Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter, now considered one of the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Artemisia was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and had an international clientele.
Many of Artemisia's paintings feature women from myths, allegories, and the Bible, including victims, suicides, and warriors. Some of her best known subjects are Susanna and the Elders, Judith Slaying Holofernes, and Judith and Her Maidservant.
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Artemisia was known for being able to depict the female figure with great naturalism and for her skill in handling color to express dimension and drama.
The story of her rape by Agostino Tassi when she was a young woman, and her participation in the trial of her rapist long overshadowed her achievements as an artist. For many years, Artemisia was regarded as a curiosity, but her life and art have been reexamined by scholars in the 20th and 21st centuries, and she is now regarded as one of the most progressive and expressive painters of her generation.
An exhibition dedicated to her work will be held at the National Gallery in London in late 2020. It was originally postponed from earlier in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biography
Early life
Artemisia Gentileschi was born Artemisia Gentileschi Lomi in Rome on July 8, 1593, although her birth certificate from the Archivio di Stato indicated she was born in 1590, the eldest child of the Tuscan painter Orazio Gentileschi and Prudenzia di Ottaviano Montoni. Artemisia was introduced to painting in her father's workshop, showing much more enthusiasm and talent than her brothers, who worked alongside her. She learned drawing, how to mix colour, and how to paint. "By 1612, when she was not yet nineteen years old, her father could boast of her exemplary talents, claiming that in the profession of painting, which she had practised for three years, she had no peer".Since her father's style took inspiration from Caravaggio during that period, her style was also heavily influenced by him. Artemisia's approach to subject matter was different from her father's. Her paintings are highly naturalistic and Orazio's are idealized. At the same time, Artemisia had to resist the "traditional attitude and psychological submission to this brainwashing and jealousy of her obvious talent". By doing so, she gained great respect and recognition for her work.
The first surviving work of the seventeen-year-old Artemisia was the Susanna and the Elders. The painting depicts the Biblical story of Susanna. The painting shows how Artemisia assimilated the realism of Caravaggio without being indifferent to the language of Annibale Carracci and the Bologna school.
Rape by Agostino Tassi
In 1611, Orazio was working with Agostino Tassi to decorate the vaults of Casino delle Muse inside the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome. He then hired the painter to tutor his daughter privately. During this tutelage, Tassi raped Artemisia. Another man, Cosimo Quorli, was also involved.After the rape, Artemisia started to have sexual relations with Tassi, with the expectation that they were going to be married in order to restore her dignity and secure her future. Tassi reneged on his promise to marry Artemisia. Nine months after the rape, when he learnt that Artemisia and Tassi were not going to be married, her father Orazio pressed charges against Tassi. Orazio also claimed that Tassi stole a painting of Judith from the Gentileschi household. The major issue of this trial was the fact that Tassi had taken Artemisia's virginity. If Artemisia had not been a virgin before Tassi raped her, the Gentileschis would not have been able to press charges.
During the ensuing seven-month trial, it was discovered that Tassi had planned to murder his wife, had engaged in adultery with his sister-in-law, and planned to steal some of Orazio's paintings. At the end of the trial Tassi was exiled from Rome, although the sentence was never carried out. Artemisia was tortured with thumbscrews at the trial, with the intention of verifying her testimony. Artemisia was surrounded mainly by males since the loss of her mother at age 12. When Artemisia was 17, Orazio rented the upstairs apartment of their home to a female tenant, Tuzia. Artemisia befriended Tuzia; however, Tuzia allowed Agostino Tassi and Cosimo Quorli to accompany Artemisia in Artemisia's home on multiple occasions. The day the rape occurred, Artemisia cried for the help of Tuzia, but Tuzia simply ignored Artemisia and pretended she knew nothing of what happened. Artemisia felt betrayed by Tuzia, and Tuzia's role in facilitating the rape has been compared to the role of a procuress who is complicit in the sexual exploitation of a prostitute.
