The Artemisia Files

by Bal, Mieke

• ISBN13: 9780226035826
• ISBN10: 0226035824
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

One of the first female artists to achieve recognition in her own time, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) became instantly popular in the 1970s when feminist art historians "discovered" her and argued vehemently for a place for her in the canon of Italian baroque painters. Featured alongside her father, Orazio Gentileschi, in a recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artemisia has continued to stir interest though her position in the canon remains precarious, in part because her sensationalized life history has overshadowed her art.In The Artemisia Files, Mieke Bal and her coauthors look squarely at this early icon of feminist art history and the question of her status as an artist. Considering the events that shaped her life and reputationher relationship to her father and her role as the victim in a highly publicized rape case during which she was tortured into giving evidencethe authors make the case that Artemisia's importance is due to more than her role as a poster child in the feminist attack on traditional art history; here, Artemisia emerges more fully as a highly original artist whose work is greater than the sum of the events that have traditionally defined her.The fresh, engaging discourse in The Artemisia Files will help to both renew the reputation of this artist on the merit of her work and establish her rightful place in the history of art.

Author Biography

Mieke Bal is professor at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and cofounder of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam. Her previous books include Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History, and Louise Bourgeois’ "Spider:" The Architecture of Art-Writing, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Introduction	ix
Mieke Bal
Artemisia's Hand	1	(32)
Mary D. Garrard
Judging Artemisia: A Baroque Woman in Modern Art History	33	(30)
Nanette Salomon
"Gran Macchina è Bellezza": Looking at the Gentileschi Judiths	63	(44)
Elena Ciletti
Death, Dispassion, and the Female Hero: Artemisia Gentileschi's Jael and Sisera	107	(22)
Babette Bohn
Grounds of Comparison	129	(40)
Mieke Bal
Feminist Dilemmas with the Art/Life Problem	169	(38)
Griselda Pollock
Notes	207	(6)
References	213	(10)
Contributors	223	(2)
Index of Names and Titles	225	(8)
Index of Terms and Concepts	233