Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi was a painter of the Italian Baroque period, arguably the most successful and influential female artist of the 17^th century. Born in Rome in 1593, she was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, one of Caravaggio’s earliest followers, and received her artistic training in her father’s studio. As a result of this, her early style is at times indistinguishable from that of her father. Her first known work is Susanna and the Elders (1610), an accomplished work long attributed to her father.

She also studied under painter Antonio Tassi, a friend of her father; Artemisia was raped by Tassi  and, when he did not fulfil his promise to marry her, Orazio Gentileschi brought him to trial in 1612. During the infamous trial, Artemisia was herself subject to torture while delivering her testimony.

Shortly after the trial she married a Florentine, Pierantonio Stiattesi, and in 1616 she was the first woman to be accepted into Florence’s Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. While in Florence she began to develop her own distinct style, specialising in history painting – unusual for women at that time, who were generally limited to still life and portraiture. In Florence, her career flourished; she secured the patronage of Grand Duke Cosimo II and established her reputation at the Medici court.

In around 1620, Artemisia separated from her husband – allowing her an independence known by few women of her era – and returned to Rome. There, she undertook works for a number of patrons, before spending three years in Venice 1627-30. In 1630 she moved to Naples, and in 1638 she arrived in London, where she worked alongside her father for King Charles I. They collaborated on the ceiling paintings of the Great Hall in the Queen’s House in Greenwich. After Orazio’s sudden death in 1639, she stayed on in London for a few more years. According to her biographer Baldinucci (who appended her life to that of her father), she painted many portraits and quickly surpassed her father’s fame. Later, probably in 1640 or 1641, she settled in Naples, where she established a large and successful workshop, staying there for the rest of her life (although little is known of these years).

Today she is celebrated not only for her masterly history paintings, often featuring powerful women, and receptiveness to the various milieus in which she worked, but moreover for achieving such renown and artistic success as a woman, a feat that was unparalleled in her time.