Exhibition Review: Artemisia Gentileschi at Palazzo Reale

Image Caption: Artemisia Gentileschi Exhibition 2011-- The historic 2011 monographic exhibition at Palazzo Reale, Milan. Source: PMLD-Petrucci-Marco-Lighting-Design

[ARCHIVAL NOTE: This exhibition review was originally published on Electro-Acoustics.org (Milan Edition, 2011). It is preserved here as part of the Arts & Technologies historical index on fine arts, institutional marketing, and historical monographs.]

Artemisia Gentileschi – Between Artistic Merit and Literary Celebrity

An event not entirely independent in nature and structure, the upcoming exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, opening on September 22 under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, is dedicated with all due respect to the great history of art, as is typical of institutional cultural events of this scale.

The event is presented as follows: "The first major monographic exhibition dedicated to the female artist par excellence: Artemisia Gentileschi. The exhibition is curated by Roberto Contini, with exhibition design by Emma Dante." (1)

In this regard, we recall the non-monographic precedent of the exhibition dedicated to both Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, which closed in Rome in January 2002 before moving on to New York and Saint Louis. (2) However, claiming this upcoming event as a "first" rests, on the one hand, on its exclusive focus on Artemisia rather than her father Orazio; on the other hand, it relies on recent—and still debatable—attributions.

The promotional excerpt mentioned above actually concludes with the phrase: "For tough women and men who aren't afraid." (1) It is certainly a dramatic line, behind which lies the invitation to a broad public—an approach implicit in any high-investment institutional event, as other promotional materials clearly demonstrate.

"Artemisia became a modern celebrity after World War II for literary reasons, not for artistic merit," says Contini in the first promotional video on the media page of the mostartemisia.it website. (1) What Contini is likely referring to is Anna Banti's novel Artemisia (1947), rather than the critical attention the painter and her art received following the essential historical-critical essay by Roberto Longhi (Banti's husband) published in the journal L'Arte in 1916, which approached Gentileschi's work through the study of Caravaggio. (3)

This reference to literary fame also has less refined aspects, related to the fictionalized account of the painter's sexual assault and the subsequent trial. Indeed, in the media area of the aforementioned site, the third of four promotional multimedia items features a dramatic reading of the trial records by Emma Dante, who also served as the exhibition designer. (4) The general public's fascination with sensational historical events of this kind will undoubtedly attract many visitors to the ticket office. In this context, the topic also encapsulates the broader debate surrounding the role of femininity in culture and the arts.

Male aggression constitutes the central argument around which the scenographer's presentation revolves in the second video, offering her personal interpretation of Gentileschi's persona and art. By contrast, the first video featuring Contini provides a more objective historical overview.

All available information can be found on the exhibition website, which promises a "wealth of works." We are eager to see whether this breadth will be matched by a rigorous selection of paintings—a rarity in recent Milanese art exhibitions—that truly confirms the real value of the event.

References

1. Official Exhibition Archive: Artemisia Gentileschi Exhibition (Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2011 – Archived Event).

2. Exhibition History: Overview of the 2002 exhibition Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome/New York).

3. J. W. Mann & K. Christiansen (Eds.), Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Milan, Skira, 2001.

4. Historical Archive: Documentation and legal records of the 1612 trial, available via historical archives dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi.

5. An overview of the historical facts and additional bibliographic references can be found, in Italian, at:[http://www.artemisiagentileschi.net/stupro.html]

How to cite this article: Daniele, R. (2011). Exhibition Review: Artemisia Gentileschi at Palazzo Reale. ElectroAcoustics Magazine / Arts & Technologies Archive. Available at: https://rdmrecords.com/pittura-artemisia-gentileschi

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