Rec triumvirate + 1

[lastandleast]

A trio of recs dealing with Artemisia Gentileschi, a 17th-century painter: Artemisia, The Passion of Artemisia, and The Life and Art of Atemisia Gentileschi.Although I'm no great lover of biography or historical fiction, I occasionally hunger for a good story about someone who actually lived, and then spiral off into obsession with that person for

Comments

[cervrok]

can i just tell you how happy this post made me? i was an art history major, and i love discovering new artists to learn about. thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me someone besides taylor to think about for a little while. ;) once i've seen some of her work and read some of the info, can we talk all artsy-fartsy?

[lastandleast]

Wait. You want to think about someone other than Taylor? Why would you ever want to do a thing like that? ;)

I think you'll have fun with Artemisia--she was an amazing artist and seems to have been quite the fabulous woman, too. I took almost enough art history classes in college for it to qualify as my minor, but I don't ever remember hearing about her. (If only there had been a class in History as Soap Opera, I bet she would have figured prominently on the syllabus.)

I'm always up for the artsy-fartsy talk, even though I'm something of a barbarian who counts Monet as her favorite artist. (Just like the rest of America.)

OOH!

[laurahorror]

The Vreeland book! I read "The Girl in Hyacinth Blue" a few months ago and loved it. I'm dying to read the Artemisia book...

L

Re: OOH!

[lastandleast]

The Girl in Hyacinth Blue has been on my to-do list ever since it came out. I really like the way Vreeland writes--in The Passion of Artemisia, there's all this big, noble talk about God and the universe and art. It's probably all anarchronistic, but I love it anyway ;)

Back when Hyacinth Blue came out, its big competition was Girl with a Pearl Earring, which I read instead. Turns out I chose poorly: Tracy Chevalier's work kind of sucks in comparison.

[mistressrenet]

So the movie was actually good? I'd heard some criticism.

And write!

[lastandleast]

The movie was beautiful and fun to watch--I'm not sure if "good" is the word I'd use for it. Apparently its angle that Artemisia was actually in love with the man on trial is sort of scandalous, even leading Gloria Steinem to encourage that people protest against it.

[mistressrenet]

So it's like big, over-the-top costume drama good. XD

Ah, Gloria Steinem. Why didn't you take this time to fight for equal wages, again?