Rest on the Flight of Egypt Orazio Gentileschi

Caravaggio Death of the Virgin1605-1606

Oil on canvas, also another painting of Carravaggio, who was also rejected because of how he painted the Virgin in a red dress and the way it she appears to be as if she have had died for several days. Also a Genre painting.
apochryphal story of the Virgin on deathbed
he uses a dead woman as a still life
Virgin is wearing a red dress which is a symbol of prostitution

Artemisia Gentileschi.
 Self Portrait as Allegory of Painting or 
"La Pittura" 1630 

 

 Artemisia Gentileschi- her father a painter taught her how to paint. She later left with one of her father's student, but was later dishonored of her virginity. She had a much different life than the famous painter Sofonisba Anguissola. Artemisia Gentileschi is an artist who focused on women and powerful figures on a dark background. She was lied upon and therefore raped. Gentileschi was to get married and so she gave him everything she had as a symbol of love, her virginity. Which may explain her painting on women. The women in her paintings are strong and have a story to say and are not there to be an object of men's eyes.

La Pittura, The Self Portrait as Allegory of Paintingdepicts a sexuality entity and is painted from a specific female's point of view. Unlike Sofonisba, Anguissola, in The Chess Game, 1555 which has a more male oriented view.

  • father was a painter
  • she is a personification of the act of painting
  • Caravaggisti

Artimisia Gentileschi, 
Judith Slaying Holofernes c1620

Artimisia Gentileschi
Judith with the head of Holofernes c1625
 This portrait displays Judith and her servant decapitating Holofernes. Because of betrayal, Gentileschi went against all rules and expressed her frustration. She was hesitant not wanting to get her hands and dress dirty but went through with it.

Here we also have the same use of light as if it came from the side. In this story we have that Judith has just chopped the head of one of the enemies of Israel and has save her town from the destruction that this Holofernes could have done.
 

  • Holofernes is emasculated
  • Artemisia is symbolizing her anger against the man who raped her
  • She is expressing herself through Judith's and the maidservants facial expressions
  • It is a feminist statement
  • Shift from male gaze to slight feminist view


Contains tenebrism - painting in the "dark manner," using violent contrasts of light and dark, as in the work of Caravaggio

Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes dated c1625 Detroit, Institute of Art. Italian Baroque. This painting shows a shadow on her face and seems to be watching out for strangers while the servant is placing the head inside the sack. It shows realism and the struggle the two women face in trying to escape. Unlike Caravaggio's painting, Judith and Holofernes, (top right) this portrait shows elegance in a women so as to be seen by male eyes. In this painting the servant is an old man as to infer that a woman needs help or expertise from a man to go through with an act like this.