Italian Baroque, 1593 -after 1654 · Identity, role and physical presence

Painter, musician, saint or court lady: Artemisia transforms the portrait into an action scene where identity is constructed through gesture as much as through the face.

Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome in 1593, trained in the studio of her father Orazio and led a career between Rome, Florence, Naples and London. In 1616 she became one of the first women admitted to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence. Her portraits and self-portraits are not limited to recording features: they put a person in a situation. In the Self-portrait in allegory of Painting, produced around 1638 -1639 in London, Artemisia leans towards an invisible canvas, chain around the neck, hair undone and arms outstretched. Because the allegory of Painting is a woman, she can unite profession, body and symbol in a way inaccessible to her male colleagues. There lute player looks at the viewer with the confidence of an interpreter; self-portraits as a martyr or Saint Catherine adapt her features to roles of constancy. Gentlemen, knights, nuns and seated ladies also show her ability to differentiate rank, fabric, armor and temperament. Identifications sometimes remain debated: using one's own face does not mean that each heroine is an autobiographical story. The selection "Portraits of Artemisia Gentileschi" notably compares Self-portrait (1610-1620, Pommersfelden) and Self-portrait as an allegory of painting. His reading favors space.

In Artemisia, representing oneself does not mean stopping in front of a mirror: it is showing what a face becomes when it paints, plays, resists or embodies an idea.