Woman Playing a Lute 1629

Artemisia Gentileschi made this painting of a woman with a lute, likely in the first half of the 17th century. Oil paint was her primary medium, a versatile material that allowed her to build up layers of color and texture. But think for a moment about the lute itself: its delicately carved wooden body, the gut strings stretched taut, the mother-of-pearl inlay. The instrument is a testament to the skills of specialized artisans. Gentileschi was working in a world where art was beginning to be untethered from craft, but here she insists on their interrelation. Both the painter and the luthier were engaged in the pursuit of beauty, but also reliant on a complex economy of materials and making. And the pearls around the woman’s neck – another kind of labor altogether. So, while we might admire Gentileschi’s painterly skill, let’s also remember the many other forms of work that contributed to this image, challenging any simple distinction between art and craft.