Annotations on Artemisia.
To demonstrate the relevance of an artist's biography to the understanding of her creations, no instance is more persuasive than the career of the 17th-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Numerous scholars have attempted to correlate the nature of her subject matter with the more dramatic events of her picaresque private life. A psychoanalytic effort to make such a correlation needs to go beyond discrete incidents, to reconstruct her personality and its development. Artemisia's oeuvre is tightly focused on a fantasy system of sexual irrestibility, probably based on the interactions of this motherless child with a delinquent father. Hypotheses that the artist became a vengeful victim overtook her strength, resilience, and affability.
2956 E. Del Mar Blvd., Apt. #151/152, Pasadena, CA 91107.
John E
JE
Gedo
D004882:Erotica / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D019513:Feminism; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history* / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*