Original subtitles

Apointed finger...

drapery...

a raised hand...

a leg which is not a leg, but an arm...

a confused ballet of gigantic bodies...

the sweeping movement of the limbs...

You should hang your head in shame.

She is without a doubt...

the daughter of a painter.

Such behavior...

could compromise future commissions from the Church.

The Cardinal would never be influenced in his aesthetic judgments...

by a woman.

Even a saintly woman, like you.

You have much to learn, but not here.

Raise the candles. They're all wrong.

Move, Artemisia.

Like this, Master?

Yes, that's f�ne.

Saint Cecilia, look up! Look at Marco.

Marco, where's that angelic smile of yours?

Just a little longer. It's almost over.

You scared me, Fulvio!

- Some sea treasures for you. - Get away!

All the colors you like.

There's red, silver.

There's blue and green!

Remember our marriage by the sea?

Your breasts are growing!

Fulvio!

Shield in the left hand, sword in the right.

That's f�ne. Now get undressed.

Draw the curtain for Artemisia.

I'll never get anywhere if I can't paint naked men.

Artemisia.

It's the Papal Father, not your father...

who forbids women to paint male anatomy.

- I'm forbidden half of art! - You want to go to jail?

Or send your father there?

Lower the sword. Lower it!

You're killing a lion.

We don't have one, so pretend.

Roberto, prepare my pigments.

Artemisia, what are you doing?

Stop!

Finish your painting by yourself.

Painting is hardly a suitable activity for a woman...

but my son insisted.

I have agreed to let Artemisia do his portrait.

Artemisia will be very honored.

Won't you?

And what better way to get acquainted?

If my husband agrees...

the payment will be part of her dowry.

Can he pose naked for me?

Excuse her. She doesn't know what she's saying.

She's become very diff�cult...

since her mother died.

I told you about painters!

If I let you kiss me...

could I then ask a favor of you?

If you like.

Kiss me then.

Undress.

Take off your pants.

Everything. That too. That white thing...

breaks the flow of your body.

This is only for drawing?

Look how the back muscle...

crosses your side...

and joins your thigh muscles.

It's less visible in girls.

- Really? - Yes.

Show me.

Don't move. Let me do this.

These are the studios.

No, that's something else.

Here it is.

You've outdone yourself.

Very impressive.

It's vivid...

forceful.

It's superb.

Your sense of color is unrivaled, Gentileschi.

I am honored.

I'm surprised that you chose silver for the armor.

I posed in gold armor.

But this portrait is ideal...

and timeless and perfectly balanced in terms of color.

Moreover, the silver sets off your true stature.

It makes you seem taller.

I seem to remember having suggested the change myself.

Undoubtedly. Your advice was always helpful to my work.

Deliver it to me by Friday.

I'm having a party and I want the portrait there.

Remember to replace the silver with gold.

For him, color means matching his stockings and breeches!

He doesn't know what color is!

For whom do we work, my child?

I paint for myself.

I paint for those who buy my paintings. There's more at stake than talent.

Under his hideous gold paint...

is our silver, our magnif�cent silver.

He's painting outdoors.

Doesn't he have a studio?

To the right!

Perfect. That's f�ne.

He's painting the world.

He's outside, but he's looking out a window.

Hurry! We're not in Florence. Paint dries faster.

He uses a white undercoat to bring out the light.

It's a simple technique.

Batiste!

That's enough for today.

Let's pack up. Aaron, get the boats.

Fisherman, come help us.

This green, Master?

Very nice.

What is she doing out there?

- She's drawing. - Drawing what?

Why draw in a f�eld, like a peasant?

It's the latest fashion in Florence, or so she says.

Tassi must have arrived.

I'll send him a note to welcome him.

We have to be very friendly with him.

He reproduced...

every crease...

every wrinkle.

A Biblical character...

with wrinkles and defects doesn't please everyone.

Caravaggio has had problems because of that.

He shows us a beheading...

as if it were like slicing bread.

Quiet. We say too much in front of paintings.

You should be grateful that he makes us want to surpass him.

I think she's a prodigy.

She betters all the others in my studio.

The Academy does not accept girls.

I said she paints like a man.

Lost your way, cutie?

What brings you here? Waiting for your boyfriend?

No recommendation is higher than that...

of Orazio Gentileschi, but...

Let me introduce myself. Orazio Gentileschi.

I know your work, sir. And I admire it.

Yes, I know you too.

And if you're a student here, it's thanks...

to these.

