Artemisia

The book Artemesia tells a story of a friendship between two women, Artemesia's life as a female artist, her relationship with her painter father and other inner struggles of Artemesia. 

One of the scene in the book really captured my attention. Cecilia, Artemesia's best friend, had such a different family background than Artemesia. Artemesia came to Cecilia's high window to visit her. They were such good friends until this one visit, when they have become older, Artemesia realized how different they are, in terms of background composites. Artemesia was observing Cecilia, and thought to herself that Cecilia has a "distant, precious fragility", given that Cecilia was born in a cage with maidservants. Artemesia had become aware of "the wide gulf that inexorably separated her" from Cecilia. Cecilia's image ignited the fire of self-conciousness and jealousy in Artemesia's heart. Artemesia, a poor girl with limited freedom, inevitably started feeling bitter. She secretly put musk-scented oil in her hair and dressed up nicely before the visit. She started boasting.  She talked about her uncle Cosimo, with exaggeration, that he sent her "boxes of sweets and sherbets and Spanish wines and gold chains". She also talked about how she learned how to paint, and her father was teaching her, who "meet the most important people". Cecilia didn't say a word, she only sighed. That sigh immediately attracted the attention of the nursemaids that came caring for her. Artemesia shouted farewell to Cecilia, and she leaped down the road with tears in her eyes. "She tore the dress she had mended for her visit to Cecilia and never wore it again." She realized how hard she tried, to top Cecilia in life, but she realized that dressing herself up and boasting about her uncle did not fill in the empty whole in her heart, but only left with her the feeling of emptiness and sadness. Comparing to Cecilia, she had to boast to feel less miserable about herself, while Cecilia was being taken care of all the time. Sarcastically, Cecilia died later in text. To summarize from a distance, Cecilia's life was not all that admirable. She was caged, weak, lonely and only had a short life. But at the moment, to Artemesia, she is that elegant lady who belonged to a completely different, but much classier life than her own. 

Jealousy left its trace on the canvas of the relationship between the two girls. Given that the author is a female, I can resonate pretty well with the jealousy girls have when their best friends are not on the same platform as her. It is very real, and very breathable.