Gentileschi: 'Susanna and the Elders,' 1610.

The Naked Self-Portrait: Women.

3: Violation.

Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Susanna and the Elders' (1610 version).

Illustration 1: 'Susanna and the Elders,' 1610, by Artemisia Gentileschi (c.1593-1652). 

Not precisely self portraits, Gentileschi's series of 'Susanna and the Elders' paintings (1610, 1622 and 1649) function as a form of autoportrait 'by proxy.' The 1610 version is viewed as a breakthrough work (she was approximately sixteen years old) in which there may be coincidental biographical connections to the theme. The fact that it was completed only a year before the artist's rape, by Agostino Tassi (a painter who worked with her father, Orazio, during a period in which Artemisia was probably 'groomed' by both Tassi and a papal clerk, Cosimo Quorli), stimulates an alternative discussion regarding her level of identification with the subject: Susanna.

Illustration 2: (top) Agostino Tassi - considered a self portrait; (bottom) Gentileschi and Tassi - from 'Artemisia,' 1998 film, directed by Agnes Merlet.

The theory that Gentileschi used her own body as a primary reference is supported by several factors: (1) practical limitations often prompt artists to make themselves the subject of their work; (2) in 17th c. Rome, a female painter employing a naked model would have been frowned upon; a woman representing herself indirectly as a Biblical or Classical nude, however, may have gone unnoticed; (3) the artist could expose herself to a level of scrutiny that would not be possible with another person; (4) there are physical similarities between Gentileschi and her nude - the latter seeming too young to be the protagonist described in 'Susanna.'

Illustration 3: 'Portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi by an unknown artist,' c.1614-1620.

The narrative, from 'Apocrypha,' concerns two older men of influence, who seek to obtain a sexual favour (an implied rape) from a beautiful younger woman - threatening otherwise to destroy her reputation. It's a tale that presents a defence of female sexual virtue (with Daniel as a figurehead) as an indicator for the righteousness of a whole society.

Illustration 4: 'Susanna and the Elders,' 1555-56 by Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto (1518-94); Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

A comparison with Tintoretto's 'Susanna and the Elders' reveals interesting differences: (1) unlike the male artist's somewhat open perspective (a view of a woman modelled on the classical Crouching Venus), Gentileschi constructs a pictorial 'wall,' or dividing line, foregrounding the conflict between nude model and voyeur; (2) she displays an instinct for realism that penetrates her painting's classical-baroque derivations; the expressive, manneristic countermovements of Susanna's arms and hands push inward and back, and outward/across, as if in a void (appearing not only to ward off her assailants, but to block out their conspiratorial whisperings); an emotive sense of torsion foreshadows the violence of later compositions e.g. 'Judith Slaying Holofernes.'

Illustration 5: 'Judith Slaying Holofernes,' 1620-1621, by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Watching and looking, symbolised by the male viewers in 'Susanna and the Elders,' is, here, like an act of defilement: with a woman's body as an object that has been stripped of its innate quality of innocence; whilst the spoken word - the Elders 'oath' or 'agreement' - becomes a resounding untruth. Through a process of psychological projection, however, it seems Susanna is redeemed: not by patriarchal intervention, but via Gentileschi's defiant sense of self-reclamation.