Artemisia Gentileschi

The Italian Baroque painter was born in Rome, the daughter of Tuscan painter Orazio Gentileschi from whom she learned her trade. Gentileschi, was a follower of Caravaggio, infusing his dramatic lighting and dynamic approach to figuration with a sensibility that we’d call feminist today. Indeed, she experienced her own MeToo moment in 1611, when the artist Agostino Tassi raped her. After Tassi reneged on a promise to restore Artemisia’s honor through marriage, the elder Gentileschi took him to court, with Artemisia as star witness. Gentileschi’s feelings on the matter may have found expression in her exceptionally violent rendering of the Biblical story of Judith beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes (pictured).