Konsthelg: fredag

Ett av konsthistoriens verkligt fängslande livsöden är Artemisia Gentileschis. Hon föddes i Rom 1593 och räknas idag som en av de främsta målarna i Caravaggioskolan. I en tid då konstnärsyrket nästintill uteslutande var manligt blev hon den första kvinnan att bli invald i den exklusiva Accademia di Arte del Disegno i Florens. Idag öppnade en utställning på Palazzo Pitti med hennes "David och Bathsheba" som nyligen restaurerats efter århundraden av förfall i palatsets källare.

Ovan: Självporträtt
Nedan: David och Bathsheba


Tro nu inte att livet som kvinlig målare var lätt, även om hon fick uppleva viss berömmelse. Såhär skriver Wikipedia:

"In 1612, despite her early talent, Artemisia was denied access to the all-male professional academies for art. At the time, her father was working with Agostino Tassi to decorate the vaults of Casino della Rose inside the Pallavicini Rospigliosi Palace in Rome, so Orazio hired the Tuscan painter to tutor his daughter privately. During this tutelage, Tassi raped Artemisia. Another man, Cosimo Quorlis had helped Tassi with the rape. After the initial rape, Artemisia continued to have sexual relations with Tassi, with the expectation that they were going to be married. However, Tassi reneged on his promise to marry Artemisia after he heard the rumor that she was having an affair with another man. Quorlis had threatened that if he could not have her, he would publicly humiliate her. Orazio pressed charges against Tassi only after he learned that Artemisia and Tassi were not going to be married. Orazio also claimed that Tassi stole a painting of Judith from the Gentileschi household. The major issue of this trial was the fact that Tassi had deflowered Artemisia. If Artemisia had not been a virgin before Tassi raped her, the Gentileschi’s would not be able to press charges.

In the ensuing 7-month trial, it was discovered that Tassi had planned to murder his wife, had enjoined in adultery with his sister-in-law and planned to steal some of Orazio’s paintings. During the trial Artemisia was given a gynecological examination and was tortured using a device made of thongs wrapped around the fingers and tightened by degrees — a particularly cruel torture to a painter. Both procedures were used to corroborate the truth of her allegation, the torture device used due to the belief that if a person can tell the same story under torture as without it, the story must be true. At the end of the trial Tassi was imprisoned for one year. The trial has subsequently influenced the feminist view of Artemisia Gentileschi during the late 20th century."

Med den historien som bakgrund blir jämförelsen av bilderna nedan särskilt intressant.


Ovan syns Gentileschis skildring (ca 1620) av berättelsen om Judit och Holofernes som finns att skåda på Uffizierna. Nedan Caravaggios tolkning av samma motiv (ca 1598). Förutom kompositionen och ljubehandlingen, så är det framför allt det känslomässiga uttycket som jag tycker gör den övre målningen så mycket mer intressant. Det är också ett exempel på hur man kan studera konsthistorien utifrån olika perspektiv - vilket är helgens tema här på bloggen! Fortsättning följer...