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Russ Hunt

I thought I'd check the obvious source and report what I found just as a way of showing how a wiki entry might look. I checked "Sally Clark" in Wikipedia, and after identifying the right one, found a quick bio -- she arrived in Toronto in 1973 and has worked with a number of theatre companies there, including Theatre Passe Muraille and the Shaw Festival. The wikipedia article is just a "stub" (maybe we could edit it after we've done the work?), but it suggests looking at the [|Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia] and [|The Playwrights Database] for further material. Wikipedia also lists a number of plays, but I'm not sure it's all of them.

Also, if you Google Artemesia Gentileschi you find not only a wikipedia entry, but an ambitious Web site called "[|The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi,]" which you wouldn't want to quote but looks like a great starting point for finding out more about her. I've linked it. It offers this bibliography:
 * 1) Garrard, Mary D. 1989. Artemisia Gentileschi - The Image of The Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art. Princeton University Press.
 * 2) Garrard, Mary D. 1993. [|Artemisia Gentileschi.] Rizzoli Publications Inc., New York.
 * 3) Alexandra Lapierre, 1998 (translated by Liz Heron, 2000), [|Artemisia - a novel], Grove Press, New York.
 * 4) Bissell, R. Ward, 1999. Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. The Pennsylvania State University Press.
 * 5) Garrard, Mary D. 2001. [|Artemisia Gentileschi around 1622: The Shaping and Reshaping of an Artistic Identity.] Discovery Arts Series, University of California Press.
 * 6) Vreeland, Susan 2002 The Passion of Artemisia Headline Book Publishing.

Dusty Green

In a short [|article]produced by the Oxford Reference Online a list of plays created by Sally Clark is available, the article also comments on the themes of her other plays, which sound quite similar to //Life Without Instruction//. From this article I discovered that the story of Artemisia Gentileschi is a true story; she was a painter and was reportedly raped and pressed for the crime. Artemisia charged her painting instructor with rape in 1612, and is most well known for her self portrate in her painting titled "Susanna and the Elders". During the early 70's feminist scholars began to take interest in the story of Artemisia, and her story became slowly uncovered. The rape, trial, torture, and the stories of Tassi accusing her of being a harlot are, according to an [|article] published by the University of New Brunswick, are all true. In 1994 Toronto's Tarragon Theatre opened it's doors to the public, inviting them to experience Clarks //Life Without Instruction//. Clark was born in 1953 and moved to Toronto in 1973 to study fine arts and drama production at York University,which explanes her interest in the world of art, and possibly how she became aware of the story of Artemisia. Many of Sally's plays, from a distance look like comedic revenge stories, but upon closer inspection they become heavy and sometimes very dark works. Clark's plays, including //Life Without Instruction//, depict strong female characters dealing with the male dominated society around them; her work was called "soft feminism" by York University's Kim Bird in "[|Modern Drama]".

For a list of Sally Clark's plays to date, follow this [|link].

William McKinley

__Sally Clark__ Canadian playwright Sally Clark's background in art (specifically painting) comes to the surface in her //play Life Without Instruction//, as the play combines the two mediums of play-writing and performance. A student of the arts (she attended UBC, York, and the New School of Art according to [|her website]), Clark uses her knowledge of art history and her own experience as a painter (Grace, 123) to skillfully weave these two artforms together. The play premiered on August 2, 1991, at Theatre Plus Toronto under the direction of Glynis Leyshon (Grace, 133). Another place of production was the Frederic Wood Theatre of the University of British Columbia where it was directed by Robert Metcalfe and was performed September 29- October 9, 1999 (Grace, 133). In additon to combining Clark's two artistic talents, the play also contains several elements that connect it to her other works and may represent general themes in Clark's writing. Her decision to incorporate a second storyline into the play which elaborates on the characters can also be found in her play //Jehanne and the Witches// which uses the play-within-a-play strategy to similar ends (Whittaker). Another common theme seems to be victimization of women, which is clearly revealed in //St. Francis of Hollywood//. This play is about an actress who is placed in a mental institution and eventually lobotomized simply because she did not conform to the social norms of the period, thus making her a victim of a male dominated society just like Artemisia (Bell).