Make sure you don't lose them!

Look what he's doing.

I want to adjust the light!

She wants to be able to raise and lower it.

Knot them so I can undo them from inside.

He'll never allow this.

Put that there. The rack goes there.

He'll make you take it all down.

A vigorous consistency of flesh and blood.

A whiteness which opens out to the limits...

where its fragility vanishes.

Too skinny!

I've prepared full-scale drawings.

We don't need models.

Gentileschi, you know the central composition is mine.

The Pope put me in charge of the project.

I was chosen for it f�rst.

Are we talking about the past or the future?

We'll do an excellent job, Orazio.

Tassi and Gentileschi will be considered great artists.

And only the greatest of connoisseurs will recognize...

that Tassi was a little greater than Gentileschi.

Tassi and Gentileschi?

I think I'll survive this collaboration.

Come to the bordello.

We'll get a girl and share the work, like here.

Her knickers.

Painting signs by day and sinning by night!

I'll leave the night work to you.

- He stole my angels. - I know.

I was supposed to do the angels and two saints.

What can I do?

He steals your work from under your nose!

We're lucky we didn't lose the entire commission for the frescoes.

Tassi has powerful friends in the Church.

They say he's a master of perspective.

Maybe we'll learn something from him.

We mustn't lag behind the latest innovations.

See if he can do the nave and leave the vaults for us.

He's too long. It looks ridiculous.

It's deliberate.

High up on the wall of the church...

it will look normal.

Look.

Look from here. It seems less long.

It must be like when you look between your legs.

It's smaller than when you see it in a mirror.

I don't spend my days in front of mirrors.

What would you know? Aren't you a virgin?

Agostino, look.

I'm looking for Mr. Gentileschi.

He's not here.

You'd make a good model...

but I'd have to see you up close.

Aren't frescoes made to be seen from this distance?

True!

Don't tire yourself.

I pose only for myself.

A girl who paints?

What courage, to try painting yourself.

But it's a lost cause!

Who is talented enough to render such beauty?

Tell Mr. Gentileschi I f�nished his drawings.

And who are you?

His daughter.

As long as the Pope trusts me...

God Himself will be your client.

Don't worry.

Get your master!

I thought you were a pupil.

That's no way to treat people!

First I mistook you for a model...

now for a boy.

And also perhaps...

for a ghost at my window.

I'll forgive you if you forgive me.

Show me one of your paintings, chameleon child.

Come to my studio.

Your studio?

- This is your father's work. - It's mine.

My face painted by me.

There you are.

Artemisia has lured you into her web.

- He asked to see my work. - He's a gentleman.

Shall we dine?

Take me as your pupil! You must!

My father has taught me all he can. The Academy won't take me.

The Academy didn't see these...

I suppose.

Nor has your father.

You chose to share your secrets with me?

Should I be your professor or confessor?

One Gentileschi is hard enough.

No, I will not and I cannot.

I'll surpass you one day.

You'll come and ask to be my pupil.

What did you say to Tassi?

He said you provoked him.

I told him the truth.

That I'm a good enough painter to be his pupil.

You have to be nice to him.

Now that I've persuaded him to take you as a pupil.

- Where are you going? - To my lesson!

Wait until tomorrow, Misia.

- I'll go with her. - No, Marisa can.

You'll mind the house while I work at the church.

Greet our guest with words of welcome.

Come in. They're harmless.

You've come with an assistant.

Am I supposed to open a school?

I can't paint with you watching.

Take your material. We'll try something else.

What do you see there?

A ship.

A ship. What else?

Ships don't inspire me much.

Try. Make an effort.

I can't draw outdoors.

Without characters, it's like drawing a void.

- A void? - Yes.

Look at things in a new way.

I'm not used to so much light.

Start over.

Don't keep doing what you know. Start over.

Enough for today.

Who's that charming thing?

- You must have braved heaven and hell. - Hell suff�ced.

- You fled without saying good-bye. - There was no need.

What I needed to say was this: Go away!

Let me stay with you.

- I don't love you. - I can accept that.

Pass me off as your sister.

My dear, sweet sister.

This is Costanza...

my sister.

Take good care of her.

Give her the love a brother can't give.

More earth, less sky.

Good.

You cut the world in pieces?

You've always painted your subjects from up close.

But the world is vast.

Relations between things are more complex.

The frame gives order to our vision of the landscape.

Cutting up the canvas like this...

gives us the exact relations.

Look how many faraway things...

are contained in the squares above...

and how few things are in those below.

