Preface
1 Artemisia and the Writers: Feminism in Early Modern Europe
2 Sexuality and Sexual Violation: Susanna and Lucretia
3 The Fictive Self: Musicians and Magdalenes
4 Women and Political Power: Judith
5 Battles of the Sexes: Women on Top
6 The Divided Self: Allegorical and Real
7 Matriarchal Succession: The Greenwich Ceiling
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
Mary D. Garrard is Professor Emerita of Art History at American University, Washington, D.C. Her books include Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (1989) and Brunelleschi's Egg: Gender, Art and Nature in Renaissance Italy (2010).
“No in-depth study of Artemisia’s artistic achievements can ignore
the fact that Artemisia was a woman in a man’s world. Placing
Artemisia’s life and work in the context of early modern feminism,
Garrard’s handy-sized book builds on her ground-breaking study
Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian
Baroque Art (1989). . . . Her feminist perspective frequently
offers considerable food for thought.”
*Art Newspaper, "Five Must-Read Books on the Italian Artist"*
"Compelling. . . . There’s not a little irony in reading Garrard’s
lively account of a seventeenth-century artist’s life wherein
plague is plentiful—Artemisia likely died of it—when a plague (or
at least pandemic) is back on the table. How strange that a
book about the late Renaissance and Baroque would now prove so very
much of our time. It’s timely in the sense of the aforementioned
deadly and contagious illness, but also features tyranny, religious
persecution and reaction. And it is timely in its exploration of
feminist outrage at patriarchal power, of men’s control over
women’s bodies, and in the exploration of an art of anger,
accusation, and even great wit. It’s a lot and it’s awesome. . . .
Much more than an exploration of a singular female artist of the
Italian Baroque, it’s a map of interconnected traditions,
intellectual conversations, inspirations and leapfrogging, a whole
network of early modern European feminists in conversation with one
another, and with us, across time."
*Hyperallergic*
“Garrard’s return to the great Artemisia Gentileschi is uniquely
rich in knowledge and reflection. It is not only an authoritative
study of the historical Artemisia and the ways—whether openly
brutal, subtly injurious, or beneficial—in which her art and life
were affected by her sex. It also places her in the
‘transhistorical community of women’ that Garrard brings to life.
The book is moreover a heartfelt appeal to writers and readers of
art history to account for their own attitudes and experiences. And
with all that, it is a pleasure to read.”
*Gary Schwartz, art historian*
“Garrard’s exciting new book on the Italian painter Artemisia
Gentileschi marks another formidable contribution to the field by
this groundbreaking scholar. Garrard weaves a rich tapestry of
women’s voices, arguing that the shared vision of remarkable women
of the period reflects a pervasive and influential feminist
phenomenon in Europe. This book will provide a provocative source
for understanding the pan-European phenomenon of what Garrard aptly
terms the ‘woman on top.’”
*Babette Bohn, Texas Christian University, author of “Women
Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna”*
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