Artemisia Gentileschi

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Artemisia Gentileschi was a Baroque painter

from Italy.

Intro

Baroque artwork is known for being dramatic, easy to understand, and ornately decorated.

Baroque

Art

At a time when women weren’t even allowed to buy paint, Artemisia Gentilieschi achieved fame and fortune through her artwork.

She is best known for painting biblical scenes that documented women’s anger, heroism, and power.

Proto-Feminist

Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome in 1593. Her father, Orazio Gentilischi, was a successful painter.

At that time, It was unheard of for an artist to accept a woman as an apprentice, but Artemsia helped in her father’s studio, she learned by observation, and she practiced painting on her own. Sometimes by candlelight!

Eventually, Artemisia impressed her father enough that he agreed to teach her the skills of a professional artist.

Youth

When Artemisia advanced beyond her father’s training, he hired another painter, Agostino Tassi, to continue her art education. Tassi abused that trust. In 1612, he assaulted Artemisia.

Although it was scandalous at the time, Artemisia took her rapist to court. She endured a literally torturous cross-examination that convinced the judges to put Tassi in jail.

Despite her victory, the public trial had a negative impact on Gentileschi’s reputation. She suffered a lifetime of gossip that accused her of immorality.

Assault

Family

Soon after the trial, Orazio arranged for his daughter to leave Rome and get married. Artemisia’s husband supported her artwork. The couple had daughters of their own. Both of them eventually became painters too.

In 1616, Gentileschi became the first woman accepted into the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. She continued her art education there.

During this period, Gentileschi was held in high esteem by scholars and the royal court.

She even established a famous relationship with the astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei.

First Woman in the Academy

As Gentileschi grew powerful, her husband became jealous.

Thanks to her artistic excellence, Gentileschi enjoyed wealth and freedom uncommon for women at that time.

The couple separated on her terms. She supported her estranged husband and became the head of her own household.

Uncommon

Freedom

Death

Gentileschi and her daughters moved frequently to accommodate patrons that included King Charles I of England and the Italian banking family, the Medicis. In 1641, Gentileschi relocated to Naples where she lived until her death in 1652.

Gentileschi was famous during her lifetime.

After her death in 1652 though, her name fell into obscurity.

Her paintings were misattributed to her father or to Caravaggio, a more famous Baroque painter.

Art historian Mary Garrard notes that Artemisia Gentileschi “suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.”

Scholarly

Neglect

Thanks to recent research, Artemeisia Gentileschi is gaining recognition again.

She is earning her rightful place in art history for her retelling of biblical stories from a woman's perspective.

Her most famous painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes, portrays the heroic Judith mercilessly decapitating the invading general in order to save her people from tyranny. It is considered a proto-feminist masterpiece.

Judith Beheading Holofernes