dossier-de-presse-en-anglais-de-artemisia-1593-a-1654

1593 / 1654

Pouvoir, gloire et passions d’une femme peintre

musée maillol 14 mars 15 juillet 2012 billets en ligne www.museemaillol.com

Judith décapitant Holopherne (détail) - vers 1612 - huile sur toile - 159 x 126 cm - Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte -© Per gentile concessione Fototeca Soprintendenza Speciale per il PSAE e il Polo museale della città di Napoli

ouvert tous les jours de 10h30 à 19h nocturne le vendredi jusqu’à 21h30 61, rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris Métro Rue du Bac

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CONTENT 1- Press Release

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2- Biography of Artemisia Gentileschi

by Michele Nicolaci

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3- Extracts from the catalogue

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- « Return to rome. 1623-1627 » par Francesco Solinas

- « Artemisia. Her place in the 17TH-century italian society compared with other women »

by Alexandra Lapierre, author of Artemisia (Published by Robert Laffont) - « Artemisia Gentileschi and the the heroines » par Mina Gregori - « Artemisia Gentileschi : Danaë » by Judith Mann

4- List of the objects on show

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5- Press pictures

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6 - Useful information

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CONTACTS COMMUNICATION Agence Observatoire 68 rue Pernety - 75014 Paris Céline Echinard Tél : 01 43 54 87 71 celine@observatoire.fr www.observatoire.fr

Musée Maillol Claude Unger Tél : 06 14 71 27 02 cunger@museemaillol.com Elisabeth Apprédérisse Tél : 01 42 22 57 25 eapprederisse@museemaillol.com 2

1– Press Release

THE MUSÉE MAILLOL presents the exhibition

ARTEMISIA 1593/1654

THE POWER, GLORY AND PASSIONS OF A FEMALE PAINTER march 14 - july 15, 2012

Born “Artemisia Gentileschi,” she was the daughter of one of Rome’s greatest painters of the Baroque period.

In 17th century Italy, a woman was treated by society like a juvenile throughout her life: she belonged to her father, her husband, her brothers or her sons. However, Artemisia Gentileschi broke all those rules; she belonged only to her art. In her search for glory and freedom, she worked for princes and cardinals, earning her living from her brush and tirelessly creating a body of work. Such was her talent and creative power that she became one of the most famous painters of her time and one of the world’s greatest artists.

Her personal life and her career were both profoundly influenced by the rape that she endured in her youth, and the notorious court action brought by her father against her aggressor, Agostini Tassi. The scandal has also been a factor in the lack of recognition for her undoubted genius. As with Caravaggio, it has taken more than three centuries for her work to be fully recognised once again and to be universally appreciated.

On show for the first time in France, the exhibition at the Musée Maillol now provides an opportunity to discover the paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi.

THE EXHIBITION FOLLOWS THE MAIN STAGES OF HER CAREER: - The early days in Rome with her father, a great Baroque painter.

- The Florence years, under the protection of the Grand Duke of the Medicis, when she was a friend of Galileo. During this period, she would become the first woman ever to be admitted to the art school Accademia del Disegno.

- The 1620s in Rome: where she was a leading figure among the painters influenced by Caravaggio and a friend of the great masters, such as Simon Vouet and Massimo Stanzione. Her work was recognised by Europe’s leading art collectors.

- The period spent in Naples, where she was at the height of her powers. For 25 years she ran her studios, where she trained some of the most gifted artists of the next generation: Cavallino, Spardaro, Guarino…

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“But you will see the works,” she wrote to one of her patrons: “and the works will speak for themselves” PROJECT DIRECTOR: Patrizia Nitti, Artistic Director of the Musée Maillol

COMMISSION: - Roberto Contini, Curator of 15th-17th century Spanish and Italian painting, and of 17th century French painting at the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

- Francesco Molinas, Master of Conferences at the Collège de France and Deputy Scientific Director, UPS 3285 CNRS République des Lettres - Respublica Literaria.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE - Alessandro Cecchi, Director of the Palatina Gallery, Appartamenti Reali and the Boboli Gardens, Florence - Roberto Paolo Ciardi, Honorary Professor of the History of Modern Art, University of Pisa - Mina Gregori, President of the Fondazione Longhi, Florence - Judith W. Mann, Saint Louis Museum of Fine Arts - Wolfgang Prohaska, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - Renato Ruotolo, Accademia di Belle Arti, Naples - Nicola Spinosa, Honorary Superintendent of the Polo Museale, City of Naples authority - Alain Tapié, Conservateur en Chef du Patrimoine, France - Mariella Utili, Director of the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples

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2 – Biography of Artemisia Gentileschi Extracts from the biography of Artemisia by Michele Nicolaci

I– ROME 1593-1611. CHILDHOOD AND TRAINING IN ORAZIO’S STUDIO 1593, July 8 • Artemisia Gentileschi is born in Rome, the eldest daughter of the painter Orazio Lomi, who was born in Pisa on the same day (July 8) in 1563, and Prudenzia Montoni, a member of a Roman family. In Rome, her father went by the name of Gentileschi, drawing on the full family name of Gentileschi de Lomis. This famous Florentine surname, which he shared with his cousin Aurelio, the painter of the Archbishop of Pisa, would later be adopted by Artemisia during her stay in Tuscany.

1597-1610 • From 1597 to 1600 the Gentileschi family lived near the Piazza d’Espagna, then from 1601 to 1610, in via Paolina, which is today the via del Babuino, near via Margutta. Along with their only daughter Artemisia, Orazio and Prudence also have five sons: Francesco (1597), Giulio (1599), Marco (1604) and two others, both named Giovanni Battista, who died prematurely.

1605, June 12 • Artemisia has her confirmation at the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.

1605, December 26 • Her mother, Prudence, dies in childbirth at 30. She is buried at the Santa Maria del Popolo church.

1608-1610 • Artemisia’s first paintings in her own right begin to attract attention, as testified by a letter from Orazio to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, dated July 3, 1612. It is highly likely that she was introduced to the rudiments of painting by her father at a very early age. The young woman’s first ever signature, “ARTEMITIA./ GENTILESCHI. F / 1610”, appears in the lower left hand corner of a Susanna and the Elders, which is currently held at Pommersfelden in Germany.

II– ROME 1611-1613. THE RAPE AND THE TRIAL 1611-1612 • During this time, the Orazio family frequently moved house. From February 16 onwards, they are registered as living in via Margutta, before moving on to the via della Croce, where they stay from April to July.

1611, May 6 • Artemisia, who is not yet 18, is raped by Agostino Tassi, a colleague of Orazio’s. The two men have been working together on the Consistory Room and the apartment of Cardinal Lanfranco Margotti (1558-1611) at the Quirinal Palace, an undertaking only completed in the year after the cardinal’s death. Tassi directed Gentileschi as he worked on the Casino delle Muse for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a project completed in the autumn of 1612. After the rape, Tassi promises to marry the young woman and convinces her to continue a relationship with him for another nine months.

1612, March-April • Motivated by public morality, though also by personal interest, Orazio Gentileschi decides to denounce Tassi and make public his rape of Artemisia. He petitions Pope Paul V in a document stating that Artemisia was “deflowered, and known in the flesh, many times by Agostino Tassi, painter and close friend and colleague of the plaintiff”. Orazio’s action raises the twin issues of a young woman who has been the victim of violence, but also of a scandal that is being made public (Bertolotti ,1876, p.200-204).

The rape trial of Agostino Tassi opens on March 2 and continues for another seven months, until October 29.

Along with Tassi and Gentileschi, many figures from Rome’s artistic community are called on to testify, including Carlo Saraceni and Orazio Borgianni. According to Tassi’s testimony during the trial, Artemisia is living in her father’s house with her brothers at Borgo Santo Spirito, near the hospital of the same name.

1612, July 3 • As a Tuscan and a subject of the ruling Medici family, Orazio Gentileschi wrote to the Grand Duchess Christine of Lorraine in Florence about the trial, pleading with her to intervene and to prevent Agostino Tassi from walking free. Although he was certain “that justice will be done in this trial, according to the law, and that he who has done wrong will be punished, I can assure you that you would be doing something truly deserving, which will be appreciated by God, because when you see my poor only daughter at work in her 5

profession, you will feel a profound sense of pain that such a great crime has been committed.” In his letter, Orazio also proposes to send the Grand Duchess one of his daughter’s paintings to demonstrate her abilities. At this stage, according to her father, Artemisia has already been painting for three years.

1612, November 27 • The verdict is announced: Agostino Tassi is sentenced to five years’ exile from Rome ‘sub pena triremium,’ as a galley slave. Subsequently, the punishment is judged to have been unfair and Tassi never serves his sentence.

1612, November 29 • Artemisia marries Pierantonio Stiattesi, the brother of Giovan Battista and a friend of Orazio (Lapierre, 1998, p. 444). Pierantonio, born in 1584 in Florence, a minor artist and the son of a cobbler.

III– FLORENCE 1613-1620. AT THE COURT OF THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY

1613, September 21 • Artemisia and Pierantonio move to Florence in early 1613, although there is no documented evidence of them being in the city before September 21, date of the baptism of their first son, Giovanni Battista, in Florence’s church of Santa Maria Novella in the presence of his godfather, Lorenzo di Vincenzo Cavalcanti.

1614, November to January, 1615 • Artemisia buys a series of items on credit to furnish her studio in Florence.

