Best Artemisia Poems

(It was 1860 when the English poet Robert Browning
stumbled upon an interesting artefact as he walked
through the city of Florence.  It was a file of documents
from an old Italian criminal trial, and he would turn
this material into his masterpiece, "The Ring and the
Book".)


The Old...

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(A true story.  In the year 1612, a young artist
named Artemisia Gentileschi, native of Rome,
was raped by one of her father's artist colleagues.
This is the tale of the subsequent criminal trial
and its impact on Artemisia's art.)


Prefatory Sonnet 

My tale is of a rape. ...

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absinthe…
not absent this proof
the ascend of spirits grande
fairies greene as flowers bland
pour from a bottle 
three in hand

“goddess of the hunt” 
a drink most beautiful

origins Callisto
of generations purposeful
a papyrus recorded 
medicinal
and magical 
a cold mix of elixir
in measured vapors…

delicious escapes
as the favored
Demeter
do you agree… 
of...

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Judge Daniele Saggio

This year of our salvation, sixteen twelve.
Now.  Gentileschi? Don Orazio?
This suit is yours.  You’d press it?  Drop it?  Shelve

it?  Very good.  And you are Tazzio?
Beg pardon, Tassi.  No, you’re new to me.
But you, sir, famed through...

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A Daniel, Come to Judgment!

Before I give my judgment in this case,
my custom is to have the plaintiff read
aloud, before the other party, face to face

the statute law that’s pertinent.  The screed,
Miss Gentileschi, starts off half-way down
the right-hand page.  So, now.  Big...

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(One of Artemisia's paintings deals with
this story, found only in the Catholic and 
Orthodox bibles.  Susannah is sexually
bullied by two old men, but the young
Daniel passes by and condemns the 
culprits.) 


Susannah and the Elders

Legs bare, she padded to the river’s edge
to bathe her...

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Agostino Tassi

(The Accused now gives evidence,
coming fresh from the vigil torture,
which involves sleep deprivation.
His arrogant, careless manner
doesn't win him any friends.)


I think the Court will understand
if I’m a little under par.
The vigil thing!  I hadn’t planned
to come before you bug-eyed, and
I find it all...

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Artemide Cacciatrice (2)

The carriage trip – who’d like the factual version?
That whole idea was Tuzia’s, never mine.
“Let’s take a carriage for a day excursion,
and have a picnic on the Aventine –
we’ll see the Seven Churches!”  But perversion
lay in wait.  What Tuzia had in...

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(Pierantonio Stiattesi really existed.  He was somehow
on the periphery of the Gentileschi social circle.  Tassi
really did send him a sonnet entitled, “Change, change,
Stiattesi!”  Some years after the trial, Stiattesi married
Artemisia … so in his eyes, at least, she was not
“damaged goods”.)


Pierantonio Stiattesi

I...

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Robert browning and Me (2)

Where was I with that book on Artemisia?
No Internet or Amazon back then,
So I got busy trudging round – then busier.
No joy. “American?  We’ll call you when …”
“Import it from the States, you say?  (sigh)  “Sorry …”
That book...

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In baroque pathos
   dramatic effects
bright lively
   &emotional 
brown ochrered
blue & 
   shadowed orange 

precise folds 
   of feminine
     conception
idealised&delicate 
filled 
 with self perception...

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In the shadow of the night, a woman stands,
Her eyes, as chilly as the winter's winds,
Her hand raised high, a sword in her hand,
Her face, a mask of pure malice.

She towers over a man, his body on a bed,
A red river flowing out of his...

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Robert Browning and Me (1)

Imagine me in nineteen ninety-two,
in need of something to ignite the flame:
the London Independent – a review!
The painter Gentileschi – striking name!
(American professor’s brand-new book,
describing how the Roman girl was raped,
and how this trauma subsequently shaped
her art) – I didn’t need...

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(After the rape, and for the rest of her life,
Artemisia turned out canvas after canvas
containing disturbing images of women
beheading men - with obvious phallic
castration undertones.)

Judith and Holofernes

There’s only one way to be free of them.
The only good aggressor’s good and dead.
But should my righteous blade...

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A woman in a man's world was Artemiia Gentileschi
broke the glass ceiling to be free
She much to her famous pa did owe
but in her day ploughed her own furrow


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi...

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