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Woman painter Artemisia Gentileschi laid bare in restoration
The piece by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque's trailblazing woman artist, is undergoing a months-long restoration to rediscover her original vision, hidden for centuries under a thick layer of strategically placed paint.
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US conservator Elizabeth Wicks, gestures towards a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi's painting 'Allegoria dell'Inclinazione' in the Casa Buonarroti Museum, in Florence on January 10, 2023. (AFP/Andreas Solaro)
U
sing gentle, circular motions, an art restorer gently cleans the painting of a half-nude woman that was censored more than 300 years ago by a prudish descendant of Michelangelo.
The piece by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque's trailblazing woman artist, is undergoing a months-long restoration to rediscover her original vision, hidden for centuries under a thick layer of strategically placed paint.
While the restorers consider it too risky to remove the drapery and veil later painted on to cover the figure's breasts and loins, diagnostic imaging will provide a glimpse of the original nude as Artemisia intended.
"As we say in Italian, it's been turned inside out like a glove with all the diagnostic techniques possible to understand how the painting was conceived, how it was painted," conservator Elizabeth Wicks, the head of the team of restoration experts, told AFP.
The experts also want to uncover "what happened to it afterwards, and to see if we can read between the veils of censorship that were added to the painting."
Artemisia painted "Allegory of Inclination" in 1616 to glorify Italy's most celebrated artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti.
But the work's curious history has only added to the fascination surrounding Artemisia, the 17th century's most eminent woman painter whose talent, independence and dramatic life story have fuelled new appreciation in the post-#MeToo era.
