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Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1612–13. Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593–1652/53). Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
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Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy
February 14, 2002–May 12, 2002
Special Exhibition Galleries, 2nd floor
This is the first full-scale exhibition devoted to Caravaggio’s most gifted and individual follower, Orazio Gentileschi, and to Orazio’s celebrated daughter, Artemisia. Featuring approximately 50 works by Orazio and 35 by Artemisia, this is the first exhibition to treat these two remarkable artists in depth. Orazio was among the first artists to respond to Caravaggio’s revolutionary method of painting from posed models. From this experience he created his own very personal and poetic style, in which realism is tempered by a refined sense of beauty. In Italy he worked in Rome and Genoa as well as in the region of the Marches, and he was also active in Paris, where he worked for Marie de'Medici, and London, where he was court painter to Charles I. Artemisia has received much popular attention and is the subject of two biographical novels and a recent movie. However, her reputation as an artist has often been overshadowed by the notorious public trial that followed her rape by an associate of her father’s when she was still a teenager. A figure of enormous determination and ambition, she became an artist of remarkable qualities: the first woman who managed to live exclusively by her brush and who refused to be bound by the conventions usually imposed on female artists (still-life painting and portraiture were the areas deemed proper for a woman).The exhibition is made possible in part by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.
Additional support has been provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The exhibition has been organized by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici, Rome, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
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