Artemisia's experience was not unusual, for rape and violence against women were as commonplace in seventeenth century Italy as they still are, unfortunately, today. What is unusual is that she was able to use that experience as emotional raw material for the creation of radically subversive images of the biblical character.

Artemisia's Judith paintings are powerful images, resisted by many who find the occasional violence perpetrated by women more shocking than the ubiquitous violence practiced by men.

A modern equivalent both in its plot and the critical response it provoked is the 1991 film Thelma and Louise.

Yet we need not advocate murder as an appropriate punishment for rape to recognize the psychic catharsis provided by Artemisia, for herself and for all women who live in male-dominant cultures, in her images of strong, self motivated women who - unusually in art - take physical action upon men rather than being acted upon by them.

Women in Art - Artemisia Gentileschi (2)

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