First published in 1953, Artemisia is a classic of 20th century Italian literature. From its first publication in 1953, Artemisia, a novel about Artemisia Gentileschi, an iconic 17th century painter, by Anna Banti, a brilliant Italian art historian, established itself as a feminist masterpiece. Like Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and Marguerite Yourcenar’s
Memoirs of Hadrian, Artemisia is a book about the process of artistic creation.
Much in Gentileschi’s life marked her out as a victim – rape at the age of 18, a forced marriage to a man she did not love and, a powerful, patriarchal father, Orazio Gentileschi, who failed to value her artistic genius. But Gentileschi did not accept the status of victim, in the years between 1610 and 1650, she produced over 50 paintings that have established her as one of the great painters of all time.
She gave up everything – “all tenderness, all claim to feminine virtues” to dedicate herself solely to painting. Sacrifices that Anna Banti, herself an artist, fully understands and captures in this amazing novel.
关于作者
Anna Banti, the pen name of Lucia Lopresti, was born in Florence in 1895. Like Artemisia Gentileschi, Anna Banti was always defined by a male mentor -in her case, her husband Roberto Longhi to whom Artemisia is dedicated. Longhi was a world famous critic and art historian and was responsible for the rediscovery of the Gentileschis, Orazio and Artemisia in the journal Paragone. Until his death in 1970, Anna Banti lived in Roberto Longhi’s shadow. Since then, like Artemisia, she has found an audience – inspired by feminism – able to appreciate her genius in its own right. The dialogue between author and subject in Artemisia is one of the great literary conversations of our time.
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