Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi (US: JEN-til-ESK-ee, -teel-; Italian: [arteˈmiːzja ˈlɔːmi dʒentiˈleski]; 8 July 1593 – after January 1654) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of 15. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and she had an international clientele. Gentileschi worked as an expatriate painter in the court of Charles I of England from 1638 to 1642, but she is thought to have fled the country in the early phases of the English Civil War. Her whereabouts over the following years are unknown, but she resurfaced in Naples during 1649. Her last known letter to one of her mentors was dated to 1650 and it indicates that she was still working as an artist. Her time of death is disputed, but her last known commission was in January 1654.
Many of Gentileschi's paintings feature women from myths, allegories, and the Bible, including victims, suicides, and warriors. Some of her best-known subjects are Susanna and the Elders (particularly the 1610 version, in Schloss Weißenstein, Pommersfelden), Judith Slaying Holofernes (her 1614–1620 version is in the Uffizi gallery), and Judith and Her Maidservant (her 1625 work is in the Detroit Institute of Arts).
Gentileschi was known for being able to depict the female figure with great naturalism and for her skill in handling colour to express dimension and drama.
Her achievements as an artist were long overshadowed by the story of her rape at around 18 years old by Agostino Tassi and her being tortured to give evidence during his subsequent trial. For many years Gentileschi was regarded as a curiosity, but her life and art have been reexamined by scholars in the 20th and 21st centuries, with the recognition of her talents exemplified by major exhibitions at internationally esteemed fine art institutions, such as the National Gallery in London.
Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi was born in Rome on 8 July 1593, although her birth certificate from the Archivio di Stato indicates she was born in 1590. She was the eldest child of Prudenzia di Ottaviano Montoni and the Tuscan painter Orazio Gentileschi, from Pisa. After his arrival in Rome, his painting reached its expressive peak, taking inspiration from the innovations of Caravaggio, from whom he derived the habit of painting real models, without idealising them, instead transfiguring them into figures of powerful and realistic drama.
Baptised two days after her birth in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, Gentileschi was primarily raised by her father following the death of her mother in 1605. It was probably at this time that Gentileschi approached painting: introduced to painting in her father's workshop, Gentileschi showed much more enthusiasm and talent than her brothers, who worked alongside her. There she learned how to mix colour and how to paint. By 1612, aged around 19, Gentileschi was known for her exemplary talents, with her father boasting that, despite having only practiced painting for three years, Gentileschi was peerless.
During this early period of her life, Gentileschi took inspiration from her father's painting style, which had in turn been heavily influenced by the work of Caravaggio. Gentileschi's approach to subject matter was different from that of her father, however, taking a highly naturalistic approach over her father's comparatively idealized works.
Artemisia Gentileschi’s training in her father’s workshop reflects the typical structure of artistic education in early seventeenth-century Italy. At this time, most artists were trained through apprenticeships within workshops, but women were rarely allowed to enter formal apprenticeships or join professional guilds. As a result, female artists often learned painting skills through family members who were already established in the profession. Art historian Mary D. Garrard notes that Gentileschi developed technical skill at an early age and was able to work independently while still living in her father’s household. Although this training provided valuable experience, social and institutional barriers continued to limit women’s participation in the professional art world.
Her earliest surviving work, completed aged 17, is Susanna and the Elders (1610, Schönborn collection in Pommersfelden). The painting depicts the Biblical story of Susanna. The painting shows how Gentileschi assimilated the realism of and effects used by Caravaggio without being indifferent to the classicism of Annibale Carracci and the Bolognese School of Baroque style.
In 1611, Orazio was working with fellow painter Agostino Tassi to decorate the vaults of Casino delle Muse inside the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome. Around this time, Orazio had rented the upstairs apartment of their home to a female tenant, Donna Tuzia. Orazio recruited Tuzia to act as a "chaperone" or "guardian" for his daughter, Gentileschi being a younger woman without the guidance of a mother. During this time, Tuzia allowed Tassi and his friend Cosimo Quorli, a minor papal official, to visit Gentileschi in Gentileschi's home on multiple occasions. Tuzia later testified that Tassi, though initially "devoted" to Gentileschi, grew increasingly obsessed with her.
One day in May, Tassi visited the Gentileschi household and, when alone with Gentileschi, raped her. Quorli, who had himself likely previously attempted to rape her, was also implicated in the assault, accused of acting as Tassi's accomplice.
Gentileschi later testified that she tried to fight back against Tassi, scratching his face and unsuccessfully attempting to attack him with a knife, and that she cried out to Tuzia for help, which went unanswered. Art historian Jeanne Morgan Zarucchi compared Tuzia's betrayal and role in facilitating the rape to the role of a procuress who is complicit in the sexual exploitation of a prostitute.
In the aftermath of the assault, Tassi demanded to have further sexual relations with Gentileschi, on the promise that they would marry, thereby restoring her virtue and securing her future. Gentileschi agreed to this arrangement, but Tassi later reneged on the promise to marry her. Unbeknownst to Gentileschi, Tassi was already married, albeit estranged from his wife. Nine months after the rape, when he learned that Gentileschi and Tassi were not going to be married, her father Orazio pressed charges against Tassi.
As was typical of the time, the major issue of the trial was the fact that Tassi had violated the Gentileschi family's honor, and not the fact that he had violated Gentileschi herself. In the words of history professor Elizabeth S. Cohen: "The law gauged damage to economic and social assets rather than suffering and psychological trauma."
During the ensuing seven-month trial, it was discovered that Tassi had planned to murder his wife, had engaged in adultery with his sister-in-law, and planned to steal some of Orazio's paintings. During the trial, Gentileschi was tortured with a "sibille", cords wrapped around the fingers and pulled tight (similar to thumbscrews), for the purpose of verifying her testimony (a common practice at the time). As the cords tighten, she is recorded as turning to Tassi and saying: "This is the ring that you give me and these are your promises."
At the end of the trial, Tassi was convicted and sentenced to exile from Rome, although this punishment was never carried out, and he ultimately spent less than a year in prison.
Art historians have noted that the trial has been widely discussed in relation to Gentileschi’s artistic development and later subject matter. Some scholars, including Mary D. Garrard, have argued that the public nature of the trial and its emphasis on female honor reflect broader social attitudes toward women in early modern Italy. Garrard has also examined how Gentileschi’s early painting Susanna and the Elders has been interpreted as offering a distinct perspective on female vulnerability and resistance when compared to earlier depictions of the subject by male artists. These interpretations have contributed to ongoing scholarly debate about the relationship between Gentileschi’s personal experiences and the themes of female agency and violence that appear in several of her later works.