Understanding the Life of Artemisia Gentileschi in Relation to Art and Women's History

Abstract

In this research-based project, the famous Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi is re-visited biographically in connection to feminist art historical discourse. Using the benchmark texts by renowned scholars of the artist such as R. Ward Bissell, Mary D. Garrard, Patrizia Cavazzini, and Jesse Locker along with supplementary texts from women art historians, the perspectives on Gentileschi's life are updated and synthesized. The structure of this paper is organized by Artemisia's biography, how the rape trial of 1611 documents her early training and home life, and finally how the artist became known for re-shaping iconographical subjects within art.