The baroque era was really something special. I’ve mentioned before about how impressive these images must have been in a time where there were no screens and people weren’t bombarded with imagery all day. Now images are cheap, we have computers generating them but back then it took talent and dedication to compose something like this. This was made in the seventeenth century in a pre-modern context. The word feminism didn’t even exist yet but powerful women were communicating through this imagery in a way that stands out in history.
This strikes me as a powerful scene even without knowing the biblical or actual historical context of it. I have studied this in school so I do know that context but using a lens of a first timer I see two powerful women and something that is clearly, to me, revenge. The silken sheets and the naked man suggests someone of privilege who we know from context and history gets there by abusing and exploiting others, in particular women. You can see the determination and the necessity of action in the faces of the women. It brings to mind all the women who are terrorized by men.
Bringing historical context into this backs up the striking character of this in a way that unfortunately hasn’t changed enough. This was possibly created in response to a rape suffered by the artist though if that was her primary intention as opposed to simply a desire to showcase powerful women at a time where this wasn’t common. It is interesting how people of that time were forced to reuse biblical stories in order to frame their contemporary society because that was the only shared cultural context many of them had. I am glad the stranglehold of the church was broken like this. I think I’m starting to ramble here lol. Thanks for posting this.
I agree with everything you’ve said, completely. We studied Gentileschi’s work during the first year of my Art History degree and the main thing that captivated me about her work (and still does) is how she portrayed the women in these scenes as being strong and powerful especially during this time period where everything was from a man’s point of view. She had a tragic life and it’s genuinely sad that art history has ignored her until towards the turn of the last century.
Same with all historical women artists unfortunately. There was a book from around around 1950 called “The Story of Art” that did not include a single woman (and also largely ignored non-white artists) which is fucking appalling. Thankfully the tide has been turning in recent times, I don’t know if you’ve read it but there was a book that came out a few years ago called “The Story of Art Without Men” which I loved.
The baroque era was really something special. I’ve mentioned before about how impressive these images must have been in a time where there were no screens and people weren’t bombarded with imagery all day. Now images are cheap, we have computers generating them but back then it took talent and dedication to compose something like this. This was made in the seventeenth century in a pre-modern context. The word feminism didn’t even exist yet but powerful women were communicating through this imagery in a way that stands out in history.
This strikes me as a powerful scene even without knowing the biblical or actual historical context of it. I have studied this in school so I do know that context but using a lens of a first timer I see two powerful women and something that is clearly, to me, revenge. The silken sheets and the naked man suggests someone of privilege who we know from context and history gets there by abusing and exploiting others, in particular women. You can see the determination and the necessity of action in the faces of the women. It brings to mind all the women who are terrorized by men.
Bringing historical context into this backs up the striking character of this in a way that unfortunately hasn’t changed enough. This was possibly created in response to a rape suffered by the artist though if that was her primary intention as opposed to simply a desire to showcase powerful women at a time where this wasn’t common. It is interesting how people of that time were forced to reuse biblical stories in order to frame their contemporary society because that was the only shared cultural context many of them had. I am glad the stranglehold of the church was broken like this. I think I’m starting to ramble here lol. Thanks for posting this.
I agree with everything you’ve said, completely. We studied Gentileschi’s work during the first year of my Art History degree and the main thing that captivated me about her work (and still does) is how she portrayed the women in these scenes as being strong and powerful especially during this time period where everything was from a man’s point of view. She had a tragic life and it’s genuinely sad that art history has ignored her until towards the turn of the last century.
Same with all historical women artists unfortunately. There was a book from around around 1950 called “The Story of Art” that did not include a single woman (and also largely ignored non-white artists) which is fucking appalling. Thankfully the tide has been turning in recent times, I don’t know if you’ve read it but there was a book that came out a few years ago called “The Story of Art Without Men” which I loved.