Inappropriation
Leonardo de Buonarrotto chose to have Artemisia Gentileschi’s Inclination muffled with drapery for moralistic reasons which would have scarcely commended themselves to his predecessor Michelangelo, some 50 years after she painted it. Fairly weird, agreed; despite the fact that each age imposes retrospective tastes upon the past — for moralistic reasons — which is massively not confined to art.
However, the real question is why during the last 300 years no restorer has been requested to remove these additions . Our churches have been evolving for one to two millennia in this continent, and every now and then excresences of previous taste are expunged… In this case it would seem more appropriate for the original artist’s intention to remain pure.
Artemisia, together with her father, was invited to England by the Great King, and painted here for him before the rebellion; but like most of the foreign artists he accumulated had to leave quickly with the onset of war. It is likely she would have agreed with one of his later random jottings:
Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest.”
Jack
said,
Monday, 31 March 2008 at 5:22 am
Jack…
Hello. This is very nice blog…