Artemisia Gentileschi - "Judith Slaying Holofernes"

     Artemisia Gentileschi began her life quietly enough as the oldest child of a painter and his wife in Rome. Being born a girl gave her limited options to learn a trade, luckily for her though her younger brothers did not have a painting ability so her father trained her instead. Artemisia received more instruction from the master Caravaggio who was a friend of her father’s. She learned the usage of light and shade to amplify emotions under his tutelage. Unfortunately, for Artemisia her teacher died when she was only seventeen (Zophy 103). Even worse was following the death of her teacher, another painter friend of her father’s raped her. The court did find Agostino Tassi guilty of the charge but released him after a relatively short period, only eight months. For Artemisia, this signaled her time to leave Rome. Her father connected her to Christina de’Medici in Florence (Zophy 103). She received patronage from the Medici family and immediately moved to Florence. Thus in 1616 she became the first woman admitted to the Florentine Academy of Design (Zophy 103). This prestigious honor came at the perfect time, when her art was beginning to gain popularity in many circles of people, no longer just the Medici family.

     Her masterpiece focused on the biblical heroine Judith. She painted many different versions before creating the final one named Judith Slaying Holofernes (Zophy 103). Judith murdered the tyrant Holofernes and brought his head back to the Hebrews in the biblical story. Artemisia offers a very violent painting that shows the murder with the finesse of detail even with the strong story matter. The center of the painting shows Judith and her maidservant killing the tyrant Holofernes. Although this is considered part of Renaissance art considered Artemisia completed it in the year 1611, it is closer to early Baroque styles. Yet one can still see the usage of dramatic emotions, the use of Chiaroscuro, and most importantly, the naturalism of the characters depicted. Another key item in Artemisia’s style is the simplistic background; this is very different from the use of solid color during the Byzantine period. Artemisia’s simple backgrounds instead lend themselves to further focus the viewer on the story and not the minutiae of the background. Some claim that Artemisia created this masterpiece using the pent up rage from her own rape, now whether this is true or not does not matter. It is important to note though because the argument says that she created this purely from anger, instead of her own innate and learned talents.

-Jenn Kervian