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Introduction

Artemisia Gentileschi, the daughter of a renowned Roman artist, Orazio Gentileschi, was born in 1593 and rose to be among the first female artists to be recognized in post-Renaissance art, the field that was mostly dominated by men (Bal, 2006). In times where female painters were only restricted to imitative poises and portrait painting, Artemisia became the first woman to make paintings of major religious and historical scenarios. She painted many artistic works of strong women who underwent so much pain and suffering from the bible and myth (Bal, 2006). Her best-known painting is Judith Slaying Holofernes which depicts the beheading of Holofernes, a scene of blood-letting and horrific struggle. Today, Artemisia Gentileschi is considered one of the most expressionist and progressive painters of her era (Locker, 2015).

The work of Artemisia Gentileschi

Being among the first female artists to be successful in the seventeenth century, Artemisia Gentileschi brought a unique perspective and an electric feel of narrative drama that humanized and celebrated strong female characters to her artistic work. Discovered again by feminist art historians in the last few decades, she has inspired many books, both popular and scholarly, as well as a number of films (Locker, 2015). She trained in the workshop of her father and earned acclaim through the completion of her first signed artistic work, a sensitive rendering of Susanna and the Elders. Her style had some similarity to that of her father, but her paintings stood out due to their theatricality, that is the raw emotional vividness of some figures daringly disposed.

Her work is also unique in the sense that it focused on powerful heroines by capturing both their strengths and vulnerabilities, an aspect that is mostly attributed to her experience, considering that she was a victim of rape at the age of eighteen (Locker, 2015). Unlike other painters who chose to focus on the ideals of beauty as well as the bravery evoked by Judith, a Jewish heroine, she chose to focus on painting the biblical story’s grisly climax, coming up with a picture that is terrific (Bal, 2006). Virtue and violence and its accompanying catalog explore Artemisia’s painting in the context of the artist’s remarkable career as well as responses of Baroque artists and Renaissance to the story of Judith.

Why she is considered an early feminist

Like all women artists of the Renaissance, Gentileschi was forbidden to draw from naked or live, male model. Commissions for paintings from nobility and the church were expected to integrate characteristics such as tenebrism, naturalism and drama enacted by male artists. Within these restrictions of Renaissance art, female artists were thus forced to focus on less lucrative and prestigious genres like portraiture and still-life. But Artemisia Gentileschi changed this status quo by making paintings of biblical and mythological themes like her male peers thus making her one of the early feminist who fought for recognition of women by fighting for fair representation of women in the field of Renaissance art (Locker, 2015).

Conclusion

Artemisia’s choice of subject matter and focus allowed her to effectively define her niche market in the field of Renaissance art and enabled her to secure a place in Renaissance art as well as recognition. It earned her the reputation of being one of the greatest artist of her time despite the obstacles that she faced together with other female artists during the period.

References Bal, M. (2006). The Artemisia files : Artemisia Gentileschi for feminists and other thinking people. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Locker, J. (2015). Artemisia Gentileschi : the language of painting. New Haven ; London: Yale University Press.