Yaël and Siséra, 1620.
© VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
She mastered the art of suspense like no one. As evidenced by Yaël and Sisisra (1620), who appears the Israelite heroine about to kill the Canaani general, piercing his skull with the help of a hammer and a tent stake placed on his temple!
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The impetuous Artemisia Gentileschi seizes the moment preceding the fatal gesture, which accentuates the dramaturgy of the scene. Joy of rediscovering the powerful work of the artist of the Caravagesque school, born in Rome in 1593 and died in Naples around 1656. Daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, painter of history, she emancipated from her in her audacity in her representation of biblical, ancient and mythological episodes, with a concern for sometimes freezing realism.
A violent pictorial approach
Which is expressed through its most famous painting: Holopherne beheading Judith (Around 1620), according to a chapter from the Old Testament, where blood spurts as the Assyrian soldier is struggling, in vain. The closed face of his executioner marks his determination. Like that of Artemisia, who represents the woman sometimes strong, sometimes vulnerable as in Suzanne and the old men (1610), where a young girl is coveted by two mature men, who conspired behind her back. Resilient and combative, she was raped in 1611 by Agostino Tassi, a friend of her father. The latter brought a trial that led to the conviction of the attacker. We understand better the violent nature of her pictorial approach, where she reveals the psychology of her protagonists with relevance, always in chiaroscuro, in large horizontal or vertical formats.
“Artemisia, heroine of art”. Until August 3. musee-jacquemart-andre.com
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