Artemisia Gentileschi

During the trial, they tortured the victim, not the accused. Cords were wrapped around Artemisia Gentileschi's fingers and pulled tight, a form of thumbscrew applied to verify that an accuser was telling the truth. The court transcript records her saying: I have told the truth and I always will, because it is true and I am here to confirm it wherever necessary. She was about eighteen. The accused, Agostino Tassi, a painter her father Orazio had hired to collaborate on a ceiling, had raped her in her own home in 1611. He was found guilty. His sentence was exile from Rome. It was never enforced. He was back within months. She was born in 1593 in Rome. Her father Orazio Gentileschi trained her from childhood. She showed exceptional ability early and was working in his studio as a teenager. According to the biographer Baldinucci, she quickly surpassed her father in reputation. In 1616, she became the first woman admitted to Florence's Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, which gave her the right to buy supplies, sign contracts, and sell work without a male intermediary. She painted Judith Slaying Holofernes twice. The subject is a biblical widow decapitating an Assyrian general. Both versions are notably more physical than other treatments: the blood spurts, the women strain with effort, Holofernes's body resists. The paintings are widely read in relation to the assault and trial, though scholars debate how directly autobiographical the interpretation should be. What is not debatable is the quality. These are major works of the Baroque by any standard. She specialised in history painting, the most prestigious genre, choosing biblical and mythological heroines: Judith, Susanna, Cleopatra, Lucretia. She worked in Florence, Rome, Venice, Naples, and briefly in London at the court of Charles I, likely to assist her ageing father. She settled permanently in Naples around 1630, ran a major workshop, and received significant commissions. Her Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting depicts herself as the personification of Pittura, something only a woman painter could do, since the allegory was female.