From another angle, Ward Bissell has
posed some of the abiding, thorny
questions at the heart of the matter,
“What were Artemisia Gentileschi’s
intellectual, creative, and technical
capacities in 1610? To what degree
was her art in fact bound up with her
life, and in particular her experiences
as a female? Did she, consciously or
not, place a feminist stamp upon the
Susanna? How did she respond to the
tastes of an almost exclusively male
Roman patronage?” 5
Regarding the Judith theme, Bissell
made a list of the most frequent
subjects other than portraits among
the 57 known works in his Artemisia
catalogue, Judith topping the list at
seven, followed only by Bathsheba
(seven) and Mary Magdalene (six).
Although it is the bloody, violent
Judith that has made it into art history
survey texts, only two are of the
gory beheading. Scholars affirm the attribution to her of the Uffizi version. It’s date
around 1620 places it in her years in Florence and evidence suggests it was likely a
commission for Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. There is also another
very similar, cut down version in Naples that is now dated 1612-1613, a time when
Artemisia was still in Rome with her father. In her monograph, Mary Garrard notes
that x-radiographs in the Naples version reveal numerous pentimenti, changes the
artist made to the positioning of the limbs, which could imply that Artemisia was
still finding her way. Superimposing the Genoa onto the Ufizzi canvas reveals very
close correspondence between the two, suggesting that the latter could have been
developed from a tracing of the former.
In 2001-2002 an exhibition for the first time brought together 85 works by or
attributed to both Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, showing first in Rome, followed
by New York, and St. Louis. 6 Bringing many works by the artists together gave
scholars a chance to revisit some of their prior conclusions, even those who had
seen all available works independently. Consequently, at the last venue a symposium
was held, entitled Artemisia Gentileschi: Taking Stock (which I attended), where a
number of experts presented papers that from various perspectives took account of
the latest state of Gentileschi. 7
A forthcoming article about Artemisia will allow exploration of further questions.
Did Artemisia and her father paint from live models? Did she pose for her father?
Artemisia painted both self-portraits and figures with very similar faces. What did
she really look like? Stay tuned.
46
ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
Orazio or Artemisia Gentileschi
Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of
Holofernes
ca. 1621-1624
oil on canvas
53 ¼ x 62”
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,
Hartford, CT
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin
Collection Fund
(1949.52)
1 https://www.themichaelpalin.com/news/michael-palins-quest-
artemisia-monday-december-28th-9-00pm-bbc4/
2 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/29/artemesia-
gentileschi-tv-review
3 Mary D Garrard. Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the
Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art. Princeton University Press;
1989.
4 Elizabeth S. Cohen. “The Trials of Artemisia Gentileschi: A
Rape as History” in The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1,
Special Edition: Gender in EarlyModern Europe (Spring, 2000),
pp. 47-75
5 R. W