Feminist historiographies and the woman artist's biopic: the case of Artemisia

Abstract

This essay looks at the film Artemisia(Agnès Merlet, France/Italy, 1997) and at the critical controversy surrounding the film's depiction of protofeminist icon Artemisia Gentileschi. Artemisiaconstitutes a revealing example of the problems posed by the contemporary biopic about women artists. While deploying the conventions of the romance narrative (in particular in the relationships between the artist and model in the painterapos;s biopic), Artemisiauses the mise-en-scene of the past to reflect on visual technologies, gender and creativity. By looking at the ways the visual textures of the film articulate a meditation on the female artist filtered through romance and fantasy, I propose a reconsideration of Artemisiain the light of different moments in feminist historiographies. This essay thus argues that Artemisiacan be considered a significant example of the contemporary biopicapos;s blurring of the boundaries between art-cinema aesthetics, feminist politics and popular romance narratives.

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