The carpenter of Florence’s Accademia del Disegno later files a complaint for non-payment of the items in a case that continues through to 1618.

1615, March 16 • Andrea Cioli, secretary of state for the Grand Duke Cosimo II of the Medicis, writes to Piero Guicciardini, Florence’s ambassador to Rome, asking him for information about Orazio Gentileschi. He mentions that Orazio’s daughter Artemisia has already won herself a reputation in Florence. In his reply, the ambassador is highly critical of Orazio’s drawing abilities.

1615, July 10 • ‘Artemisia of Oratio Lomi’ is recorded as being present, as godmother, at the baptism of the daughter of Annibale di Niccolò Carotti and Ottavia di Marcantonio Coralli. The baby is baptised with Artemisia as her first name at the church of San Pier Maggiore. Her godfather is the painter Cristofano Allori.

1615, November 9 • Artemisia’s second son is baptised in the church of Sant’ Ambrogio. He takes the first name of his godfather, the painter Cristofano Allori. Artemisia’s petition to Michelangelo Buonarroti is granted on November 13 when he pays her three florins, even as she is still in bed after giving birth.

1616 • From August 3 to 20, Artemisia receives a further four payments for a total of 16 florins, two of which are for an Allegory of Inclination commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. The family moves again, most probably during the early months of 1616, to a house in Piazza Frescobaldi, near the Carraia Bridge, which has been rented for them by Matteo Frescobaldi, a banker, landowner and merchant.

1616, July 19 • Artemisia becomes a member of Florence’s Accademia del Disegno, as testified by two documents that also make reference to Orazio. It’s probably over the following years that, thanks to Buonarroti and Matteo Frescobaldi, the painter becomes a friend of Galileo Galilei, a member of Accademia del Disegno from 1613 and with whom she would later remain in correspondence.

1617, August 2 • Prudenzia, the third child of Artemisia and Pierantonio, is baptised in the parish of San Salvatore, Florence. The godfather is the nobleman Silvio Piccolomini of Aragon. According to the documents, the baby also had the name Palmira.

1617-1619 • At some point during this period in Florence, Artemisia meets her future lover, the Italian noble Francesco Maria Maringhi (Florence 1593, Naples after 1653), a representative and business associate of Matteo Frescobaldi, owner of the painter’s house. Maringhi was a friend of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger and member of a tightly-knit circle of brilliant intellectuals and artists who had been brought together by the Grand Duke Cosimo II of the Medicis, as indicated in correspondence with Buonarroti. A number of undated letters figure in the correspondence between the painter and Maringhi, although they all pre-date February 1620, when Artemisia and her husband fled to Prato.

1618, March 3 (AF 1617) • “Artemisia pitturessa” is paid by the Grand Duke of Tuscany for a number of works, both completed and planned.

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1618, October 13 • The birth of Lisabella, Artemisia and Pierantonio’s younger daughter. The baptism is held the following day at the church of Santa Lucia in Prato. The godmother, whose first name is given to the baby, is the wife of a literary figure, Jacopo Cicognini, while the godfather is Jacopo di Bernardo Soldani, a friend of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.

1618, June 5 • Artemisia presents the Accademia del Disegno with a petition she has addressed to the Grand Duke Cosimo II of the Medici and which is counter-signed by Curzio: the painter pleads with the Grand Duke to block an injunction which has been brought by the Accademia for the payment of debts contracted by her husband Pierantonio with a shopkeeper, Michele.

Artemisia states that she has nothing to do with it “because a wife cannot contract debts while the husband remains with that wife”. She adds that Pierantonio has already spent her dowry.

1619, June 9 • Death of Artemisia’s baby daughter Lisabella.

1620 • The date 1620 appears on the painting Jael and Sisera, which is currently held by the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest.

1620, January 13 (AF 1619) • Grand Duke Cosimo II of the Medici gives orders for Artemisia to be given an ounce and a half of ultramarine with which to finish a painting he has commissioned. Three days later, January 16, another document states that the painting is of Hercules. Artemisia completes this large canvas on her return to Rome, in the late spring of 1620. Stiattesi delivers it in late autumn that year to the Grand Duke’s agent, Francesco Maria Maringhi, Artemisia’s lover.

1620, February 10 (AF 1619) • Artemisia writes to Cosimo II, announcing her intention to spend a few months in Rome “among friends” because of “my numerous previous inconveniences, to which have been added some major difficulties within my home and my family”.

1620, February 12 (AF 1619) • Artemisia and Pierantonio suddenly flee Florence for Rome, perhaps because of the substantial debts the couple have accumulated and also an unfounded accusation of theft. Their children remain behind, in the care of Francesco Maria Maringhi.

1620, February 13 (AF 1619) • From Prato, Artemisia asks Maringhi to send her the children urgently and also the paintings left behind in Florence. She makes a reference to the unfortunate circumstances in which she fled and expresses her desire not to return to the city.

IV– ROME 1620-1626 1620, March 2 • Artemisia and Pierantonio arrive in Rome and set up home behind the Chiesa Nuova (Lettere di Artemisia 2011, 11). After a few weeks, the couple move to new accommodation nearby which belongs to a Florentine noble, Luigi Vettori, the Grand Duke’s future ambassador to Vienna, and a friend of Matteo Frescobaldi. In his correspondence with Frescobaldi, Vettori complains about Artemisia’s behaviour. Then, after an eight-year absence, the spectre of Agostino Tassi returns to their lives: Pierantonio fears that he may be free, rather than being in the galleys.

1620, April 11 • In a heartbreaking love letter, Artemisia tells Francesco Maria Maringhi that her son Cristofano has died (cf. Lettere di Artemisia 2011, 20). Pierantonio meanwhile asks him to send the necessary “things” to furnish their new home with some degree of decorum. He also demands more ultramarine so that Artemisia can finish the Hercules painting.

1620, July 9 • Artemisia promises that the Grand Duke’s painting will be finished within a month and announces a new commission, from the Duke of Bavaria.

She meanwhile awaits the arrival of her lover, Maringhi, in Rome, and invites him to her new house – which she describes as being “worthy of a gentleman” –at the Palazzo al Vantaggio, near the Piazza del Popolo.

1621, February 10 (AF 1620) • Francesco Maria Maringhi acquires the furniture and painting tools left behind in Artemisia’s house in Florence for a total of 165 ducats. The inventory includes a number of paintings, some of which are unfinished.

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1621, Lent • According to the Status Animarum (parish census) of Santa Maria del Popolo, Artemisia is living with her husband Pierantonio, her three-year-old daughter Palmira and her servants, Domenicho Boschi of Florence and Fulvia from Viterbo. By this stage the couple’s other children, who were not recorded in the census, were dead.

1621, November • Artemisia rents a small apartment in via della Croce, near the house where Tassi had raped her 10 years earlier.

1622 • The back of the Portrait of a Gonfaloniere, currently in Bologna, is signed “ARTEMISIA; GENTILESCA. FA-/CIEBAT ROMAE 1622”.

1622, Lent • Artemisia is living in via del Corso. Her family has grown, with the arrival of Giulio and Francesco Gentileschi, the painter’s young brothers, and their servants, Dianora and Giambattista.

1622, June • Pierantonio Stiattesi is accused of causing facial injuries to a Spaniard – who was probably serenading Artemisia – in an incident beneath the windows of the family home.

1623, Lent • From this point onwards, Pierantonio no longer lives with Artemisia and all further trace of the husband is lost. Giulio and Francesco Gentileschi, daughter Palmira and the servants Dianora and Giambattista are living with “Mrs Artemisia Lomi, Roman painter”.

1623, spring • On his return to Rome after a journey to northern Italy, the artist Simon Vouet (1590-1649) paints a portrait of Artemisia with a brush and palette in her hand, along with a gold medallion depicting a mausoleum.

1624, Lent • Palmira, now aged six, and two servants, Pietro Paolo from Siena and Leonora of Florence are living in the house in via del Corso with “Signora Artemisia, Florentine painter”.

1625, June 20 • Artemisia rents another apartment in via Rassella, in the Suburra district.

1625, December • A drawing of Artemisia’s right hand by the French artist Pierre Dumonstier, bears an inscription in French “Drawn in Rome by Pierre Du Monstier of Paris, in December 1625/ the worthy hand of the excellent and learned Artemisia, gentlewoman of Rome”. On the back of the drawing, the inscription reads “The hands of Aurora are praised for their rare beauty, but these have more wisdom. S”.

1626, Lent • The census carried out during Lent in 1626 is the last to record Artemisia’s presence in the house in via del Corso, along with her daughter and her servant, Domenica.

V– VENICE, APPROXIMATELY 1627 – 1630 1627-1628 • Several contemporary accounts testify to the presence of Artemisia Gentileschi in Venice during this period. In 1627, Andrea Muschio, a typographer at the Accademia Veneta in 1593, publishes a few verses in praise of the painter. Her contacts with the Italian literary figure Gianfrancesco Loredan (1606-1661) are confirmed by two letters he sends to the painter between 1627 and 1628.

An engraving by the Parisian artist Jérôme David, who had been working in Rome since 1623, has meanwhile been dated to 1627. The engraving is based on a portrait by Artemisia of Antoine de la Ville, a military engineer in the service of the Duke of Savoy.

