‘The shadow of Artemisia’, crossed destinies and violence against women in Cohen’s book

Two destinies that intersect and overlap. Two tragic and painful experiences that seem to chase each other even if they develop in completely different times and ways. Experiences united by the same common thread, violence against women. This is the meaning of ‘The shadow of Artemisia’, a novel about fragility and abuse signed by the writer and screenwriter Maurizio Cohen and published by Vallecchi (pp. 316 euro 18). “When strength is added to a man’s desire and respect is taken away, there is no defense”, we read in the book. A ‘truth’ that the two protagonists of the book are forced to experience: Jenny, a young actress, and the painter Artemisia Gentileschi about whom Jenny is making a film.

In seventeenth-century Rome, crossed by cultural ferments of all kinds, a laboratory of art and culture, Artemisia’s life is subjected to the final judgment of the Inquisition. “This woman, your eminence, continues to sin. Not only – this is the accusation made against Artemisia – has she tarnished the honor and respectability of many devout and generous citizens, but she is attempting, thanks to the evil spirit lodged between her legs since since she was a teenager, to show herself as a blessed victim in the eyes of all of us”. Not only that, Artemisia is also raped by a friend of her father, her painting teacher. It’s the same fate that happens to Jenny too. During the filming of the film, the girl, returning home, is attacked by three young people from ‘good’ Rome. A violence that is carried out on a symbolic date, the day on which women are honored and celebrated, March 8th. And so the tragic story experienced by a prominent historical figure and that of Jenny somehow come together. Still in shock, the girl finds herself in the paradoxical situation of having to face two trials: in the morning in court, the immediate one for the rape she experienced, and in the afternoon that of Artemisia reproduced on the set.

Thus, little by little, the character of the painter becomes a sort of obsession for Jenny. The two women, overcoming any time constraints, establish a relationship full of emotions and complicity but also of strong misunderstandings, which ends up threatening the psychological stability of the already fragile Jenny. The book by Cohen – who wrote the books ‘The Cage’ and ‘Ninety’ and collaborated with several directors including Francesco Nuti, Tinto Brass and José Sanchez – is a story that demonstrates only one great truth: throughout history nothing it changes and everything repeats.