ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI

This woman pushed boundaries and was maltreated for it. Today she wouldn’t be looked upon as extraordinary, apart from her fabulous painting skills, but in her time she was outrageous. I’ve compressed someone else’s biography of her because I couldn’t see the point in putting into my own words. If you don’t know of her I hope you are as impressed as I was when I first read her story. The full text is on... http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Artemisia_Gentileschi/Biography/ “Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome, on July 8, 1593, the first child of the painter Orazio Gentileschi and one of the greatest representatives of the school of Caravaggio. Artemisia was introduced to painting in her father's workshop, showing much more talent than her brothers, who worked alongside her. She learned drawing, how to mix color and how to paint. Since her father's style took inspiration from Caravaggio during that period, her style was just as heavily influenced in turn… …In 1612, despite her early talent, Artemisia was denied access to the all-male professional academies for art. At the time, her father was working with Agostino Tassi to decorate the "volte" of Casino della Rose inside the Pallavicini Rospigliosi Palace in Rome, so Orazio hired the Tuscan painter to tutor his daughter privately. The unfortunate effect was that Artemisia was raped by Tassi. Even though Tassi initially promised to marry Artemisia in order to restore her reputation, he later reneged on his promise and Orazio reported Tassi to the authorities. In the ensuing seven-month trial, it was discovered that Tassi had planned to murder his wife, had committed incest with his sister-in-law and planned to steal some of Orazio’s paintings. During the trial Artemisia was given a gynecological examination and was tortured using a device made of thongs wrapped around the fingers and tightened by degrees — a particularly cruel torture to a painter. Both procedures were used to corroborate the truth of her allegation, the torture device in the belief that if a person can tell the same story under torture as without it, the story must be true. At the end of the trial Tassi was imprisoned for just one year. The trial has subsequently influenced the feminist view of Artemisia Gentileschi during the 20th century…” Hope that’s whetted your appetite. Over to you.