A painting called Mother and Child, discovered in Crow's Nest, Australia, in 1976, may or may not have been painted by Artemisia. The baby has been interpreted as an indirect reference to Agostino Tassi, her rapist, as it dates to 1612, just two years after the rape. It depicts a strong and suffering woman and casts light on her anguish and expressive artistic capability.
Florentine period (1612–1620)
A month after the trial, Orazio arranged for his daughter to marry Pierantonio Stiattesi, a modest artist from Florence. Shortly afterward the couple moved to Florence. The six years spent in Florence would be decisive for both family life and professional career. She became a successful court painter, enjoying the patronage of the House of Medici, and playing a significant role in courtly culture of the city. She would have five children, although by the time she left Florence in 1620, only two were still alive. And she would also embark on a passionate relationship with the Florentine nobleman Francesco Maria Maringhi.As an artist, Artemisia enjoyed significant success in Florence. She was the first woman accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. She maintained good relations with the most respected artists of her time, such as Cristofano Allori, and was able to garner the favour and the protection of influential people, beginning with Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and especially of the Grand Duchess, Christina of Lorraine. Her acquaintance with Galileo Galilei, evident from a letter she wrote to the scientist in 1635, appears to stem from her Florentine years; indeed it may have stimulated her depiction of the compass in the Allegory of Inclination.
Her involvement in the courtly culture in Florence not only provided access to patrons, but it widened her education and exposure to the arts. She learned to read and write and would become familiar with musical and theatrical performances. Such artistic spectacles helped Artemisia's approach to depicting lavish clothing in her paintings: "Artemisia understood that the representation of biblical or mythological figures in contemporary dress... was an essential feature of the spectacle fo courtly life."
In 1615, she received the attention of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. Busy with the construction of the Casa Buonarroti to celebrate his noted great uncle, he asked Artemisia—along with other Florentine artists, including Agostino Ciampelli, Sigismondo Coccapani, Giovan Battista Guidoni, and Zanobi Rosi—to contribute a painting for the ceiling. Artemisia was then in an advanced state of pregnancy. Each artist was commissioned to present an allegory of a virtue associated with Michelangelo, and Artemisia was assigned the Allegory of Inclination. Artemisia painted this in the form of a nude young woman holding a compass. Located on the Galleria ceiling on the second floor, It is believed that the subject bears a resemblance to Artemisia. Indeed, in several of her paintings, Artemisia's energetic heroines resemble her self-portraits. In this particular instance, Artemisia was paid three times more than any other artist participating in the series.
Other significant works from this period include La Conversione della Maddalena, Self-Portrait as a Lute Player and Giuditta con la sua ancella, now in the Palazzo Pitti. Artemisia painted a second version of Judith beheading Holofernes, which now is housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence. The first, smaller Judith Beheading Holofernes is displayed in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. There are six variations on the subject of Judith Beheading Holofernes.
While in Florence, Artemisia and Pierantonio had five children. Giovanni Battista, Agnola and Lisabella did not survive for more than a year. The second son, Cristofano, died at the age of five after Artemisia had returned to Rome. Only Prudentia survived into adulthood. Prudentia was named after Artemisia's mother, who died when Artemisia was 12. It is known that her daughter was a painter, trained by her mother, although nothing is known of her work.
In 2011, Francesco Solinas discovered a collection of thirty-six letters, dating from about 1616 to 1620, that add startling context to Gentileschi's personal and financial life in Florence. They show that she had a passionate love affair with a wealthy Florentine nobleman named Francesco Maria Maringhi. Her husband, Pierantonio Stiattesi, was well aware of their relationship, and maintained a correspondence with Maringhi on the back of Artemisia's love letters. Nevertheless, he tolerated it, presumably because Maringhi was a powerful ally who provided the couple financial support. However, by 1620, rumours of the affair had begun to spread in the Florentine court, and this fact, combined with ongoing legal and financial problems, led them to resettle in Rome.
