Artemisia (European Women Writers)

Artemisia Gentileschi, born in 1598, the daughter of an esteemed painter, taught art in Naples and painted the great women of Roman and biblical history: Esther, Judith, Cleopatra, Bathsheba. She also painted the rich and royal, but her wealthy male patrons wanted admiration while her women models wanted disguise. This woman, who had been violated in her youth and reviled as a rap victim in a public trial before going off to heretical England, who was rejected by her father and later abandoned by her husband and misunderstood by her daughter, who could not read or write but who could only paint—this woman was one of the first modern times to uphold through her work and deeds the right of women to pursue careers compatible with their talents and on an equal footing with men.
Artemisia lives again in Anna Banti's novel, which was first published to critical acclaim in Italy in 1947 (Banti was the pseudonym of Lucia Lopresti, 1895-1978). Recognized as a consummate stylist, she was one of the most successful women writers in Italy before the resurgence of the feminist movement. Although Artemisia describes life in seventeenth-century Rome, Florence, and Naples, the time setting of the novel is, in a deeper sense, a historical, merging as it does the experience of a woman dead for three centuries with the terrors of World War II experienced by the author. Shirley D'Ardia Caracciolo's English translation of Banti's novel skillfully renders its complexity and poignancy as a study of courage.

Artemisia (European Women Writers) (English and Italian Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Banti, Anna

Literary

University Of Nebraska Press

Bison Books

Artemisia Gentileschi, born in 1598, the daughter of an esteemed painter, taught art in Naples and painted the great women of Roman and biblical history. She could neither read nor write, and she was the reviled victim in a public rape trial, rejected by her father, and later abandoned by her husband. Nevertheless, she was one of the first women in modern times to uphold through her work and deeds the right of women to pursue careers compatible with their talents and on an equal footing with men. This edition features a new introduction by the celebrated critic and writer Susan Sontag. Anna Banti, the pen name of Lucia Lopresti, was born in Florence in 1895. Trained as an art historian, she turned to novels, stories, and autobiographical prose in the 1930s. Artemisia, her second novel, published in 1947, is the most acclaimed of the sixteen works of fiction she published during her long life, and is considered a classic of twentieth century Italian literature. Her last, harrowingly confessional novel, A Piercing Cry (Un grido lacerante), appeared in 1981. Banti also wrote art criticism and monographs on painters (Lorenzo Lotto, Fra Angelico, Velázquez, Monet), literary criticism and film reviews, and translated novels by Thackery, Colette, Alain Fournier, and Virginia Woolf. She died in Ronchi di Massa (Tuscanny) in 1985.

Artemisia

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Greatly influenced by writers ranging from Dickens and Proust to Woolf and Colette, Anna Banti was a prominent figure on the Italian literary scene from the 1940s until her death in 1985. The five tales in "La signorina" e altri racconti display her talent across many genres--fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery.Banti's stories portray the ageless conflict between the expectations of society and the aspirations of the individual. In "Vocazioni indistinte," the young Ofelia becomes a pianist after her marriage prospects fail, but self-doubt turns her success into miserable mediocrity. In the futuristic "Le donne muoiono," men acquire a new evolutionary ability; women, lacking that ability, are consigned to the status of an inferior race. "Joveta di Betania," set in the time of the Crusades, follows the daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem as she escapes to a life of seclusion as an abbess--a life that becomes for her a source of proud freedom and deep bitterness. In "I velieri," a young boy creates an imaginary world from an uncertain childhood memory. "La signorina" tells of a young woman who eventually finds herself, as a writer.

"La signorina" e altri racconti: An MLA Text Edition (MLA Texts and Translations)

Modern Language Association of America

Greatly influenced by writers ranging from Dickens and Proust to Woolf and Colette, Anna Banti was a prominent figure on the Italian literary scene from the 1940s until her death in 1985. The five tales in "The Signorina" and Other Stories display her talent across many genres�fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery.
Banti's stories portray the ageless conflict between the expectations of society and the aspirations of the individual. In "Uncertain Vocations," the young Ofelia becomes a pianist after her marriage prospects fail, but self-doubt turns her success into miserable mediocrity. In the futuristic "The Women Are Dying," men acquire a new evolutionary ability; women, lacking that ability, are consigned to the status of an inferior race. "Joveta of Betania," set in the time of the Crusades, follows the daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem as she escapes to a life of seclusion as an abbess�a life that becomes for her a source of proud freedom and deep bitterness. In "The Sailing Ships," a young boy creates an imaginary world from an uncertain childhood memory. "The Signorina" tells of a young woman who eventually finds herself, as a writer.

The Signorina" and Other Stories: An MLA Translation (MLA Texts and Translations)

Themes

Hoperoad Publishing Ltd

About the Author\nAnna Banti is the pseudonym of the writer Lucia Lopresti. She is a historian and art critic, author of novels such as Le donne muoiono, Le mosche d'oro, and the fascinating autobiographical work Un grido lacerante, her very personal writing, rigorous and steely, focused on giving a voice to women who fought against the prejudices of their time and who pursued the dignity that corresponded to them.\nWhile the accomplishments of 16th century Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi may have been all-too-often silenced in the predominantly-male history of art, Anna Banti saw in the talented artist the universal symbol of the tenacious woman incessantly fighting for the vindication of her dignity. Banti composed a first novel channeling the voice and gaze of the painter, the manuscript of which was sadly destroyed in the Nazi bombing of Florence in August, 1944. Years later, Banti returned to her project to create a new, poetic, multifaceted book. A two-part choral where the voices of two women—a female artist erased by history and a modern-day writer striving to rebuild a present in ruins—join to share the burden of the world’s indifference to their talent.

Artemisia (Spanish Edition)

Editorial Periferica

Noi credevamo (Italian Edition)

Contemporary

Mondadori

Artemisia (Italian Edition)

Bompiani

"Per quante forme, per quanti modi diversi possa esprimersi il dolore di una intattezza violata, Artemisia me lo fa intendere in quest'aria di sacrificio e di pericolo che fomenta, con i rimpianti di tutti, il suo rimpianto di risuscitata invano. La nostra povera libertà si lega all'umile libertà di una vergine che nel milleseicentoundici non ha se non quella del proprio corpo integro e non può capacitarsi in eterno di averla perduta. Per tutta la vita essa si adoprò a sostituirla con un'altra, più alta e più forte, ma il rimpianto di quell'unica restò: mi pareva, con quei fogli scritti, d'averlo quietato. Ora ritorna più intenso che mai, con un moto di relitto che appare e dispare sull'onda che lo porta, e, a momenti, sembra che l'acqua limpida l'abbia digerito. Scottata mille volte al bruciore dell'offesa, mille volte Artemisia si fa indietro e prende fiato per lanciarsi di nuovo nel fuoco. Così usava un tempo, così usa oggi con me". Con uno scritto di Attilio Bertolucci.

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