Anna Banti – författare

First published in 1953, Artemisia is a classic of 20th century Italian literature. From its first publication in 1953, Artemisia, a novel about Artemisia Gentileschi, an iconic 17th century painter, by Anna Banti, a brilliant Italian art historian, established itself as a feminist masterpiece. Like Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, Artemisia is a book about the process of artistic creation. Much in Gentileschi’s life marked her out as a victim – rape at the age of 18, a forced marriage to a man she did not love and, a powerful, patriarchal father, Orazio Gentileschi, who failed to value her artistic genius. But Gentileschi did not accept the status of victim, in the years between 1610 and 1650; she produced over 50 paintings that have established her as one of the great painters of all time. She gave up everything – 'all tenderness, all claim to feminine virtues' to dedicate herself solely to painting. Sacrifices that Anna Banti, herself an artist, fully understands and captures in this amazing novel. 'What makes Artemisia a great book – and unique in Banti’s work – is this double destiny, of a book lost and re-created. A book that by being posthumous, rewritten, resurrected, gained incalculably in emotional reach and moral authority. A metaphor for literature, perhaps. And a metaphor for reading, militant reading – which, at its worthiest, is rereading – too.' Susan Sontag

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.

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.

El bombardeo nazi de Florencia en agosto de 1944 destruyó el manuscrito de la novela que Anna Banti había dedicado a la figura de Artemisia Gentileschi. Banti encontró en la gran pintora del Barroco (1593-1652/53), silenciada por una historia del arte eminentemente masculina, el símbolo universal de mujer luchadora y en incesante pugna por la reivindicación de su dignidad, y también una "compañera entre los escombros", una amiga imaginaria que compartía con ella la carga de una permanente desconfianza del entorno hacia sus cualidades.Así, poseída por la voz y la mirada de una mujer de hace más de trescientos años, Banti puso en pie una nueva obra, poliédrica y poética, escrita en dos tiempos y, en cierto sentido, contra el curso del tiempo y "su irreparable corriente". Un coro a dos voces: la de una mujer borrada por la Historia y la de otra que apuntala un presente en ruinas.Artemisia, hija del pintor Orazio Gentileschi, compañero de Caravaggio, fue violada a los diecisiete años por su profesor de pintura, y humillada y torturada en un posterior juicio por estupro. Su venganza fue imponerse como artista, otorgando a las mujeres de sus lienzos (a Judit y a Susana, a Betsabé y a Lucrecia, a Cleopatra y a María Magdalena) un protagonismo incómodo y fascinante para su siglo, y que alcanzó un inaudito reconocimiento. Con una escritura sensorial y medidamente culta, Banti reconstruye la cotidianidad de una pintora itinerante a la fuerza, pero también ahonda en la complejidad psíquica de una vida marcada por las ausencias.Lejos de limitarse a la observación imparcial, la literatura de Banti continúa, como un misterio mayor, allí donde la historia se detiene, como la pintura de la propia Artemisia, con una libertad pura surgida de unos tiempos miserables.Una obra de profunda sabiduría moral y estilística, una de las cimas de la novela italiana del siglo XX. "Nunca la pasión de una escritora por su protagonista se ha formulado con tanto esmero."Susan Sontag"Lo que resulta fascinante de Artemisia es el peregrinaje de la pintora, primero por Italia y después por Europa, con una absoluta y firme fidelidad a la vocación del arte."Attilio Bertolucci"Artemisia no es sólo literatura, escapa de esos límites. Banti estudió la composición de las obras de la pintora indagando en las turbulencias de su alma."Simona Casadio"Artemisia es mucho más que una novela histórica, más que una biografía novelada y mucho más que un hito de la literatura feminista. Sin renunciar a ser las tres cosas, Artemisia es, sobre todo, una lección de literatura."Ricardo Menéndez Salmón