Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait as a lute player, 1615-1617. Oil on canvas, 71.4×79 cm. Minneapolis: Curtis Galleries.

Who was Artemisia Gentileschi?

Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the first and only successful female artists in the 1600s. Following in the footsteps of Caravaggio, her Baroque paintings were some of the most dramatic and lively of her time. She became known for her realism, her skillful use of chiaroscuro, and the way she put women and their stories at the center of all her pictures. Her surviving works show a unique personal take on the cultural and social norms of the time. She often turned these norms on their heads on purpose, using her position as an artist to make a point about how men dominated society and to put a different focus on women's power.

 Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait as an allegory of painting, 1638-1639. Oil on canvas, 98.6×75.2 cm. London: Kensington Palace.

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting

The way the painting is put together is similar to other works of art from the time. It uses diagonal lines to show off the woman and show how she is moving both toward the canvas and away from it. Gentileschi's skill as an artist is shown by her use of foreshortening and other three-dimensional techniques. These techniques also bring the viewer into the painting, both physically and emotionally.

The light is coming from the left, but you can't see where it's coming from, and it's a lot brighter than you'd expect. Gentileschi is well lit from the front, but her back is hard to see. A clear line runs across the forehead and cheeks, down the side of the neck, and across the left shoulder. This is a chiaroscuro technique that was used a lot during the Baroque era to add drama. Texture is a very important part of Baroque paintings, and you can see it in the messy hair, the creases in the sleeve where paint got spilled, and the dirty hands, which make the painting look more real.

Lastly, the portrait's colors are interesting, partly because of the lighting and partly because of the natural differences in tones. Even though the clothes and background are dark, the pale skin on the face and right arm stand out right away. Near the neck, the gold chain sparkles, while the chain near the chest, which ends in a mask pendant, slowly fades to a dull brown. The thinness of the painting in the background makes it look like it's not finished, but a cleaning in 1972 got rid of later overpainting to return it to how it looked when it was first made. The initials of the artist are written on the bottom of the palette. 

Brief interpretation

Because "Painting" looked like a woman in Ripa's mind, Gentileschi could use this to her advantage to show herself as the best artist she could be. In terms of rights and way of life, being a woman during the Baroque era was mostly bad, but Gentileschi found this gem in Iconologia to boost her reputation. Also, many of the idealized figures of women during this time made people think of sexual or suggestive things, but Gentileschi was able to use "Painting" in a way that made women feel powerful.

Some critics have said that Gentileschi's portrayal of herself as the Allegory of Painting makes her seem a little bit “cocky”. Also, art historian Mary Garrard says that this is the only way a woman artist could show herself because allegorical personifications were only used for women.

Historical context and innovative contributions

Charles I invited Artemisia Gentileschi to London in 1638, which is probably where she made this sophisticated and skilled self-portrait. She holds a paintbrush in one hand and a palette in the other. By doing this, she cleverly shows that she is the female version of painting, which is something none of her male contemporaries could do.

This painting was likely made by Artemisia Gentileschi during her short time in England (1638–1641). Charles I asked her to come to London in 1638 so she could be with her father, Orazio Gentilieschi, who had been working there since 1626. On one level, the painting shows an allegory of Painting. This is how it was described in Charles I's inventory. Artemisia uses the standard emblematic handbook of the time, the Iconologia of Cesare Ripa, which describes Painting as "a beautiful woman with full black hair that is disheveled and twisted in different ways, with arched eyebrows that show imaginative thought, the mouth covered with a cloth tied behind her ears, and a gold chain at her throat from which hangs a mask with the word "imitation" written in front of it."

Artemisia gets the main parts of this description right, but she leaves out the writing on the mask and the mouth that is taped shut to show that Painting is dumb. She wears clothes that change colors quickly and holds a paintbrush and a palette in her hands. The work is also a self-portrait, since Artemisia, as a woman artist, sees herself as the personification of Painting. There are other examples of how the identities of female artists have been mixed up in the past. Felice Antonio Casoni made a portrait medal to honor the Cremonese painter Lavinia Fontana. On the front, there is a profile portrait of the artist, and on the back, there is an allegory of painting. In this picture, Artemisia combines two well-known styles of art into one.