1627-1630 • The ambassador to Rome of Philip IV of Spain, Iñigo Vélez de Guevara y Tassis, Conde de Oñate, acquires at least one Hercules and Omphale by Artemisia during his posting (1626-1628). The artist, who is living in Venice, is paid 1,467 giulii and 4 baiocchi. This large canvas, of which there is no trace today, is exhibited at the Salón Nuevo dell’Alcázar in Madrid in 1636.

1629, January 19 • Artemisia is still in Venice, and identified as the wife of Pierantonio Stiattesi.

1629-1630 • The Duke of Alcalá, Don Fernando Enríquez Afán de Ribera, already an admirer and collector of Artemisia’s paintings in Rome (around 1625-1626), acquires three new paintings when he is viceroy of Naples (July 1629-May 1631). Today, the three works are either lost or non-identified: one of Saint John the Baptist and two “Portraits of (by) Artemisia”, which are probably of the duke and his wife, but could alternatively be two selfportraits. The works are listed in an inventory of the “Casa de Pilatos” in Madrid.

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VI– NAPLES, APPROXIMATELY 1630–1638, AT THE COURT OF THE VICEROY 1630 • This date appears on the canvas Annunciation, currently held by the Capodimonte museum in Naples. It is certainly Artmesia’s first public commission in the city, though the work’s final destination is not known.

1630, August 24 • The first document proving Artemisia’s stay in Naples is a letter written to the painter Cassiano dal Pozzo on this date. Artemisia, who had recently arrived in Naples in the service of the viceroy, the Duke of Alcalá, makes a reference to “a few paintings undertaken for the Empress”, which will delay the works commissioned by the viceroy. Her familiarity towards Dal Pozzo clearly demonstrates a longstanding friendship (infra 1630, August 31, December 21; 1635, January 21; 1637, October 24, November 24). Artemisia asks him to send “six pairs of gloves, the most beautiful you can find… to offer to certain ladies”.

1630, August 31 • In her second letter to Dal Pozzo, Artemisia promises to send him a self-portrait which he had asked for before she left Rome. The portrait will be done “as soon as a number of paintings for the Empress are finished.” In the same letter, she announces a probable journey to Rome “alla rinfrescata,”, or when the hot summer weather comes to an end.

1630, October 2 • A receipt from the Banco dei Poveri in Naples records a payment to Artemisia for “a tableau of Saint Elizabeth, painted by the aforementioned, for a chapel ordered in the will of Oratio di Paula, to be built in the land of Pisticcio”.

1631, August 21 • In Naples, Giovanni d’Afflitto gives Artemisia 12 ducats as the final payment of an agreed fee of 20 ducats for a painting of Saint Sebastian. In 1700, the painting is listed in a collection inherited by Prince Ferrant d’Afflitto.

1631, Autumn • Artemisia is visited by the German artist and writer Joachim von Sandrart. He remembers seeing a painting in her studio of David with the Head of Goliath, which has yet to be traced today.

1632 • The date is mentioned on the work Clio, Muse of History. The dedication written on the open book within the painting – “Artemisia / [F]aciebat / All […] illustrmo sg[nore] tr[…]osier” -- can be interpreted in several different ways. The commissioner of the work cannot be identified with any certainty and could be Charles I of Lorraine, the 4th Duke of Guise, or a member of his entourage. Artemisia is probably referring to this particular painting in a letter to Galileo Galilei, dated October 9, 1635.

1634 • The Public Record Office in London contains a bill for the frames of a number of paintings attributed to Orazio Gentileschi and a Tarquin and Lucretia bearing Artemisia’s name in an inventory of the Royal Collections, 1637-1639.

1634, March 15 and 18 • Artemisia is visited by an English traveller, Bullen Reymes, a representative of the Duke of Buckingham. He arrives with letters of recommendation signed by Orazio Gentileschi. Prudenzia (Palmira) is presented to the visitor as a painter, and is apparently very gifted at playing the spinet.

1635, January 21 • Artemisia writes to Cassiano dal Pozzo, informing him of the imminent arrival in Rome of her brother Francesco, who will be bringing a painting to be presented to Cardinal Antonio Barberini.

1635, January 25 • Artemisia writes to Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena, announcing the arrival of her brother. After his trip to Rome, he will visit Modena to offer several paintings as gifts to the duke. King Charles I of England meanwhile instructs Francesco Gentileschi to bring Artemisia to England, though the painter would prefer to serve the court of Modena.

1635, March 7 • The Duke of Modena writes back to Artemisia, thanking her for the gifts.

1635, May 22 • Artemisia writes to the Duke of Modena, announcing her intention to extend her planned visit to Florence, so as to also take in Modena.

1635, July 20 • Artemisia’s campaign of self-promotion lasts several years and is carried out on several fronts, with a major focus being Florence. On May 22, she writes to Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici, then aged 18, informing him that her brother Francesco will shortly be arriving in the city, bearing two canvases that she has painted with the consent of the new viceroy of Naples, Manuel de Acevedo y Zúñiga, the Count of Monterrey 9

(1631-1637). In the same letter, she tells the Grand Duke about the instructions received from her father Orazio, ordering her to join him in England at the court of Charles I. Artemisia indicates to Ferdinand II that without any new commissions she will have no choice but to leave for London, escorted by her brother Francesco and carrying a travel document from the Duchess of Savoy enabling her to pass through France.

1635, October 9 • Artemisia writes to Galileo, who is already in exile at Arcetri, asking him to intervene on her behalf with Grand Duke Ferdinand II about the two paintings she has sent him. Artemisia had not received any response from the Grand Duke about the paintings, let alone a donation or payment. Artemisia makes friendly reference to the help that the scientist has given her in the past over her portrait of Judith, painted for Cosimo II. She makes the comparison between the Grand Duke’s silence and the generosity of other sovereigns towards her. She also mentions the honours and rewards she has received from Europe’s most powerful leaders and in particular the “Duke of Guise [who] as reward for one of my paintings, which my brother had presented to him, gave him 200 piastres, which I received for not having done something else.” This work has been identified as the Clio, now housed in Pisa. In her conclusion to the letter, Artemisia asks Galileo to send his reply via the Florentine gentleman Francesco Maria Maringhi, who is probably now in Naples.

1635, November 20 (erroneously signed as “li 20 di 7bre 1635”) • Artemisia writes for the third time to Andrea Cioli, secretary of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, asking him once again for the Grand Duke’s opinion (and probably a reward) on the matter of the two paintings brought to him by her brother Francesco.

1635, December 11 • Artemisia expresses her gratitude to Cioli for services received and says she wants to donate a painting by her of Saint Catherine and a tableau by her daughter Palmira. She also hopes to visit Florence “in March, if the Count (of Monterrey) goes away and I am free to serve my natural prince”.

1636-1637 • In 1640, a report by Bishop Martino de León y Cárdenas lists three paintings by Artemisia in Pozzuoli Cathedral (around 1636-1637): Saint Proculus and Nicea, Saint Januarius in the Amphitheatre and The Adoration of the Magi.

1636, February 11 and April 1 • Artemisia writes again to Cioli, asking for an invitation to Florence, a request she repeats six weeks later. Meanwhile, she plans a trip to Pisa to “sell some possessions” to coincide with her daughter “moving in” and also intends to visit Florence.

1636, May 5 • Payments recorded by the Banco dello Spirito Santo of Naples testify to a number of commissions for Artemisia. She receives 250 ducats from the bankers Lorenzo Cambi and Simone Verzone on behalf of Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein as the final payment of a fee of 600 ducats: Artemisia has to provide a Bathsheba, a Lucretia and a Susanna.

1636, December 19 • Artemisia receives a payment of 20 ducats from Bernardino Belprato, Count of Antwerp, whose estate lists two of her paintings following his death in 1667.

1637, October 24 • Artemisia writes to Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome about a number of large-scale paintings – “each of 11 hands by 12 – that she would like to present to cardinals Francesco and Antonio Barberini, along with an already completed tableau for Monseigneur Ascanio Filomarino and her famous self-portrait, which had still to become part of Cassiano’s collection. At the end of her letter, Artemisia expresses her wish to return to Rome shortly. She also asks for any news of Pierantonio, with whom she has had no contact for some considerable time, saying: “I would be grateful for news of the life or death of my husband.”

1637, November 24 • In a subsequent letter, Artemisia provides more detailed information about the four paintings mentioned earlier, which include a Samaritan with the Messiah, his dozen Apostles, with landscape in the foreground and background”, recently identified by Luciano Arcangeli.

1638 • A second edition of the Odes, a collection of poetry by Girolamo Fontanella, a member of the Accademia degli Oziosi, appears in Naples containing a poem dedicated to Artemisia, written between 1633-1638.

VII- LONDON, APPROXIMATELY 1638-40, AT THE COURT OF CHARLES I Through a lack of documentary evidence there is a two-year gap in our knowledge of Artemisia’s life from October 1637, the date of her last letter from Naples to Dal Pozzo, to December 16, 1639, the date of her first 10

letter from London. After marrying off her daughter and making a series of unsuccessful attempts to establish herself in Modena, Florence and Rome, Artemisia joins her father in London in the autumn of 1626. Given the period between the two letters, the journey across France to England can be dated between the spring and summer of 1638. Although there is no recorded evidence of Artemisia being in London before the date of the second letter, many art experts have recognised her hand at work in paintings on the ceiling of the Queen’s House in Greenwich, carried out before the death of Orazio.

