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

Product Information

The experience shaped her art; Artemisia went on to create fierce biblical paintings that were, in the words of the Guardian, “a war cry for oppressed women”. Ultimately Artemisia is constrained by the era she is born into but, she is not willing to sit noiselessly with the injustice of it.

The book depicts Artemisia as right at every turn, about everything, too talented to be properly understood, and with goals that are incomprehensible to her male contemporaries-- all things that are entirely untrue, even inside the novel itself. It belittles her father Orazio and is entirely incorrect on the way that the culture surrounding painting in Baroque Italy operated. Elizabeth's novels focus on themes of women and power and are linked by her interest in exploring the invisibility of early modern women's lives. I’m interested to read A Portrait in Shadow, another Artemesia novel that interestingly came out this year, to see if that resonates with me more. I am delighted to say I have never read anything else by Elizabeth Freemantle so I now have seven other books of hers to choose from.There are so many other words you could use to describe her as you read through the pages of her journey from childhood to womanhood – spirited, irrepressible, ambitious, indefatigable, emboldened etc. The characterisation of most of the characters was quite shallow and I felt distanced from Artemisia by constantly being told what she was feeling, rather than experiencing those feelings.

I was so glad to see Artemisia's story told, for the dignity, honour and recognition given to her bravery and talent in this novel, and I was swept away in the lush, evocative prose that transported me to a painter's studio in Rome in the 1600s through the eyes of a defiant and determined young woman. Disobedience is the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, the baroque painter, seemingly “rediscovered“ of late. On many levels …At times I felt for Orazio (her father), trying to keep the family reputation intact so that his commissions didn’t dry up. A consistently gripping, emotional and unforgiving retelling giving Artemisia the voice she so deserves. The rise in feminism has brought Artemisia out of the shadows, and she was a very talented artist, so Fremantle has done her a service by representing her skills so strongly.Her father is her early influence and mentor in developing her paint style, but she eclipses him as a teenager and he can't face it. Caravaggio's sexuality is famously debated over, then and now, because Caravaggio's favorite subjects are young men in various states of undress.

There is nothing that transports the reader to Rome in the seventeenth century, except for a few mentions of the Colosseum etc. The colourful, brutal world of Baroque Italy is superbly evoked in this gripping novel of Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the era's greatest artists.

Many readers may well be familiar with Gentileschi’s story I don’t want to spoil it for those who don’t. Artemisia is ambitious, certainly, in terms of her art and the vision she has of what her art can do.