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Krista Schirmer

Professor Joslin

2236.500

July 16, 2020

Research Paper: Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652)

Artemisia Gentileschi was a painter. Her work was often confused for her father's work because

it was so well done. “The work "Madonna and Child" is one such work that has sometimes been

attributed to Artemisia, and sometimes to her father.” (Biography.com). She was the daughter of

a Baroque painter, named Orzaio Gentileschi. (Broad Strokes. Pg.21). She was the oldest child

and only daughter, with four younger brothers. Artemisia's mother, Prudentia Montone, sadly

passed when she was only twelve years old. Her mother's passing would leave her to live a

lifetime surrounded by men. (Broad Strokes. Pg21).

Her father, Orzaio, saw the talent that she had, and began training her to paint early on.

Other than training in the arts, Artemisia had very little schooling or education. (Art History

Archive). Not learning to read or write until she was an adult did not stop her from creating some

of her most famous pieces of work though. At the young age of seventeen she created her

interpretation of Susanna and the Elders, in 1610. (Art History Archive).

In 1612, Artemisia was raped by Agostino Tassi.(Art History Archive). Tassi was an

artist who worked under Orzaio as an apprentice. There was a famous trial that was held due to

the rape charges. But the issue was not with the innocence and purity stripped from Artemisia,

but instead the offense was so highly publicized was due to the damages to Orazio’s property.

(Chadwick. Pg.105). Artemisia was considered her father's property, and by raping her, Tassi
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was damaging his property. In this time period, a woman’s virginity could land her with a well-

off husband. But now with that gone, her value was considered less significant. Tassi was not

just Orazio’s apprentice, but he was also Artemisia's teacher. He claimed that the day of the

assault he was teaching her perspective, and that was his alibi. (Art History Archive). In the

trial’s transcripts, which have been carefully preserved, Tassi claimed that Artemisia was so

inept in her art that he was merely trying to teach her perspective on the day of the assault, and

that the assault never happened. He also threw her virginity into question, and Artemisia had to

disrobe and be examined by midwives to prove when she was “deflowered”. (Art History

Archive). Her father came to her defense, and at the end of the trial Tassi was charged for the

rape of Artemisia. Though he only served a prison sentence of less than a year. (Art History

Archive).

After the trial Artemisia was married off to a family friend. She and her husband moved

to Florence. Here she began working for The Academy of Design and became a member in 1616.

(Art History Archive). This was an amazing accomplishment for a woman of the time, as

academies were a common place for men and men only. While in Florence she also befriended

Grand Duke Cosimo Medici. (Art History Archive). It was rumored that her acceptance into the

Academy of Design was due in part by this friendship, because after his death in 1621, she

returned to Rome. (Art History Archive). Another noteworthy friend of Artemisia's was Mr.

Galileo Galilei. (Broad Strokes. Pg. 37). By 1624 there is no historical memory of Artemisia's

husband. There is no mention of him on the census, and no further proof of his existence past the

year 1624. (Broad Stokes. Pg.37).

Artemisia's first piece of work that was signed and dated was a piece titled Susanna and

the Elders, in 1610. (Biography.com). This piece was from a scene in the Bible. In her realistic
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take on the situation two elders are accusing her of adultery. Susana is being tormented by the

two Elders and their false claims. (Biography.com). This is a piece based off an Old Testament

Apocrypha, which was rejected by the Protestant church. (Babette Bohn). The story depicts a

wife of a Jew during the exile from Babylon. In the story, two elders are lusting after Susanna as

she bathes. When her maids leave her alone the elders demand that she satisfies their lust. They

demanded that if she did not satisfy them, they would make the false accusations about adultery.

(Babette Bohn). She told them “no”, so they went through with their threats of the false

accusation. She was tried and convicted, and never got to tell her side of the story. (Babette

Bohn).

When you look at Artemisia you can almost see parallels between her work and her real

life. For example, in Susanna and the Elders, the woman was taken advantage of in a moment of

peace. The two Elders demanded something from her, and she denied but was punished all the

same. In Artemisia's life she was also taken advantage of by a man. She also had to go through a

trial where she had to prove herself. She had to prove that her virginity was stolen by a man who

she trusted as a teacher, who her father trusted. In Susanna and the Elders, Susanna was taking a

peaceful bath in a trusted environment. Both women had something taken from them unjustly.

Although her own assault happened after her painting, there is still an uncanny sense of art and

life mimicking one another.

