ARTEMISIA

Reviewing the National Gallery's autumn 2020 exhibition ARTEMISIA. Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most significant Baroque artists of the seventeenth century, who painted her first masterpiece at the age of seventeen, the same year she was raped by Agostino Tassi, suffered judicial torture and fled to Florence after a swift marriage of convenience to a minor artist. She was patronised by the Medici family and the first woman accepted into the Academia. Her celebrity was matched by her tumultuous personal life. Only one of her five children survived her and she left her husband for another lover. Describing herself, she famously said "you will find the spirit of Caesar in the soul of a woman". Find out more here.