The Topic
The influence of Artemisia Gentileschi’s self-portraits on her recognition and early feminist history.
The importance of the topic
Speaking about art, the representatives of the general public tend to associate it with the Renaissance because a lot of artists were rather active during this very period. They created not only paintings but also sculptures and architecture that impressed society due to their unique features. In addition to that, the enormous development of these branches of the visual arts was observed at that time (Couchman, Poska, & McIver, 2016). The influence of Gentileschi’s paintings, self-portraits, in particular, is a rather important topic because female artists of the Renaissance were rarely recognized by male artists and critics.
A lot of women tried their hand at painting at that period and prepared successful works. Nevertheless, they failed to gain the expected public’s attention and recognition. Gentileschi turned out to be one of few women who attained this goal and the first representative of her gender who was accepted as a member of the Italian Academia of Art and Design (Conn, 2015). Thus, it is critical to find out her recipe for success and discuss its ingredients in detail. In particular, her self-portraits are believed to be the tool that provided her with an opportunity to reach these achievements in a community ruled by men. Unlike other artists, Gentileschi depicted women in the process of creating artworks and did not emphasize their beauty itself, which affected women’s place in the professional world.
The Perspective of Looking at the Topic
In the future paper, Gentileschi will be discussed as one of the most prominent female representatives of the Renaissance in painting. Attention will be paid to the fact that women were depreciated at that time. They were associated with the notion of beauty or symbolized some abstract ideas. Their figures always lacked action, which prevented them from being treated seriously and with respect. However, Gentileschi’s self-portraits altered this situation. She painted herself during work, which placed her alongside other artists. Such a tendency was rather revolutionary and revealed feminist ideas of equality between men and women. Thus, Gentileschi’s self-portraits will be considered not only as those masterpieces that made her recognized by critics, other artists, and the representatives of the general public but also promoted the development of early feminism and establishment of females in the world ruled by males.
The Thesis
Artemisia Gentileschi’s self-portraits promoted her recognition as a female artist in the world of male painters and contributed to the development of early feminist history due to their unique depiction of a woman.
The Research Materials Proving the Thesis
To prove the thesis written above, a lot of materials will be approached. First of all, attention will be paid to the review of literature written by professionals in the sphere of art and history. The discussion will focus on the description of the Renaissance painting, including the recognition of male and female artists, peculiarities of the depiction of women, and the role of their self-portraits. In addition to that, these sources will provide some general information about the artist’s life. A range of peer-reviewed articles will be used to include opinions of researchers who focused not on some generalized topics but provided a thorough discussion of particular facts and unique features of Renaissance and Gentileschi’s works. Actual works of art will be used to support information obtained from literature sources with a personally conducted analysis of paintings.
References
Conn, V. L. (2015). The personal is the political: Artemisia Gentileschi’s revolutionary self-portrait as the allegory of painting. Kaleidoscope, 8(1), 23-29.
Couchman, J., Poska, A., & McIver, K. (Eds.). (2016). The Ashgate research companion to women and gender in Early Modern Europe. New York, NY: Routledge.