All I see is land and water.

You're not looking. Close your eyes.

I'm to learn painting with my eyes shut?

- You're some teacher! - Close your eyes.

Trust me.

The earth invades the composition.

It occupies...

almost all of the center.

It pushes the sky up to the upper two-thirds.

On the horizon...

the earth circumscribes the water.

It holds it back.

The water itself is...

deep green in the distance, bluer near us.

And the sun.

The sun dances on the water, forming a mirrored path...

which comes to meet us wherever we are.

Open your eyes now.

Yes, the water is changing color.

And the sun is a mirrored path coming towards us. It's true!

Well...

now...

we can add your characters, if you insist.

Who?

I can see the sun!

How's that?

Why don't you ask her?

What's wrong?

I want to work on color.

I can't teach you color.

Why not? I'm willing to learn!

You know as much as I.

It was mean not to have told me before.

Do I stay like this?

Yes, that's just f�ne.

How do you capture such physicality without knowing...

what the body is capable of?

I never said I didn't know.

Who was the model for your nudes?

Would you pose for me?

I don't mean naked.

Marisa!

Find something to clean.

Go sweep the beach!

Lie down.

Let your head hang off the side.

Now lift your hands to push Judith away.

Pretend you're f�ghting me off.

It's time to go.

Calm down.

Let yourself go.

I'm hurt.

I'm sorry, Artemisia.

I didn't know.

I thought...

You've taken over my mind like no one before.

I love you.

We have to go.

Yes, madame! Here I am!

Misia, I need you.

Yes, Father. I'm coming.

The exalted lover...

held the young woman against him.

He entered her and embraced her...

in the confused mixture of forms and dreams.

Such faraway material...

so miraculously near now.

Batiste...

your master is a great artist.

I'm very happy I like his work.

It saves me from having to lie.

I have some new drawings for you. You'll like them.

You have to keep them coming.

These images lose their power quickly, unlike art.

He's found "art" with the Gentileschi girl.

Her power doesn't seem to wear off.

She's the reason Agostino won't see me.

I don't intend to beg for his respect.

- See you tomorrow? - What if my father...

He'll f�nd it strange if you don't come. Tomorrow.

Do they mention the shared commission with Tassi?

I wanted to tell you...

Has this made me lose face in Rome?

It's in the past. It's almost forgotten.

But some people claim...

that you're sharing more than the frescoes.

That's untrue. I don't share in his depravity!

They say that Artemisia...

He's her teacher and she's never painted better.

But she works only for my studio, not for his.

They refer to more concrete things between them.

Dirty gossip. They're jealous of a girl...

who has the talent of a man.

Besides, she has a chaperon, and he's an honest man.

Don't listen to that nonsense.

I'm thrilled to hear it.

I brought the pigment you asked for.

Who says such things?

Our Florentine friend...

what did he teach you today?

Perspective.

Lines converge towards the horizon, like this.

You're tanned.

We were outside, painting the horizon.

And you stayed in the shade?

I was under the parasol.

It protects the canvases.

Batiste...

your master isn't coming?

He doesn't tell us everything.

You're going? But the plaster will dry!

I didn't tell.

Father?

He's gone.

Gone?

He says I'll go to jail for helping Agostino!

Promise me you didn't touch my daughter.

Promise me!

Answer! Answer me!

I trusted you. Tell me you didn't betray me.

You're my friend.

Agostino, tell me!

Why won't you answer, Tassi?

If you stole her from me, you have to keep her and marry her.

The only way to save her is to marry her.

You have to marry her! You hear me?

You can't do this to me!

Coward!

What have you done?

You let that man seduce you.

- I trusted you! - I love him!

- And he loves me! - He raped you!

No, he gave me pleasure.

- Stop! Shut up! - Leave her alone!

Talk to her! I can't.

If you tell them he raped you, he'll have to marry you.

Tell them? Tell who?

Don't tell me what to do.

Sleeping with my father won't make you my mother.

You...

You only want one thing.

Everything for yourself. Me and the frescoes!

A child of 15! His pupil!

Not 15! 17!

Was she born in 1593 or 1595?

It's my money he wants!

My commission for himself.

He's driven by jealousy!

I ask only that amends be made for damage done...

to an honorable name and to my daughter's reputation.

Ask Artemisia if I ever hurt her!

I love Artemisia. I love her.

And I've done her no harm.

Then why not marry her?

You'd have your beloved...

and a dowry from Orazio Gentileschi.

Don't sell me like that!

