Artemisia Gentileschi, female artists, Italian Renaissance, Musée Maillol, women in art, Caravaggesque painters, gender studies, art exhibitions
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Abstract
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Abstract
The Musée Maillol hosted a retrospective exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi's works in 2012, highlighting her evolution as a female Italian Renaissance painter.
Extract
[...] On the other hand, for some artists, being at the head of a workshop constitutes a great opportunity for fame and career, sought after by the greatest Italian painters. And the workshop is a showcase on the world allowing to ensure regular income. It is thus that a great competition emerges between the workshops: « The game of competition between these versatile workshops highlights talent, but also imposes effective management. When Verrochio is in Venice from 1483, it is Lorenzo di Credi who directs the workshop in Florence and ensures the execution of the orders. Vasari will later highlight with humor that the Bellini firm was very well managed. [...]
[...] This exhibition titled Plautilla Nelli. Art and Devotion in the Convent on the Traces of Savonarola was curated by Fausta Navarro and Sheila Baker, conservators and members of the Beaux-Arts de Paris. They were respectively, exhibition curator for Fausta Navarro and member of the scientific committee for Sheila Baker. The exhibition focused particularly on the 'problematic' part of her work35. Indeed, among the debates that have stirred the sphere of art historians, there have been debates concerning the effective attribution of the work to Plautilla Nelli personally, or to some of her sisters. [...]
[...] Cosme II de' Medici dies in 1621, which seems to mark the end of the Florentine patronage for Artemisia's works. At the same time, despite Artemisia's success, Artemisia's husband engages in financial excesses that ultimately lead to the couple's downfall. They separate in 162123. At the same time, in 1621, Artemisia's father, Orazio, was invited to Genoa by a noble to work on some projects. The biographies we have of Artemisia suggest that they may have reunited there. However, this view remains uncertain. Many art historians believe that Artemisia followed her father to Genoa. [...]
[...] It was her first monographic exhibition in the world. This exhibition took the initiative to focus on her portrait works, bringing together works from both public and private international collections. These initial investigations attest and highlight that the highlighting of female painters of the Italian Renaissance is still weak but in progressive development. The research reveals the difficulty in bringing together the different works of the artists, in emerging from the shadow of Artemisia Gentileschi but also in finding and creating a historical and artistic narrative that can interest the general public. [...]
[...] Conception and layout of the exhibition Thus, thanks to these 3 professionals from the art world, the Musée Maillol exhibition was possible. It was necessary for them to form a working group, in coproduction with the Palazzo Reale in Milan (heart of the Milan exhibitions) ore cultura (Italian publication dedicated to art and culture) and the Musée Maillol. This agreement has, for example, allowed certain paintings by Artemisia to be restored, such as: Judith and her servant Abra with the head of Holofernes which are kept in the reserves of the National Museum of Naples40. [...]