Return to Rome (1620–1626/7)
Just as with the preceding decade, the early 1620s saw ongoing upheaval in Artemisia's life. Her son Cristofano died. Just as she arrived in Rome, her father Orazio departed for Genoa. Immediate contact with her lover Maringhi appeared to have lessened. And by 1623, any mention of her husband disappears from any surviving documentation.Nevertheless, her arrival in Rome offered the opportunity to cooperate with other painters and seek patronage from the wide network of art collectors in the city, opportunities that Artemisia fully grasped. "Artemisia's Roman career quickly took off, the money problems eased," one art historian noted of the period. Large-scale papal commissions were largely off-limits, however. The long papacy of Urban VIII showed a preference for large-scale decorative works and altarpieces, typified by the baroque style of Pietro da Cortona. Artemisia's training in easel paintings, and perhaps the suspicion that women painters did not have the energy to carry out large-scale painting cycles, meant that the ambitious patrons within Urban's VIII circle commissioned other artists.
But Rome hosted a wide range of patrons. Spanish resident, Fernando Afan de Ribera, the 3rd Duke of Alcala, added the Magdalen and David, Christ Blessing the Children to his collection. During the same period she became associated with Cassiano dal Pozzo, a humanist and a collector and lover of arts. Dal Pozzo would help forge relationships with other artists and patrons. Her reputation grew; the visiting French artist Pierre Dumonstier II produced a black and red chalk drawing of her right hand in 1625.
The variety of patrons in Rome also meant a variety of styles. Caravaggio's style remained highly influential and converted many painters to following his style, such as Carlo Saraceni, Bartolomeo Manfredi, and Simon Vouet. Artemisia and Vouet would go on to have a professional relationship and would influence each other's styles. Vouet would go on to complete a portrait of Artemisia. Artemisia also interacted with the Bentveughels group of Flemish and Dutch painters living in Rome. The Bolognese school also began to grow in popularity, and Artemisia's Susanna and the Elders of 1622 is often associated with the style introduced by Guercino.
Although it is sometimes difficult to date her paintings, it is possible to assign certain works by her to these years, such as the Portrait of a Gonfaloniere, today in Bologna and the Judith and her Maidservant today in the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Detroit painting is notable for her mastery of chiaroscuro and tenebrism, techniques for which Gerrit van Honthorst, and many others in Rome were famous.
Three Years in Venice (1626/7–1630)
The absence of sufficient documentation makes it difficult to follow Artemisia's movements in the late 1620s. Additionally, nearly every painting mentioned in sources as being by Artemisia during her Venetian period is now lost. However, it is certain that between 1626 and 1627, she moved to Venice. Like Rome, Venice was home to a burgeoning art market and some of her artistic network from Rome, notably Simon Vouet and Nicolas Regnier, were making the move at a similar time.While there is little visual evidence relating to Artemisia, her name is repeatedly mentioned in Venetian literary productions. Many verses and letters were composed in appreciation of her and her works, by poets such as Guid'ubaldo Benamaiti and Antonino Collurafi. Collufari, for instance, claimed he wrote poems to honour "the genius of such a nobility and celebrated painter ". Artemisia was not just a mute recipient of such praise but actively engaged within the city's literary and musical circles that produced such poems, often designed to recited aloud at cultural gatherings. The art historian Jesse Locker states that "Artemisia was aware of - and evidently involved in - the conversations, recitations and performances that went on around her."|alt=|300x300pxThe themes debated within these elite cultural circles are also of interest. They help show that the fascination with strong women characters was not simply an interest of Gentileschi herself but was a keen point of debate and discussion. In particular, the Accademia degli Incogniti, a cultural group established by the Venetian nobleman Gian Francesco Loredan, discussed La Questione della Donna, the nature and status of women. Moreover, Artemisia's involvement with such groups also influenced the choice of her subject matters for paintings. While still continuing to paint women figures, they were increasingly drawn from a broader moral palette: "No longer limited to heroines and saints, but began to include donne infame, who were notorious for their actions - Omphale, Corisca and Delilah." These were exactly the kinds of female characters who were discussed in groups such as the Accademia degli Incogniti.
