GENOVA, Italy — Exhibition Artemisia Gentileschi: Courage and Passion It is a failure of storytelling in the Palazzo Ducale of Genoa and a cheap sensationalization of the pioneering artist’s life.
Organized in collaboration with Palazzo Ducale’s Agostino D’Orazio and Anna Orlando, Arthemisia, a company that produces successful exhibitions in Italy, sells the exhibition as “a faithful portrait of the complex personality of one of the most famous artists of all time”. However, it is unfortunately vague and ultimately presents a one-sided depiction of Gentileschi, trading in a celebration of the artist’s work. for a violent show.
Gentileschi is one of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance. The first woman to join the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (Academy of Drawing Arts) in Florence, she was a Baroque artist and a master of portraiture. In his canvases, women are active agents rather than victims of the male gaze. However, Gentileschi’s art has been historically overshadowed by the brutality he suffered at the hands of the painter Agostino Tassi in 1611 and the subsequent rape trial, the first recorded in history, which destroyed Gentileschi’s reputation, forcing him to flee Rome and change his identity.
In fact, the exhibition revolves around these events. Upon entering, visitors are greeted with a timeline of “The Abuse of Artemisia,” a map on the wall detailing the locations of the violence and the trial court, setting the tone for the rest of the rooms. The following galleries include many of Gentileschi’s portraits, often displayed alongside those of his contemporaries: Caravaggio, his father Orazio Gentileschi, and Tassi, his convicted abuser, described in a wall text as having talent and a “bad tenor”.
The most gruesome part of the exhibition is what its critics have called the “rape room”: a dark room with a bloody bed in the middle, surrounded by projections of Gentileschi’s paintings, also dripping with blood. The space echoes with the voice of an actor reciting Gentileschi’s contestations at the trial, recreating the artist’s rape in every detail.
The cherry on top of this haunted house-like experience is the gift shop, featuring t-shirts and keychains emblazoned with Tassi’s “I was the minister of my evil” (“Io del mio mal ministro fui”) quote. containing merchandise such as clappers.. An obscene book You drive me crazy at night: The Erotic Actions of Agostino Tassi, the Painter By Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the right-wing Italian journalist chosen to direct the 2024 Venice Biennale is also proudly on sale.
Multiple visitors have shared the experience of feeling deeply disturbed by the exhibit. Various activists, including art history students, industry professionals Noemi Tarantino and Valentina Crifò, and organizations including Non Una di Meno (Not one less) Genova, About Gender and Mi Riconosci, as well as art history students have been actively fighting to maintain it. Palazzo Ducale and Artemisia in charge of that irresponsible curation. I have joined them, so far signed by more than 4,000 people, to publish an open letter in Italian and English, calling for the closure of the so-called “rape room” and the removal of merchandise from the museum shop. Most importantly, these groups are calling for a more open dialogue about the historical narratives of gendered art and have organized several conferences and public actions on the topic.
Exhibitions are spaces where art interacts with the public and our contemporary world, not just showing works done in a room. This exhibition, and how its curators have handled the controversies it has sparked, is emblematic of how museums and cultural institutions fail to fulfill their social function, and continue to largely mismanage gender and patriarchal violence. Once again, women are reduced to the men in their lives: the ones who measure them, and the ones who hurt them.
Gentileschi’s life story and trial became a ticket sale, a spectacle to be consumed by the masses, at the same time uneducated, 16 euros poorer and traumatized by the exhibit’s carelessness with such sensitive issues. Even 400 years after his death, we continue to fail Gentileschi.
