A favourite painting: Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi

When I first saw a photograph of this work of art several years back it made an immediate impact with its intensity, and I was inspired to find out more about the artist, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653?). Unusually, for a women of the time, but not unheard of, Artemisia, became a professional painter in early 17th century Rome. Her father, Orazio (1563-1639), was a history painter there in the late 16th century through to the 1630's, and at some point around 1610 he taught his daughter to paint. Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting was produced in the late 1630's. A 2001 exhibition catalogue I own, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, give me an overview of their work and from that I think that Artemisia was the more original of the two.

What I love about this painting (click on the image to enlarge) is the intensity of expression of Artemisia's face and the usual pose of the artist (unusual to me that is!); the viewer is looking down from slightly above, and she has placed us not far removed from the action. All-in-all its quite intimate and minimalist. From my reading of the catalogue and from other readings in art history I think she may have done this for herself, or as a uncommissioned piece to show prospective clients as part of a portfolio (in the catalogue there is a portrait of a man by Artemisia and that is much more formal and polished).

In the last half century or so since she was rediscovered much has been written about Artemisia, including a 1947 novel, however, if you want to read a little more about this very interesting artist a number of books have been written; for those who can't get to their library or bookshop there is a Wikipedia article about her.

The painting is in the collection of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II at Hampton Court Palace, to whom the copyright belongs. And the exhibition catalogue for those of you who may want to find it: Christiansen, Keith & Judith W. Mann (2001). Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 1 58839 006 3/1 58839 007 1.

Image: © Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Comet Lulin (C/2007/N3)

This post is for my astronomical friends, although I sent out an email, I'll post here so you can all see it. After some preparation and a short search with 7 x 50 binoculars, I found Comet Lulin, more formally C/2007/N3, early today at 1:00 AM, AEST (14:00 UT, 21 February). My email sent out just before 2:00 AM to some observing mates, bragging as I say of my sighting:

"Hi all,

I've just seen it, although Comet Lulin is not awe inspiring. Work required me to spend the weekend in Bathurst and tonight I gave it a go: it has been clear except for a few fast moving clouds around 11:50 pm. So using Dave's directions and Astronomy '09 I looked for it and found after a few minutes (at 1 am DST) from my balcony - in the eastern sky. It looks like a small and lumpy globular star cluster; it could be slightly oval; hard for me to say if it has a tail, maybe a darker site other than the mega-polis of Bathurst would help in seeing any tail. Size, possibly 10 to 15 arc min. (very uncertain about that); mag: around 6 to 6.5. I spent 30 minutes examining it in 7 x 50's and found that I could not extract any more detail other than what my brain can manufacture. Sky although clear was not very stable with lots of twinkle, air was nice and cool.

Now I'll stop bragging and go to bed, actually Guys, I was determined to start my observing year off after a month of bad weather and this didn't seem too hard if the clouds stayed away. Cheers, Peter"

Unfortunately, no drawing and no photo to share. A drawing through the binoculars wouldn't show much - a small, round, fuzzy blob in a star field, so I didn't sketch it. "Lumpy" in my email is a metaphor for irregularly bright. For a nice suite of images and some more observational history go to Garry Kronk's Cometography site; this is his Comet Lulin page. Astronomy Picture of the Day has an image as well. Anyway, the observing drought is hopefully broken.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

What do male, 40 something librarians do when they can’t sleep? They read and write book reviews for their blog (first post since 19 January).

I didn't know what to make of Carrie Fisher's mini-autobiography, Wishful Drinking! Is it a serious autobiography or a collection of self-mocking anecdotes? How much is accurate and how much is tongue in cheek exaggeration? Do I see the real Carrie Fisher in these pages or the celebrity Carrie? After reading it three times, like forbidden fruit, the answer is both. For me, a closest Star Wars fan, this book was a leap into the unknown as I am not that much interested in the lives of Hollywood celebrities, and I don’t like to find that some of my idols, when I was young and impressionable (i.e. the actors I loved in Star Wars at age 13) are real people with very real problems.

This book is a companion piece to Carrie’s one woman show of the same title, and in it she struts her stuff as a raconteur, and presumably in the stage show too, delivering a wide range of anecdotes, many fun, some sad, lots of laughing at herself – a quote at random, from page 111, illustrates much of the book:

“I was probably rebounding from Paul [Paul Simon] when I met Bryan (a week later), but Bryan is really, really attractive. When I met him, he had hair. Actually, I do that, too – I make them bald, I turn them gay, my work is done!"

The book is short (163 pages) and snappy and easy to read; my first read was over in one night. All in all it’s the sort of thing you can read without getting a headache, have some laughs, and look through a window into that parallel universe of Hollywood, California. To tie this up: not high literature, not demanding (unless you have to live Carrie’s life), but fun.

Carrie, if you happen to read this can I have your phone number? No? Thought so! How about a signed photo? Very Hollywood of me! Good night all!

Bibliographic details: Fisher, Carrie Wishful drinking. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 13: 978 1 4391 0225 1; price $US 21.00.