Vita Fortunati Department of Modern Languages University of Bologna Two interlocking gazes, Writing and Painting: Anna Banti reads Artemisia Gentileschi

Anna Banti

Banti’s Work on Women’s condition Banti was not only an art historian and an essayist, but also a writer of fiction: a series of novels, published between 1940 and 1949 narrate the tragedy of denied female talent and the difference in women’s way of feeling and living (Il coraggio delle donne (1940), Vocazioni indistinte (1940), Artemisia (1947), Le donne muoiono (1948).).

In her novels historical reality blends with fiction In these novels historical reality blends with fiction and with features drawn from her own personal autobiography. From this point of view, her fascinating novel Artemisia about the audacious painter Artemisia Gentileschi is very significant.

Anna Gianini Bellotti “Anna Banti e il femminismo” in L’opera di Anna Banti, Atti del convegno di Studi, Firenze, 8-8 maggio, 1992, Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, “One may assume that the events Banti recounts spring from an intimate and secret point in her conscience, a sore, a bleeding spot, stubbornly hidden, perhaps even denied to her own self, a spot where she had been hit by men’s arrogance and judgment, perhaps during her solitary childhood, or in her competition with Longhi, in which she had to give up art criticism, to allow the great maestro to shine all the brightest ” ( p.112).

The Relationship between Anna Banti and Virginia Woolf Both of them endowed with a strong temperament and personality, they dedicated their life to writing novels, essays, translations and had to learn to be heard in a world dominated by overpowering male figures: in Woolf’ case,first her dominating father Leslie Stephen, the renowned biographer and, later, the intellectuals of the Bloomsbury group, in Anna’s case, her husband, the famous art historian Roberto Longhi.

Anna Banti’s unpublished letter (1973) Banti herself said, about Virginia Woolf, in an unpublished 1973 letter: “Woolf, whom I admire, but do not consider congenial, wrote one day that she worked so that there would finally be a great woman poet, totally different from the great man poet. Well, I believe deeply in this hope of hers, and, in my own small way, I do my best so that, perhaps, in a few centuries, it may come to be.” ( Giuseppe Lionelli Introductoon to Anna Banti, Artemisia, Milano, Bompiani,1998,V-VI)

Analogies and Differences between Virginia Woolf and Anna Banti I would start with the points in common, with their affinities: their common interest for female emancipation and the difficult condition of the woman artist in a social context that had not accepted equal rights. Both Woolf and Banti insistently stated the importance of female education, because only by means of adequate instruction they could aspire to economic independence.

Essays written by Anna Banti on Virginia Woolf “Umanità della Woolf”in Anna Banti, Opinioni,Il Saggiatore Milano,1961.pp “Il testamento di Virginia Woolf” in Paragone, anno xiv,1963,pp

Banti was attracted by this work because she found its form extremely innovative:in her introduction to the second edition she highlighted the modernist technique of the multiple point of view:reality is seen through the shards of a broken mirror.

Anna Banti, Introduzione alla Camera di di Jacob, Mondadori, Milano, 1980 “From this point onwards there occurs the already mentioned interpretation of reality which made me think of an extremely polished mirror, which a stone, violently cast, shatters to countless smithereens. In each of these, one image (or speech, or landscape, or reflection) is mirrored and isolated, which the reader/accomplice engages in recognising, reconstructing the whole of the pages” (p. 8)

Nicoletta Pireddu ( Modernism Misunderstood: Anna Banti Translates Virginia Woolf” Comparative Literature,vol.56,n.1( Winter 2004)

Different Poetics of Woolf and Banti New narratives techiniques in order to represent the elusive and fragmentary aspect of reality in Virginia Woolf Banti instead revaluated Manzoni’s concept of the “ verosimilitude”( verosimile)and thatof the realistic novel

Anna Banti, “Manzoni e noi” in Opinioni, Milano, il Saggiatore,1961 “I say novels, and not stories, on the faith of Manzoni’s beautiful description of “verisimilitude” (a reality seen forever in the mind, or, to speak more precisely, seen irrevocably) that seems to entrust the historical novel with the subtlest essence of history. The eternal bet on what has left no trace except an unuttered word amongst many useless ones. That is the “verisimilitude” that Manzoni has gathered, artistically ordered, and reconstructed, recording the rising of the Milanese crowd storming the bakeries: just to give one example “

Banti’s Revaluation of Manzoni Banti revaluated Manzoni for his ethical passion for history. In this perspective the historical novel in spite of its hybridity in mixing actual occurences with invented ones has a true a moral ethical power.

Banti and the Italian ne-realistic cinema This Bantian conception of the novel is linked to her appreciation of the neorelist cinema and the intellectual atmosphere of the Italian left wing of 50s and 60s: cinema ( Rossellini, De Sica) capable of portraying without any sentimentalism, objectively and realistically, the loves, the feelings of the common people.

