Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A new account of the renowned Baroque painter, revealing how her astute professional decisions shaped her career, style, and legacy

Art has long been viewed as a callinga quasi-religious vocation that drives artists to seek answers to humanitys deepest questions. Yet the artworld is a risky, competitive business that requires artists to make strategic decisions, especially if the artist is a woman. In Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art, Christopher Marshall presents a new account of the life, work, and legacy of the Italian Baroque painter, revealing how she built a successful four-decade career in a male-dominated fieldand how her business acumen has even influenced the resurrection of her reputation today, when she has been transformed from a footnote of art history to a globally famous artist and feminist icon.

Combining the most recent research with detailed analyses of newly attributed paintings, the book highlights the business considerations behind Gentileschis development of a trademark style as she marketed herself to the public across a range of Italian artistic centers. The disguised self-portraits in her early Florentine paintings are reevaluated as an effort to make a celebrity brand of her own image. And, challenging the common perception that Gentileschis only masterpieces are her early Caravaggesque paintings, the book emphasizes the importance of her neglected late Neapolitan works, which are reinterpreted as innovative responses to the conventional practices of Baroque workshops.

Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art shows that Gentileschis remarkable success as a painter was due not only to her enormous talent but also to her ability to respond creatively to the continuously evolving trends and challenges of the Italian Baroque artworld.

Author Bio

Christopher R. Marshall is associate professor of art history, curatorship, and museum studies at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Baroque Naples and the Industry of Painting, the editor of Sculpture and the Museum, and a contributor to Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painters.