Violence and Virtue
Subtitle: Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes
Publisher: Yale University Press; Art Institute of Chicago
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 40
ISBN-13: 9780300186796
Subjects: Painting, baroque; Painters, italy
Description: "Violence and Virtue examines a single, uniquely powerful painting: Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi. A quintessential example of early Baroque painting, this work has, more than any other picture in her oeuvre, come to define Gentileschi as an early modern woman and a superb Baroque painter. Eve Straussman-Pflanzer explores the circumstances surrounding the painting's creation and the meanings conveyed by the image itself. Among other topics of investigation, the author addresses the role of women artists and patrons in the 17th century and the fascination with violence and the importance of female heroes during the Baroque era. A comparative analysis between Gentileschi's masterpiece and other paintings and works on paper by artists such as Caravaggio, Botticelli, Cristofano Allori, and Felice Ficherelli, among others, testifies to the importance of Gentileschi's portrayal of the heroine Judith"--