Artemisia Gentileschi: A Renowned Female Painter

Artemisia Gentileschi
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Artemisia Gentileschi
A Renaissance Italian painter, Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most influential and significant female painters in history. Being a painter in a time where female artists were disregarded and ignored, Artemisia Gentileschi overcame endless obstacles, becoming a success story that has been recognized and celebrated globally. Scholars, feminist activists, and critics acknowledge and celebrate the unique and informative works created Artemisia, characterizing her as a skillful, and independent female artist whose work places her as an early feminist. Her achievements, challenges, and controversies surrounding her life have been a subject of numerous interpretations, with early feminism taking lead and beating all odds to become both a famed and successful painter. Artemisia Gentileschi’s struggle for self-expression and professional independence against a repressive patriarchal establishment and in an era that undervalued female artists produced a remarkable and early feminist whose work has inspired numerous feminist movements in art.
In a successful career spanning over four decades, Artemisia Gentileschi rose in the ranks to become one of the most influential female artists of all times. Born in the 16th century, Artemisia became a significant figure in her field, becoming successful in a field that was traditionally considered a man’s job (Bissell, 1968). The chronology recorded by Bissell (1968) notes that Gentileschi was born in an average family that comprised of the father and mother, Orazio Gentileschi and Prudential Montone, and five brothers. Artemisia achieved prominence in her work at a time when women were considered inferior to men, marking a critical achievement for her as a female painter. Her struggles are evident in her early life when she was raped by Agostino Tassi, her father’s friend turned rapist and her subsequent victory in the rape trial that lead to the jailing of Agostino Tassi (Bissell, 1968; Cohen, 2000). Despite her humble beginnings, Gentileschi rose to become an influential painter whose work is admired to date.
The artistic success of Artemisia Gentileschi is attributable to her never-ending desire to learn, her passion and expert painting skills, as well as the unwavering support of her father. From an early age, Lajta-Novak (2012) notes that Orazio Gentileschi, Artemisia’s father, tutored her daughter, turning her into a successful and influential artist. Criswell (2016) contends that her father was an important figure in the development of her painting career. Despite the patriarchal establishment of her era, Orazio Gentileschi brought charges against Agostino Tassi, his friend, a year after raping Artemisia (Cohen, 2000). Despite Artemisia’s rape bringing shame, anxiety, damaged reputation, and pain of torture and sexual assault, Artemisia testified against her rapist to salvage both her reputation and her career. In the aftermath of the trial, her reputation was restored following the completion of her most famous drawing, Judith Beheading Holofernes (Lajta-Novak, 2012). Artemisia’s self-dedication in art helped her overcome societal objections, becoming a notable figure in art in history.
Artemisia’s personal experiences and self-drive in a patriarchal society shaped her journey in art, projecting her image as a unique, skillful, and respected painter. Criswell (2016) notes that women generally held supportive works in painting and their work, if any, narrowed to mainly informal domestic-themed devotional paintings. Artemisia, on the other hand, had a different approach as an artist. In her quest for self-expression and professional independence as a female painter, her work majored on biblical women and heroines. Notably, Judith Slaying Holofernes is a representation of women taking charge and using their physical capabilities and superiority over men to assert dominance (Wing, 2016). This depiction can be interpreted as the anticipated victory against Agostino Tassi, after which Tassi was convicted for rape. Similarly, Criswell (2016) interprets the painting as a fight to regain her reputation and status that had been stained following the rape. Similar to the story of biblical Judith, Artemisia rescued her reputation, becoming a successful female painter in Italy and beyond.
Artemisia Gentileschi is rightly regarded as an early feminist, who strongly opposed the patriarchal establishment, objectification of women, and the societal devaluation of women. After her rape and being subsequently married off, Artemisia Gentileschi disregarded her husband after the birth of their daughter, moving out on her own to pursue an independent career as a painter (Bissell, 1968). Lajta-Novak (2012) asserts that the Artemisia’s work “expose[s] a patriarchal society’s habit of treating women as the property of men, as objects that can be exchanged and ‘traded’” (p. 53). Objectification of women is also depicted by the rape committed by Agostino Tassi, that signified that women had been reduced into mere sex objects. In her show of defiance, a sense of self-expression, equality, and independence, Artemisia traveled alone from Naples to London, establishing a successful career against all odds and societal expectations (Lajta-Novak, 2012). Her struggles created attention to works created by women, enabling her to succeed both locally and internationally.
Artemisia's advocacy and feminism started when she young, indicating extraordinary skills, dedication, and capability similar to that of men. For example, Artemisia’s Susanna and the Elders, signed and date in1610, was painted when Artemisia was seventeen, indicating her extraordinary prowess, skills, and expertise of a young painter (Pollock, 2006). Cohen (2000) notes that Artemisia's technical skills, her need to learn and friendly relations with her patrons, as well as her intellectual and artistic environment, shaped her artistic expressions that are seen as resisting the violent intrusions of a patriarchal culture. Feelings of fear, anger, shame, or desire for revenge are explicitly present in her drawings, indicating an individual whose work is shaped by personal experiences and the need for equality in the society (Pallock, 2006; Cohen, 2000). Further, Pallock (2006) points out to Artemisia’s feminist advocacy when she claimed to have a man’s soul, a common argument against the inferiority of women in society. As a feminist advocate in the 17th century, Artemisia redefined the role of women in society and exposed the injustices women faced in society in the hands of men.
Through the use of art, Artemisia not only exposed the mistreatments against women in society, but she also raised the status of women in society, depicting them as equal human beings. According to Pallock (2006), Artemisia’s precise inflection of iconography of heroic women in her paintings was an important aspect of historical femininity that depicted women as capable, with capabilities similar to those of men. For instance, while her painting Judith Slaying Holofernes portrayed men-inflicted violence against women that forces women to seek justice, Susanna and the Elders, another of her works, depicts the vulnerability of women, with the possibility of rape or death, against men in the society (Pallock, 2006; Wing, 2016). Artemisia’s work reflects her early feminist action against mistreatment, and violence against women in the society and her pursuit for justice.
Artemisia’s achievements, struggles, controversies, and feminist actions have been a subject of a significa...