Woolf’s humanity The effort of Banti was to show that Woolf’s experimentations go hand in hand with Woolf’s openness towards not just women’s, but also worker’s social problems.’

Anna Banti, “ Umanità della Woolf”. “Calling for a deep closeness to everyday facts, and stating, with all due respect, that Bennett, Wells and Galsworthy neither seek it, nor do they achieve it, she concludes: “we call life or spiritual truth, reality, that is the only essential thing”: and one wonders in what, such a sincere declaration differs from the manifesto of a realist orneorealist, as one would say today. Life, reality, truth: what else does any conscientious and reflexive narrator desire, or has ever wanted? The problem is in the understanding of the value of words, which each one of us uses in their own way, changing as they do with each generation: and in the end they lie around, crumpled and worn, like old coins, slowly losing their weight. But the meaning should be unique and unite under its value all authors of the same genuine mould ( “Umanità della Woolf” in Opinioni, pp

Anna Banti” Del tradurre” “Più di una volta mi è capitato di riflettere sulla curiosa coincidenza linguistica dei verbi “ tradurre” e “ tradire”: una coincidenza che può essere in certi casi significativa. La riflessione mi porta oggi a domandarmi: ‘E’ lecito tradurre?”

Anna Banti” Del tradurre” “ Perché. Infine, in che cosa consiste l’operazione del tradurre se non in un fatto popolare o meglio in una fatica destinata a chi non può muoversi con le proprie gambe su un terreno impervio?” “ In fondo, a ben riflettere, molti sono i grandi libri che non andrebbero tradotti : valga un esempio massiccio, l’Ulisse di Joyce. Ma qui il discorso dovrebbe ricominciare e farsi problema di avanguardia letteraria : problema non esportabile “.

. “ And then, doffing one’s own headpieces, how strange to adopt, for a moment some one’s-any one’s-” ( Jacob’s 69) “ E poi, deponendo la propria personalità, come sarebbe strano prendere per un istante quella di un altro, di qualunque altro”( La camera di Jacob, 112 )

“The boy Curnow had only just time to swing himself up by the toe of his boot. The boy Curnow, sitting in the back seat looked at his aunt” “Il garzone Curnow ebbe appena il tempo di saltare su, sulla punta dei piedi. Sedette in mezzo al sedile più basso e guardò sua zia”

Mrs. Pascoe stood at the gate looking after them ; stood at the gate till the trap was round the corner; stood at the gate, looking now to the right, now to the left; then went back to her cottage “ (Jacob’s, 55) “ Mrs Pascoe rimase al cancello a guardare loro dietro: ci stette finché ebbero voltato l’angolo. Ci restò guardando a destra e a sinistra. Poi rientrò in casa. (La camera di Jacob 92)

“ The whole flesh of his face then fell into folds as if props were removed. Yet strip a whole seat of an underground railway carriage of its heads and old Huxtable head will hold them all” (Jacob’s 40) “ Tutta la carne del suo viso cadde allora in pieghe, come se ogni altro sostegno ne fosse rimosso. Del resto, prendete da un sedile della metropolitana una schiera di teste e quella del vecchio Huxtable e si adatterà a tutte”.( La stanza di Jacob, 68 )

“Cowan, Erasmus Cowan, sipped his port alone, or with one rosy little man, whose memory held precisely the same span of time; he sipped his port, and told his stories, and without book before him intoned Latin, Virgil and Catullo, as if language were wine upon his lips. Only- sometimes it will come over one-what if the poet strode in?” This is my image? “ he might ask, pointing to the chubby man, whose brain is, after all Virgil’s representation among us, though the body gluttonize, and as for arms, bees, or even the plough. Cowan takes his trips abroad with a French novel in his pocket, a rug about his knees, and is thankful to be home again in his place, in his line, holding up his snug little mirror the image of Virgil, all rayed round with good stories of the dons of Trinity and red beams of port”.

“ Cowan, Erasmus Cowan, centellinava il suo porto. Solo o in compagnia di un ometto roseo, la cui memoria recava precisamente la stessa misura di tempo. Centellinava il suo porto e raccontava le sue storie; cantava il suo latino, Virgilio e Catullo, come la lingua fosse vino sulle sue labbra. Soltanto- qualche volta accadde di pensarci- cosa succederebbe se il poeta in persona entrasse nella stanza? “Questa è la mia immagine?” potrebbe domandare indicando il tipo grassoccio il cui cervello è, dopo tutto, ciò che fra noi rappresenta Virgilio. Il corpo è goloso, e quanto alle armi, al miele, all’aratro, si sa che Cowan fa i suoi viaggetti all’estero con un romanzo francese in tasca, e uno scialle sulle ginocchia, felice di ritrovarsi a casa nel suo angolo, nelle proprie abitudini, conservando nel suo specchiuccio l’immagine di Virgilio, tutta variegata di storielle sui professori del Trinity e dei raggi purpurei del porto ( La camera di Jacob,pp ).”