Artemisia Gentileschi was born on July 8, 1593, in Rome, Italy, in an age synonymous with grandeur, richness, emotional exuberance, and vitality. Artemisia was the daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi and the first woman who was accepted to the Florentine Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. Her time was one of gender imbalance, violence, myths of female inferiority, and the cultural silencing of women’s voices and achievements. Artemisia, however, was artistically inclined and learned the trade from her father, becoming one of the greatest painters of the Baroque Age.
The Feminist Leanings of Artemisia Gentileschi
Painting by male painters portrayed women in defamatory ways; they were either the saint or the sinner, the pure virgin/mother, or the vile and wicked temptress.
Misogynistic views were prevalent and broadcast through paintings, and they helped fuel the infamous witch-hunts. It was in such a society that Artemisia portrayed the picture of gender relations from a female and feminist point of view, consistently challenging patriarchal values.
Artemisia was a victim of sexual assault. She was assaulted by her art teacher, Agostino Tassi, in 1612. She even testified against him in court. Channeling her trauma through artwork, Artemisia plunged into portraying strong women figures while dealing with themes of assault, victimhood, honor, chastity, and virtue.
A select analysis of her most famous paintings shows how Artemisia boldly hid feminist clues in her works, demonstrating that a picture could express opposing gender perspectives simultaneously. Here are four feminist works by Artemisia Gentileschi.
1. Susanna and the Elders (1610)
- A retelling of the Biblical story of Susanna as a take of a powerful woman resisting unwanted advances.
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A bold challenge to Renaissance gender norms through Susanna’s eyes.
From her earliest work, Susanna and the Elders, Artemisia hides the strength of her feminine characters in plain sight. In the Biblical story, Susanna is spied upon by two lustful older men as she bathes. They threaten to sully her reputation if she refuses them sexual favors.
Susanna resists them and protects her innocent chastity even as they hurt her reputation. Despite its morally instructive theme, the story of Susanna and the elders was a voyeuristic opportunity for male art patrons and viewers. At only 17, Artemisia gave Susanna back her agency.
In Artemisia’s painting, Susanna twists uncomfortably on a stone bench, away from the nefarious male gaze of her assailants looming above her. Her head is bent awkwardly off-axis, her arms are raised in resistance, and a frown is on her face. Her discomfort is highlighted: nudity shows her vulnerability instead of the perceived threatening sensuousness of feminine beauty.
Thus, Artemisia rightfully shifts the locus of lust on the men, away from Susanna, who wears only a slip of white cloth, while the older men’s clothes are in a burning, passionate red. The contrasting colors have symbolic values. Susanna is bathed in light as a pure being, while the lustful men are painted in darker shades, referring to their evil intentions.
An unusual detail is seen in casting one elder as an appealing, handsome, younger man, which brings new depth to Susanna’s character. She is not simply defending her honor for morality’s sake in resisting his demand. She is also resisting potential sexual temptation, showing her willpower. It is a portrayal of the innocence of women who are preyed upon and the unfairness of the gender roles.
2. Judith Beheading Holofernes (1620)
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Recasts Judith as a symbol of unapologetic female power.
- Painted as a way of processing Artemisia’s own trauma.
The Biblical Judith was a Jewish widow who lifted the siege of Israel by killing the tyrant Holofernes through trickery. She used her feminine wiles and allure to seduce him, only to chop off his head later when he was drunk. Despite her brave act, she has subsequently been branded as the gender stereotype of the femme fatale. This stereotyping and eroticizing of Judith aimed to neutralize her threatening agency towards men and the patriarchy.
Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi draws upon Caravaggio’s pictorial depiction of the story but modifies it to show women’s strength.
In her painting, Judith slices off Holofernes’ head with her sword while her maidservant Abra holds down the body of the struggling victim. Where Caravaggio’s maidenly Judith cringed from her task in revulsion, Artemisia’s Judith is determined, her facial features distorted by the physical strain, her attitude denoting Amazonian ferocity.
Yet, Judith’s plumpness and alabaster skin simultaneously evoke her seductive charm—blood streams everywhere in a burst of color. Two strong women overpower a clueless, weak-looking man who lacks musculature while they exude masculine energy. A young and vigorous maidservant replaces Caravaggio’s passive, crone-like bystander.
