Artemisia Gentileschi was the greatest female artists of the Baroque
age. In Artemisia Gentileschi, critic and historian Jonathan Jones
discovers how Artemisia overcame a turbulent past to become one of the
foremost painters of her day.
As a young woman Artemisia was raped by her tutor, and then had to
endure a seven-month-long trial during which she was brutally examined
by the authorities. Gentileschi was shamed in a culture where honour was
everything. Yet she went on to become one of the most sought-after
artists of the seventeenth century. Yet she went on to become one of the
most sought-after artists of the seventeenth century. Gentileschi's art
communicated a powerful personal vision. Like Frida Kahlo, Louise
Bourgeois or Tracey Emin, she put her life into her art.
**'Lives of the Artists'**is a new series of brief artists biographies
from Laurence King Publishing. The series takes as its inspiration
Giorgio Vasari's five-hundred-year-old masterwork, updating it with
modern takes on the lives of key artists past and present. Focusing on
the life of the artist rather than examining their work, each book also
includes key images illustrating the artist's life.