WHAT A WOMAN CAN DO

In Lamphier’s historical novel, a female painter struggles to make her mark in the male world of Renaissance painting.

Rome, 1609. Artemisia Gentileschi learned to paint at the foot of her father, the struggling artist Orazio Gentileschi. By 16, she is accomplished enough to work for Orazio—though as a copyist, making paintings under his name, not her own. Her own paintings already demonstrate naturalist—even feminist—tendencies. She renders the Madonna as a tired mother, modeled on the family maid. As Orazio’s career hits a snag, he secures painting lessons for Artemisia with his friend Agostino Tassi, a fresco painter. Tassi forces himself on Artemisia at knife point. Considered a ruined woman, she suffers as Tassi’s mistress for a time, afraid to do anything that will hurt her father’s career. But the truth comes out, and there is a trial, during which Artemisia must defend her accusation even while being physically tortured. Tassi is jailed, but Artemisia’s reputation remains ruined. Will she still be able to have a career as an artist, already so rare for women, particularly those of humble origins? Her path is not the usual one, but she will find it: a student of Galileo, a disciple of Caravaggio, and the personal artist of an exiled English queen. Lamphier’s prose is elegant and understated. She particularly excels at describing her lead’s creative process: “I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d painted it that way, with a dark background, because I’d never learned perspective. In my sketches, I couldn’t figure out what to put in the background, so I painted it dark.” Unfortunately, there are moments when the dialogue is clunky and expositional: “You left Mannerism behind for Signor Caravaggio’s naturalism, and you were right. It is a better sort of art.” The book feels timely both for its account of a pre-modern rape trial and for Artemisia’s groundbreaking career. There are moments when the novel’s biographical structure gets in the way, but Lamphier’s depiction of Artemisia is compelling enough to keep the reader invested.

An imperfect but very readable novel about a pioneering female painter.