Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1653) was an Italian Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation following that of Caravaggio. In an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community or patrons, she was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence, She was the most important woman painter by virtue of the excellence of her work, the originality of her treatment of traditional subjects, and the number of her paintings that have survived (though only thirty-four of a much larger corpus remain, many of them only recently attributed to her rather than to her male contemporaries). She was both praised and disdained by contemporary critical opinion, recognized as having genius, yet seen as monstrous because she was a woman exercising a creative talent thought to be exclusively male.
Being a girl she was not accepted into any painting academy. Her father then had a colleague give her further lessons. This Agostino Tassi not only taught her painting but raped her as well. When that became public Tassi was sent to jail for a year. After the trial, Artemisia was the first woman ever admitted into the Accademia dell’Arte del Disegno in Florence. Since she was a woman, she could paint live nude female models. This gave her an advantage over male painters, who were prevented from using live female nude models.
She made her first well-known work at the age of 17: Susanna and the Elders. Some think that Artemisia had been harrassed just like Susanna, and that she used that experience in the painting.
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| Ms. Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait |
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| Self-Portrait as a Female Martyr, circa 1615 |
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| Virgin and Child with a Rosary, circa 1651 |
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| Lucretia, Circa 1645 |
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| Venus Embracing Cupid, Circa 1640 |
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| Samson and Delilah, Circa 1630 |
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| Corsica and the Satyr, Circa 1630 |
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| Birth of Saint John the Baptist, circa 1630 |
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| Allegory of fame, circa 1630 |
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| Esther before Ahasuerus, circa 1628 |
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| Venus and Cupid, circa 1625 |
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| Aurora, circa 1625 |
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| Portrait of a Gonfaloniere, circa 1622 |
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| Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, circa 1621 |
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| Danae, circa 1621 |
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| Sainte Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1620 |
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| Saint Cecilia, circa 1620 |
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| ael and Sisera, circa 1620 |
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| Sainte Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1618 |
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| Mary Magdalene, circa 1616 |
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Self-Portrait as a Lute Player (detail), circa 1615
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| Sainte Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1614 |
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| Judith Slaying Holofernes, circa 1614 |
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| Portrait of a Nun, circa 1613 |
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| Maria Maddalena, circa 1613 |
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| Madonna and Child, circa 1613 |
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| Danae, circa 1612 |
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| Lucretia, circa 1612 |
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| Judith Beheading Holofernes, circa 1611 |
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| Cleopatra, circa 1611 |
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