Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1656)

The Guardian

'“This is the ring you gave me and these are your promises!” yelled Gentileschi as she was tortured in a Rome courtroom in 1612. Ropes were wrapped around her fingers and pulled tight. The judge had advised moderate use of the sibille, as this torture was called, for she was after all 18. Across the court sat the man who had raped her. No one thought of torturing him. Defiantly, Gentileschi told him her thumbscrews were the wedding ring he’d promised. Again and again, she repeated that her testimony about the rape was reliable: “It is true, it is true, it is true, it is true.”'

More savage than Caravaggio: the woman who took revenge in oil

Artemisia Gentileschi turned the horrors of her own life – repression, injustice, rape – into brutal biblical paintings that were also a war cry for oppressed…

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Happy birthday to Artemisia Gentileschi, born on this day in 1593. The most famous woman painter of the seventeenth century, Artemisia worked in Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples.

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593–1651/53) | Esther before Ahasuerus http://met.org/1HOhtCk

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian pronunciation: [arteˈmizja dʒentiˈleski]; July 8, 1593 – c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation following that of Caravaggio. In an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community or patrons, she was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence.^[1]

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638–9, Royal Collection (the painting may be a self-portrait)