Artemisia Gentileschi's depiction of “Judith slaying Holofernes” is my favorite over Caravaggio's “Judith beheading Holofernes” because of the absolute bloodletting portrayed in her own version. In my own opinion, Artemisia Gentileschi's “Judith slaying Holofernes” is the most powerful Baroque painting considering Gentileschi's dark past. Allow me to provide such back story of this woman, and her undeniable genius. Artemisia Gentileschi had been born July 8th, of 1593. She had been an accomplished Baroque painter, despite her being a female painter in the 1600's. She was actually the first woman to become a full member of the Accademia di Arte Del Disegno in Florence. She later died in 1656.
A common theme in which Artemisia Gentileschi's paintings are mostly women in a struggle; often strong women, suffering women. Why? Oh that's the beautiful part. Beautiful only in the sense of what she made of herself because of what happened. Don't get me twisted, what happened to her is absolutely tragic. Artemisia Gentileschi had been raped, just as her subject in “Judith Slaying Holofernes” had been. ALSO, Gentileschi had prosecuted the rapist, just as her subject did so in her painting.
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In this painting, which is oil on canvas, Judith is severing Holofernes head in good reason. In the biblical story, the Book of Judish tells of how Judith was stripped of her clothes and raped by Holofernes, whom was the Assyrian General. Judith later gets Holofernes drunk, and enticed him to bed. Only to execute her revenge. By cutting Holofernes's HEAD
"So as to allure the eyes of all men that should see her" (Judith 10:4). Judith is adorned in a contemporary costume and rests her arm on the severed head of Holofernes, the enemy of her people. Lucas Cranach the Elder, as mentioned earlier, painted at least eight Judith's, all similar with the composition of the heroine but with some minor changes in appearance, for example, Lucas Cranach has revealed a long-haired heroine with her hand on top of the dismantled head of Holofernes whilst holding the sword she used to remove the threat of her people. All eight Judith’s are clothed in a fantastically elaborate costumes that accentuates the heroine’s figure, this is also a characteristic of Cranach's mannerism. Here, Cranach represented Judith
Artemisia’s life and career have not been widely respected at this point, and her anger towards the structure of Renaissance Italy has been building. In response, she painted Judith carrying away the head of Holofernes with her maidservant, a fitting closing to the assassination of Holofernes. The way she depicted this scene would be emulated by the artists who followed her for years and years to come. Rather than showing a weak squeamish woman, Gentileschi showed power and command that highlighted women. The maidservant is carrying the head of Holofernes away in a basket, rather than previous depictions of his head in a sack.
Looking into her biography, Artemisia Gentileschi was a well-known figure and one of the first female artists to pursue a profession on the same terms as men. Her work is often overshadowed by the contradictory narratives that contained her. Gentileschi painted in the same style of Caravaggio, revealing her art with powerful stage lighting to intensify effects of emotional drama. I read that her figures were mostly heroic women drawn from history, and religious subject matter, including Cleopatra, Lucretia, and Mary Magdalene, often depicted nude and desirous. Going through all of her paintings, there is one that I am intrigued by called Corsica and the Satyr.
One angle is also bearing the symbols of the crucifixion like the lance Christ was stabbed with and the crown of thorns. The top part of the painting as a very calming and gentle tone to it. Both panels show Jesus but they look like two different people. On the left he 's lifeless, has no clothes on and seems weak. The middle ground between heave and hell is small.
Continuing into the Baroque era, portrayals of Judith were exaggerated and dramatized. Gentileschi’s oil painting created in 1614, Judith Slaying Holofernes, displays the gruesome story in a graphic and dark manner (Uffizi). Heavily influenced by Caravaggio, Gentileschi paints the scene of Judith during the slaying of Holofernes. Unlike the work of past artists and her current male counterparts, Gentileschi shows no mercy or fragility in Judith. While Caravaggio’s Judith recoils from her horrific task, Gentileschi’s Judith does not flinch; she braces herself on the bed and pulls the large sword through Holofernes neck (Khanacademy.org).
