Artemisia Gentileschi around 1622

Mary D. Garrard is Professor of Art at American University. She is the author of Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (1989) and coeditor, with Norma Broude, of Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (1982); The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (1992); and The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact (1994).

"In her new book, Garrard has taken two bold steps that challenge much received opinion in the 'discipline' of art history. Analyzing two of Gentileschi's least violent but most moving images, Garrard argues that the painter's personality is discernible no less in the subjects and their interpretation than in the 'style' of the works; consideration of both aspects is essential to understanding the meaning of these extraordinary pictures and her authorship. Perhaps even more important. Garrard makes crystal clear that Artemisia Gentileschi, far from a 'good woman painter,' was one of the major visual thinkers of her time." -Irving Lavin, coauthor with Marilyn Aronberg Lavin of La Liturgia d'Amore: Immagini dal Canto dei Cantici nell'arte di Cimabue, Michelangelo, e Rembrandt (Modena, 2000) "Linda Nochlin once famously asked: 'Why are there no great woman artists?' Challenged by that question, Mary Garrard has been brilliantly establishing the greatness of the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Now Garrard's findings culminate in a great book - one with all the acerbic panache of one of Artemisia's pictures." -George Hersey, author of Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque "By revealing a great woman painter's ways of expressing uniqueness while negotiating expectations, Mary Garrard helps each of us with the subtleties of remaining authentic while living in the world. Artemisia Gentileschi around 1622 is art history to live by." -Gloria Steinem"

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: Connoisseurship in a New Key Gender and the Social Construction of Artistic Identity Gender and the Personal Formation of Artistic Identity PART ONE: A New Magdalen A Tale of Two Pictures Artemisia and Mary Magdalene The Example of Caravaggio The Example of Michelangelo Artemisia as the Allegory of Painting The Magdalen as Melancholy The Reappropriation of Gendered Melancholy PART TWO: The Burghley House Susanna A Problem Picture Susanna in the Garden of Love Susanna as Social Scapegoat The Picture: Technical Analysis and Documentation Collaboration or Unauthorized Alteration? Artemisia and Susanna, Public and Audience Conclusion: The Shaping of a Complex Identity Notes Works Cited Index