Many of the people in her Artemisias artwork were woman. A year later in 1611 she

painted Judith Slaying Holofernes. This is a piece that “depicts Judith in the act of saving the

Jewish people by killing Assyrian general Holofernes”. (Biography.com). The following

description of the Judith Slaying Holofernes demonstrates the realistic nature of Artemisia's

work: “Judith savagely slices through Holofernes’s neck in Artemisia Gentileschi’s defining
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work, Judith Slaying Holofernes. Abra, Judith’s maidservant, holds down the struggling

Holofernes, allowing her mistress maximum leverage. Blood sprays from Holofernes’s neck and

saturates the white sheet under his body in pooled rivulets”. (Violence and Virtue). Her artwork

tells a story with every detail. Every shadow and every highlight define the situation. Her

realistic work stands its ground in comparison to other artists manifestation of the same tale.

Several years later she would again paint Judith. This time it was in the piece titled Judith and

Her Maidservant and with the Head of Holofernes. In this piece, painted in 1625, it shows Judith

and her maid fleeing with the head of Holofernes. (Biography.com). Other women that Artemisia

painted were Cleopatra and Minerva. (Biography.com).

Artemisia and her father were both followers of Caravaggio, who was also a Baroque

painter. His style was mimicked by Artemisia's father and then passed down to her as well.

“Images of heroic womanhood, qualified by the moralistic rhetoric of the Counter Reformation

and well suited to the demands of Baroque drama, replaced the earlier and more passive ideals of

female beauty”. (Chadwick. Pg. 45).

In 1635, Artemisia painted another famous piece from the Bible, The Birth of St. John the

Baptist. At this time, she was living in Naples which is where she would pass away in 1652.

(Biography.com). But in between her arrival to Naples and her death there, she also spent some

time in England with her father. From 1638 to 1641 Artemisia painted for King Charles I. (Art

History Archive). Here she painted the ceilings of the Queens home, and other commissioned

work for the King.(Art History Archive). One of the pieces she created here was titled Allegory

of Peace. While in England her father fell ill and died in 1639. She continued to stay in England

and paint until 1641. (Art History Archive). It is said that she left during the Civil War that broke

out, which led to King Charles I death. (Art History Archive). Before her death, but after her
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arrival to Naples it is said that Artemisia painted several depictions of Bathsheba and another

painting of Judith. “The only record of her death is in two satiric epitaphs--frequently translated

and reprinted--that make no mention of her art but figure her in exclusively sexual terms as a

nymphomaniac and adulterer”. (Art History Archive). The reasoning that some art historians

believe her death is not noted anywhere is because it may have been suicide. (Art History

Archive).

In conclusion, Artemisia was the daughter of a painter who taught her everything he

knew. He taught her how to paint before she even learned to read or write. He supplied her with

his apprentice, who brought only tragedy to her life. She endured a brutal and invasive trial that

led to the conclusion that she was at best, her father's property. He rapist was only made to serve

a short sentence in prison for his vicious and heinous acts. She went on to be married, she moved

all around and had a family. Eventually her husband disappears from the history books, and we

assume his death. Her life comes full circle when she meets her father in England to paint with

the King. And here is where he dies. She moves back to Naples where she lives out the rest of

her life painting, and eventually it assumed she ends her own life. Artemisia led a busy life, full

of many tragedies. But she left a beautiful trail of paintings behind her. These paintings that

show brave women. Women who overcome the worst obstacles, not unlike Artemisia. She was a

woman who entered a man's world and dominated it. She is an inspiration to all other artists,

women and men alike.

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Work Cited

“1.” Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order), by Bridget Quinn and

Lisa Congdon, Chronicle Books, 2017.

“Artemisia-Gentileschi.” Artemisia Gentileschi - Biography & Art - The Art History Archive,

www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/baroque/Artemisia-Gentileschi.html.

“Chapter Three.” Women, Art and Society, by Whitney Chadwick, Thames and Hudson, 2015.

“Artemisia Gentileschi.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 26 Aug. 2019,

www.biography.com/artist/artemisia-gentileschi.

Och, Marjorie. “Violence & Virtue: Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes.” Woman’s Art

Journal, no. 2, 2014, p. 63. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.464162802&site=eds-live.

Bohn, Babette. “Rape and the Gendered Gaze : ‘Susanna and the Elders’ in Early Modern Bologna.”

Biblical Interpretation, vol. 9, no. 3, Jan. 2001, pp. 259–286. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1163/156851501317072710.
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