__History__ The story of Artemisia as portrayed in Clark's //Life Without Instruction// is, for the most part, historically accurate. She was a successful painter during the 17th century and was a rape victim in 1611. The trial took place in 1612 and many of the events depicted in the play (Tassi's accusation of incest betwee Orazio and Artemisia, Artemisia's torture, etc...) are actually recorded in the trials records (Grace, 120). Clark even took quotes almost directly out the trial's records and placed them in her play including Tassi's declaration that Artemisia had told him that "[her father] wants to use me exactly as if I were his wife" and Artemisia's outburst during torture: "This is the ring that you give me, and these are your promises" (Grace, 120-121). However, Clark did make several additions which should be noted. The first is the interrogator's declaration of having tortured Tassi. In the actual trial, only Artemisia was tortured, thus making Clark's inclusion of this detail something of a mystery as it serves only to lessen the horror of the trial and make Artemisia less of a victim of a male dominated society (Benedetti, 47-48). Secondly, near the play's end, Tassi declares that he murdered Caravaggio, something which did not happen and is added only to further vilify this character (Benedetti, 48). Finally, some credit should be given to Clark for properly portraying the emotions of Artemisia in response to her rape. Several historians, including Cohen, have voiced the argument that women at this period would not have recognized rape as a violation of their private person as much as they would have considered it an attack on their public image and their honor (Grace, 121). This is one of the reasons why Clark portrays Artemisia as hesitant to go to trial, because it would further damage her public image.

[|The Book of Judith] The book of Judith is considered part of the biblical cannon by Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox Church, but is not a part of the Protestant Bible or the Jewish Old Testament. Clark's use of this story to add more depth to the 17th century characters is a fairly faithful to the original text, but one key difference is worth mentioning. This is Clark's decision to depict Judith and Holofernes in bed together, naked, thus implying that the two had sex and that this was a necessary part of the deception. In the biblical work, Judith remains pure and it is only Holofernes excessive drinking that gives Judith the opportunity to behead him (Hens-Piazza, 32).

__Bibliography__ Bell, Karen. “Also in Print…” //Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada//. 30, no. 4 (Spring 1997).

Benedetti, Laura. “Reconstructing Artemisia: Twentieth-Century Images of a Woman Artist.” //Comparative Literature//. 51, no. 1 (Winter, 1999): 42-61

Grace, Sherril. “//Life Without Instruction//: Artemisia, and the Lessons of Perspective.” //Theatre Research in Canada//. 25, no. 1/ 2 (Spring/Fall 2004): 116-135.

Hens-Piazza, Gina. “A Woman’s Place is in the Bible.” //U.S.// //Catholic//. 71, no. 1 (January 2006): 30-33.

Whittaker, Robin. “Feeling Around the Repressed: Performing Uncanny Space in Sally Clark’s //Jehanne of the Witches//.” //Canadian Theatre Review//. 120 (Fall 2004): 5-11.

Tyler MacLennan

Are the Characters based on historical people?

Through books such as Mathew Pekington's //[|A General Dictionary of Painter],// and Sheril Grace's [|Life Without Instruction: Artemesia, and the Lessons of Perspective], it's clear to see that the characters portrayed in Sally Clark's //Life Without Instruction//, are based of historical figures.

Artemisia Gentileschi was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, and was born in Rome 1590. She was a popular and highly successful painter of the Italian baroque period. Her most notable paintings are herself portrait of Susanna and the Elders, and her rendition of Judith and Holofernes. She is also widely known for a rape trial that took place in Rome in 1612. A few of her most powerful paintings have been privileged as definitive and then interpreted as direct reflections of her personal experiences, with the inevitable implications that she could not have painted them if she had not actually experienced harassment, betrayal, torture, and rape, and that the power of her best work derives from some essential (hence essentialist) femaleness, where to be female is to be defined by one's body (including one's sexuality), by what is done to that body by men and by one's feminine passions. She was a women painter during a period when the status of painting was strongly debated by men for men, when the emerging academies excluded women, and when the art world was dominated by men. She learned the principles and practice of painting form her father, whom she surpassed in the portrait style of painting. While in England she painted some portraits of the principal nobility, including a picture of Charles I. After leaving the country she spent the remainder of her life between Naples and Bologna, were she was held in high esteem. She died 1642. To View some of her works [|click here]

