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Artemisisia
ANNA BANTI (Translated by Shirley D’Ardia Caracciolo)
Category:
Fiction
ABOUT ARTEMISIA
ABOUT ANNA BANTI
Introduction by Susan Sontag
First published in 1953, Artemisia
is a classic of 20th century Italian
literature. From its first publication in 1953, Artemisia, a novel about
Artemisia Gentileschi, an iconic 17th century painter, by Anna Banti, a
brilliant Italian art historian, established itself as a feminist masterpiece.
Like Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower
and Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, Artemisia
is a book about the process of artistic
creation.
Much in Gentileschi’s life marked her out as a victim – rape at
the age of 18, a forced marriage to a man she did not love and, a
powerful, patriarchal father, Orazio Gentileschi, who failed to value her
artistic genius. But Gentileschi did not accept the status of victim, in the
years between 1610 and 1650; she produced over 50 paintings that
have established her as one of the great painters of all time.
She gave up everything – “all tenderness, all claim to feminine
virtues” to dedicate herself solely to painting. Sacrifices that Anna Banti,
herself an artist, fully understands and captures in this amazing novel.
Republished at a time when appreciation of Gentileschi’s art is at its
highest, Artemisia
gives us the key to understanding the genius of this
feminist icon.
“What makes Artemisia
a great book – and unique in Banti’s
work – is this double destiny, of a book lost and re-created. A book that
by being posthumous, rewritten, resurrected, gained incalculably in
emotional reach and moral authority. A metaphor for literature,
perhaps. And a metaphor for reading, militant reading – which, at
its worthiest, is rereading – too.” Susan Sontag
Anna Banti, the pen name of Lucia Lopresti, was born in Florence in 1895.
Like Artemisia Gentileschi, Anna Banti was always defined by a male
mentor –in her case, her husband Roberto Longhi to whom Artemisia
is
dedicated. Until his death in 1970, Anna Banti lived in Roberto Longhi’s
shadow. Since then, like Artemisia, she has found an audience – inspired
by feminism - able to appreciate her genius in its own right. The dialogue
between author and subject in Artemisia
is one of the great literary
conversations of our time.