrait include baroque-style dramatic pose and light/dark contrast. She is looking at the canvas, not us. She shows herself as serious, absorbed, and professional, not decorative or passive. Her brush is raised in action. This post took some effort and skill, countering stereotypes that women were incapable of high art. The foreshortening of her arm, the anatomy, and the handling of light are extremely sophisticated.
The green dress with gold highlights represents that she is noble, and intellectually elevated rather than frivolous.
This painting matters. It was a feminist statement centuries before feminism existed. She claims authority as both artist and symbol of art itself, a rebuttal to how women were portrayed back then. Rather than a muse or object, she painted herself as the creator. Later examinations of her correspondence indicate that she haggled with buyers over the price of her art, demanding that she be paid what she is worth.
She had children, supported a husband she was married off to right after her rape trial (in her letters she repeated complained that he spent money badly, relied too much on her income, did not manage finances well, and often left her to handle everything) and died in Naples in 1653, at the age of 60.
My version:
To better create what she had done, I did use a small projector I keep in my studio - it was about $45 and hooks up on my phone, ipad, and computer to project images onto my easel.
I completed this painting in 2 days with acrylics. I tried to use pigment that would have been available when she was alive, or close equivalents, such as nickel tin yellow (instead of lead tin yellow), titanium white (instead of lead white) ultramine blue, and quinacridone red (instead of vermillion). The last detail I added was the pony tail.
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