ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI: PAINTER OF STILL LIFES?

Abstract

rendering of fruit from nature (ebbe costei un altro bel talento, che fu di ritrarne al nat urale ogni sorte di frutti) and reported at length a remarkable collaboration between her and Giovan Francesco Romanelli, the re sult of which was a painting that combined a still life of fruit bv Gentileschi and a portrait by Romanelli of the woman artist at work, much to the jealousy of Giovan Francesco's wife. The crux of Baldinucci's account has been embraced by scholars, pointing to mod est still-life elements in autograph pictures by Gentileschi and ascribing to her paintings (to varying degrees, questionably her work) that contain such details/ Furthermore, ties between Artemisia and the so-called Master of the Acquavella Still Life have been posited, as have the possibilities of locating autonomous still lifes from her brush and of recognizing her influence upon certain Tus can paintings of this genre. Weighing the information then available, I concluded that Baldinucci was either mis informed by sources who either manufac tured the entire Gentileschi-Romanelli yarn or relayed to him an already garbled tradi tion and that there remains ... no unim peachable evidence that Artemisia Gen tileschi was markedly skilled in or made any substantive contribution to the art of still life. Assuming a muddled tradition to have most likely been the case, given what other wise would have been an incredibly rancirul story, I proposed that the painter in question was rather the still-lire specialist Cuovanna Garzoni, who spent many years in Rome and almost certainly came into contact with Romanelli. I noted the many striking paral lels between the travels and patronage of the two women artists.