Disobedient: The gripping feminist retelling of a seventeenth century heroine forging her own destiny

Product Information

Her evocation of the surroundings in which Artemisia lived - the constraints of both her physical surroundings and the social norms - is very vivid and often horrifying.

A jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on display. A city where women are seen but not heard. This isn’t the story of a female painter trying to break the glass ceiling with her work. This is the story of a young girl being wronged and trying to gain recognition for it and, above all, escape from it. A woman who wants to be able to make her own choices – and that’s a story of all times. All that wonderful characterisation aside, this novel is fast paced, exciting, horrifying, gruesome, infuriating and while I cannot admit to ever having a keen interest in the history of art, you guessed it I’m off down a carmine red rabbit hole.Some readers may be familiar with the talented 17th century Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656), the Italian baroque artist whose paintings include Susanna and the Elders, Judith Slaying Holofernes, and Judith and Her Maidservant, there has been a resurgence of interest in her in more recent times. Elizabeth Fremantle blends fact and fiction in this well researched novel, to depict an earlier part of her life, growing up in Rome, she had lost her mother and is raised by her Caravaggio influenced artist father, Orazio. She is shaped by the norms and expectations of women, the limitations and to be ruled by men, Artemesia underwent the drama of what is a well known period of horror and trauma in her life. I wish this would have been as good as The Marriage Portrait was. They are both Historical Fiction set in Italy with a headstrong female character who ends up in a relationship she doesn't want to be in, and both novels feature the act of painting. However, they couldn't be more different in execution. It’s great to see that Fremantle takes a different approach than Vreeland. Fremantle describes the period when Artemisia lived in Rome before her marriage – and thus the period of her rape and trial. We follow her creating her first Judith and her first Susanna. To the contrary Vreeland’s ‘The passion of Artemisia’ covers the whole period after that when she goes to Forence. Disobedient” plows forward with an unstoppable force. It would be easy to dry out a historical fiction like this into arid oblivion, or to saturate it beyond fancy and into falsity, but Fremantle strikes an excellent balance that feels like you’re actually there, watching the Gentileschi family’s real struggles and triumphs play out.

Hoewel we heel wat zaken niet weten over wat er echt is gebeurd met haar schrijft Fremantle een overtuigend verhaal bij elkaar. Je hoopt bijna dat er vervolg komt.

Table of Contents

This is a thoroughly engaging work of historical fiction that successfully evokes the life of its remarkable female protagonist in early seventeenth century Rome. Artemisia lived in an uncompromising patriarchal world that denied women any opportunity beyond motherhood and the domestic sphere, and treated them all as the property of fathers and husbands. Women’s motives and appetites were always suspect, and a woman who complained had to undergo physical torture to prove herself in court. Zita, Francesco, Piero, Giovanni and Porzia are important people around Artemesia and all have a role to play. Tassi’s character is brilliantly portrayed, what a chameleon! Not everyone can see below the surface.

Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters - men and boys. She knows she is more talented than her brothers, but she cannot choose her own future. She wants to experience the world, but she belongs to her father and will belong to a husband. For neither her brilliance nor her defiance can change the startling and sobering fact that she belongs to her father and will belong to a husband…

So, my first impression of this one isn’t the kindest, I’ll apologize for that in advance. But, this book knows exactly whose ass it is kissing. I mean, I am as Artemisia–obsessed as anybody, but our heroine here is brilliant and faultless from six-years old onward… so it’s a point of view, but not one that’d be entirely manageable if not for the harrowing events that we all know are coming along the way.