Artemisia: The Story of a Battle For Greatness by Alexandra Lapierre lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.
Chatto & Windus, 2000, Hardback in dust wrapper.
Illustrated by way of: Colour Photographs;
From the cover: Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most fascinating artists in history. Apprenticed at an early age to her father, the seventeenth-century painter Orazio Gentileschi, she rapidly became more famous than he was, for her rich, dramatic canvases. But her fame was tarnished by scandal. At the age of seventeen, she was violently raped by Agostino Tassi, an artist friend of Orazios. On discovering Tassis betrayal, Orazio took the case to court and there followed, in 1612, eight months of humiliation for Artemisia as the inhabitants of Romes colourful artists quarter came to give evidence. Their testimony frank, partial, often cruel in this first rape trial ever to be fully documented, made Artemisia and her father notorious.
When Alexandra Lapierre began researching Artemisias turbulent life, she did not expect to be drawn into a five-year-long quest that would take her to Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice and London, the city where Orazio died and Artemisia herself finished his last commission for Charles I at Greenwich. But Lapierres determination to understand Artemisia and her complex rivalry with her father would not let her rest until she had unearthed every scrap of evidence about their lives including the missing verdict to the trial which had lain hidden in a neglected corner of the archives.
The result is biography that reads like fiction: the extraordinary story of a seventeenth-century woman and the art world she conquered so vivid that you can hear the din on the streets and smell the paint in the studio.
Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Gently faded at the spine of the dust wrapper. Pages very gently age-tanned.
Green boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 496 pages. Bibliography. Paperback (Over 9¼” x 6″).
This book will be eventually reach my delightful website…(added to my Biography category.) but get 60% off buying from this very blog blog… Buy it now for just £2.60 + P&P! Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!
BookLovers of Bath 