The Passion of Artemesia
Posted on September 9, 2008
by Susan Vreeland (4 Stars)
First of all, let me apologize to Becky. She gave me this book FIVE YEARS AGO (I could tell because she used the receipt for the book as a bookmark and it had a date stamp) and I just picked it up. Sometimes I procrastinate like that. It’s one of the reasons I rarely if ever get books from a library, I will find books that I think are interesting and I really do want to read them, just not right NOW. I like to have the books on my shelf for when I finally get the motivation to read them.
That being said, she told me when she gave it to me that I would like it, and she was right. It was another quick read, I think it only took me 4-5 hours to finish it (aka: two nap times) and that was mainly because I had a really hard time putting it down.
This is the fictional account of Italian artist Artemesia Gentileschi, who was “one of the first female artists to achieve recognition in the male-dominated world of post-Renaissance art.“ When she was eighteen, she was raped by her art teacher. Her father insisted on a very public trial, where she was accused of being a whore, tortured with thumb screws, and examined by midwives in the courtroom while all of Rome watched. Even though her rapist was found guilty, his punishment was merely banishment from Rome. Her punishment was far more severe, her reputation as a woman was destroyed, and her reputation as an artist was sullied. She was also forced to flee Rome with the aid of a hastily arranged marriage to an artist from Florence.
Vreeland’s Artemesia was truly a remarkable woman. She never allowed the stuffy and old fashioned men who ruled the art world ignore her. She continued to create remarkable masterpieces that intrigued wealthy and influential people (such as Michelangelo the younger, and Cosimo de’ Medici II) forcing academia to accept her has a talented artist. She was the first female accepted into the Accedemia dell’ Arte Disegno.
However, her recognition and acclaim quickly became a source of jealousy and resentment among her peers, and her talent didn’t always pay the bills. She constantly had to relocate herself and her daughter in order to find patrons willing to hire her.
She struggled her entire life, but she was so passionate about her art, and leaving behind a legacy, that she never gave up.
I think it is really easy to forget that women have always fought to receive the same chances as men. Even in a field as subjective as art, women had to fight to even be considered artists. I read novels like this, and I am so grateful that my daughter was born in a time when she truly can be anything she wants to be!
A little housekeeping, awhile ago I wrote that I would be finising books for the 50 book challenge. Well, apparently I have absolutely no interest in finishing those books. I tried, and my heart wasn’t in it. I would pull the book of the bookshelf, it would sit there for a week and I would find new and improved excuses for not reading. I have had a lot more success finding new books. So, for the sake of this challenge, I have been reading full books. I just wanted to make that clear so nobody thinks I am “cheating.”