
13.09.2011 / Arts & Culture
Rediscovering Artemisia
“The only woman in Italy who ever new what painting is”. That’s how Italian art critic Roberto Longhi described Artemisia Gentileschi back in 1916.
Hard to say if he was right, since in those times women were substantially precluded from any chance of becoming professional painters.
What we know for sure, though, is that she was the first woman to ever gain access to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (“Academy of the Arts of Drawing”) in Florence back in 1616, as well as a versatile and talented artist.
Yet, for some reason, the vicissitudes of her troubled life have always been far more discussed than her art itself, and while most people know her as one of the emblematic female characters of her age, only a few are thoroughly acquainted with her work.
At long last, after more than four centuries from her birth, at the break of 2012 a major monographic exhibition will examnine the whole of her production, from the apprenticeship at her father’s studio in Rome to the end of her career in Naples. A rightful hommage, in a way.
Milano, Palazzo Reale, from September 22 , 2011 to January 29, 2012.
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