Listen to me! I will perform a deed that will go down from generation to generation.
This was the promise Judith made before she slayed Holofernes. This is a biblical tale that baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi would return to throughout her career. Artemisia was born in Rome in 1593, and like many women artists of the time, painting was the family business.
St Cecilia Playing a Lute, c. 1616
Much of what we know about her life is from her family’s court case against the man that raped her. Many art historians see a correlation between her paintings and her biography. But we don’t do that with Caravaggio, Rubens, or even Orazio Gentileschi.
Artemisia’s work speaks for itself. And like Judith, history continues to remember her as a phenomenal woman.
Judith and her Maidservant, 1615
Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1620
