Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait As The Allegory Of Painting

Self-Portraiture is a form that is well known for showing one's true nature. A self-portrait shows a person in their eyes. By doing this it shows deeper meaning, and what is hiding inside. Many artists use this form of art as a way to depict their true feelings. For women artists it shows the artists true feeling on their position as a woman. Looking at self-portraits of woman it is easy to see that most of them display the woman in some position of power. Woman use the self-portrait as an opportunity to get their true feelings about a woman's power out. There are many example of this throughout history. A popular one would be Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the allegory of painting. This painting shows how Artemisia looks at herself

In this painting Artemisia is trying to make a statement. Basically Artemisia is trying to prove her point that women were just as good in the art of painting as men were. In this self-portrait Artemisia represents herself as the allegory of painting. An allegory is a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms. In Artemisia's painting Artemisia is stating that women are the true painters. In fact her self-portrait implies that she is the true embodiment of painting itself. This is different than many of the other self-portraits. Gentileschi paints herself with a gold chain, a pendant mask standing for imitation, unruly locks of hair that signify the divine frenzy of artistic creation, and garments of changing colors. All of these characteristics represent the female personification of painting. In Whitney Chadwick's Women. Art, and Society, Chadwick explains that this self-portrait was different because the woman artist "Does not present herself as a gentlewoman, but as the act of painting itself" (Chadwick113 ). Artemisia always had a father that supported her in her works, so it was easy for her to make this stand and show everybody else that she knew that she was a true artist. Artemisia demonstrates that she is more than just a silly girl that thinks she is a painter like society likes to label her as. Instead she

Sofonisba wasn't taught as much as most of the other woman artists were and yet she is able to demonstrate her beauty and power through this painting and many of her other paintings. Sofonisba is also credited with the ability to infuse an image with life despite not being properly trained. One would think that this was enough to convince man that women were just as good of painters as men were. In Sofonisba's Self-Portrait she depicts herself as a conservatively dressed young woman. This representation of herself as a modest young women was the tradition for Self-portraits painted by woman. Many wanted to show that they are classy and still modest. Sofonisba also placed a piano in front of her. The reason for this being that she wanted to show her skill in the form of art. By placing a piano in the panting she was able to show she was artistic in many ways and not just in the form of painting. Sofonisba also placed an elderly woman into the painting. It is thought that this woman was a chaperone who went with her to Spain. Sofonisba may have placed her in the image to show that she is cared for and no matter what anyone says she knows that she is a wonderful artist who paints without the worry of other's opinions. There are many praise that follow Sofonisba's work and despite all this praise her social status prevented her from selling her pieces of