Italian Women of the Renaissance Essays -- Arts, Gentileschi, Anguisso

Across Europe, between 1400 and 1650, there were women present in all major styles of time. They worked along side of great artists and were developing new techniques and styles. Women also played a very important role in the Renaissance. Although not as well documented as their male counterparts, women worked along with the other great masters, were just as innovating, and were key in developing new techniques. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1652), daughter of a well-known Roman artist, was one of the first women to become recognized in her time for her work.. She was noted for being a genius in the world of art. But because she was displaying a talent thought to be exclusively for men, she was frowned upon. However by the time she turned seventeen she had created one of her best works. One of her more famous paintings was her stunning interpretation of Susanna and the Elders. This was all because of her father. He was an artist himself and he had trained her and introduced her to working artists of Rome, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 1. In an era when women artists were limited to painting portraits, she was the first to paint major historical and religious scenes. After her death, people seemed to forget about her. Her works of art were often mistaken for those of her fathers. An art historian on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia â€Å"has suffered a s cholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.† Renewed and long overdue interest in Artemisia recently has helped to recognize her as a talented renaissance painter and one of the world’s greatest female artists. She played a very important role in the renaissance. (http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml) Another... ...n for her spontaneity which came from her passionate and stubborn temperament. In her Rime, she writes poems relating to her love of a man named Collaltino. Her poems are filled with ecstasy and sorrow, with the remembering of happy moments but also with jealousy and anxiety between the two. In 1553, her health took a turn for the worse. She caught a high fever which killed her in a few days. The same year, her sister had her Rime published. It was not very successful in her century. It had to wait two centuries before being published again. She is now hailed as one of the greatest Italian poets. Stampa’s Rime is one of the largest collection of Canzonieri in the Italian literature. There are 311 poems in all, arranged in chronological order. Gaspara freed herself from her obsessive love by transferring her pain into some of the greatest poetry in Italian history.