1639, February 7 • Orazio Gentileschi dies in London “to the great sadness of His Majesty and all followers of his virtue”. On July 2, Francesco Gentileschi writes his will. Artemisia is not among the beneficiaries (only his brothers Francesco, Giulio and Marco are named), her exclusion being due to the original payment of her marriage dowry.

1639, December 16 • In the first letter from London to Francesco d’Este, Artemisia announces the impending arrival of her brother in Modena to present him with a gift “of her little travails”. The painter, despite conforming to all the formal etiquette of letter writing, declares herself “not very satisfied to be in the service of this Crown of England” even though she appears to receive “remarkable honours and graces” for her work. Once again, she is clearly seeking the favour and protection of Francesco d’Este.

1640 • This date appears on Child sleeping next to a skull, an engraving by Jean Ganière, based on a painting

by Artemisia which has since been lost. Several other engravings of this work are known to have been made.

1640, March 16 • Francesco d’Este replies to Artemisia, thanking her for the paintings and the sentiments expressed.

VIII– NAPLES, APPROXIMATELY 1640 – TO THE PERIOD AFTER JANUARY 1654. THE FINAL YEARS.

1642 • Luca Stiattesi, a priest and nephew of Pierantonio, writes to Matteo Frescobaldi from Calcinaia. He refers to the considerable expense he has incurred in helping Artemisia and her husband, and also to the relations between the couple and Maringhi. It can be deduced from the letter that Pierantonio is no longer alive.

1648, September 5 • Fabrizio Ruffo, a prior in Bagnara, pays Artemisia 30 ducats for a painting “which she is currently undertaking for him”.

1648, January 5 • The prior pays Artemisia another 160 ducats for a picture of Galatea, destined for his uncle, Don Antonio Ruffo, a senator of Messina and founder of the house of the Princes della Floresta and della Scaletta. A second mention of the work, during the period 1644-1655, gives details of the dimensions and iconography: “a picture measuring 8 hands by 10 – on the fable of Galatea, with five tritons, painted by the hand of Artemisia and sent from Naples by the Prior of Bagnara, my nephew.”

1649, January 30 • Artemisia writes to Don Antonio Ruffo, informing of the dispatch of the painting and justifying its price of 160 ducats because “where I have lived before, whether in Florence or Venice, Rome or Naples, I have always been paid 100 scudi for each figure”. Artemisia also offered to send her self-portrait to Messina, so that her patron could keep a painting of hers in his gallery “as all the other princes do”.

1649, March 13 • The Sicilian aristocrat sends the painter a bill of exchange for 100 ducats for a new largescale painting, most probably of Diana at her Bath, as their later correspondence would indicate. Ruffo also informs her that the Galatea was damaged during the journey by sea. Artemisia subsequently asks him to write to her at the address of one Tommaso Guaragna, and at the same time seeks to obtain new commissions.

1649, June 5 • Artemisia justifies the delaying in producing a new work commissioned by Antonio Ruffo “because of the unavailability of the person who will be the model”. Once again, Artemisia talks about her selfportrait, which she says she will finish and send to him as soon as she has finished the Diana. She also mentions the commission of three other paintings by his nephew, Fabrizio Ruffo, the Prior of Bagnara.

1649, June 12 • Artemisia asks Antomio Ruffo for an advance of 50 ducats to cover the substantial costs of the models. She explains that she needs more than just one young woman, given the presence of eight figures in the painting he has commissioned. On June 22, Ruffo’s accounts detail two advance payments to Artemisia – 11

the first for 100 ducats and the second for 50: he specifies that these sums have been paid to Artemisia in Naples by the bankers Giovanni Battista Tasca and Andrea Maffetti.

1649, July 24 • Artemisia writes to Ruffo, thanking him for his bill of exchange and announcing another delay with the Diana painting. She explains that “in this painting, there is three times as much to do as in the Galatea.”

Artemisia once again promises to send him her self-portrait and says it will be “included with the painting”.

1649, August 5 • Don Antonio Ruffo records the expenditure in Naples by his nephew Fabrizio for the crate needed to transport the Galatea and for the frame made by Sebastiano Gallone.

1649, August 7 • Artemisia thanks Ruffo for the latest advance payment and promises to finish the Diana at the Bath before the end of the month. She adds that the painting is composed of “eight figures, two dogs which I think are even better than the figures, and I will show Your Most Illustrious Lordship what a woman can do”.

Despite the promise, exactly one month later Artemisia has to write and explain away another delay with the painting. “Your Most Illustrious Lordship, the delay with the painting will seem strange to you, but in order to best serve you, as I am duty-bound to do, I have had to redo two of the figures after I painted the village, which extends the vanishing point of the perspective. I am sure that they will please Your Most Illustrious Lordship and will give full satisfaction. I do hope you will excuse me for this as, since there is excessive heat and numerous diseases here, I try to spare myself and am only working little by little. But I can assure you that the delay will be extremely good for the picture.”

1649, October 23 • Ruffo reacts to this latest delay with a letter dated October 12 (subsequently lost) in which he threatens to reduce the sum agreed for the Diana by one third. On the 23rd of the same month, Artemisia makes a prompt response: she is deeply upset by his letter and insists that the agreed price is already 115 ducats less than that of a painting for the Marquis Del Vasto, which featured two fewer figures (Ruffo 1916, p.

50-51; Lettere di Artemisia 2011, 59).

1649, November 13 • The senator now seems to want to reassure Artemisia and commissions a new painting.

He also secures commissions for her from an unnamed Knight of Messina: The Judgment of Paris and a Galatea. The painter expresses her disappointment at Ruffo’s explicit request for her to vary the composition of the Galatea, so as to avoid too great a similarity with the one in his collection. “There was no need to urge me to do this since, by the grace of God and the Most Glorious Virgin, a woman of merit – who can vary the subjects of her painting – could have reached this conclusion; in my paintings, there has never been any similarity of invention, even though they come from the same hand.” She is also against the idea of sending him a sketch of the painting, recalling a previous incident when an outline of hers for a tableau of “souls in purgatory” somehow ended up in the hands of another painter. As for the payment, she points proudly to her Roman origins, saying: “I would inform Your Most Illustrious Lordship that when I ask for a price, I do not adopt the habit in Naples of asking for 30 to get four ... I am a Roman, and for that reason, I always want to do things the Roman way.”

1650, August 13 • Artemisia thanks Ruffo for the bills of exchange that she has received. She says that hopes to receive fresh commissions and mentions ‘a little Madonna in a small format”.

1651, January 1 • Artemisia writes to Ruffo; the last of her letters to have survived. In it, she mentions illness and “numerous inconveniences and labours” which kept her bedridden during the Christmas festivities. She asks him for 100 ducats as an advance for a pair of paintings “of the same dimensions as the Galatea” (Andromeda and Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, both lost) and which she plans to sell him at an attractive price (90 ecus). Meanwhile, there is a reference to “the little copper (item)” – most probably the Little Madonna – mentioned above – as being “more than half-finished”.

1651, April 26 • Fabio Gentile pays her 48 ducats to settle the 150 ducats agreed for three large paintings (“Diana at the Bath, measuring 12 hands, another of Venus and Adonis, of 10 hands, true to the history, and one of nine hands with a naked figure”) – all to be delivered before July 20. The three paintings are destined for “Maestà Cesarea”, either Ferdinand II of Habsburg or his wife Marie.

1652 • This date appears on Susanna and the Elders in the collection belonging to Averardo de Medici in Florence, and which has recently been rediscovered.

1653, January 3 • In the last years of her life, it appears that Artemisia collaborated closely with the Neapolitan painter Onofrio Palumbo, as testified by two receipts found in the Naples archives.

12

1653, April 22 • Artemisia pays 10 ducats to Scipione and Giovanni Bernardino delle Castelle “pursuant to the decision of the Great Court of the Archbishop”.

1653, May 13 • Artemisia receives 4 ducats and 50 grana from Vittoria Correnti on behalf of a noble, Ettore Capecelatro, the owner of a Madonna – which could be the reason for the payment.

1654, January 31 • Nearly a year after the first receipt, a document provides further proof of the collaboration between Artemisia and Palumbo. It is the final known document for use in trying to determine the date of the painter’s death, which may have occurred later that year. According to 17th to 19th century sources, Artemisia was buried in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Naples. The precise location of the grave remains problematic, as the headstone bearing the simple inscription “HEIC ARTIMISIA” had already disappeared when restoration work was carried out in 1785.

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3- Extracts from the catalogue •RETURN TO ROME. 1623-1627

by Francesco Solinas, joint commissioner of the exhibition.

Artemisia’s return to Rome in early March, 1620, marks the start of the second stage in the development of her international reputation. After gaining considerable experience in Florence, and thanks also to the support of Francesco Maria Maringhi, her “blessed love”, Artemisia is ready to fully dedicate herself to painting. Over the course of a single year, the last of Pope Paul V’s reign in Rome, and also of Cosimo II de Medici’s in Florence, the painter establishes herself internationally with a series of masterpieces, such as Jael and Sisera, currently held by the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest and identified by Ágnes Szighetie in 1979[1].

