The people of madrid took to the streets to celebrate the 199 years of the Prado Museum on the night of Saturday, November 24. As if it were a canvas, on the façade of Velázquez of the building of Villanueva acknowledged that the museum is full of muses, but empty of women artists. There are only seven paintings signed by them from among the almost 1,700 paintings that are exposed. The museum has publicly admitted the shortcoming and launched a slogan to try to disguise the historic inequality: “The Meadow is all”, could be read on the facade. There were good intentions and fragments of the works of Clara Peeters, Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi.
And it was then when the Prado stumbled upon his stone: at the time of the claim the only box of Gentileschi to the art gallery is fortunate to retain, was absent in room. In The birth of saint John the Baptist, 1635, four women attend the newly born, and Zechariah to be removed to write, while Elizabeth –barren until the angel announces to her elderly husband that she will give birth to a child who you need to call John– lies exhausted in the bed after the birth. Gentileschi, one of the figures most desired in the circuit of the museums abroad, has been exposed in a room only two months in 2018. Before it showed between November 2016 and may 2017. In 2014, six months. Before 2012 it was impossible to meet with the artist, who has been in the Prado visibility is intermittent.
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The last enigma of Artemisia Gentileschi
Such and as reflected in the movements of the paint, collected in the museum archives consulted by this newspaper, since the end of 1999 has only been on display in the museum 26 months. It has been more easy to see it abroad, where it has remained on view during 31 months. He has travelled to Bonn (Germany), New York, Rome, Paris, Milan and Bari (Italy). The rest, 171 months, it has remained in the shadow.
A rescue emergency
however, after the Milan exhibition, in 2012, the fever Artemisia multiplied and the artist was reborn with momentum. Then passed by the Royal Palace of Milan more than 150,000 people. It was the first retrospective in discussing his artistic production, with nearly fifty pieces and unpublished documents. This attraction overwhelmed the confirms Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado, who says that, given the scarcity of work attributed to it (barely 40, not including the believe of her father Orazio), piece the demand of many Megabahis museums. Until now the museo del prado in madrid has resisted inclusion in the team owner of the Baroque in chamber, but this will change, as Falomir to THE COUNTRY.
Since 1999, the box has been without exposing 171 months
This week the Prado has become to incorporate The birth of st. John the Baptist to the room 7, the place where it tends to be taught when it is not provided or in stores. And the address claims to be determined to get it out of the exile of the combs (where is stored the paintings in the tanks) : “we’ll Only lend it out once more in the next few years. The National Gallery of London is organising a major retrospective and will travel to there in 2020. In the next few months we will get a room with the full series, along with the visions of john the baptist made by Stanzione,” reports Falomir by phone.
A scene intimate
The birth of st John the Baptist was made to hang in the Buen Retiro Palace, and there he was, in 1701, in a series of five paintings, along with those of Massimo Stanzione: The Baptist’s birth announced to Zechariah, the Preaching of the Baptist in the wilderness, Decapitation of st. John the Baptist and St. John the Baptist takes leave of his parents. The box caught the attention of the art historian Roberto Longhi (1890-1970), who emphasized the nature of the “intimacy of home”. The expert considered it “the most beautiful effect of the interior home of all the paint seiscentista Italian”.
Anna Banti, writer and wife of roberto Longhi, he got to the revaluation of Artemisia to publish the novel Artemisia, in 1947. In the book, the author analyses the spectacular box Judith beheading Holofernes, to recreate a revenge that ends with the death of a oppressor. Banti draws the artist as a strong woman, clever and intelligent, the archetype of the one who rises up against the oppression of men.
we’re Just going to borrow it once more in the next few years
Miguel Falomir, director of the Museo del Prado
Gentileschi was raped by the painter Agostino Tassi, and that oppression is referred to Banti. In 1612, the father of the painter, who is 18 years old, report to Tassi. In the trial, Agostino denies it all, and defends itself by ensuring that the young person has relationships with other men, giving to understand that it is a woman incapable of distinguishing between a relationship-consensual and a violation.
The victim was subjected to a gynecologist appointment in the course of the process, which came to the conclusion that it was not virgin. Of course, she was raped. Gentileschi assured that only had sexual contact with Tassi and against their will. Also stated that he was forced on several occasions, but to corroborate the validity of their testimony, the painter was tortured aprentándole the fingers of the hand with strings. The pain did not alter his testimony, and Tassi was found guilty and sentenced to few months in jail, which did not arrive or a year.
The box that retains The Meadow is expanded by the bottom and the left side, because, according to the hypothesis of the museum, the painter took advantage of a paint that I already had made and it was enlarged to adapt it to the measures outlined in the order. As has ceased for written by Andrés Úbeda, deputy director of the museum, is a mature work of Gentileschi, when the caravaggismo his father is tempered with delicate classicism and in turn, your daughter is left impacted by the new commandments aesthetic.
