Allegory of Inclination | |
---|---|
Artist | Artemisia Gentileschi |
Year | 1615-1616 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Movement | Baroque |
Dimensions | 152 cm× 61 cm(60 in× 24 in) |
Location | Casa Buonarroti, Florence |
Allegory of Inclination is a 1615-1617 oil on canvas painting by Artemisia Gentileschi on the ceiling of the Galleria in the Casa Buonarroti, in Florence. [1] The painting depicts a young nude female seated in the heavens holding a compass. Her light-colored hair is elaborately styled and she is partially covered by swirling drapery (added later by another hand). A star appears above her head.
It was commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (1568–1646) as part of a series of paintings to glorify the life of his great uncle, Michelangelo Buonarroti. The painting depicts "Inclination," or inborn creative ability, one of the "eight Personifications" attributed to the Renaissance master. [2] Seated on a cloud, she holds a mariner's compass and is guided by a star above, [3] signifying his natural disposition to greatness. [2] Gentileschi worked alongside Giovanni Biliverti, Giovanni Coccapani and Matteo Rosselli to complete the series, [4] while she was recovering from the birth of her second child. [5]
The figure's features are similar to those in self-portraits in Gentileschi's oeuvre. [6] The facial design, wispy hair and dimpled hands are characteristic of other paintings she created during her time in Florence. [7] The figure was painted as nude; the nudity was embarrassing to the commissioner's great-nephew Leonardo Buonarroti, and he commissioned Baldassare Franceschini, known as el Volterrano, to paint swirling veils and drapery over parts of it in 1684. [8]
In November 2022, work to restore the painting began. It was not possible to physically remove the added drapery without damaging the work, so the restorers planned to create a digital replica of the original version "using ultraviolet light, diagnostic imaging and X-rays to differentiate Gentileschi's brush strokes from those of the artist [who] covered the nudity". [9] From September 2023, the restored work was exhibited alongside a simulation of the original uncensored version. [10]
Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of 15. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and she had an international clientele.
Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence, Italy that is situated on property owned by the sculptor Michelangelo that he left to his nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti. The complex of buildings was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. Its collections include two of Michelangelo's earliest marble sculptures, the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs. A ten-thousand book library includes the family archive and some of Michelangelo's letters and drawings. The Galleria is decorated with paintings commissioned by Buonarroti the Younger and was created by Artemisia Gentileschi and other early seventeenth-century Italian artists.
Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, also known as Autoritratto in veste di Pittura or simply La Pittura, was painted by the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. The oil-on-canvas painting measures 98.6 by 75.2 centimetres and was probably produced during Gentileschi's stay in England between 1638 and 1639. It was in the collection of Charles I and was returned to the Royal Collection at the Restoration (1660) and remains there. In 2015 it was put on display in the "Cumberland Gallery" in Hampton Court Palace.
Venus and Cupid (Sleeping Venus) is a circa 1626 painting by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Venus and Cupid is a depiction of a sleeping Venus, who reclines on a blue bed covering and rich crimson and gold tasseled pillow. She wears nothing except a thin wisp of transparent linen around her thigh. Her son Cupid fans her with richly colored peacock feathers as she drifts to sleep. He is gazing at her with an adored, raptured expression. In the background, there is a window looking out onto a moonlight landscape where a temple to the goddess lies. Venus's face has full cheeks, heavy lids, a prominent nose, and small protruding chin—all features of Gentileschi's own face. The body movements are natural: Venus's hand rests lightly on her side, her legs are gently laid together. The work blends together realism and classicism through its iconography and the artist's style.
Susanna and the Elders is a 1610 painting by the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi and is her earliest-known signed and dated work. It was one of Gentileschi's signature works. She painted several variations of the scene in her career. It hangs at Schloss Weißenstein in Pommersfelden, Germany. The work shows a frightened Susanna with two men lurking above her while she is in the bath. The subject matter comes from the deuterocanonical Book of Susanna in the Additions to Daniel. This was a popular scene to paint during the Baroque period.
Esther Before Ahasuerus is a painting by the 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It shows the biblical heroine Esther going before Ahasuerus to beg him to spare her people. The painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, having been donated to the museum by Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll in 1969. It is one of Gentileschi's lesser known works, but her use of lighting, characterization, and style help in successfully portraying Esther as a biblical heroine as well as the main protagonist of the work.
This is an ongoing bibliography of work related to the Italian baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.
Danaë is a 1612 painting by the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It hangs in the Saint Louis Art Museum, United States.
Judith and Her Maidservant is one of four paintings by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi that depicts the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. This particular work, executed in about 1623 to 1625, now hangs in the Detroit Institute of Arts. The narrative is taken from the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, in which Judith seduces and then murders the general Holofernes. This precise moment illustrates the maidservant Abra wrapping the severed head in a bag, moments after the murder, while Judith keeps watch. The other three paintings are now shown in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, and the Musée de la Castre in Cannes.
Jael and Sisera is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, executed around 1620.
Self-Portrait as a Female Martyr, is also known as the Self-Portrait as a Martyr Saint. This painting was created by the Italian female artist, Artemisia Gentileschi. This self-portrait was made around 1615 depicting the artist herself as a martyr. It is one of two paintings by Gentileschi painted with oil on a wood panel. This self-portrait is currently in a private collection in the United States.
Santa Cecilia is an early painting, from c. 1620, by the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, a painter described as "a grand exception in the history of art - a successful woman painter in an era in which art was dominated by men."
Saint Catherine of Alexandra is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It is in the collection of the Uffizi, Florence. Gentileschi likely used the same cartoon or preparatory drawing to create both this painting and the Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1615–1617), now in the National Gallery, London.
The Allegory of Painting is a painting from around the 1640s attributed in 1988 to the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, although more recent research suggests it was painted by an anonymous Neapolitan painter in the mid-17th century. It is now in the Musee de Tesse, Le Mans, France.
The Portrait of a Gonfaloniere is a painting by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It hangs in the Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna. It is a portrait of an unknown gonfaloniere standing in full regalia and was painted in 1622. Mary D. Garrard has speculated that the man may be Pietro Gentile of Genoa.
Penitent Magdalene is a painting by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It hangs in Seville Cathedral. It has probably been in the cathedral since the late 17th century. She returned to the subject later in the 1620s in Mary Magdalene as Melancholy.
The Self Portrait of Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi was painted in the early 1630s. It currently hangs in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome. It is one of many paintings where Gentileschi depicts herself. Beyond self-portraits, her allegorical and religious paintings often featured herself in different guises.
Cleopatra is a 1611-1612 oil on canvas painting of Cleopatra by Artemisia Gentileschi, now in the private Etro collection in Milan.
Susanna and the Elders is an Old Testament story of a woman falsely accused of adultery after she refuses two men who, after discovering one another in the act of spying on her while she bathes, conspire to blackmail her for sex. Depictions of the story date back to the late 3rd/early 4th centuries and are still being created.
Aurora is a c.1625-1627 painting by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, depicting the Roman goddess of dawn. It is part of a private collection in Rome.
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