So, the thing is, that almost every art piece worth paying attention to is deeply connected to a moment in history, to politics, to religion, to culture.
Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith beheading Holofernes was created by a woman who was sexually assaulted and then humiliated by the courts when she tried to get justice. It depicts a scene from the bible where a woman uses cunning to assassinate a foreign general leading an army against her people. Artemisia was exceptional as a woman who was able to make a career of fine art in a time where that was extremely uncommon.
Artemisia’s Judith Beheading Holofernes is part of a rich tradition of depicting this scene that stretches from the distant past to the modern day. By studying these paintings you can see the progression of European art through many phases. Judith Beheading Holofernes also has an important cultural role in representing how women were viewed and treated at different points in European history.
There is so much complex history and culture tied up in this theme. There are dozens of versions in dozens of artistic styles. Looking through them you can learn important things about the clothing of the time, the evolution of artistic techniques, even the evolution of European swords.
AI can’t do any of this. It just slavishly remixes what was fed in to it. It’s completely devoid of semantic meaning.
