- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Grove/Atlantic; Reprint edition (Oct 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802138578
- ISBN-13: 978-0802138576
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.9 x 3.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #177,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Small wonder that biographer Alexandra Lapierre was drawn to write about Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the first female painters to gain acclaim in the male-dominated 17th-century art world. Her story has all the ingredients of high drama: rape, jealousy, and an infamous court trial set against a backdrop of art and passion. Meticulously researched, framed in a fictional context, Lapierre's treatment applies a painterly touch to a scholarly work. Billed as a biography in the U.K. but as a novel in the U.S., it combines the rigor of one genre with the page-turning immediacy of the other.
Born in Rome to the artist Orazio Gentileschi and his wife Prudenzia, Artemisia's life was turned upside down after the death of her mother. Orazio jealously guarded his only daughter, refusing her outside contact even as he taught her the subtleties of painting. At 17, Artemisia, already a skilled artist, was facing a life of spinsterhood as her father's prisoner. Yet the Gentileschi household was full of the comings and goings of artists whose shifting allegiances were as complex as the politics of the time. When Orazio's friend, arrogant trompe l'oeil master Agostino Tassi, set his sights on young Artemisia, her refusals only stoked his passion. What followed was rape. Tassi kept her quiet through promises of marriage; when marriage was not forthcoming, Tassi found himself in court.
Even under torture, Artemisia's statement never wavered, and eventually Tassi was convicted. The mild sentence scarcely harmed him, yet the experience had a lasting effect on his victim. Touched by scandal, Artemisia was able to marry an inferior painter only by virtue of a substantial dowry. Through an unhappy marriage, the deaths of her first children, and the lives of her daughters, however, she continued to paint, eventually gaining considerable acclaim. Interestingly enough, given her experiences, her paintings of religious allegory often portrayed women in illustrations of strength and dominance. If her depiction of Judith violently decapitating Holofernes elicited the Grand Duchess's repulsion, the Grand Duke Cosimo II was riveted. Others in the room saw the allusion to the artist's own past: "'This face, so close to death, brings someone to mind,' the secretary, Andrea Cioli, interjected insidiously. 'A painter, your Highness...'"
Artemisia blends storytelling and careful detail in a complex rendering that will particularly appeal to readers with an interest in either Baroque art or Italian history. Color plates illustrate the haunting quality of Artemisia's work, and the end notes make clear which portions derive from documentation and which are fictional strokes of color. The uninitiated may have a difficult time unraveling the intricacies of characters and politics, perhaps because Lapierre is more at home with scholarship than with fiction. Worse, her breathless prose sometimes tries too hard, even while doing little to reveal her characters' inner worlds. In the end, it's both the compelling quality of Artemisia's story and the lushness of Lapierre's supporting detail that hold this unusual book together. --Anne DeGrace --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
LaPierre's heavily researchedAbut racyAhistorical novel covers the passionate life of Italian Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1592-1653), who survived rape, ostracism and public scandal and went on to imagine powerful women in her energetic paintings. Artemisia's father was the much-in-demand Roman painter Orazio Gentileschi, who took the unusual steps of making his daughter both his apprentice and his model.As Artemisia entered her late teens, Orazio grew extremely protective, then arranged for her to marry his unscrupulous associate, painter Agostino Tassi. When Artemisia refused Tassi, he raped her. A dramatic trial ensued; Artemisia won, but the scandal drove her to leave Rome, and to marry the lawyer who defended her. All this transpires in the first half of LaPierre's book, which draws on and sometimes interpolates real transcripts from the trial. LaPierre (Fanny Stevenson) then follows father and daughter on their subsequent travels, which bring them both in time to the England of King Charles I. The detailed narrative straddles the line between biography and novel; some passages stack up piles of Renaissance facts, while others reimagine Artemisia's dramatic life scene by scene. (There are even long notes, and a bibliography.) Though the prose is fluent, and the characters gripping, Artemisia is no Romola. The volume succeeds more as history than as literature, but it makes history very hard to put down. LaPierre and translator Heron (who used both the novelist's French and the sources' Italian) offer a remarkable entr?e to the eventful life of a pioneer female artist and to the dangerous Europe in which she lived. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Through air acrid with sweat and dust the light blinded thousands of eyes. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Through air acrid with sweat and dust the light blinded thousands of eyes. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
For Art History Lovers,
By Barbara "bnkf" (Union City, NJ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Artemisia: A Novel (Paperback)
This wonderful novel is about the life of 17th century female Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. The first few chapters familiarize readers with all the elements that went into making a female artist at a time when the occupation was exclusively for men. Readers are introduced to Italy, Artemisia's father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi, the intense rivalry between artists, and the fact that during that time, artists were celebrities seeking fame and fortune. The next sections of the book, until almost the halfway point, are about Artemisia's relationship with Agostino Tassi and the trial that ensues. Agostino was a friend and colleague of Artemisia's father and the man who takes her virginity out of wedlock - a crime the family must defend their honor against - and Tassi is accused of rape, arrested, and tried in Roman court. The author includes a great deal of historical fact, and speculates where documentation is missing, then seamlessly resumes the story so that the book reads like part history, part journalism and part storytelling. However, the second half of the novel was more history with elements of a story than a story steeped in historical detail. This may be due to the fact that the author is extremely faithful to the information of history and felt uncomfortable inventing motivations where there was not enough documentation to support such notions. So, there are several periods of her life that feel like sketches and I wished that the author had invented some for the sake of the story and keeping me interested, but I also liked knowing that the events were grounded in research. Artemisia struggles throughout her life with her desire and drive to become a great painter and win the approval and recognition of her father. Throughout the rest of the book Artemisia has love affairs, several children, and paints in Florence, Rome, and Naples to name a few places. She participates in a great acquisition of masterpieces by the English, socializes with royalty and receives commissions from the papacy. She lived a remarkable life, and enjoyed exceptional success and freedom for a woman. I was so happy that there were color images of the most discussed paintings in the book, as well as maps that helped me to orient myself to the whereabouts of Artemisia in Italy and Europe. I do recommend having access to the internet since you may want to view some other artworks mentioned. I didn't give this book 5 stars because there was a period about three quarters through the book when I was bored, but I persevered and the ending was satisfying and the book was excellent overall.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
History, Novel, or Hybrid, Very Well Done,
This review is from: Artemisia (Hardcover)
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An exceedingly well-researched historical novel,
This review is from: Artemisia (Hardcover)
Anyone intersted in the fascinating life and paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi will surely want to read this novel. Surpassing other novelists who have written on Artemisia (Marine Bramly, Raouda Jamis) Lapierre has turned up a lot of new facts by going back to the archives in Rome and elsewhere ,and she has extensive notes for each chapter. The English translation is rather pedestrian and it also omits the lengthy bibliography of primary and secondary sources in the original French edition (available at amazon.fr). A note at the end of the book says they are available on line, but I could not access the URL. The Enlgish translation also moves an aferword up and retitles it as a preface. Also, the English translation does not reproduce a series of paintings and drawings in the notes of the French edition. (It does reproduce the plates of several paintings in the middle, as they appear in the French edition. So if you read French, I recommend French edition. If you don't, this English translation, though limited and incomplete, will still be welcome, I'm sure. Anna Banti's historically inaccurate novel, Artemisia, remains the best novel on the Italian painter, in my view, as a work of literature, but Lapierre has written the best novel that tries to be historically acurate.
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