By the Hand of a Woman

Abstract

Seventeenth-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the celebrated artists of her own times both at home and abroad, was born on July 8, 1593 in the heart of Rome's artist neighborhood. First born of six children, Artemisia was the daughter of painter Orazio Gentileschi - a member of the avant-garde clique of artists in Rome who led the way from exaggerated otherwordliness of Mannerist painting toward a dramatic, down-to-earth realism in art, spearheaded by the painint style of the wild young Lombardic newcomer, Michelangelo Merisi da Carvaggio.