Few of Artemisia's self-portraits have survived, and the artist's letters about them only give hints about what others might have looked like. Artemisia's likeness may also be seen in an engraving of a self-portrait she painted by Jerome David, a bronze medal from 1625 to 1628, and a portrait of her by Simon Vouet, which is in a private collection in Bergamo. Her self-portrait has been found in many of her other paintings, such as Woman with Lute (Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis) and the recently attributed Self-portrait as a Female Martyr (private collection), as well as in many of her religious paintings, which show how she portrayed herself.

It is clear that Artemisia's image was very much in demand among seventeenth-century collectors, who were attracted by her outstanding artistic abilities and her unusual status as a female artist. Cassiano dal Pozzo, a Roman who collected and studied old things, was one of her biggest fans. In a letter to him from 1630, she says, "I have painted my portrait with the utmost care." Later, she promises to send "my portrait, which you once asked for." Some scholars think that these two letters are about the painting in the Royal Collection, which Artemisia never sent to Dal Pozzo but instead took to England. In 1630 she would have been in her mid-thirties, which corresponds with the apparent age in the present picture. However, it would have been odd for Artemisia to break her promise to send the self-portrait mentioned in her letter to Cassiano dal Pozzo, one of her most prestigious patrons. Some scholars think that the Cassiano self-portrait is gone and that this is another one that Artemisia made after she moved to London in 1638. (when she was 46 years old).

Artemisia wears a brown apron over her green dress and seems to be leaning on a stone slab used for grinding pigments in which the reflection of her left arm is visible. Underdrawing along her left arm may show where she drew a line to show where she wanted her arm to be. The way she barely drew this arm shows quick, skilled brushwork. People have thought that the brown area behind her is the background or a blank canvas that she is about to paint on. It looks like prepared canvas and was always thinly painted, but it is worn and may bear a closer resemblance than was the artist's intention. She left parts of the ground bare to show areas of shadow. The part of her right rolled-up sleeve where the brown shadow of the exposed ground meets the white strokes defining the edge of her sleeve stands out. Infra-red reflectography and x-radiography show that the fingers on her right hand are in different places. This suggests that the artist was working on this area as she worked, eventually making the index finger longer.

As a self-portrait the painting is particularly sophisticated and accomplished. The position in which Artemisia has portrayed herself would have been extremely difficult for the artist to capture, yet the work is painted with very few pentiments. She may have put two mirrors on either side of her, facing each other, so she could see herself. In this difficult pose, which shows her painting, it would have been hardest to get the angle and position of her head right. This would have required skillful visualisation. With this interesting piece, Artemisia Gentileschi added to the visual arguments of the 1600s about the high status of the artist.

Context of preservation

The painting was made by Artemisia while she was in England. King Charles I later bought it. A record from October 1651 says that when the royal collection was split up, it went to John Jackson, a lawyer who worked for Parliamentary creditors. Colonel William Hawley, a royalist, got the painting back for King Charles II during his post-Restoration campaign, which was given the go-ahead by the king in August 1660.

Famous quotes by Artemisia Gentileschi

• "As long as I live I will have control over my being".
• "My illustrious lordship, i'll show you what a woman can do".
• "You will find the spirit of Caesar in this soul of a woman".

They say about her

• "The only woman in Italy who has ever known what painting, color, and impasto is, and similar essentials". Roberto Longhi
• "Artemisia Gentileschi turned the horrors of her own life – repression, injustice, rape – into brutal biblical paintings that were also a war cry for oppressed women". The Guardian
• "Artemisia Gentileschi was an early Italian Baroque painter, and the only female follower of Caravaggio, whom she worked with in Italy in the early 17th century. Her innovative compositions and focus on Biblical heroines set her apart from her male contemporaries and have lead to the celebration of Gentileschi as a painter with a uniquely female perspective". Brooklyn Museum, USA