Artemisia

The intimate and passionate portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the famous post-Caravaggio painter and a cult figure in women’s culture.“Banti’s often moving novel presents a psychological evocation of the woman artist. We must be grateful to the author and her translator for this imaginative presentation of an extraordinary individual.” New York Times“Now translated (beautifully) into English, this novel should change the way we think about historical fiction and its possibilities. A thickly textured and moving portrait.” Boston ReviewArtemisia Gentileschi, born in 1598, the daughter of an esteemed painter, taught art in Naples and painted the great women of Roman and biblical history. She could neither read nor write, and she was the reviled victim in a public rape trial, rejected by her father, and later abandoned by her husband. Nevertheless, she was one of the first women in modern times to uphold through her work and deeds the right of women to pursue careers compatible with their talents and on an equal footing with men. She was an intrepid woman, independent, with a strong identity, capable of moving freely and autonomously in a man’s world, that of seventeenth-century painting. Her paintings, which often portray fierce and vindictive women, are displayed in museums all over the world. It is to her that Anna Banti dedicated this famous biographical novel with its intimate and refined writing. She drafted it twice: the first manuscript was lost in the Florence bombing of 1944, and the book finally saw the light in 1947. This volume features a lavish iconographic supplement.