Details

ONLINE ART HISTORY COURSE
Artemisia Gentileschi: Breaking Rules in Baroque Italy

Course Description:

Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most famous female painters of the early modern era. Her works now command millions at auction, but in her own time she complained of being underpaid. In this course, we’ll examine Artemisia’s unusual life as a female painter and her travels across the Italian peninsula in search of patrons and fame. By examining how male painters such as her father Orazio, Caravaggio, and Titian influenced her style, and investigating how Artemisia in turn influenced Neapolitan painters we’ll hone connoisseurship skills. Using methods that go back to Giorgio Vasari, we’ll also look at the power of biography for understanding – and sometimes misunderstanding – an artist’s choices and career. Finally, we’ll question what it meant in the Baroque era when a woman’s place was not in the home, but in the studio.

Instructor:

Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning at Syracuse University London, where she has taught art history and history classes on Italian Art in London and the UK; Women and Art: London and UK; and Underground London.

She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the architectural patronage of the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.

Course Objectives:

• To understand possibilities for women artists in the early modern era
• To develop an eye for recognizing consistencies in an artist’s style
• To critically debate how biography impacts an artist’s output
• To reflect on the importance of travel for artists in the Renaissance and Baroque eras

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with syllabus, videos of recordings, reading list, podcasts, discussion forum, and more.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ART HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings:
Readings to be provided to students in PDF format prior to the beginning of course.

Complete syllabus will be provided upon registration.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR THE DURATION OF THE COURSE

Schedule

LECTURE 1 – THURSDAY, JUNE 17 | ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI: SELF-PORTRAITS AND SELF PROMOTION

Artemisia’s work has often been confused with that of her father, Orazio Gentileschi. Connoisseurship has often been overshadowed by focus on her biography, as well as a reliance on the belief that Artemisia almost always painted herself into her art. We will talk about if we can recognize her hand in her work through deep looking, and the deeper meanings of self-portraiture and self promotion.

LECTURE 2 – THURSDAY, JUNE 24 | ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI: TRAVELS TO FLORENCE AND VENICE

Born in Rome, Artemisia lived in Florence and Naples and travelled to Venice and London. Both male and female artists traveled, but when women moved to different cities, they carried heavier burdens of behavior along with their luggage. In this first section, we’ll investigate why Artemisia moved to Florence and then to Venice, and the effect her travels had on her art.

LECTURE 3 – THURSDAY, JULY 1 | ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI: TRAVELS TO NAPLES AND LONDON

After Venice, Artemisia went to Naples. Her time in Naples led to new experiments with color and built up her reputation. While living there, she made a trip to London to work with her father Orazio at the court of King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. Although there is little information on Artemisia’s stay, we can get a sense of what life in 17th-century London was like for Orazio, and how she fit in.

Instructor

Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning at Syracuse University London, where she has taught art history and history classes on Italian Art in London and the UK; Women and Art: London and UK; and Underground London.

She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the architectural patronage of the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.