Artemisia Gentileschi Influence

Artemisia Gentileschi was a painter during the Italian Baroque period, and is widely considered one of the most prolific and influential artists of her time. She was contemporary to Caravaggio and greatly admired his style, as well as being the daughter of a painter herself. However, despite being arguably the greatest painter of her generation, many of her works are wrongly attributed to her father, and her influence is still being downplayed to this day. Artemisia’s greatest antagonist however, is the sexual assault from her mentor, and the trial and lack of justice shaped Artemisia for the rest of her days. As a painter, the high contrast shadows, called tenebrism, and female subject matter made Artemisia stand out amongst her peers. Her
stance in her own style, rather than following typical conventions of the time, garnered her respect despite the unfortunate state of her gender. As a historical figure, this alone would mark her as admirable and worthy of elevation. However, her experience with sexual assault and how this changed her as a person truly causes her to stand out in art history. Artemisia remarked that the support of other women, and the relationships built between women, were the most vital in life, and in her work Judith Slaying Holofernes this is made all too apparent, especially in contrast to her contemporary Caravaggio. Art history is a study dominated by the male gaze, despite a prevalence of women art makers in every generation and culture, women are not recognized as juggernauts of achievement both in art and in character. Artemisia Gentileschi stands out as both a woman who created some of the best work of her generation and her genre, and also as a person who was raped and did not let this destroy her, and in fact stood for justice and her fellow man. If a historical figure could be interviewed by a person in modern day, because of both strength of character and strength of ability, Artemisia would be the first on the minds of many scholars of art.