On March 2, 1620, Pierantonio Stiattesi, Artemisia’s husband, writes to Maringhi [Artemisia’s lover] from Rome: “God be praised, we arrived in Rome on Friday evening at 11pm, safe and sound […] on the way we encountered a great deal of snow, but coped with it joyously. We decided during the journey that we would not stay at my father-in-law’s house. We put our plan into action as soon as we arrived and we are now in another house, a beautiful building near the Chiesa Nuova, which we have furnished for the time being with what little we possess.”[2] Artemisia and Pierantonio find accommodation “behind La Chiesa Nuova” and wait until they can make it a more comfortable home.

The couple are aware of the likely violent reaction from the irascible Orazio Gentileschi, and it duly arrives before long, with some degree of brutality. Stiattesi continues: “As for our belongings, we would be grateful if Your Lordship would keep them until being informed otherwise, as we have no real desire to be there at the moment, since it is not true that Agostino Tassi is in prison and we are waiting to see what becomes of him. We will let you know what happens. She (Artemisia) will complete the paintings and satisfy everyone – and she will do what pleases God.”[3] Convicted but at liberty, Tassi is in Rome and working for prestigious clients[4], and still represents a real threat to Artemisia. Nevertheless, she appears willing to return to work and, in particular, to complete the paintings which are due for the Grand Duke – and for which Maringhi was able to negotiate an extension.[5] As Stiattesi explains: “We are now waiting for the crate to arrive and, as soon as it does, the Grand Duke’s painting will be finished; however, to free Your Lordship from any concerns, you will be released from the promise you made (to Artemisia) to make liars of her enemies; we are waiting for it and as soon it arrives, we will give the order for its completion.”[6] Francesco Maria guarantees the Grand Duke that the delayed works will indeed be delivered, despite Artemisia’s “enemies” who denigrate her at the court. The crate contains a number of colours needed to finish the work, including the precious ultramarine, which only arrives two months later on May 2.[7] The decision by the Stiattesis to flee Florence carries a degree of risk, although it proves to be a providential one: as they gain a full year on the numerous painters retained by Cosimo II who descend on Rome en masse after his death, just before the election of his successor, Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi.[8] The initial period in Rome was extremely difficult for Artemisia and Pierantonio, but on March 2, the latter writes to Maringhi, saying: “Artemisia has never been as well as she is at the moment – both in her life and in her tranquility of spirit – and she enjoys an ever-growing reputation with the princes here.”[9]

On April 5, Artemisia responds passionately to a letter from her lover: “Your Lordship would be surprised if you could imagine the joy I felt when I received yours; unless Your Lordship became an angel, you couldn’t possibly be aware of it.”[10] After this affectionate 14

introduction, Artemisia goes on to provide an unsparing description of the stormy altercations with her father and her brother Giulio, which lasted for more than a week and which were marked by incidents of unusual violence. Having praised Pierantonio as a loyal and courageous defender in the face of physical assaults by members of her family, she concludes on a somewhat peremptory tone: “Enough; I’ve rediscovered my husband, I feel that I’m doing well at everything and I have already received a great deal of work, and I have a rather beautiful and well-ordered house, all I need now is you.”

Buoyed by the unwavering support of her lover and the positive responses from her husband – who was, after all, a man of quality – the courageous painter, beaten and insulted by her father and her brother, composes in her imperfect prose a powerful declaration of love: “I am so happy that you love me to an unimaginable degree, so great is the love Your Lordship has for me, keep well – so that I may see you soon, because I am waiting for you with great desire. Remember me, I who am all yours, and I will remind you of these promises, all of them. My crate has not arrived yet, and as soon as it does, I will be at your service. Be as happy as you can. Farewell, my dear life, for without you my life is nothing, and I kiss your hands which please me so much. Rome, March 5, 1619. Your Lordship’s faithful servant, Artemisa Lomi.” [11] Considered to be masterpieces of love letters,[12] Artemisia’s correspondence, both passionate and at times clumsily written, serve only to further arouse the passions of the Florentine noble, who offers to help by whatever means – to the extent of even being arrested by the Grand Duke’s police.

Between the end of March and the start of April, Francesco Maria is detained on suspicion of having helped the artist to flee and of hiding her paintings in his home. In fact, he succeeds in sending some of them to Rome at the end of February. Even though the crate with “the paintings”[13] arrives in Rome on March 6, Artemisia and Pierantonio continue to ask for the return of their “belongings” which the Medici administrators have partially distributed, as guarantees of future repayment of debts, to the couple’s creditors. For two weeks14 Maringhi doesn’t reply to their letters, even when, on April 11 in two separate letters, Artemisia and Pierantonio tell him of the death of their five-year-old son Cristofano. The painter then falls into a deep depression. Not even news of an ambush in which Agostino Tassi is wounded by two shots from an arquebus can calm Artemisia, who is torn apart by grief and harassed by her father, who finally cuts off all contact with his daughter15. After just a few weeks the couple move house with little Prudenzia, now their only living child. Paid for by Maringhi, they set up home in via Sora in the Rome house of Luigi Vettori, a rich Florentine nobleman, who is a friend of the knight Matteo Frescobaldi, and from whom Artemisia had already rented premises in Florence16.

As soon as he is freed by the Grand Duke’s police, Francesco Maria finally sends another crate containing the “Duke’s aquamarine” that the painter had been waiting for impatiently in order to finish her work for the dying sovereign.

Artemisia paints day and night, trying to overcome the pain at the death of her son, and to win the fight with her father. Financially, meanwhile, she is entering a “golden age”. Stiattesi manages and protects his wife as best he can and informs Maringhi of his beloved’s progress – the husband was well aware of the love between his wife and the Florentine nobleman. From May 30, while Artemisia is writing passionate letters in secret to her lover, Pierantonio is rather scornfully informing the Florentine about the success his wife is having with her paintings: “May Your Lordship excuse Artemisia if she doesn’t write to you, for she has so much to do and so much work, all the cardinals and princes are beating a path to our door. The house is always so full that she doesn’t have time to pick up a pen, but please excuse her, Your Lordship, for there’s nothing else she can do.”17

The commissions were coming thick and fast, with Artemisia finishing paintings she had already started and beginning new ones. It’s not known how many paintings arrived in Rome on March 6, nor how many were in a second dispatch, but the artist, who is now fully independent, is much in 15

demand. Cardinals and princes commission new pictures from her of biblical and mythical heroines, while young women from Rome’s aristocracy ask her to paint their portraits. In these times, families of the papal aristocracy were more likely to let their daughters pose for a woman painter. A few decades earlier, at the height of the Catholic Counter Reformation, the same gender bias made the fortune of another woman artist, Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), a superb portait painter from Bologna at the time of Cardinal Ballarmino. In the spring of 1620 Artemisia painted a portait of the Princess of Savelli. It may have been Caterina (about 1590-1639), daughter of the nobleman Paolo Savelli, from the junior branch of the prestigious Roman family, who married Paolo Savelli, the first Prince of Albano (1607), son of Bernadino, Duke of Castelgandolfo, and of Laura di Anguillara. Chronologically and stylistically, this painting seems to correspond to a magnificent canvas attributed to Artemisia, which shows a seated young woman dressed in a very rich – though slightly old-fashioned – gown of black velvet embroidered with gold, with bodice and sleeves in gold fabric and a diamond necklace and earrings of diamonds and pearls18 (cat. XX). Hermann Voss19 was the first to point out this connection and attribute the painting to Artemisia, followed cautiously by Federico Zeri and Nicola Spinosa20. The attribution found favour with Ward Bissell21, who authenticated the portrait in his book about Artemisia of 1999. Bissel dates the picture to 1630, based on a letter from the painter to the knight Cassiano dal Pozzo, dated December 21 of that same year22. However, if you look at the stylistic and technical similarities between this painting, the Gonfaloniere from 1622 (cat. XX) and the Antoine de Ville of 1625-26 – which uses the same very meticulous detail in the lace – the portrait could well be of the princess at the time, Caterina Savelli, painted by Artemisia in March-April of 1620 in the style of portraits by Lavinia Fontana. The identification of Princess Savelli offers new perspectives for studies of portraits by Artemisia, who produced many portraits of aristocratic clients when she returned to Rome, and also later in Venice and Naples.

• ARTEMISIA: HER PLACE IN 17TH-CENTURY ITALIAN SOCIETY COMPARED WITH OTHER WOMEN

by Alexandra Lapierre, author of Artemisia (Published by Robert Laffont)

What was in the mind of the illustrious painter Orazio Gentileschi when he passed on the secrets of his art to his daughter? What madness?

Of course, artists use their children as apprentices, like craftsmen who work with their hands, as a way of passing on their trade.

Of course, the unfortunate ones without sons have to use what God has given them, their daughters, to support and to serve them, it’s true. They keep house, cook, spin and sew. They might even grind their colours for them and heat up the oils, before being placed in a convent or given in marriage to one of the master’s apprentices, who will then inherit the know-how and take over the studio.

Virgin, wife, nun or prostitute: outside these four roles there’s no salvation. A woman can have no other place in society. To think that you can turn a woman into an artist is a delusion, and with good reason.

To have a career without the authority of a man in charge of her would be totally forbidden. Treated like a juvenile all her life, a woman painter can’t sign a contract without the guarantee of a male guardian. She can’t buy her colours or accept a payment. She can’t have her own passport. It would be impossible for her to make a living on her own, impossible to travel on her own. And not just in Rome but anywhere in Europe, even in Florence. For a woman artist, musician, singer or painter to be in the pay of the Grand Duke, she must be united with a man who has the same profession as her.

