nightmare digital artemisia gentileschi

budimasnur1 April 29, 2023 Comment

Art restorer Elizabeth Wicks works on Artemisia Gentileschi’s Allegory of Inclination in the Casa Buonarroti museum in Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

Art restorers in the Italian city of Florence have begun a six-month project to clean and virtually “unveil” a long-censored nude painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the most prominent women in the history of Italian art.

Swirling veils and drapery were added to Allegory of Inclination about 70 years after Gentileschi painted the lifesize female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616.

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The work to reveal the image as originally painted comes as Gentileschi’s contribution to Italian baroque art is receiving renewed attention in the #MeToo era, for her artistic achievements and for breaking into the male-dominated art world after being raped by one of her art teachers. Her work was featured in a 2020 exhibit at the National Gallery in London.

“Through her, we can talk about how important it is to restore artwork, how important it is to restore the stories of women to the forefront, ” said Linda Falcone, the coordinator of the Artemisia Up Close project.

Allegory of Inclination was originally commissioned for the family home of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, the great-nephew of the famed artist. The building later became the Casa Buonarroti museum, and the painting was displayed until recently on the ceiling in a gilded frame.

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Wicks’s team of restorers is using ultraviolet light, diagnostic imaging and X-rays to differentiate Gentileschi’s brush strokes from those of the artist that covered the nudity. The public can watch the project under way at the museum.

Restorers will not be able remove the veils because the cover-up was done too soon after the original, raising the risk that Gentileschi’s painting would be damaged in the process.

Instead, the team plans to create a digital image of the original version that will be displayed in an exhibition on the project opening in September 2023.

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Gentileschi arrived in Florence shortly after the trial in Rome of her rapist, during which the then 17-year-old was forced to testify with ropes tied around her fingers that were progressively tightened in a test of her honesty.

She also had to endure a physical examination in the courtroom behind a curtain to confirm she was no longer a virgin. Eventually, her rapist was convicted and sentenced to eight months in prison.

“Somebody else would have been crushed by this experience, ” Wicks said. “But Artemisia bounces back. She comes up to Florence. She gets this wonderful commission to paint a full-length nude figure for the ceiling of Casa Buonarroti. So, I think she’s showing people, ‘this is what I can do’.”

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While in Florence, Gentileschi also won commissions from the Medici family. Her distinctive, dramatic and energetic style emerged, taking inspiration from the most renowned baroque painter of the time, Caravaggio. Many of her paintings featured females, often in violent scenes and often nude.

She was 22 when she painted Allegory of Inclination. Another member of the Buonarroti family, Leonardo Buonarroti, decided to have it embellished to protect the sensibilities of his wife and children.

Monsters And Museums

“This is one of her first paintings. In the Florentine context, it was her debut painting, the same year she was then accepted into the Academy of Drawing, which was the first drawing academy in Europe at the time, ” Falcone said.

“She was able to hobnob with Galileo and with other great thinkers. So this almost illiterate woman was suddenly at the university level, producing works of art that were then, you know, appreciated by the grand duke, ” Falcone said. “And she became a courtly painter from then on.”Restorer Elizabeth Wicks works on the “Allegory of Inclination”, a 1616 work by Artemisia Gentileschi, in the Casa Buonarroti Museum, in Florence, Italy, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. Restorers have begun a six-month project on the “Allegory of Inclination” using modern techniques including x-rays and UV infrared research to go beneath the veils painted over the original to cover nudities and discover the work as Gentileschi painted it. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Art restorers in the Italian city of Florence have begun a six-month project to clean and virtually “unveil” a long-censored nude painting by restoration, , one of the most prominent women in the history of Italian art.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Exhibition Doge's Palace In Venice, Venice

Swirling veils and drapery were added to the “Allegory of Inclination” some 70 years after Gentileschi painted the life-size female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616.

The work to reveal the image as originally painted comes as Gentileschi’s contribution to Italian Baroque art is getting renewed attention in the #MeToo era, both for her artistic achievements but also for breaking into the male-dominated art world after being raped by one of her art teachers.

“Through her, we can talk about how important it is to restore artwork, how important it is to restore the stories of women to the forefront, ’’ said Linda Falcone, coordinator of the Artemisia Up Close project.

A Nude That Artemisia Gentileschi Painted For Michelangelo's House Was Covered Up Because It Was Too Racy. Now It Has Been Revealed

“Allegory of Inclination” originally was commissioned for the family home of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, the great-nephew of the famed artist. The building later became the Casa Buonarotti museum, and the painting was displayed until recently on the ceiling in a gilded frame. When lead conservator Elizabeth Wick removed the painting in late September, a shower of 400-year-old dust was released.

Wick’s team of restorers is using ultraviolet light, diagnostic imaging and X-rays to differentiate Gentileschi’s brush strokes from those of the artist that covered the nudity. The public can watch the project underway at the museum through April 23.

Restorers won’t be able remove the veils because the cover-up was done too soon after the original, raising the risk that Gentileschi’s painting would be damaged in the process.

Berkas:artemisia Gentileschi Mary Magdalene Pitti.jpg

Instead, the restoration team plans to create a digital image of the original version that will be displayed in an exhibition on the project opening in September 2023.

Gentileschi arrived in Florence shortly after the trial in Rome of her rapist, during which the then-17-year-old was forced to testify with ropes tied around her fingers that were progressively tightened in a test of her honesty.

She also had to endure a physical examination in the courtroom behind a curtain to confirm that she was no longer a virgin. Eventually, her rapist was convicted and sentenced to eight months in prison.

Artemisia Gentileschi's 1616 Nude To Be Digitally Unveiled

“Somebody else would have been crushed by this experience, ’’ Wick said. “But Artemisia bounces back. She comes up to Florence. She gets this wonderful commission to paint a full-length nude figure for the ceiling of Casa Buonarroti. So, I think she’s showing people, ‘This is what I can do.’”

While in Florence, Gentileschi also won commissions from the Medici family. Her distinctive, dramatic and energetic style emerged, taking inspiration from the most renowned Baroque painter of the time, Caravaggio. Many of her paintings featured female heroines, often in violent scenes and often nude.

She was 22 when she painted “Allegory of Inclination, ” which was commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. Another member of the family, Leonardo Buonarroti, decided to have it embellished to protect the sensibilities of his wife and children.

Triumph Of Galatea, 1650, 205×152 Cm By Artemisia Gentileschi: History, Analysis & Facts

“A woman’s name raises doubts until her work is seen”, wrote Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654) to her Sicilian patron and art collector, Don Antonio Ruffo, in 1649. As Germaine Greer bitterly observed in

Conservators Working To Expose A Censored Nude By Artemisia Gentileschi

, ‘unfortunately, prejudice against women means that women painters generally accumulate the worst, rather than having their best work attributed to others’. As if to confirm this statement, Artemisia’s works were long viewed as a mediocre derivation of her father’s art or attributed to him. Some of her paintings ended up being misattributed to artists Guido Cagnacci, Artemisia’s Neapolitan collaborator Bernardo Cavallino, or her art student Massimo Stanzione. Not surprising, considered, that even in her own lifetime (in the 1620s), painter Alessandro Bardelli had the audacity to claim as his own her canvas painted for Cosimo II Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Like Caravaggio, Artemisia remained forgotten throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, until her public trial records were discovered in the late 19

However, while Caravaggio was celebrated as the greatest artist of the Baroque era, Artemisia’s work fell prey to the “default male” principle and was dismissed as inferior, secondary art. Longhi described