It is possible that Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith and Holofernes was a pictorial revenge that she took on her rapist as a sort of poetic justice. The painting, however, invokes horror and fright because it appears to be amoral as two women unflinchingly execute a man in a dark space. Judith’s decapitation of Holofernes by Artemisia is thus a woman’s metaphoric vengeance against her social oppressor.
3. Lucretia (1621)
- An intriguing retelling of Lucretia’s story, full of anguish instead of resignation.
- A powerful depiction of Lucretia as a woman who claims her intellectual agency.
The mythic Lucretia’s tale is a little different from Susanna’s. She was a virtuous Roman wife whose beauty aroused an Etruscan nobleman, Sextus Tarquinius, who threatened to kill her if she didn’t yield to him. When she refused, he threatened to disgrace her honor by having her killed and placed in bed with a naked slave to prove her supposed adultery to the world. Lucretia was, therefore, coerced into giving in to the forced encounter in her husband’s absence.
Although she was blameless and pardoned, Lucretia chose death as no unchaste woman should use her example as an excuse for their conscious guilty actions. Thus, Lucretia drew a knife and plunged it into her breast as a sacrifice.
Artemisia portrays Lucretia on the foot of her bed, in the dark space of her bedroom. Her naked shoulders and breasts are white compared to her surroundings, and the disarray of her clothing indicates that the assault has occurred.
Once again, the greenish-black and dark crimson color schemes juxtapose her skin’s pure whiteness and nightgown. Grasping a dagger and her breast, she has her eyes upturned as if seeking God’s help. Her knotted brow, parted lips, and stiff body suggest her emotional and physical turmoil.
Unlike the usual depictions of the period, Artemisia’s Lucretia is not shown stabbing her breast. She is also not heroically resigned to carrying out the sacrificial act with stoicism. Instead, she questions the necessity of the act, hesitating and full of anguish.
Thus, Artemisia portrays Lucretia as a thinking woman who actively makes her own decisions instead of passively following society’s rules.
4. Corisca and the Satyr (1635)
- Recasts a 16th-century “femme fatale” as a strong, bold young woman.
- A powerful portrayal of Corsica as a woman who refuses to adhere to masculinist values.
Artemisia had a special fondness for painting the donne infame (infamous women), such as Delilah and Medea, who disarmed and emasculated unsuspecting men.
She intended to give them their lost voices and show their side of the story, which lay hidden under the tyrannical perspective of a patriarchal society. The tale of Corsica is based on Giovanni Battista Guarini’s 16th-century Italian play Il Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd).
In the play, the nymph Corisca accepts gifts of clothing from a satyr, who gets aroused by her acceptance and attempts to attack her by grabbing her by the hair. But Corisca escapes, leaving her wig in the enraged satyr’s hands.
Deviating from the norm of presenting the woman as the manipulative inspirator of men’s passions, Artemisia shows Corsica as beautiful, bold, and strong.
Corisca and the satyr are depicted against the dark background of the woods. She is captured in the movement of running away, her golden gown and purple cloak clutched in her hand, with the other placed on her hair. She glances back towards her assailant, who sits in defeat, clutching her wig. Corisca’s foiling of the satyr is a triumph over all the men who blame their lust on their victims, denouncing them as evil temptresses.
To portray Corisca’s trickery in escaping the unwanted clutches of the satyr, Artemisia presents her in vibrant colors and towering over the satyr. Hair is also associated with feminine beauty, and Corisca’s hair’s glowing amber and gold drive poets mad. Thus, the shedding of her artificial hair figuratively liberates Corisca from masculinist values imposed on women’s lives.
The Legacy of Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the rare women artists of her age who achieved greatness in a male-dominated society.
True to the temperaments of her artistic age, her artworks are characterized by the innovative use of the chiaroscuro technique, which involves sharp contrasts of light and dark, dominant warm tones, dynamic and constant movement, emotion, and allegory.
Artemisia Gentileschi’s artworks criticized gender norms. She lent voices to voiceless women in an age when they could only escape the prisons of gender through the power of imagination or art. Her paintings preserve her messages and show us her feminist legacy.
