TW: I don’t normally put content warning on my reviews, but this is a non-fiction book that includes significant discussion of rape and assault, and thus it is mentioned several times in my review as well.
One of my goals for this year is to actually read more of the books on my shelves, which is one reason why I’m doing more book bingo challenges. Having a couple dozen prompts to fulfill really causes me to take a good look at what’s already living in my bookcases.
Take I Know What I Am by Gina Siciliano. I was excited to pick this up during the 2022 Seattle Indie Bookstore Day promotion, because I wanted to read it and I was pretty confident it would be easy to fit into that year/s SAL/SPL Book Bingo. I mean, it was by a local author, it was a graphic novel, it was about history, art, a trial, it had elements of feminism, it was from a local publisher… and yet somehow I couldn’t fit it into a single dang square.
It’s been on my shelf ever since, and while there were potentially some prompts in last year’s SAL/SPL or Nook & Cranny challenges that it could have fit, I ended up reaching for other books instead. And so it was one of the first books I thought of when I decided I needed to read what I owned this year.
So what is this book anyway? The subtitle is “The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi” and it is a biography of a Renaissance painter whose career was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that she took her rapist to court. By the way, I thought for certain that she was famous for painting her rapist into her version of Judith’s Beheading of Holofernes, but despite the fact that she painted several versions of that scene (everyone in the Renaissance wanted to commission the same biblical and apocryphal scenes over and over!), neither this book nor the Wikipedia entry on her mention this, so it’s probably some wishtory that I saw on Facebook at some point.
That said, one of her versions of Susanna and the Elders, from before her rape, features elders who look strikingly similar to two men who were harassing her at the time (one of whom went on to rape her).
This is a fascinating but difficult book. I read it in two days because I had a hard time putting it down. Siciliano provides a ton of context, filling in the social and political situation that Artemisia was living in (that “life and times” isn’t just a naming gimmick here!), helping us better understand what her life would have been like and what might have driven the decisions she made. It’s fully illustrated in black and white, and includes the author’s skillful recreations of paintings discussed in the book (not just Artemisia’s, but her father’s, her rapist’s, her contemporaries’, and more), and beautiful portraits of major characters.
The difficulty comes from the subject matter. Artemisia took her rapist to court. She had to provide testimony as to what he did to her. Two midwives examined her to prove she wasn’t a virgin. Eventually, she was tortured to see if she would recant her accusation (her rapist was not tortured to see if he would recant his denial, though one of his witnesses was). While these things aren’t rendered in gory detail, they are portrayed on the page in an explicit enough way that it’s clear what’s happening, and the text often elaborates. See the CWs and TWs section for more.
Siciliano appears to have tried to provide as accurate as possible a depiction of Artemisia’s life. She doesn’t make moral judgements on her choices, such as her infidelity to her eventual husband or which patrons she worked for or which parts of the world she relocated to. She simply provides the facts, and the context, when possible. There’s a very extensive notes section in the back which shows this was an exhaustively researched project.
This isn’t a book I’d just casually recommend. The subject matter is heavy enough that you have to know what you’re getting into. But if you’re interested in art history, historical women, legal history, or Italian history (specifically the Renaissance), I think it’s definitely worth a read. As a bonus it’s gonna look great on your shelf, as the cover and spine are so elegant, with gold foil accents!
CWs and TWs: In addition to rape, sexual assault (both attempted and completed), and torture, there’s huge doses of misogyny, some incest, a fair amount of violence, and a ton of death, which includes child death, death of a parent, and death by plague. There’s also consensual sexual content. Because this is a graphic novel, most if not all of these things are depicted visually; that said, if there’s any genitalia on display, it’s in depictions of classic art.
Format and Source: I read this as a hardback graphic novel which I purchased from Fantagraphics Books’ storefront down in Seattle.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook and Cranny (Card 1): Going Back in Time. This book really takes you on a journey to the Renaissance, and the fact that its a graphic novel just makes it that much more immersive.
Brick & Mortar: Non-Fiction Graphic Novel. I mean, that’s exactly what this book is. Fits the prompt perfectly! I think this is an often overlooked genre with some great works in it (such as Gender Queer and the March series).
Current Bingo Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 3 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 2 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
Brick & Mortar: 6 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.