Artemisia Gentileschi – Virtual Tour

‘Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter, in an era when the artistic community and patrons did not readily accept female painters.

She was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia in Florence. Artemisia specialized in painting pictures of women from myths, allegories, and the Bible.

Gentileschi, notoriety as a woman painter in the seventeenth century, her rape and her courage in the prosecution of her rapist, overshadowed her artistic achievements.

Fortunately, today, her art is recognized as one of the most progressive and expressive painters of her generation.

Virtual Tour of Artemisia Gentileschi

Highlights Tour of Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith Slaying Holofernes

“Judith Slaying Holofernes” by Artemisia Gentileschi depicts the beheading of an Assyrian general by an Israelite heroine, as recorded in the apocryphal Book of Judith in the Old Testament.

In the story, the Assyrian General Holofernes, who lusts after Judith, a beautiful widow, invites her to his tent. Holofernes was planning to destroy the city of Bethulia, which was Judith’s home.

Thus Judith, with the help of her servant, killed the general. She killed him by decapitation while the general was drunk and passed out.

The painting shows the moment when Judith, helped by her maidservant, starts to behead the general. He has just woken from his drunken sleep to realize he is being killed.

The scene of Judith beheading Holofernes was popular in art since the early Renaissance. It is part of the group of subjects, that art critics have called the “Power of Women,” which show women triumphing over powerful men. Museum: Uffizi Gallery

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting

“Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting” by Artemisia Gentileschi was painted by the artist during her visit to London in 1638. Charles I had invited her.

Artemisia wears a brown apron over her green dress and seems to be leaning on a stone slab used for grinding pigments.

The brown space in front of her is a canvas on which she is about to paint. The position of the fingers of her right hand are different in the infra-red reflectography and x-radiography, it shows she chooses to lengthen her index finger.

Artemisia’s portraits were in demand with seventeenth-century collectors, who were attracted by artistic abilities and her status as a female artist.

This portrait shows her skillful visualization in the composition of herself in the act of painting with its challenging pose, the angle, and position of her head all rendered confidently. Museum: Royal Collection

Gentileschi holds a brush in one hand and a palette in the other, cleverly identifying herself as a female painter.

In 1630 she would have been in her mid-thirties, which corresponds with the apparent age in the present picture.

Susanna and the Elders

“Susanna and the Elders” by Artemisia Gentileschi shows an uncomfortable Susanna with the two men above her, harassing her while she is in the bath.

This theme of Susanna and the Elders was popular in paintings during the time of the Baroque period.

Gentileschi has portrayed Susanna as awkward and uncomfortable by adding a twist to Susanna’s body.

Gentileschi, as a female artist, made Susanna more feminine than many of her male predecessors.

Gentileschi has used a more classical style for Susanna’s body and created a more heroine feeling.

She also attempted with her composition to explore the psychological dimension of this Biblical story.

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting

Title: Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting
Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi
Year: 1639
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions Height: 98.6 cm (38.8 ″); Width: 75.2 cm (29.6 ″)
Museum: Royal Collection

Artemisia Gentileschi

Name: Artemisia Gentileschi
Other Name: Artemisia Lomi
Born: 1593 – Rome
Died: 1656 – Naples
Nationality: Italian
Movement: Baroque, Mannerism
Notable works:

Artemisia Gentileschi in 8 paintings

Tour of the Women in the Arts

Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1648 – 1711)
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1656)
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun ( 1755 – 1842)
Marie-Denise Villers (1774 – 1821)
Rosa Bonheur (1822 – 1899)
Sophie Gengembre Anderson (1823 – 1903)
Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895)
Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926)
Anna Lea Merritt (1844 – 1930)
Elizabeth Thompson (1846 – 1933)
Margaret Bernadine Hall (1863 – 1910)
Artists and their Art
Women in the Arts

Artemisia Gentileschi, the most celebrated female artist of the 17th century

Who was Artemisia Gentileschi?

Artemisia Gentileschi Quotes

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“As long as I live, I will have control over my being.”
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“My illustrious lordship, I’ll show you what a woman can do.”

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“You will find the spirit of Caesar in this soul of a woman,”

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“I have made a solemn vow never to send my drawings because people have cheated me. In particular, just today, I found… that, having done a drawing of souls in Purgatory for the Bishop of St. Gata, he, in order to spend less, commissioned another painter to do the painting using my work. If I were a man, I can’t imagine it would have turned out this way.”

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“They come to a woman with this kind of talent, that is, to vary the subjects in my painting; never has anyone found in my pictures any repetition of invention, not even of one hand.”

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