Judith Slaying Holofernes. Artemisia Gentileschi. 1620.
Susan Sontag, in her introduction to Banti’s Artemisia which is translated by Shirley D’Ardia Caracciolo, writes:
Aptly enough, the name Artemisia is associated with female assertiveness, with women doing well what men do. In Greek mythology, Artemis—Artemisia means follower of Artemis—is the goddess of the hunt. In history—Herodotus’s great History, which recounts the attempt of the Persian empire to conquer the tiny, independent Greek city-states on the northwest edge of Xerxes’s vast domains—it is the name of a queen and military leader: Artemisia, Queen of Halicarnassus, a Greek city in Ionia, who joined the Persians and was put in command by Xerxes of five of his ships.
As vocations go, a Greek queen commanding a Persian naval squadron is only slightly more improbable than a seventeenth-century Italian woman becoming a much sought after professional painter of large narrative compositions with Biblical or classical subjects—many of which depict women’s rage and women’s victimization.
Instead of choosing to focus on Artemisia’s assault and embarrassing public trial and torture, Banti chooses other episodes in the painter’s life that display her assertiveness and her “doing well what men do.” This is not a traditional, linear narrative with a clean plot; Banti is having a conversation with her protagonist and chooses to recreate scenes in her life that show her independence and resilience. For example, there is a long description of Artemisia’s time in Florence where she works on her Judith Slaying Holofernes masterpiece. As she is painting, five Florentine society women watch her and gossip; the contrast between these silly onlookers and the artist is highlighted in Banti’s text:
She who used to be so shy if her brother even looked at a drawing of hers, had grown accustomed to the remarks these women made and to their lack of discretion with an indifference that did not even surprise her. And sometimes, getting hurriedly to her feel and going resolutely over to the model to arrange him in a position more in keeping with her purpose, it would happen that she might trample the hem of a dress, or bump into a curved shoulder without apologizing, so little did their presence count for her.
Her painting is triumphantly presented to the Grand Duke, but, despite her growing fame, she travels back to Rome where her husband is living. For a very brief time she is content living with Antonio, a humble, hardworking man who is kind, gentle, and loving to her. But when she is given an apartment and is commissioned for a series of paintings for the upper classes of Rome, she rebukes him for not fitting into her new society. This is one of the saddest parts of the story because Artemisia chooses her work over her husband who feels that he has no choice but to leave her. For the rest of her life she is haunted by the happiness she once felt for him and wonders if she made the correct decision.
A large part of the narrative at the end of the book is taken up with her voyage by ship to London where she will live with her father at the court of the Queen. She is scared to travel so far all alone, but once again asserts her independence and her assertiveness. The journey is a fitting scene that reflects the entirety of her itinerant life and her struggle to be accepted by her friends, family and her husband. As the ship sways and rocks her into a state of solitary reflection she thinks to herself:
She contrived then to call to mind all her own faults: how she used to remain stubbornly silent at her husband’s attentions; how, confident of his devotion, she would bask in it without care, almost without really enjoying it, believing herself to be free, owing him nothing in return. And how she used to reproach him for his lowly station, his wretched job, his moodiness. And how that last time, when she had been angry, she should have realized how afraid he was of her. He had left: but she had been sure of his love….The untouchable, external object blocks her investigation at this point, taking over as though alive. The tears gushed forth once more, dried by the salty wind.
It is so sad and tragic that Artemisia had to choose between her art and her love. I feel like I could read this book many times over and find different scenes in it to grab my attention. It is a difficult book to write about but would make for a very interesting discussion. I would love to hear other opinions of the book. What scenes stood out to you? What themes/motifs do you remember from Banti’s narrative?
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