This postcard of an incredible painting also found at the website (less a victim of my scanning technique) of the VMFA in Richmond (please see side bar), doesn’t begin to do this virtuoso work justice. It is an experience to stand before this painting and enter into the deep richness of this oil on canvass masterpiece.
It (and another wonderful painting in the collection) was the topic of a college term paper. I took home postcards aplenty to share with friends and add to my journal book.
My art history professor, a wonderful man, encouraged me to visit the VMFA (a real trip from where I lived at that time). He assured me that this was the place I wanted to go to fulfill the requirements of this particular assignment. The gentleman was right, and I think he knew I’d fall in love with this painting. I surely fulfilled a wish of his when I returned to school a few days later and invaded his office; having been enthralled with this work. Yes, my prof. too received a souvenier postcard.
Artemisia Gentileschi followed in her father’s footsteps as a great artist and many would say she overtook him ultimately. Regardless, she’s certainly the more famous of the two today. She is even the subject of a work of historical fiction discovered by my wife and enjoyed by us both.
I love all things Baroque (and Rococo, which is someting of a very developed extension of the Baroque). The painting, sculpture, decor, the architecture, and the music especially. For a fairly small museum (generally closed for renovations at this time so visit the website), it is host to an exquisite collection of European art — including a fair amount from that long period of the late Renaissance through the early Neo-Classical, and contains other painters, such as Angelica Kaufmann and Jean-Antoine Watteau .
We’ve been back to the VMFA several times since my days as an undergrad, the special exhibits (especially a wonderful exhibit of the impressionist Eugene Boudin a couple of years ago) are usually small enough to enjoy without feeling exhausted at the end of the exhibit. That leaves one with energy enough to revisit portions of the permanent collection.
When about to leave, I always stop and look again at this and a few other works. In my mind, I’ve come to identify the museum with this one painting.
June 16, 2009 at 08:11
the shadows on her body are perfect
June 16, 2009 at 16:49
Oh, this is gorgeous!
I’m going to borrow this image for the next time I blog about my naps.
June 16, 2009 at 19:26
Instead of Cupid would Azar be there by the pillow?
June 16, 2009 at 19:39
I’ve just searched around for views of some of her other pictures on Biblical subjects. Hair-raising stuff.
June 16, 2009 at 20:02
Her paintings of the beheading of Holofernes (she did a few) and her painting on the Story of Susannah are still studied today.
She lived during the long counter-reformation period, and her paintings of sacred works found in Bible were part of Catholic Europe’s efforts to refute the resurgent iconoclasm of their Protestant rivals.
These artists were attempting to bring biblical reality to the viewers using techniques that brought the stories of the Bible — in the case of Judith and Susannah, texts disputed by many a protester — to life in a way that was bigger than life, and made extremely vivid and immediate.
In other words, these painters were bringing to visual life the stories of the Bible using the artistic techniques (including lots of blood and gore) of the era. That Artemisia had a statement of her own to make is, I think, more than mere conjecture.
For both secular or sacred topics, these artists took their talents all over Europe. The discovery of the New World led to a change in the economic picture in Europe and many of the great artists and composers of Italy would accept commissions in newly wealthy England, France, Sweden and Russia.
June 17, 2009 at 05:26
Oooh, good idea. Will speak to Mudhooks
June 20, 2009 at 03:15
What is that Cupid is waving over her? Is it flowers, or a fan?
She has nice tummy definition, that’s for sure.
June 20, 2009 at 03:31
Peacock feathers. They are signs of royalty and even divinity to this day. Peacocks play a role in Greek mythology that concerned Hera more specifically. Summer itself in antiquity is associated with peacocks.
June 27, 2009 at 22:07
[...] across this gorgeous image over at Zeus’s and knew I had to use it for my next nap post. It’s that time of the chemo cycle when I turn [...]