Orazio Gentileschi was born at Pisa in 1563, and was a disciple of Aurelio Lomi who was his half brother. He was distinguished greatly by his works in Florence, Genoa, and Rome, as well as in France and Savoy. His reputation was so great that he was invited by Charles I to London, were he had considerable appointments as well as in Whitehall. Among the several painting he produced for the monarch were the ceilings at Greenwich. Joachim von Sandrart (A German, Baroque art-historian and painter), who was in London at the time Gentileschi was there, described a few of the pictures he painted for the king with the highest terms of commendation. One of these was Mary Magdalen, prostrate on the ground, "with such a character of devout compunction and divine meditation, as could not be more feeling expressed by any artist". Another painting was a Holy family representing the virgin sitting on the ground, with the Infant at her breast, and Joseph with a passive attitude, resting his head on a sack. Within the picture the drawing, design, coloring, and disposition as also for the appearance of nature and truth, was critically admired. A third painting would be Lot and his Daughter, which was regarded as to be equal to any master of the art. After the death of the King his valuable collection was pillaged and sold by Cromwell. Nine of Gentileschi’s pictures were sold for six hundred pounds, and are now the ornaments of the halls at Marlborough-house. While in England, Gentileschi painted two pictures for George Villiers, the 1st Duke of Buckingham; one was a Magdalen, and the other was a Nativity. He died in London 1647. To View works by him [|click here].

Agostino Tassi was an Italian painter who worked mostly out of Rome where he was a specialist in quadratura (quadratura is a tradition in Baroque art in which tools such as foreshortening, and other effects are used to create the illusion of three-dimensions on an otherwise two-dimensional or mostly flat ceiling surface above the viewer). His most famous work is the architectural background for Guernico’s fresco, Aurora located in the Casino of the Villa Ludovisi. He also painted landscapes that were influenced by Bril and Elsheimer. In 1621, Tassi was accused of raping Artemisia Gentileschi, and was suspected of killing his wife. Tassi greatest pupil was Claude Lorrain. To view works by him [|click here]

Tyler MacLennan

Who is Caravaggio? What is his background?

Through a book by William A'Beckett, //[|A Universal Biography]//, and through Janis C.Bell's, //[|light and colour in Caravaggio's "Super at Emmaus"]//, I've found this short Biography of Caravaggio.

Carravaggio (Micheal Angelo Amerigida) was born at the castle of Carravaggio in Milanese, in 1569. His father was a mason who employed him in work he was doing withthe fresco painters in Milan; and it was through seeing them work that he acquired a taste for the same Art. Nature was his only study and he captured it without selection of deviation. For the first four or five years of his career he painted portraiture's as is sole employ. Carravaggio had a mean temperament and was often rude and harsh. He was continually making enemies and an affair of honor he had in Milan first caused him to leave the city for Venice. It was in Venice he succeeded in gaining his sweet and agreeable tone of coloring that he become so well known for. After a short stay in Venice he traveled to Rome, were necessity forced him to enter the Workshop of Joespino, who employed him in painting fruits and flowers. He was soon afterward more suitably employed by Prospero, a painter of grotesque, and his works sold at considerable prices. Carravagio at length opened a work-shop and school of his own in Rome; and quitting his first manner of painting, adopteding one consisting of his strong contrasts of light and shade. The walls of his room were blackened and light was admitted only form the upper part of one window, so that the absence of reflected lights might give more force to the opposition. The manor of this style had an immediate and very great effect. Young people crowded to him to learn and acquire an easy method of practice. As a result all the established painters leagued against him, and justly reproached him for want of grace, elevation, invention, and higher parts of the Art; yet he had fashion oh his side, and even his rivals were for a time obliged to fallow into his technique and manner. He succeeded best in portraits and half lengths, and when he had a good subject, his power of imitation was such as to leave nothing to desire. His church and alter pieces succeeded so ill that his works were often taken down after they had been finished and put into place. Carravaggio lived an unhappy life in the midst of contest, and often in great poverty. He dressed meanly, lodged in taverns, and dined for many years buy paying for the cost of his food and drink through painting signs and such for the establishments, which would be sold latter for a very larger sum. Soon Carravaggio was determined to travel to Malta, and be received as a Knight-servitor, this resolution was hastened by his need to leave Rome on the account of having killed a young man with whom he had quarreled with at tennis. He arrived in Malta, where his reputation caused him to be employed by the Grand Master, who made him a Knight-servitor. An insult which he offered a Knight of distinction however caused him to be put into prison. He escaped and made his way to Sicily, and then to Naples, and proceeding to Rome. After several unpleasant adventures he was once again imprisoned by mistake. On being liberated, he wandered along the shore in search of a felucca containing his baggage. The heat and fatigue caused a fever of which he died of at Perto Ercole, in 1609. The principle works of this painter are in Rome, Naples, and Malta.

to see some of his works Click here.

