Before this class I never really had a favorite painting. My favorite type of paintings use to be landscape and nature scenes. Now I like drama and deep detail paintings that make you think about what your looking at. Last week my cousine Michelle told me the story behind Artemisia Gentileschi. She told me about her life and why she painted the way she did. Artemisia Gentileschi's father was a local painter in Rome in the 1500's. Back then women were not allowed to pain live nudes and were banned from certaqin academic institutions. Artemisia studied painting under her father because it was the only way a woman of her talents would be able to paint. Artemisia was a strong women and never accepted her constraints. Instead of painting portraits and still life she focused her efforts on subjects such as biblical and mythological characters where the women were the active characters. Artemisia's father's close friend Agostivo Tassi also taught her how to paint. But, when she was 19 years old he raped her. Once again, women were thought to be different and below men in society. Artemisia was humiliated for a long timebut never let the rape bring her down. My favorite painting by Artemisia is, Judith and Maid Servant with Head of Holofemes. The painting was ceated in 1625, they type of paint is oil on canvas. I love this painting because of the rich colors. Gentileschi uses the technique chiaroscuro, which uses deep shadows conflicting with dramatic spots of light. The painting reminds me of a scary scene in a movie where you know the killer is goingn to show up any minute. The painting itself shows Judith and the Maidservant stuffing Holoferus head in a bag. Holofences was Assyrian general who was tricked, then beheaded by udith, an Isrealite widow, who was trying to save her people. Artemisia shows the power of women in this painting because that's how her paintings were; women in heroic situations. Artemisia is an exellant artist and I lover her work. If you get a chance check her out on the web. I got the picuture of Judith and Maidservant, from Humanitiesweb.org.
2 comments:
It is really cool that you have learned to appreciate and view things differently from this class. And I found the info on your artist very interesting. I really enjoyed getting to explore an artist in this blog post and it seems you also did. good job!
Im glad you found a painting with real meaning and that you seem to really appreciate the class. I really never put much thought into art before this class either, and now i look at paintings and pictures with a different eye. You also did some good research on the artist.
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