Artemisia Gentileschi
Examined through the lens of cutting-edge scholarship, Artemisia Gentileschi clears a pathway for non-specialist audiences to appreciate the artist's pictorial intelligence, as well as her achievement of a remarkably lucrative and high-profile career. Bringing to light recent archival discoveries and newly attributed paintings, this book highlights Gentileschi's enterprising and original engagement with emerging feminist notions of the value and dignity of womanhood.
Beautifully illustrated throughout, Artemisia Gentileschi brings to life the extraordinary story of this Italian artist, placing her within a socio-historical context. Sheila Barker weaves the story with in-depth discussions of key artworks, examining them in terms of their iconographies and technical characteristics in order to portray the developments in Gentileschi’s approach to her craft and the gradual evolution of her expressive goals and techniques.
Sheila Barker is an art historian and writer. She is the founding director of the Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists at the Medici Archive Project. Her publications include the exhibition catalogue The Immensity of the Universe in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni as well as the edited volumes Artemisia Gentileschi in a Changing Light, Women Artists in Early Modern Italy, and Artiste nel chiostro (co-edited with Luciano Cinelli).