Artemisia Gentileschi the Renaissance Feminist Artist
Manuel Hernandez
Devry University

Abstract
Why exactly is Artemisia Gentileschi considered an early feminist? Doing a brief search and looking into her artwork, even for a brief amount of time and you quickly see why she was considered so. Her gender as well as the things she went through and experienced in her life heavily influenced Artemisia Gentileschi’s artwork. Some of the more famous and controversial paintings focus on females as being the main protagonist. There is plenty of controversy surrounding the paintings as well, since her father Orazio Gentileschi a painter in his own right trained her. Some of her early paintings are questioned and he is given credit for them. Artemisia Gentileschi went through some unfortunate events in a short and young time in her life, which I believe influenced her greatly and made her focus on feminism. As stated in her biography (n/a) her mother died when she was 12 years old, a huge loss for a young girl. When she was around the age of 17, Agostino Tassi who was one of her father’s colleagues raped Artemisia Gentileschi (Biography et al., n/a). Further adding to the pain, because of the rape her father Orazio wanted Agostino to marry Artemisia (Biography et al., n/a). Luckily for Artemisia he refused to marry her saving her the pain of living with her rapist, and this caused Orazio to pursue a legal case against Agostino that lasted several months. In looking through Artemisia’s paintings on Brash’s official website (1999) dedicated to her, one quickly sees the dramatic and brutal way she portrayed her feelings and thoughts. In most of her paintings the female is the main protagonist and is taking a stand in some way or form. One such painting that is commonly brought up is “Judith Slaying Holofernes”(Brash et al., 1999), in this painting a woman named Judith is saving the Jewish people by decapitating a general named Holofernes. The brutal scene that is painted is very graphic, as it shows Judith slicing the generals throat while her handmaiden holds him down. A painting that brings up some controversy is known as “Madonna and Child”(Brash et al., 1999), this is also one of Artemisia’s earliest known paintings. There is controversy surrounding the painting because many believe Orazio was the one who painted it and not Artemisia although she signed it (Biography et al., n/a). Adding to the controversy is the fact that the painting is based off Orazios painting of Madonna. Also of note are paintings that Artemisia depicted from the bible, one known as “Susanna and the elders”(Brash et al., 1999). This painting shows a woman who refused two older men so they accused her of adultery. As with anything biblical or religious, there is plenty of controversy revolving it. It doesn’t take very much research into Artemisia and her artwork to clearly see and come to the conclusion that she was definitely an early feminist. From making females her primary art and putting them as protagonist brutally killing men. She endured some tough situations as a child that without a doubt led to her embracing her woman hood and maybe feeling she had to stand for her gender.