I. Introduction- Thesis Artemisia Gentileschi creative talent has led her to place the events of her lifetime on canvas, as she stood on the border between two worlds, that of an artist and woman. A. Subtopic #1 Artemisia’s life had many challenges not just because she was a women
Michelangelo, Raphael, Jan van Eyck are just a few artist of this time. But something you’ll notice is that none of them are women. They are all men. During the Renaissance most women were the embodiment of “Women are meant to be seen, not heard” During this time women were not allowed to be outspoken nor were they allowed to even formulate their own thoughts. Any ideas or opinions were heavily influenced by the men in their life.
After fleeing France following the revolution of 1789, she went to Italy and finally to St. Petersburg, Russia, and in 1799 Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun painted one of many portraits of her daughter Julie in, Julie as Flora, Goddess of Flowers. Viewed in the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida this 129.5 × 97.8 cm oil on canvas painting illustrates Vigée-Le Brun’s inspiration by Greco-Roman attire when she lived for a time in Naples, near the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The background is reminiscent of the lush, mountainous landscape of southern Italy that she would have seen years earlier. Since she was the court painter of Marie Antoinette (Queen of France), she became one of France’s most highly regarded portraitist. She was adept at
Judith’s assassination of Holofernes is a tale that appears to have captivated a number of artists during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The story originates from the Book of Judith of the Old Testament, and tells the story of the titular widowed heroine from the Jewish city of Bethulia, whose home was besieged by the Assyrian Army. In an effort to save her people and her home, Judith snuck into the enemy camp and managed to decapitate general Holofernes, who was infatuated with Judith and had passed out from drunkenness while in her company. A number of artists, including Donatello, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt, have used this story as a subject in their work.
In the painting Liberty girl by Norman Rockwell, a woman is shown carrying a huge load of utensils and supplies on her back. Her posture shows that she is in a hurry to get a lot of jobs done which are usually accomplished by men. The type of humor shown in this painting is incongruous. The painting is betraying the stereotype that women are dependent on men and portraying that a woman is capable of doing just as much, or even more than a man. In this painting the background is pure white which prompts the observer to subconsciously ignore the background and puts more focus on the woman.
The Passion of Artemisia contained both historical accuracies and inaccuracies. The author Susan Vreeland was fairly accurate in describing the cuisine and Galileo. However, there were discrepancies concerning Artemisia’s paintings of Judith, her family, and the architecture. Susan Vreeland frequently described the Italian cuisine throughout the book. While on the journey to Florence, Artemisia and Pietro ate simpler meals which consisted of bread, salami, green apples, and various cheeses (Vreeland 52).
LOOKING AT Adelaide Labille-Guiard What made Adelaide Labille-Guiard a great female artist historically, had much to do with a particular painting of detail and expression. “In 1783, she was elected to the Académie
In like manner, the painting such as the Mono Lisa is probably one of the most recognized and famous paintings in the world, and like the Lady with an Ermine, it comes from the same source. According to the film, the Mona Lisa was placed inside an ambulance, tactfully sealed, so that it could be preserved; this was thanks to the thanks to the refugees that were escaping the tyrannous Hitler and his Nazis. Furthermore, this picture has become so popular that one could see this in most history or humanities textbooks. There is such a strong connection with the Renaissance and this painting that the savage destruction of this painting would be like destroying a part of a positive nostalgic memory to humankind. From the background that this film gives its viewers and the negative obstacles that this portrait had to withstand by from the Nazis, it is a gift of a miraculous
Artists never produce art without relating it to their own culture. Sandro Botticelli is an Italian Renaissance fifteenth century painter, so in his painting the Primavera, he incorporates various ideologies from the fifteenth century Italian renaissance. Lilian Zirpolo, author of Botticelli’s Primavera: A Lesson for the Bride, describes the connections between the painting and these ideologies using a feminist approach. She acknowledges Neoplatonism and the Medici Circle, and uses it to describe the roles a woman was expected to play in both society and marriage. It has been theorized that the painting is supposed to represent the marriage between Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici and Semiramide d’Appiani, but Zirpolo’s essay focuses specifically on the brides moral lessons.
The “Mona Lisa” is the best known and most visited piece of art. It is a portrait painting done by Leonardo de Vinci. The portrait is an oil painting on a white Lombardy poplar panel. The woman in the portrait is sat upright in an armchair, with her arms folded. This painting was one of the first portraits that depicted the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape.