Artemisia

by Alexandra Lapierre

Book Overview

An international best-seller, Alexandra Lapierre's Artemisia sweeps us through the streets once frequented by Caravaggio, Velasquez, and Van Dyck and into the studios of artists who used their daggers... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802116728
• ISBN13: 9780802116727
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 427 Pages
• Weight: 1.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Bit of Fiction and Fact Baroque Artist Artemsia Gentileshci

Perhaps I am looking for her mind through her art because that is all there is left of her. Her paintings were her thoughts pushing the boundaries on the society of the day I would have love to more focus on Artemisia carreer as an artist, the society she lived in. The struggle with being a female and having a carreer during the 1600's. Her achievements and commissions. Instead the books seems like a harlequin romance focusing on her relationships with men. In particular her rape which did change the course of her life and impacted her art. Instead of who she was, what she thought what she had to fight in society in order to do what she did. Artemesia was a rare woman of her time.

Artemisia will become part of you

Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Early Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio. In an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community, she was the first female painter. This book is a research in Artemisia's life and though it is a little bit fictioned it does leave a footprint in your heart that few other books do. It describes the life in Italy of a woman in those ages, the struggle of an artist and a genius, the difficult relationship that often men have with their daughters from the dawn of time. Artemisia and her story will touch you deeply in your creativity and in your admiration for the women that did make the difference for many of us in History.

A magnificent canvas of a remarkable woman painter

One of two recent popular novels about the female artist Artemisia Gentileschi, I found this a fascinating read, lush with historical detail and the true drama of the world of the artist. Certainly an early model for the feminist movement, this artist was governed by her need to paint her interpretation of art on canvas; her life was defined by light, the shadows and the subtleties of color, the scent and texture of her paints. She lived in a period in which European monarchs emptied state coffers in their passion for the possession of splendor and artifacts, where the artist flourished in a society that used its artists as the instruments of their power. Well-known masters in this Baroque period of the 17th Century were Velasquez, Rubens, Van Dyke and Caravaggio.In Rome, the Pope was not just the spiritual head of Christendom, he was the temporal sovereign and monarch over all the territories belonging to the Church. After the Council of Trent, the Church accelerated from repressive to preventive, with zero tolerance for disobedience. The artist's task was to bear witness for the martyrs of the Church. From around 1605 the principal programs derived from the Council of Trent were aimed at the Reformation, to dazzle the eye with Rome's brilliance, particularly found in the style of Baroque art, proof of the Church's supremacy. Draped in the cloak of 17th Century Italy , the denizens of the art world come alive through the pen of Alexandra Lapierre. Using court records and other legal documents to buttress her story, Lapierre brings Artemisia Gentileschi vividly alive, as well as her father-painter, Orazio Gentileschi and Agostino Tassi, the man who deflowered Artemisia and later spurned her demand for marriage. Tassi may not have been free to marry, involved as he was in an incestuous relationship with a sister-in-law. Or he may simply have been a scoundrel, whose lust leveled any conscience in the forced seduction of the virginal Artemisia. Lapierre's Artemisia is rendered as a confused and driven young woman striving to be a painter in her own right like her father and to gain his recognition. She is, as well, a spirited young woman who needs a legal marriage to free her from her father's possessive grip on her very identity as an artist. Swept along by the bureaucratic layers of a Papacy determined to assert itself against the forces of the Reformists, Artemisia, Orazio and Agostino become puppets of these vested interests, ever under the watchful eye of the Inquisitors. Even in the face of torture, Artemisia refuses to renounce her rape by Tassi, truth her only shield in a world rife with snickers and innuendoes.The author displays a fine grasp of the particular world the artist inhabits, one drenched in emotion, drama, passion and color. The tapestry she weaves of the backdrop against which they created their masterpieces defines the complexity of a society caught up in the love of objects and the call of fame and recognition. Artemisia is

research documentation is refreshing!

I liked this book about Artemisia by Alexandra Lapierreprecisely because of her extensive research. She weaves the story around the actual data which she found. If it gets tedious to read so much research, I say skip some, but at least you're getting the flavor of the times and the actual documents which were used then.I'm thankful to the author for the time she took to travel to the sites to do the research.

