It’ s important to understand that, in the present context, the charge of rape was not quite the same as we think of it today. Under Roman law the crime here was not sexual assault, per se, but forced deflowering: loss of virginity. The woman had to have been a virgin at the time of the assault. The outcome of this trial had definite ramifications, not only for Artemisia’ s own honor but that of her family, which included finding her a husband. That goal helps explain why Artemisia’ s initial rage at the assault( she threw a knife at him) was soon mollified when he promised to marry her. A consistent thread throughout her testimony was insistence on her sexual purity and familial honor.
Caravaggio( 1571-1610)
How much did this episode define the rest of her life and her paintings? Did the rape / deflowering ultimately make her into the artist she would become? Or was it something she was happy to leave behind her?
The incident occurred on the cusp of becoming an“ Old Master”( rightfully) in her own right. The day after Tassi was sentenced to banishment from Rome, Artemisia married Pierantonio Stiattesi on November 29, 1612. By September 1613 the baptism of their first child places them in Florence, where her independent career was fully launched.
Here the thick questions over the attribution of Artemisia’ s paintings begin.
Her earliest dated painting is the Susanna and the Elders, inscribed on the wall at the left of the subject’ s legs“ ARTIMITIA / GENTILESCHI F./ 1610.” This looks straightforward enough, but scholars generally agree that Orazio must have had some hand in the work. The question is how much.
The story comes from an apocryphal portion of the Book of Daniel. Two elders of Israel, esteemed judges, discover they each lusted after the beautiful and virtuous wife of a wealthy man. They plot to catch her alone and one day they see her in the garden bathing to cool off on a very hot day. The elders approach, saying they are in love with her and want her to lie with them. If not, they will report they saw her alone with a young man. She sighs deeply, saying,“ I am hemmed in on every side,” because it will mean death to her whatever she decides, but rather than sin against God she refuses.
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Seizing this precise moment, the artist brilliantly reduces the story’ s setting to simplest possible elements, eliminating any distraction from the powerful psychological drama and the heroine’ s moral and spiritual dilemma, making this depiction stand out from, even above, the many versions of the story.
Caravaggio( 1571-1610) The Madonna di Loreto
1604-1605 oil on canvas
98 ½ x 59” Basilica of Sant’ Agostino, Rome