The painting, Judith Slaying Holofernes, was one of at least two made more than 400 years ago, by an Italian woman, Artemisia Gentileschi. For Jones, art matters not only because it can teach us about life, but because it is a fundamental part of life, and that comes through in his writing. Perhaps that’s because her subject matter, biblical and history paintings, fell out of fashion for a while. “It’s harder for people to engage with pre-modern art, when they’re surrounded by contemporary and modern art,” agrees Jones. It’s really like planning a murder.”Like Caravaggio, Gentileschi’s best paintings have what Jones describes as a “cinematic immediacy”.

Source: The Irish Times March 21, 2020 04:52 UTC