History, Novel, or Hybrid, Very Well Done

When the Authoress learns Latin and Italian as by-products of her research, the result should be special, and in the case of Artemisia, the result is very special. I don't understand how this could have been marketed anywhere as a Biography, Ms. Lapierre is very clear prior to the start of her work, and in over 60 pages of some of the best notes I have ever read, that she made the decision to tell this as a story, not pure History. A Biography whether authorized or not, is always subject to editorial, selective use of research materials, or in the case of some writers who should write for tabloids, deliberate distortions, selective use of facts, or not understanding the difference between fact and fiction. When the notes are read, Ms. Lapierre appears to have been so diligent as to facts, sources, and suppositions; it is tempting to think of this as a Historical work.The Protagonist is an amazing study. A Genius in art who was officially affirmed as such during a time when Women were never considered as much more than property. A courageous woman, who tempted a range of horrors by demanding the corrupt legal system deliver her justice. Here was a woman who challenged the Catholic Church, and some of its more unsavory historical despots, again to demand that the truth be known and the culprits punished. That she persisted is amazing, that she prevailed to the degree she did, astonishing.This work brought to mind another strong, unconventional woman of influence, who was brought to readers in book form under the title "Georgiana". I would suggest that anyone who enjoyed the latter will find "Artemisia" a very engaging read.None of this would have been possible without the work of Ms. Lapierre. It would be better said, her extraordinary work, as this is the book to read on Artemisia Gentileschi, if you choose only one. This work is readable without condescension; it is scholarly without being dense and pompous until rendered unreadable. The book is simply wonderful.You need only to enjoy good writing to enjoy this book. If you are familiar with other artists of the period, more detail will be there for you, and Galileo makes an appearance as well.Extremely good, deserves much more attention than the work has garnered thus far.

A Truly Excellent Account of a Great Artist

This book by Alexandra Lapierre on the life of the female artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, is a fascinating study of the world of art and Europe during the seventeenth Century. Having read a few books on Caravaggio I had come across the name of Artemisia but knew very little of her other than that she had been raped by another artist and later went on to become quite famous herself. This book told the story of not only Artemisia and her art but also her father, Orazio Gentileschi, and showed how artistic rivalry, love, family, honour and a passion for art interlocked their lives and careers.The book is not a novel as the title suggests but is indeed a historical biography of Artemisia Gentileschi and her times. The author has used her skills as a novelist to fill gaps in the story of Artemisia but only with the greatest sense of historical correctness. The author has carried out extensive research on her subject and has used the results of this research to help fill the gaps in the story of this famous artist. She lets the reader know that at times she has fictionalised some of the narrative but never the facts.Alexandra Lapierre provides the reader with comprehensive notes and references to show the reader why she has decided to use certain narrative or placed a particular slant on her perspective of some events. I found that this manner of story telling in this particular account did not detract from the book in any fashion. It may not please those historians or experts in the field of art but to me, a novice, I found it a great approach to help the reader understand this great artist and the times she lived in.A number of colour plates are provided of not only Artemisia's paintings but also her fathers and other artists involved in her story. A number of maps have also been placed in the book to assist the reader with following the story, events and travels of Artemisia. The story itself was well told and in particular I found the account of the rape case very interesting. This is an intriguing and very enjoyable book and I hope that the idea of some of the narrative being fiction will not put other readers off. In fact the 80 pages of notes used by the author to support her account makes fascinating reading in themselves. The book is over 500 pages and I found it a very easy to read account and it has provoked in me a desire to learn more about this great female artist. This book is well worth the effort to sit down and read and I hope that many other readers out there enjoy this book as much as I did.Just for the interest other readers, in Australia the book is titled `Artemisia: The Story of a Battle for Greatness'. Following are some reviews taken from the back cover:"A book bristling with adventure, noise, passion and colour which recreates Baroque Italy in all its diversity, from the ballrooms to the torture chambers, from trials to marriages, from drinking parties to underground conspiracies" - Les