Power, Pain and Passion: Artemisia Gentileschi

Excellent online lecture from Stella Grace-Lyons on Artemisia Gentileschi.

I realise I’ve booked quite a number of talks on Artemisia! This is my second and I think there are two more to come. Stella took us clearly through Artemisia’s life and work with a few well-chosen images. I won’t go over the ground again, but she came up with two interesting facts I’d not heard before.

Artemisia went to church at Santa Maria del Popola and her mother is buried there. It is also the church with Caravaggio’s “Crucifixion of St Peter” and “Conversion of St Paul” so, as well as Caravaggio being a friend of her father, she must have known every detail of these paintings from seeing them whenever she went to church.

Fact two was that her father in law in Florence was a tailor who may well have lent her or acquired for her the lush and colourful clothes she paints.

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