London National Gallery was about to open this month the UK’s first-ever exhibition of paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi. The global quarantine has put an end to it for now, but we would still like to give you a virtual tour of this ambitious overview of the life and art of the Baroque’s most famous female artist.

For the last few decades, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653) has been a poster child for feminist-leaning art writers. In modern times, this 17th-century painter has been more celebrated for what happened to her rather than for her art. Artemisia started to learn painting as the only daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, an established painter in Rome. Her three brothers did not have artistic talent, but Artemisia exhibited gifts from an early age as evidenced by her first version of Susanna and the Elders, painted when she was barely 17. A year later, her life was thrown off its orderly course. She was raped by Agostino Tassi, a painter working with her father on some frescoes, and who was hired to teach her perspective drawing. Instead of trying to “bury her shame” in silence as would have been expected in those times, Artemisia and her father sued the painter in court. At the trial, the wheels of justice rolled unevenly. Artemisia was tortured by having her fingers crushed, and she underwent a humiliating medical examination. Tassi was found guilty but, protected by the Pope, he was punished with just a short exile into the Roman suburbs. Eventually, Artemisia moved on—she became an established artist, married, bore four children. The trauma of her assault got channeled through her pictures. However, in art history, Artemisia’s drama has become more prominent than her artistic achievements, at least as far as the general public goes. This is slowly starting to change, and Artemisia is getting her professional due as one of the most interesting artists of her time. In fact, last November, one of her paintings of Lucretia sold in Paris for about $5 million. In terms of artistic recognition, Artemisia’s paintings are also getting star treatment. In December last year, when the Seattle Art Museum displayed one of her most famous paintings, the 1612 version of Judith Beheading Holofernes, during an exhibition of Italian masterpieces loaned from the Neapolitan Museo di Capodimonte, this canvas was the highlight of the show.

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