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This audacious artist shocked 17th-century Italy with her work
Artemisia Gentileschi's paintings were bold, vibrant, and sometimes violent. Her undeniable talent helped overcome prejudice to secure her legacy.
Gentileschi’s 1620 “Judith Beheading Holofernes” portrays an Old Testament story of the Israelite widow Judith who saved her people by assassinating the Assyrian general besieging her city. This work is Gentileschi’s second known representation of the biblical story; an earlier version of Judith’s revenge was begun in 1612, the year after the artist had been raped by an instructor. Although the Judith legend was a popular subject with male artists of the period, the decisiveness and strength of Gentileschi’s Judith, as well as the solidarity of her female accomplice, provides a unique feminine perspective of violence and revenge in the early 17th century.
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