Marriage with a colleague is the only way. A woman can only have a career in association with her husband.

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Marriage.

That is precisely what Agostino Tassi promised Artemisia, daughter of his associate the famous Orazio Gentileschi, after raping and deflowering her: he would repair her honour by marrying her and having her work with him. Unfortunately he was lying; he couldn’t wed her because he was already married.

In that year 1610, Orazio Gentileschi calls for vengeance. He calls the deflowering of his daughter “my murder”. It’s not just a figure of speech. The dishonouring of his daughter means that when the father dies the family line dies out. He calls for justice. But Orazio Gentileschi only has himself to blame! His daughter is 17. He won’t give her in marriage or put her in a convent: he is keeping her for himself.

Artemisia is the only female “lad” – the only girl apprentice – in the whole of the artists’ quarter. Her strange status in this world of men, the rumours of her beauty and talent, arouse the painters’ curiosity. They dream about her and they want her. They are tough and ambitious and will stop at nothing to supplant a rival. They consort only with prostitutes.

At a time when it was against the law for painters to undress their models, when they were meant to take their inspiration from boys to convey the subtleties of the female body, courtesans are to be found throughout the studios, charging high prices for the time they pose. Their phenomenal rates are in line with the risks they take! Happy the painter who so pleases the courtesans that he can reproduce their bodies for free. But happier still is Orazio Gentileschi who has his own daughter at his disposal to represent a naked Susanna. He can look at her for as long as he likes without it costing him anything.

Since her infancy he has been training this daughter, who is infinitely more gifted than his sons, so that she can relieve him of the most urgent tasks. Artemisia prepares his canvases, she fills in the backgrounds and finishes his pictures. She is his investment for his old age, his most precious possession.

Now his possession has been irrevocably ruined, he complains in his appeal to the pope.

The action brought by Orazio Gentileschi against his associate begins. It is the beginning of a descent into Hell for Artemisia. For her it’s a total humiliation. The trial lasts nine months and has a profound effect on her life and her career.

Though the trial vindicates father and daughter, Orazio now will have to give Artemisia up to someone else. But to who? To a painter, obviously, a very mediocre artist who will agree to take her to Florence with a large enough dowry to persuade him to marry a dishonoured woman. Like Orazio, this man realises that Artemisia has gold in her fingertips. But in order to get his hands on her paintings he will have to remind the board of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence that he himself is a “painter” by profession.

Founded by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, this is the only institution that could legally take over as her guardian. But it’s not much of a risk for Artemisia’s husband. In its half century of existence, the Accademia del Disegno has never accepted a woman in its ranks. There’s a legal reason for this: its members gain a social standing that liberates them from the artisans’ guilds. They have the right to carry a sword like gentlemen and are subject only to the authority of the Grand Duke and the leaders of the academy. Such privileges give them a freedom that is by definition forbidden to the weaker sex.

Yet Artemisia’s genius gives her the freedom of the city: she is granted the unprecedented honour of belonging to this society. She is 23 years old and is the first female member of an academy in the whole history of Florence.

She owes her glory to this membership. Above all she owes it her freedom.

Now, as master of her own destiny, she can return to Rome. She can go even further afield: to Naples to work for Spain; to Genoa, to Venice, even as far as London. She once describes herself with these 17

words: “You will find I have the spirit of Caesar in the body of a woman.” Clearly, she knows herself well.

At a time when a girl belonged to her father in her youth, to her husband when she’s a woman, and to her brothers and sons as a widow, by the sheer brilliance of her talent Artemisia Gentileschi managed to free herself from the rules of society to become the major painter that she dreamt of being – the painter that she is.

“If I had been a man I very much doubt that things would have turned out like this … But I will show Your Lordship what a woman can do,” she wrote from Naples to her last patron. “Look at my works: they speak for themselves!”

• ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI AND THE HEROINES

by Mina Gregori

Can I acknowledge here and now that the reservations I’ve sometimes expressed about the work of Artemisia Gentileschi were scarcely justified. I mainly approached her from the point of view of her relationship with her father, Orazio Gentileschi, with predictable consequences. Whereas in fact Artemisia should be considered purely on her own merits, over a long, intense and passionate career that is also marked by her vigorous and spirited temperament. That’s what this exhibition aims to show. Great work has been done to bring together a large number of Artemisia’s works. It also allows us to examine some of the paintings attributed to her – such as Aurora, which for my part I have some difficulty in accepting as hers – as well as the dates given to them.

Artemisia had learnt the basics of the art of Caravaggio from her father, and in a completely personal way she brought out the violence and cruelty of well-known stories. She had also learnt to adjust them by using all the subtleties of light. Like Orazio, Artemisia had no reservations about repeating herself, both in her compositions and in the poses of her figures, happily using the same model, sometimes years later. Susanna and the Elders is a significant example of this.

Apart from a few subjects inspired directly by the art of her father – I would suggest at least the Danae in the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Cleopatra in a private collection – Artemisia followed her own independent path, revealing a character that can’t just be summed up by her experience of rape or her status as a mere disciple. With her overpowering personality she managed to open up a new field of activity for women, an achievement that goes beyond her qualities as a painter and is yet another reason to admire her. However the time hadn’t yet come for such recognition, especially as, apart from artists who revealed their talents in minor disciplines, we had to wait until the arrival of Madame Vigée-Lebrun, a century after Artemisia’s death, to find a woman capable of doing such major work and enjoying similar success.

Right from the time of her arrival in Florence in 1613, with her husband Pierantonio Stiattesi, and then later in Rome, Artemisia showed her talent as a painter in the service of prestigious patrons. It’s often been suggested that Artemisia’s choice of subjects and her interest in female figures are linked to her private life. We can examine this often-quoted view in more detail.

From the beginning of her career, painting from life, Artemisia would probably have only been able to use female models, a fact we shouldn’t ignore. In the 17th century women usually were the protagonists in the main subjects of paintings made for private ownership. That was the rule, from Guido Reni and his followers to Simon Vouet and the Florentines who dominated between 1620 and 1640. For Artemisia, the Caravaggio approach, which she grasped for herself without the help of 18

Orazio, moved her interpretation of feminine subjects away from beauty and contemplation towards action, most probably because of her impetuous nature. This also offers an artistic explanation that reduces the importance of her personal life in her choice of subjects.

Her heroines – such as Judith, Cleopatra, Bathsheba, Susanna and Jael – fill Artemisia’s canvases destined for private collectors and offer a much broader range of subjects than works devoted to piety. These heroines are portrayed as figures of reference and worthy of imitation. If it’s been proved that Artemisia’s work is responsible for popularising the use of heroines in Florence and Rome, the results of her stay in Venice have not been so well studied. In Naples in 1637 – a year before briefly working in England – she received a public commission for work for Pozzuoli cathedral. She was also asked to work with the most brilliant of her fellow artists in the decoration of the King of Spain’s Buen Retiro, and to produce these great works using the biblical themes that were so appreciated at the time in Naples, notably by looking at the treatment of light using sharper contrasts. Even so, in Esther and Assuero (New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art), which was probably painted early in her stay in Naples, it’s once again the woman who is the protagonist, depicted with intensity and drama.

Throughout these years Artemisia focuses on the theme of the woman while easily adapting to the various Neapolitan tastes, without losing the power of expression and force of personality that we know so well. In the Magdelene hanging in Seville cathedral – which Keith Christiansen believes to be a copy – and in other variations on this theme, the saint is portrayed with her head resting on her hand in the pose used in Melancholy: the attention given to her physical and psychological presence clearly goes well beyond that of the model. The subject of the Penitent Magdalene, which is typical of the severe, Spanish-influenced climate in Naples, is expressed in variations on the theme of the saint meditating with a skull, previously in the Marc A. Seidner collection in Los Angeles, and in the powerful tension of the same penitent, housed in the Museo Correale in Sorrento.

Having looked at several aspects of Artemisia’s work, it has to be emphasised that, thanks to her, female subjects, by their vibrant presence in her paintings, have had an influence on art that goes beyond Italian painting of the 17th century. Throughout her prolific career, Artemisia’s women stand out as characters in physically and psychologically real situations. Neither exaggerated nor diminished by the sad events of her youth, they should be seen as the precursors of modern naturalism.

1. Szigheti 1979.

2. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011.

3. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011.

4. See Cavazzini, 2008, for details of the commissions received in the spring of 1620 by the “rapist”, an excellent painter of landscapes and frescoes, and impressive architect.

5. Between February and March, the grand duke’s authorities refer to painting(s) both in the singular and plural: at the end of May, they settle on a single painting which Artemisia probably supplies at the end of September.

6. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011.

7. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011. Stiattesi to Maringhi.

8. With the death of Cosmio II, many of his favourite artists leave Florence for Rome, including Jacques Callot, Claude Lorrain, Filippo Napoletano, Poelemburg, Breenberg and Giovanni da San Giovanni.

9. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011.

10. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011. 11. Lettere di Artemisia, 2011. (Florentine calendar 1620).

12. Nearly a century passes before there is a comparable exchange of love letters in France, between the Knight of Aydie (1692-1761) and the beautiful slave Charlotte-Elisabeth Aïssé (around 1693-1733); see Dusolier, 1924.

13. Stiattesi writes: “we have received the paintings and we ask V.S. to give us news of this matter; as we have not been able to get them from customs yet because it is Lent.” See: Lettere di Artemisia 2011.