What is the Significance of Susannah and the Elders?

Through a Book called [|Renaissance and Reformation] by James Palrich, i was able to find out the Biblical story behind the painting and it's significance surrounding Artemeia.

The Old Testament tale of Susannah (in the book of Denial) tells of a women who, while bathing is spied on by two elders of her tribe. When she refuses their advances, the elders threaten to accuse her publically of adultery. In the early seventeenth century, the story was often painted merely as a excuses to show naked women within a religious context. What sets Artemisia’s rendition of this scene apart from other interpretations, is that most paintings of the subject depict Susannah as a passive, even compliant figure. Artemisia’s Susannah (1610) on the other hand, is clearly suffering after the invasion of her privacy by the conspiratorial elders. Her nakedness is not designed to be alluring; the twist and turns of her body express a physical and mental distress. This of course brings up the idea that Artemisia’s works were often thought to be in part a mirror image to her personal life. To see the painting [|click here].

Kendra Murray

Sally Clark's __Life Without Instruction__ follows the story of the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, eldest child of Orazio Gentileschi, who taught her many things about art, yet surprisingly, their styles are very different. Artemisia's career is not the main focus of __Life Without Instruction__, however. The story of her rape is what Clark really focuses on. Several details have been overlooked, however, and some even altered to fit the story. The main details remain true, however, such as Orazio hiring Agostino Tassi to tutor Artemisia, and him taking this opportunity to rape her. Another man, Cosimo Quorli, helped Tassi with the rape after he was sexually rejected by Artemisia[|(1)], though this is not in the play. Tassi rapes Artemisia all on his own, but Quorli is shown to be an acquaintance of his later on. The character of Tassi is somewhat altered, as well. He was, in truth, obsessed with Artemisia, spying on her, and even prevented her marriage to another suitor [|(2)], whereas, in the play, the rape seems almost a random act of sexual aggression. His wife missing, and presumed murdered by him, the affair with his sister-in-law, and his drunken, lecherous tendencies were all based on fact. The torture device used on Artemisia was actually a real device, used in courtrooms of that period, and it was called a sibille. Artemisia's story remained unchanged when under the abuse of the sibille, but Tassi's testimony was so full of lies and holes that the judge repeatedly had to tell him to stop lying. The testimony was also rife with slander, as Agostino referred to Artemisia, her dead mother, her aunt, and several other females of her family, as whores. Tassi was, indeed, convicted of rape, but, amazingly, served only 8 months in prison.

Clark is not the only author to exaggerate the story of Artemisia. Several novels, and even a film, feature the young artist as the protagonist. In the film, the story is almost completely fabricated. Tassi and Artemisia, in it, are secretly lovers, and Tassi lies about the rape in order to save the young girl's honor (Lent).

//Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury State Univ., Salisbury, MD)// (34:3) [2006], p.212-218.
 * Lent, Tina Olsin: 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy': The Fictionalization of Baroque Artist Artemisia Gentileschi in Contemporary Film and Novels**

Tyler MacLennan.

There doesn't seem to be any real set definition on what "Marriage by capture" is but there are some interesting examples of it practice in within certian cultures, such as how it's practiced in [|Eastern Indonesia]. it seems to be basically a forced marriage were the women is abducted and forced into marrying a certain individual. It's a forced marriage without mutual consent (kind of like a shot gun wedding, but without the kid).

Liz McCabe

[]

-Sally Clark is a Canadian playwright -Also produced “Jehanne of The Witches” in 1989 o Which deal with religion -produced “Lost Souls of Missing Persons” in 1984 -“Life Without Instruction” was produced in 1991 o first published by Talon books o based on a real life trial Holofernes: -An Assyrian General -In regards to biblical fact, he was beheaded by Judith

“The Old Testament narrates the episode of Judith who saved her city of Bethulia from the siege of Holofernes, general of the Assyrian king Nabucodonosor, by killing him after a banquet at which he had been made drink, beheading him and bringing his head to his fellow citizens (Judith ch. 10-13). The episode is illustrated in three scenes. On the left are the sleeping guards, in the centre Judith and her handmaid covering the head of the murdered Holofernes, (presumed to be a portrait of Michelangelo) with a cloth and, lastly, on the right we see the body of the mutilated Holofernes.” []

- Caravaggio was concerned with the study of nature and of light - He was a detail oriented painter, who took inspiration from his surroundings - He was extremely popular, but disliked by his fellow artists

[|Bible Answers]