Artemisia Gentileschi - vendere e comprare opere

8 July 1593, Rome (Italy) - c. 1653, Naples (Italy).

Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian painter of the baroque period who received international recognition primarily for her representations of female figures from mythology and the Bible. She is among the first female artists who were able to make a living from their art and were on equal footing with their male colleagues in terms of commissions.

Born in Rome in 1593 as the daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi, her father recognised his daughter’s exceptional talent early on and encouraged her accordingly. During her education under Antonio Tassi, she was forced into a sexual relationship with her teacher. This period saw the creation of works including the first of many versions of the biblical theme of “Judith and Holofernes”. The painting is striking in its exceptionally drastic depiction of the beheading. After Tassi was charged, she married her Florence-based painting colleague Pierantonio Siattesi and moved to his hometown with him, where she was able to successfully establish herself as an independent artist within just a few years. This is demonstrated by the fact that she was the first woman accepted to Florence’s Academy, in 1616. 
Cosimo II de Medici and Christina of Lorraine were among her patrons. She kept in touch with the contemporary artistic and cultural scenes. 
In 1620, she and her family moved to the city where she was born, Rome, where works including an additional small-scale version of the “Judith and Holofernes” theme were created. In this period, she also completed numerous portraits. Despite the fact that she was very well known, however, she did not receive any large-scale commissions for altar paintings. 
At the end of the 1620s she temporarily moved to Venice, and then to Naples, where she set up her own studio. She found herself in the best of artistic company there: painterly colleagues such as Jusepe de Ribera, Massimo Stanzione and Domenichino also spent time in Naples during this period.
She frequently changed her painting style over the course of her artistic career. Her early work was influenced by her father, Orazio, and can be viewed as emulating Caravaggio. The images of this period display both dramatic lighting and an exceptionally high level of realism. Artemisia Gentileschi also had the ability to adapt to the artistic landscape within which she found herself. The painter Simon Vouet was also a friend of hers: in him, she found a like-minded artist. He completed the well-known portrait of her as an artist. 

Neither the date nor circumstances of her death are known. After her death, the artist was buried in Naples.