14 The post between Rome and Florence arrived weekly.

15 In a letter of March 27, Stiattesi tells Maringhi: “This morning, Saturday, Artemisia and I have finally cut off all contact with Orazio, her father and [Artemisia] are taking it rather well. I went in after them and he finished by saying that he never wanted to set foot in our house again. And it suits me even better that this relationship is ended.”

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16 The rental lease for the apartment in Florence, via del Moro, dates from October 8, 1619. A few years later, in 1626, the Florentine noble accompanied Princess Claudia de’ Medicis to Innsbruck for her marriage to the Archduke Leopold V of Tyrol. Vettori was thus sent to the court in Vienna as an ambassador of the Grand Duke and he was given the title of Marquis. See Lettere di Artemisia 2011 for the complaints that he sent to Frescobaldi about the state in which Artemisia left his property.

17 Lettere di Artemisia 2011 (April 27) 18 Catherine was then aged a little under 30 and was the mother of at least four children.

19 When the English collection of Sir Foster Cunliffe at Acton Hall was sold off; Sotheby’s London, February 1, 1950.

20 When it became part of the Barbara Piasecka Johnson Foundation collection in Princeton (1987).

21 Bissell 1999, p. 237-239, fig. 120. The portrait is fixed and extremely detailed, but delicately nuanced in the definition of its lines and flesh tints, precise in its rendering of the luxurious garments of Spanish influence, datable to the 1620s. The seated pose with the chair turned towards the right conform to the Roman tradition of the time, which was also shared by Lavinia Fontana, active in Bologna.

22 “When I returned to Naples I was away for many days in the service of a Duchess, painting her portrait.” See Primarosa and Niccolaci in this catalogue, along with Lettere di Artemisia, 2011.

• A RTEMISIA GENTILESCHI : D ANAË

by Judith Mann One of the most sexually charged representations of Danaë’s story, this early painting represents Artemisia’s extraordinary narrative talents. The myth comes from the Greek author Apollodorus.

King Acrisius of Argos had a daughter, Danaë, who was prophesied to bear offspring who would kill him. In an effort to thwart fate, he locked her up but the amorous Zeus penetrated Danaë’s protective fortress. Disguising himself as a shower of gold (here shown as falling coins), he gained entry to her bed and impregnated her. Danaë gave birth to Perseus who later killed his grandfather.

The painting depicts the sexually aroused Danaë who clutches coins in her fist while others pile between her legs, an entirely original depiction of the myth. The coins, which by the 1530s had become standard for representing the golden rain, indicate Zeus’s forceful entry into her body.

(On the developing iconographies for this myth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, see Kahr 1978.) Danaë’s fist, with coins apparently pushed between her clenched fingers, becomes a metaphor for uninvited sexual penetration. (The author wishes to acknowledge the late Leo Steinberg for his astute reading of visual forms that enabled the true nature of this gesture to be understood. On the Danaë as Artemisia’s intentional commentary on rape, an interpretation I find less convincing, see Zarucchi 1998-1999.) Danaë holds her legs together, in an admittedly awkward pose as the coins pile in her pudendum, alluding to amorous coupling. This is one of the few images where Danaë experiences the procreative act and does not assume the more typical roles of an anticipating temptress or the chaste innocent unaware of her fate.

Artemisia undoubtedly knew the sixteenth-century representations of Danaë’s story and expanded on the earlier prototypes (see Santore 1991). Titian’s masterful Prado Danaë (or some version of it) must have inspired the maid’s placement and pose. Morevoer. In Titian’s Capodimonte Danaë, a linen sheet partially covers the girl’s abdomen, whereas Artemisia has abandoned any cover for her pubic area. To this has been added the suggestive device of metal coins resting on bare flesh. Not the first image to exploit this tactile sensation (Tintoretto painted coins laying on Danaë’s thighs), but no other artist aimed at such obvious meaning. Another motif from Titian (Prado) must have been the contrast between the clothed, turbaned maid and the nude princess. However, in the copper painting, the larger headscarf and covered shoulders contrast even more effectively with Danaë’s stark nakedness.

Such iconographical innovation marks this as a painting by Artemisia, although some scholars have attributed it to her father, Orazio. (For a summation of the argument in favor of attributing the picture to Orazio, see Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi 2001, pp. 97-100; for the arguments in 20

support of Artemisia, see Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi 2001, pp. 302-305. These arguments are presented in a somewhat expanded form in Mann 1996.) He, however, rarely focused on narrative details. For example, the clenched fist with coins oozing out does not suggest the mind of Orazio. The overt sexuality is also less typical of Orazio. In his own depiction of the myth, he presented a demure virgin unaware of the impending sexual liaison.

The picture must be seen in relation to a larger canvas that Artemisia created around the same time, the Cleopatra in a private collection, Milan, also a contested picture but in this author’s view, definitely by Artemisia. (For evidence of its still contested attribution, see Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi 2001, pp. 97-98 as Orazio, and pp. 302-305, as Artemisia.) The picture focuses on the moment when the solitary Cleopatra prepares to end her life through the bite of an asp that she grasps in her hand. The pose is identical to the Danaë. The commanding size of the Milan Cleopatra makes the canvas a daring presentation of the female nude. A collector most certainly appreciated this aspect of the painting, and asked to have a version of the figure in a reduced form (whether for economy or for propriety cannot be known).

The subtle variations in the skin tones and the tightly composed format are characteristic of Artemisia’s Roman work, and cannot sustain a placement in the early 1620s, a dating that originally developed from an understanding (now discredited) that Artemisia must have visited Genoa with her father during that period. Most importantly, the painting was done when Artemisia labored in the workshop of her father, employing the techniques that he taught her, as is evident in the handling of pigment and glazes in the skin tones. The Caravaggesque shading in the body and the treatment of the bedclothes also derive directly from the work of her father. The somewhat looser handling of the bed linens when compared to those of the Milan Cleopatra results from the slicker surface of the copper support rather than an obviously different hand. This is the period in her career when technically her work approaches as closely as it ever does to the work of her father. Christiansen 2004, pp. 101-126, based on X-rays made at the Metropolitan Museum at the time of the 2002 Gentileschi exhibition, has argued that the manner in which Cleopatra’s body has been laid onto the canvas and then built up into a finished figure conforms to Orazio’s process. However, given that Artemisia was initially trained to paint exactly like her father, it is not surprising to see her mimicking his processes in her earliest pictures.

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4- List of the objects on show Artemisia Gentileschi Vierge à l’enfant 1609 Huile sur toile 116, 5 x 86,5 cm Rome, Galleria Spada Artemisia Gentileschi Sante Cécile 1610-1612 Huile sur toile 108 x 78,5 cm Rome, Galleria Spada

Artemisia Gentileschi Muse de la Musique Huile sur toile 70 x 62,5 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Portrait d’un gonfalonier 1622 Huile sur toile 208,4 x 128,4 cm Bologne, Collezioni Comunali d'Arte

Artemisia Gentileschi Allegorie de la Peinture Huile sur toile 98 x 74,5 cm Rome, Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini

Artemisia Gentileschi Allegorie de la Renommée c. 1630-35 Huile sur toile 57,5 x 51,5 cm Londres-Milan, Robilant+Voena

Artemisia Gentileschi Suzanne et les veillards 1652 Huile sur toile 200,3 x 225,6 cm Bologne, Pinacoteca nazionale di Bologna

Ambito di Artemisia Gentileschi Allegorie de la Réthorique c. 1650 Huile sur toile 90 x 72 cm Londres-Milan, Robilant+Voena

Artemisia Gentileschi Cleopâtre c. 1635 Huile sur toile 117 x 175,5 cm Rome, collection particulière

Artemisia Gentileschi Samson brandissant la machoire de l’âne Huile sur toile 144 x 88 cm Londres-Milan, Robilant+Voena

Massimo Stanzione La mort de Lucrèce c. 1633 Huile sur toile 173 x 180 cm Rome, collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi (attr.)

Judith et Abra avec la tête d’Holopherne c. 1607-10 Huile sur toile 130 x 99 cm Rome, collection Fabrizio Lemme Artemisia Gentileschi Portrait de religieuse 1613-18 Huile sur toile 70 x 52,5 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Muse de la Peinture c. 1635 Huile sur toile 70 x 62,5 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Cléopatre huile sur toile Naples, collection particulière

Artemisia Gentileschi Cléopâtre c. 1635 Huile sur toile 117 x 175,5 cm Rome, collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Bethsabée au bain c. 1640-45 Huile sur toile 288 x 228 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Sainte Catherine d'Alexandrie 1618-20 Huile sur toile 77 x 62 cm Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, réserves Artemisia Gentileschi Minerve c. 1635 Huile sur toile 131 x 103 cm Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi Artemisia Gentileschi La Vierge allaitant 1616-18 Huile sur toile 118 x 86 cm Florence, Galleria Palatina

