Why Do Trending Artists of the 17th Century Rise, Fall, and Return to Fame?

TL;DR

Artistic fame changes because recognition depends not only on talent but also on historical records, social conditions, and who shapes the art-historical canon. Google Books Ngram data from more than five million books shows that mentions of 17th-century Italian Baroque artist Artemesia Gentileschi rose sharply starting in the 1960s amid a feminist critique of art history. Read on to see how artists are forgotten, rediscovered, and restored to prominence.

Transcript

One of the many injustices of creative work is that talent does not always lead to success. The world of art is by no means a meritocracy. That's why you see work valued for millions that you think you could do yourself. And that's why plenty of super talented artists never get the attention or reward they deserve. But just because you don't get y... Read More

Key Insights

• 🌍 Talent does not always lead to success in the art world, which is not a meritocracy.
• 🧑‍🏭 Historical and societal factors heavily influence an artist's recognition and fame.
• 🧑‍🎨 The feminist critique of art history in the 1960s and 70s led to a resurgence of recognition for underrepresented artists.
• 🌍 Fame in the art world can be fickle and ephemeral, with trends and popularities constantly shifting.
• 🥰 The internet and online platforms have the potential to reshape the art historical canon but their impact is still uncertain.
• 🫵 The Google Books Ngram viewer offers a glimpse into the writing and rewriting of histories and the power of collective attention and interest.
• 👨‍🔬 Our actions, such as what we write, pay attention to, and search for, shape the canon and the future recognition of artists.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why do 17th-century artists rise, fall, and return to fame?

Artistic recognition is shaped by social conditions, institutions, published histories, and changing cultural interests rather than talent alone. Artemesia Gentileschi was well known in her lifetime, largely omitted from later histories of Italian art, and discussed much more often after historians began reconsidering the canon in the 1960s.

Q: What does Google Books Ngram reveal about Artemesia Gentileschi’s fame?

Her chart in English-language books shows relatively few mentions for a long period beginning in 1800, followed by a sharp rise starting in the 1960s. The transcript links that resurgence to the feminist critique of art history that encouraged historians to reexamine overlooked artists.

Q: How does the Google Books Ngram viewer measure an artist’s visibility?

The tool analyzes a database of more than five million books and charts how frequently specified search strings appear between selected years. A term is plotted if it appears in 40 or more books, and its frequency is normalized by the number of books published each year.

Q: What are the limitations of using Google Books Ngram to study artistic fame?

The tool can contain faulty optical character recognition, so its results are not flawless. The transcript says Google considers it relatively reliable from 1800 onward and uses the data on that assumption.

Q: Why was Artemesia Gentileschi historically overlooked?

Although Gentileschi did relatively well during her lifetime, her work was often attributed to men for centuries afterward. She was also largely excluded from histories of Italian art, reducing her presence in the written record.

Q: What role did the movements of the 1960s and 1970s play in changing art history?

Second-wave feminism, the civil rights movement, and the Chicano and gay rights movements encouraged people to question why art-history books seemed to feature only white male artists. Historians then reconsidered the canon and rediscovered artists who had long been ignored.

Q: What did Artemesia Gentileschi accomplish during her lifetime?

Gentileschi persisted after a prolonged court battle involving the tutor who raped her and became the first woman admitted to the Academy of Art in Florence. She was also a remarkably well-known painter in an era when few women were encouraged or permitted to become artists.

Q: Which other artists were rediscovered when historians reconsidered the canon?

Flemish still-life painter Clara Peeters experienced a resurgence similar to Gentileschi’s. Dutch artist Judith Leyster also returned from obscurity after a painting attributed to Franz Hals was acquired by the Louvre in 1893 and found to bear her initials, with her visibility rising again in the 1960s.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The art world is not a meritocracy, as talent does not always lead to success.

• The Google Books Ngram viewer reveals the fluctuating fame of Artemesia Gentileschi, a well-known Baroque artist in her time.

• The feminist critique of art history in the 1960s and 70s led to a resurgence of recognition for underrepresented artists.