Francesco Furini’s Artemisias
Francesco Furini (born around 1600, died on August 19th, 1646) was a painter active in Florence during the Baroque period. He was brother to Alessandra, another renowned painter, and Angelica, a singer in the court of Cosimo II de’ Medici. With his sensual, dark style, he embodied the struggle of a conservator, mannerist painter, mostly […]
Francesco Furini (born around 1600, died on August 19th, 1646) was a painter active in Florence during the Baroque period. He was brother to Alessandra, another renowned painter, and Angelica, a singer in the court of Cosimo II de’ Medici.
With his sensual, dark style, he embodied the struggle of a conservator, mannerist painter, mostly specialized in religious and mythological themes, when faced with the new baroque style and its passions, its excesses.
In 1633 he became a priest, probably for having painted too many naked women, and it was consequently said that, on his deathbed, he requested all his nudes to be destroyed, something that would have taken quite the effort.
However, the English poet Robert Browning wrote, in 1887, a poem titled Parleyings with certain people of importance in their day, in which he rectified this rumour.
The painting of Artemisia is preserved at the Yale University Art Gallery, where it was donated by the Henry F. Price Collection in 1941. It was previously attributed to Felice Ficherelli, another Italian of the same period, and it was also previously identified as “Sophonisba taking poison”. For some critics, I guess one woman equals another.
On top of the striking beauty of the subject, imbued with a languid sickness, particularly interesting are the surroundings: soft dark velvets for cushion and drapes surround the figure of Artemisia like petals of a morbid flower and they’re also part of the asymmetrical robe covering her right shoulder and arm, and spreading across her torso. The other side of her body, in a crispy white linen shirt, adds to the sense of duality between dark and light, between dull and transparent, between life and death. Objects are particularly interesting too: the urn for the ashes is in pewter, while the cup and spoon are in gold.
The particular pitcher in the background is just stunning.
Furini came back to the subject several times: a far less stoic Artemisia painted by him went on auction at Sotheby’s in 2019.
As a bonus, I dug up another Artemisia, of an unknown painter, which is quite beautiful. The painting is preserved at the Yale University Art Gallery, and it was purchased by the University from the James Jackson Jarves Collection in Florence.