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Artemisia Gentileschi Judith et la servante avec la tête d’Holopherne 1617-18 Huile sur toile 114 x 93,5 cm Florence, Galleria Palatina Artemisia Gentileschi Cinq lettres autographes de Artemisia Gentileschi à son amant et mécène Francesco Maria Maringhi 1619-1620 Florence, Archivio Storico Frescobaldi e Albizzi Artemisia Gentileschi Cléopâtre 1620-25 Huile sur toile 97 x 71,5 cm Ro Ferrarese, Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi Artemisia Gentileschi et atelier Suzanne et les vieillards c. 1650 Huile sur toile 168 x 112 cm Bassano de Grappa, Museo Biblioteca e Archivio Artemisia Gentileschi Judith et Holopherne c. 1613-15 Huile sur toile 159 x 126 cm Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte Artemisia Gentileschi Judith et la servante avec la tête d’Holopherne 1645-50 Huile sur toile 272 x 221 cm Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte Artemisia Gentileschi Samson et Dalila c. 1635 Huile sur toile 90 x 109,5 cm Naples, Collection Intesa Sanpaolo Artemisia Gentileschi Sainte Lucie c. 1636-38 Huile sur toile 63 x 53 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi La nymphe Corisca et le satyre c. 1635-40 Huile sur toile 155 x 210 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Madeleine pénitente c. 1630 Huile sur toile 100 x 73 cm Sorrento, Museo Correale di Terranova Artemisia Gentileschi Joueuse de luth 1628-29

Huile sur toile 64 x 78 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi La Justice et la Paix s’embrassant c. 1635 Huile sur bois Diam. 25,3 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Judith et la servante avec la tête d’Holopherne c. 1645-50 Huile sur toile 235 x 172 cm Cannes, Musée de la Castre Peintre napolitain, entourage de Artemisia Gentileschi Allégorie de la Peinture c. 1635-40 Huile sur toile 95,7 x 132,6 cm Ville du Mans, Musée de Tessé Artemisia Gentileschi Vierge allaitant c.1608-09 Huile sur toile 116 x 89,3 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Bethsabée au bain c. 1636-39 Huile sur toile 185,2 x 145,4 cm Londres, Matthiesen Gallery Artemisia Gentileschi Naissance de Saint Jean Baptiste 1635 Huile sur toile 184 x 258 cm Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado Artemisia Gentileschi Vierge à l’enfant et au rosaire 1651 Olio su rame applicato a tavola 59,5 x 38,5 cm Madrid, Patrimonio Nacional Artemisia Gentileschi (attr. anonimo toscano) Nature morte: volatiles, viandes rouges et récipients avec deux vivandières Huile sur toile 154 x 206 cm Valladolid, Museo Nacional Artemisia Gentileschi Portrait de la Princesse Savelli Huile sur toile Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi Bethsabée au bain c. 1645-50 Huile sur toile 225 x 226 cm Collection particulière Artemisia Gentileschi

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Yael et Sisera 1620 Huile sur toile 86 x 125 cm Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum Artemisia Gentileschi Danaë c.1612 Huile sur cuivre 41,3 x 52,7 cm Saint Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum Artemisia Gentileschi Autoportrait au luth c.1615-1619 Huile sur toile 65,5 x 50,2 cm Minneapolis, Curtis Galleries Artemisia Gentileschi Madeleine c. 1625-1630 Huile sur toile 65,7 x 50,8 cm Rita R.R. and Marc A. Seidner Collection Orazio Gentileschi Sybille 61.74 Huile sur toile 80 x 72 cm Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Orazio Gentileschi Saint Jerôme en prière 469 Huile sur toile 153 x 128 cm Turin, Palazzo Madama Entourage de Simon Vouet Etude de femme couchée 1625 Huile sur toile 90 x 135 cm Cahors, Musée Henri-Martin Simon Vouet

Portrait de gentillhomme au chien Huile sur toile 1625 199,2 x 114,5 cm Collection particulière courtesy of Whitfield Fine Art, Londres Claude Mellan Judith et sa servante Huile sur toile 89 x 124 cm Paris, Musée du Louvre, Bayonne, Musée Bonnat-Helleu - Musée des Beaux-Arts (en dépôt à) Pacecco de Rosa Jugement de Pâris Huile sur cuivre 24 x 40 cm Vienne, Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Bernardo Cavallino Esther et Assuerus Huile sur toile 71 x 97 cm Naples, Istituto Suor Orsola Benincasa Domenico Gargiulo Diana e Atteone Huile sur toile 76 x 58,5 cm Pavie, Musei Civici Domenico Gargiulo Sainte Lucie conduite au martyre Huile sur toile 76 x 103 cm Beauvais, Musée départemental de l'Oise Onofrio Palumbo Sainte Apolline d'Alexandrie Huile sur toile Naples, Istituto Suor Orsola Benincasa Giovanni Baglione l’Amour freinant l’Instinct Huile sur toile 128 x 192 Valencia, Museo Nacional de Bellas artes

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5- Press pictures Artemisia Gentileschi Giuditta e la fantesca Abra con la testa di Oloferne 1617-18 Huile sur toile 114 x 93,5 cm Florence, Galleria Palatina © Studio Fotografico Perotti, Milano/Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali

Artemisia Gentileschi La Vergine allatta il Bambino 1616-18 Huile sur toile 118 x 86 cm Collection particulière © Mathieu Ferrier, Paris

Artemisia Gentileschi Santa Cecilia (Suonatrice di liuto) 1610-1612 Huile sur toile 108 x 78,5 cm Rome, Galleria Spada © Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Artemisia Gentileschi Danaë c.1612 Huile sur cuivre 41,3 x 52,7 cm Saint Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum © Saint Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum

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Artemisia Gentileschi Giuditta decapita Oloferne c. 1612 Huile sur toile 159 x 126 cm Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte © Fototeca Soprintendenza per il PSAE e per il Polo museale della città di Napoli

Artemisia Gentileschi Santa Caterina d'Alessandria 1618-20 Huile sur toile 77 x 62 cm Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, réserves © Studio Perotti / Per concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali

Artemisia Gentileschi Maddalena c. 1630 Huile sur toile 65,7 x 50,8 cm Rita R.R. and Marc A. Seidner Collection © Rita R.R. and Marc A. Seidner Collection, Los Angeles

Artemisia Gentileschi Autoritratto come suonatrice di liuto c.1615-1619 Huile sur toile 65,5 x 50,2 cm Minneapolis, Curtis Galleries © Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Artemisia Gentileschi Autoritratto (Allegoria della Pittura) Huile sur toile 98 x 74,5 cm Rome, Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini © Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

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Artemisia Gentileschi Cleopatra c. 1635 Huile sur toile 117 x 175,5 cm Rome, collection particulière © Collection particulière

Artemisia Gentileschi Maddalena penitente c. 1630 Huile sur toile 100 x 73 cm Sorrento, Museo Correale di Terranova © Massimo Velo, Napoli

Artemisia Gentileschi Allegoria della Fama c. 1630-35 Huile sur toile 57,5 x 51,5 x 2 cm Londres-Milan, Robilant+Voena © Manusardi Art Photo Studio, Milano

Artemisia Gentileschi Betsabea al bagno c. 1636-39 Huile sur toile 185,2 x 145,4 cm Londres, Matthiesen Gallery © The Matthiesen Gallery Londres

Artemisia Gentileschi Betsabea al bagno c. 1640-45 Huile sur toile 288 x 228 cm Collection particulière © Photo Courtesy Sotheby's, Milano

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Artemisia Gentileschi (atelier napolitain de) Susanna e i vecchioni c. 1650 Huile sur toile 168 x 112 cm Bassano de Grappa, Museo Biblioteca e Archivio © Archivio Fotografico del Museo Biblioteca e Archivio di Bassano del Grappa

Artemisia Gentileschi La Vergine offre il rosario al Bambino 1651 Huile sur cuivre appliquée sur toile 59,5 x 38,5 cm Madrid, Patrimonio Nacional © Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, Palais de la Granja de San Ildefonso

Entourage de Artemisia Gentileschi Allegoria della Retorica c. 1650 Huile sur toile 90 x 72 cm Londres-Milan, Robilant+Voena © Manusardi Art Photo Studio, Milano

Artemisia Gentileschi Giuditta e la fantesca Abra con la testa di Oloferne c. 1645-50 Huile sur toile 235 x 172 cm Cannes, Musée de la Castre © Musée de la Castre, Cannes/Photo Claude Germain

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Artemisia Gentileschi (attr.)

Giuditta e la fantesca Abra con la testa di Oloferne c. 1607-10 Huile sur toile 130 x 99 cm Rome, collection Fabrizio Lemme © Mauro Coen

Artemisia Gentileschi Suonatrice 1628-29 Huile sur toile 64 x 78 cm Venise, Collection particulière © ArteFotografica, Roma

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6 - Useful information MUSÉE MAILLOL - FONDATION DINA VIERNY 59-61, rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris Tél : 01 42 22 59 58 Fax : 01 42 84 14 44 Métro : Rue du Bac Bus : n° 63, 68, 69, 83, 84 www.museemaillol.com Opening hours The exhibition is open EVERY DAY from 10h30 à 19h, including bank holidays Late opening on Fridays until 21h30 Entrance price Rate : 11 euros Reduced rate : 9 euros Free for the under 11 years old Online ticketing www.museemaillol.com www.fnac.com Restaurant Italian restaurant « La Cortigiana » Open every day from 10h30 to 17h COMMUNICATION CONTACTS Agence Observatoire 68 rue Pernety - 75014 Paris Céline Echinard Tél : 01 43 54 87 71 celine@observatoire.fr www.observatoire.fr Musée Maillol Claude Unger Tél : 06 14 71 27 02 cunger@museemaillol.com Elisabeth Apprédérisse Tél : 01 42 22 57 25 eapprederisse@museemaillol.com

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