Artemisia Gentileschi the Renaissance Feminist Artist
Even now, being in the 21st century there are still many obstacles and problems that we as humanity face and struggle with. From racism, religion, self-annihilation and even sustainable growth we as mankind are by no means perfect. Feminism is one of the many problems that has faced our society for decades. Woman have been looked down upon and cast aside as not equal to men everywhere. They have fought for equality and to this day continue to do so even as the world progresses towards obtaining equality for everyone regardless of gender or race. Artemisia Gentileschi through her portrayal of woman as her main antagonist is considered by many to be one of the earliest feminist and would deserve plenty of credit if and when mankind finally gets to that point.
There is many articles and facts on the website by Brash, the entire website is dedicated and in memory of Artemisia Gentileschi. Her painting are displayed and portrait here in full effect and give a wonderful insight into the paintings and the though process behind them. All of Artemisia’s controversial painting are show and dissected to show why exactly they caused quite a stir back in the day. Judith slaying Holofernes (P.4) for example is shown and the author describes how it was a bloody and gruesome painting in those times. As is shows a woman named Judith saving the Jewish people by killing an Assyrian general.
The Artemisia Gentileschi article essentially follows Artemisia’s life and gives a biography of everything she went through and the kind of effect her paintings had. It gives insight into her life and takes you back to when she was a child, giving you a better understanding of why she became a feminist. This article tells you all about how Artemisia lost her mother at a young age and then was raped by one of her father’s colleagues. An aspect that I really enjoyed as well was going into the theory that many believe her early paintings were done by her father, who was also a painter. Many to this day still accredit her early painting to him and believe he was the one who started some of her more famous artwork. A pretty big problem considering Artemisia is considered one of the very first feminist because her paintings all portrait woman as the main antagonist
The article by Sarah Waldron from the beginning showed and displayed as much passion as Artemisia did in her paintings, the title drew me in and I found it awesome. This article takes a different look at Artemisia’s paintings, seeing them as a sort of revenge on her rapist for what he put her through. One of my favorite lines in the article is “she resurrected and exorcised that trauma again and again” (Waldron et al., 2015) in reference to her rape and paintings, this is one of the opening lines in the article so needless to say I was hooked. The article has an ugly yet pleasing dark feel to it, as it goes into detail of Artemisia’s rape, quoting her as she was on trial talking about how it felt. Giving a whole other perspective into the early feminist knows as Artemisia Gentileschi, showing her struggle and her pain. The following quote “I felt a strong burning and it hurt very much, but because he held my mouth I couldn't cry out... I scratched his face and pulled his hair and before he penetrated me again I grasped his penis so tight that I even removed a piece of flesh” (Waldron et al., 2015) gives fantastic detail and gives a vivid picture that lets you see and feel exactly what she went through. The article explains how she went through all of this and still had to defend herself as she went to trial for being raped. She was tortured and ridiculed, made to wear metal rings around her fingers that tightened when pulled to ensure she wasn’t lying. A key question I had asked myself was why Artemisia drew my favorite painting of her over and over, 5 times to be exact. That question is answered in the article The 17th Century Painter and Rape Victim Who Specialized in Revenge fantasy, the painting Judith Beheading Holofernes was drawn over and over each time with more detail and more gruesome. Artemisia did so as she developed as an artist and she went back to that painting to show her pain.
Something very interesting to say the least, it’s an article about Artemisia Gentileschi and how she was to quote “Triumphant in a male-dominant field” (O’Connor et al., 2015). It paints her in a good light and talks about how talented she was…at first. Then it takes a twist and takes a different perspective into her life, her later years. Bringing up the controversy that followed Artemisia through out her career. Was she really the main painter in a lot of her early projects? This article views her later work, when she was at the height of her fame and goes into detail of how they don’t live up to her early paintings. This line from the article clearly states how the O’Connor felt “audiences and critics alike usually find themselves dumbfounded and let down by the paintings made in the last decades of her career” (O’Connor et al., 2015), later on stating how they were considered too soft or too feminine. O’Connor goes on to ask if something caused a change in Artemisia, or why she lost her painting style. Essentially coming to the conclusion, that the audience liked Artemisia’s story and background “Gentileschi’s story of overcoming rape and striving in a man’s world give audiences a way to approach, understand, and relate to her early works. Her works are also fascinating because they are what we stereotypically expect from a man from that period” (O’Connor et al., 2015). Then saying how in her later years as she grew in fame, the empowered woman disappeared and her paintings became remote and sterile. It gave a whole other perspective into the feminist known as Artesia Gentileschi, a perspective not many look at.
Artemisia created her own version of realism, she combined the realistic style with intellectualism that brings out human emotion. Her work illustrates her ability to paint women emotionally and intellectually, in a manner that others were incapable of doing, and it was her defiance to painting women with traditional weakness and emotions that made her art stand out. One painting titles Susanna and the elders expressed the pain brought out by the shame and embarrassment inflicted on a woman bathing when she realizes she is being watched by two older men. These emotions are very clear in the face of the young woman as she tries to cover herself, she emotions and pain Artemisia was able to portray seemed so genuine and real. Were these perhaps her own emotions being portrayed by her artwork?
Moffat gives full respect to Artemisia Gentileschi, going as far as to call her “the most important woman painter of Early Modern Europe” (Moffat et al., n/a). He also goes on to note something interesting, saying that many of her paintings are just recently being accredited to her instead of her male counterparts of that same era. Also of note Moffat states that Artemisia wasn’t just raped once, but after she was raped, Agostino Tassi continued to demand sexual favors from her. Through out all my readings this had not been brought up until now, I had believed it was a one-time instance. This definitely gave more insight into what went on in her life and what was going on in her head. Something else that was of importance was the transcript of the rape case, they are still available today and Moffat references them. Even stating how Artemisia had to be examined by other midwives to make sure she wasn’t lying about being raped and that she was indeed still a virgin, one cant even fathom what she went through at such a young age with all of that. So was Artemisia an early feminist? Of course she was, but it wasn’t her full intent. It came more out of necessity to show everyone her pain and what she was going through. The feeling of being alone and afraid maybe even feeling helpless is something that made Artemisia Gentileschi the person she came to be. After being raped she was re married and had two children with her husband, soon after her huband also disappeared and never returned. Being manipulated and betrayed by men of course influences her, not just her art work but her life in general. She was a painter so she used her art to express herself and ended but becoming one of the earliest feminist know.

References
Biography Editors. (n/a). Artemisia Gentileschi Biography. A&E Television Networks. http://www.biography.com/people/artemisia-gentileschi-9308725
Brash, Larry. (1999). The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi. http://www.artemisia- gentileschi.com/index.shtml
Moffat, Charles. (n/a). Biography of Artemisia Gentileschi http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/baroque/Artemisia-Gentileschi.html

O’Connor, William. (2015).Meet Artemisia Gentileschi, The Feminist Contemporary of Caravaggio. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/22/meet-artemisia- gentileschi-the-feminist-contemporary-of-caravaggio.html
Waldron, Sarah. (2015). The 17th Century Painter and Rape Victim Who Specialized in Revenge fantasy. https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/the-17th-century-painter-and- rape-victim-who-specialized-in-revenge-fantasy