More than 400 years ago, Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi painted her first commission in Florence, adorning the ceiling of Casa Buonarroti—once home to the Renaissance master Michelangelo—with a female nude titled Allegory of Inclination. Less than half a century later, the figure was prudishly censored by heavy drapes of blue obscuring her original vision from view.
Now, thanks to the powers of digital imaging technology and other diagnostic tools, curators have revealed Gentileschi’s original composition in all her naked glory. The recreated figure is the star of “Artemisia in the Museum of Michelangelo,” an exhibition at Casa Buonarroti. The show is the result of the Artemisia UpClose project, a year-long effort to study the painting, as well as to restore it—work conducted inside the museum galleries, in full view of visitors.
