Fierce Dreamer
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was raised in the almost exclusively male art world of 17th-century Italy. She had a natural eye for colour, texture, and perspective, and her father Orazio, also an artist, recognised her genius. Lafferty explores some reasons Artemisia became known as a ‘painter of fierce, assertive women and held such mastery over facial expression’. One thought is her visceral reaction to witnessing the execution of 22-year-old Beatrice Cenci in 1599; another is that she met and greatly admired Caravaggio, whose paintings were often considered blasphemous and grotesque in their honesty. In hindsight, perhaps, the horrors of her own childhood translate into her painting.
As a girl, Artemisia grinds and mixes paints, and later, as her artwork excels, she renders background and detail on Orazio’s commissions. All the while she continues to work on her own renditions of Susannah and the Elders, and Judith and Holofernes. At 17, she outshines her father, but Orazio continues to imprison her and covet her labour while offering false hopes for a move to Florence. Seemingly aware of her brilliance, however, he hires Agostino Tassi to teach Artemisia, but after being brutally raped by him, she struggles to convince her father of her innocence. Agostino is eventually brought to trial, but Artemisia is humiliated, degraded and physically tortured in the courtroom before being exonerated.
This is an immensely readable fictional biography of an artist who was sought after by the Medici family and considered a Baroque master of biblical and mythological scenes. Lafferty has infused her characters with the chiaroscuro evident in Artemisia’s paintings, along with a full range of emotional colour. It’s a gripping story of love, lust, envy and artistic genius. Artemisia was a ‘fierce dreamer’ and centuries ahead of her time. Readers of Sarah Dunant and Donna Russo Morin will love this novel, but it’s recommended to all.
