Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists of Baroque Italy

3 units

Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most well-known women artists of the early modern period, and with good reason. Nonetheless, the scope of her entire artistic production is rarely considered outside of her famous depictions of female violence. This course will contextualize Artemisia’s life and oeuvre, studying not only her time in Rome but her later travels to London, Venice, and Naples. Furthermore, we will consider Artemisia’s contemporaries to better understand the role of the female artist in Baroque Italy. Using a variety of primary sources, including painting, sculpture, print material, textiles, literature, and archival documents, we will explore both the historical spaces women occupied as well as contemporary scholarship situating women within the history of art. In the process, students will gain a deeper understanding of women’s agency in Baroque art, cultivate tools of art-historical analysis, and hone skills in presenting such analysis in both presentations and writing.