I'm a virgin. I have no reason to be here.

Where is the crime then?

Help me to protect you. I've done all this for you.

So?

She lost it a while ago.

How many times?

Anyway, she's no longer a virgin. Far from it.

Mr. Gentileschi, all you've proved up to now...

is that your daughter is a liar.

Why are you here?

My poor child, the man you love has been evil since he was a child.

Take your seat.

You may speak.

I've come alone from Florence...

to say things which, till now, I've only said to God.

My brother is a wicked person...

who must be stopped.

Continue.

I've come to spare Gentileschi and his daughter.

My brother has a wife in Florence.

A legal wife?

She left me of her own free will three years ago.

He shamed her by having relations with her younger sister.

Slander!

You ran away, but we remember in Florence.

Next witness.

Artemisia.

This is slander, Artemisia!

It was never proved.

Quiet!

And you protect him.

Artemisia, never!

- A liar. - All this for you.

The young painter girl.

You need a defense.

I won't let you spoil your life.

Nothing will stop Orazio.

Your sister revealed your misbehavior in Florence.

Your sentence may be severe.

My friend...

here you are in prison.

Meanwhile, she is free...

to see whomever she wants.

She's not worth it.

I can't bear to see you in jail for her.

I'll say nothing against her.

We'll save him anyway.

Is there a window in your cell?

Tell me what you see from it.

Two hills.

One runs into the other.

On one side...

near the hill that's farther away...

I can see a tree.

Our eyes follow its branches up to the sky.

Early in the afternoon...

its dark green shadow...

almost reaches a rock formation...

strikingly white...

a white too pure ever to be painted.

It would seem to spurt from the canvas.

In the evening...

when the light begins to fade...

my hills become greenish-gray...

and lose their depth...

like paper cutouts.

You hurt me.

You lied to me.

I lied in order to keep you.

I'd do anything to keep you.

Orazio is the cause of our problems.

He never lied to me.

And your past is not his doing.

If only I could erase it all.

You're part of me now.

That cannot be erased.

I love you.

Legs spread, muscles taut.

Twisted faces upside down.

An arm stretches out.

A fist is raised.

A round breast escapes from a corset.

A sword strikes...

cutting with all its edge.

An eye stares.

And the color red...

erupts onto the canvas.

Here are 20 drawings by Artemisia.

All of them depict male genitalia.

Ladies, avert your eyes.

Souvenirs, perhaps, of 20 lovers.

In any case...

proof of her knowledge of the things of flesh.

And a violation of divine law!

I did those drawings of the human body!

The human body which God gave us!

He's lying!

It's not the work of a painter, but of a woman.

Look.

Artemisia!

She says she is virtuous...

and this is what she produces.

Artemisia sees herself as a "Judith."

A criminal.

A traitor.

And Agostino...

as the victim of her scheming.

Artemisia and Agostino.

Who is the victim of whom?

Agostino...

will you stand up and defend yourself...

before it's too late?

Wake up.

Show them into my off�ce. I'll settle this.

Let me go!

Tie her hands.

The truth.

We will know the truth that God alone knows.

Hands together, as if for prayer.

Pretend. You're no stranger to that.

Did Agostino Tassi rape you?

I love only you.

Tighter.

Stop.

- She's suffered enough! - I'll tear the truth out!

I raped the virgin, Artemisia. I took her by force...

and did it repeatedly, promising to marry her.

Punish me. She doesn't deserve this!

Untie her hands.

What did I do?

Tassi of Florence...

I declare you guilty of rape.

I sentence you to two years in jail.

Artemisia, please.

We still have work to do together.

Should I help you f�nish the frescoes...

or paint over his?

Don't worry about me, Father.

You gave me something no one can take away.

You taught me to paint.

No, I gave you the suffering you put into your paintings, not the talent.

You made things easier for me.

You blocked the paths that might have diverted me from painting...

had I remained a respectable woman.

You've done a magnif�cent painting, a powerful one.

We say too much in front of paintings.

Take it down.

Excuse me?

Take all this down!

Now, I have to forget her face.

Your father wanted to save you.

If you leave, it will kill him.

No one dies of sorrow.

That's one thing I've learned.

You know I have to leave.

He knows it too.

Two hills.

Two hills running into each other.

Nearby, a single tree.

Our eyes follow it up to the sky.

In the afternoon...

its dark green shadow...

almost reaches a rock formation...

whiter than anything.

Too white to be painted...

for it would seem to spurt from the canvas.