400 Years Ago a Prudish Aristocrat Censored This Artemisia Gentileschi Nude. Using Tech, an Italian Museum Has Revealed the Stunning Original Work
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/censored-artemisia-gentileschi-female-nude-revealed-2375778
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_Inclination
Her other work is also well worth a look:
I was watching Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour, where they visited Florence, and met the woman who explored this painting, which Artemisia, one of the only known women artists of the renaissance (and first woman to be admitted to the Accademia di Arte del Disegno), did as a nude self portrait 4 years after she was brutally raped and then tortured as punishment for “being a slut”.
The establishment then covering her up feels like just another patriarchal slap in the face.
Seeing the painting as close as we can get to how she intended it to be was unexpectedly emotional, and I thought it was well worth sharing.
I like the thin layer of mesh over her legs - looks like a wash later on in the process.
The woman who introduced the reconstruction noted that the fabric they painted over her lower half was harder to “see” under, so it might still not be exactly as originally painted, but it’s definitely closer than how it is now.
Heavy draperies added to censor the painting seem to follow the same shape on the lower body, and the article mentions Artemesia’s delicate glazes under the overpainting.
So though the article doesn’t state that she painted this translucent veil, or if it is included in the digital reconstruction to indicate a query researchers were unable to resolve categorically, she included similarly diaphanous fabric in this nude https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Artemisia_Gentileschi_-_Sleeping_Venus.JPG
Glaze! That’s the word I couldn’t remember earlier.
Eh, wash & glaze are kinda the same from our perspective as viewers - just differentiates type of solvent used, as determined by binding media.
Yeah, it only really matters with oils… need to go fat/thick over lean/thin otherwise the paint layers tenses and cracks off. Great fun
