Artemisia Gentileschi

Although Tassi was ultimately found guilty and banished from Rome, his punishment was never enforced. Artemisia’s reputation suffered grievously, and shortly after the trial, Orazio arranged her marriage to a painter of modest abilities, Pierantonio Stiattesi. The couple moved to Florence, where they remained for six years. During this period, Artemisia’s career flourished. She secured the patronage of Grand Duke Cosimo II and established her reputation at the Medici court, associating with the literary and artistic circle around the poet Michelangelo Buonarroti the younger and even making the acquaintance of the famous scientist Galileo. She became the first female member of the Accademia del Disegno in 1616. In 1612–13, Artemisia painted the first of several versions of what is perhaps her most famous composition—Judith Beheading Holofernes (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples). Interpreted by early feminist writers as a sort of visual revenge for her rape, more recently the painting has been placed within a larger context of Gentileschi’s lifelong achievement in portraying strong women. Indeed, many of Artemisia’s paintings feature violent themes with female protagonists, and these are often read in biographical terms.

Artemisia and her husband separated in 1620, and she became the head of her own household, enjoying a freedom and independence known by few women of her age. She and her two daughters moved frequently for career opportunities and to accommodate patrons, taking her back to Rome from 1620 until 1626, to Venice between 1626 and 1630, and finally to Naples in 1630, where she remained for the rest of her life, running a large and successful workshop. In 1639 she briefly visited London, perhaps to assist her ailing father with the ceiling painting for the Queen’s House in Greenwich. The precise date of her death remains unknown, but a document records her still living in Naples in August 1654.

Though well-known in her lifetime, a great deal of Artemisia’s work fell into obscurity following her death, often attributed to her father or other followers of Caravaggio. A fictional biography published by Anna Banti in 1947 jumpstarted her reevaluation as a significant figure in the history of European art, and today, thanks to fulsome scholarship, Artemisia is rightfully recognized as a remarkable figure who challenged conventions and defied expectations to become a successful artist and one of the most audacious narrative painters of her time.❖