Artist of the day, March 17, 2025: Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian painter / Baroque (#2234)

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

Self-Portrait as a Female Martyr, circa 1615

Virgin and Child with a Rosary, circa 1651

Lucretia, Circa 1645

Venus Embracing Cupid, Circa 1640

Samson and Delilah, Circa 1630

Corsica and the Satyr, Circa 1630

Birth of Saint John the Baptist, circa 1630

Allegory of fame, circa 1630

Esther before Ahasuerus, circa 1628

Venus and Cupid, circa 1625

Aurora, circa 1625

Portrait of a Gonfaloniere, circa 1622

Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, circa 1621

Danae, circa 1621

Sainte Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1620

Saint Cecilia, circa 1620

ael and Sisera, circa 1620

Sainte Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1618

Mary Magdalene, circa 1616

Self-Portrait as a Lute Player (detail),  circa 1615

Sainte Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1614

Judith Slaying Holofernes, circa 1614

Portrait of a Nun, circa 1613

Maria Maddalena, circa 1613

Madonna and Child, circa 1613

 Danae, circa 1612

Lucretia, circa 1612

Judith Beheading Holofernes, circa 1611

Cleopatra, circa 1611