The few remaining examples of works from her time in Venice include the The Sleeping Venus, today in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and her Esther before Ahasuerus now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They are testimony to her assimilation of the cultural and artistic lessons learnt in Venice. The Esther painting reflects both the painterly and musical influence of Venice. Jesse Locker mentions "the picture's compositional borrowing, the costumes of the protagonists, and... subject matter which mirrors contemporary debates about nature of men, women, and queenship". Meanwhile Elizabeth Cropper references the Venetian composer Claudio Monterverdi and calls the painting "replete with focused Monteverdian expression."
Naples and the English period (1630–1656)
In 1630, Artemisia moved to Naples, a city rich with workshops and art lovers. She was quite probably driven out of Venice by the plague, which arrived in the north of Italy in 1630. The 18th-century biographer Bernardo de' Dominici speculated that Artemisia was already known in Naples before her arrival. She may have been invited to Naples by the Duke of Alcalá, Fernando Enriquez Afan de Ribera, who had three of her paintings: a Penitent Magdalene, Christ Blessing the Children, and David with a Harp. Many other artists, including Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, and Simon Vouet, had stayed in Naples for some time in their lives. At that time, Jusepe de Ribera, Massimo Stanzione, and Domenichino were working there, and later, Giovanni Lanfranco and many others would flock to the city. The Neapolitan debut of Artemisia is represented by the Annunciation in the Capodimonte Museum. She remained in Naples for the remainder of her career, with the exceptions of a brief trip to London and some other journeys.On Saturday, March 18, 1634, the traveller Bullen Reymes records in his diary visiting Artemisia and Palmira with a group of fellow-Englishmen. She had relations with many renowned artists, among them Massimo Stanzione, with whom, Bernardo de' Dominici reports, she started an artistic collaboration based on a real friendship and artistic similarities. Artemisia's work influenced Stanzione's use of colors as seen in his Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1630. De' Dominici states that "Stanzione learned how to compose an istoria from Domenichino, but learned his coloring from Artemisia".
In Naples for the first time Artemisia started working on paintings in a cathedral, dedicated to San Gennaro nell'anfiteatro di Pozzuoli in Pozzuoli. During her first Neapolitan period she painted the Birth of Saint John the Baptist now in the Prado in Madrid, and Corisca e il satiro, in a private collection. In these paintings Artemisia again demonstrates her ability to adapt to the novelties of the period and handle different subjects, instead of the usual Judith, Susanna, Bathsheba, and Penitent Magdalenes, for which she already was known. Many of these paintings were collaborations; Bathsheba, for instance, was attributed to Artemisia, Codazzi, and Gargiulo.
In 1638, Artemisia joined her father in London at the court of Charles I of England, where Orazio became court painter and received the important job of decorating a ceiling allegory of Triumph of Peace and the Arts in the Queen's House, Greenwich built for Queen Henrietta Maria. Father and daughter were working together once again, although helping her father probably was not her only reason for travelling to London: Charles I had invited her to his court, and it was not possible to refuse. Charles I was an enthusiastic collector, willing to incur criticism for his spending on art. The fame of Artemisia probably intrigued him, and it is not a coincidence that his collection included a painting of great suggestion, the Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, which is the lead image of this article.
Orazio died suddenly in 1639. Artemisia had her own commissions to fulfill after her father's death, although there are no known works assignable with certainty to this period. It is known that Artemisia had already left England by 1642, when the English Civil War was just starting. Nothing much is known about her subsequent movements. Historians know that in 1649 she was in Naples again, corresponding with Don Antonio Ruffo of Sicily, who became her mentor during this second Neapolitan period. The last known letter to her mentor is dated 1650 and makes clear that she still was fully active.
In her later last known years of activity she is attributed with works that are likely commissions and follow a traditional representation of the feminine in her works.
Artemisia was once believed to have died in 1652/1653; however, modern evidence has shown that she was still accepting commissions in 1654, although she was increasingly dependent upon her assistant, Onofrio Palumbo. Some have speculated that she died in the devastating plague that swept Naples in 1656 and virtually wiped out an entire generation of Neapolitan artists.
Some works in this period are the Susanna and the Elders today in Brno, the Virgin and Child with a Rosary today in El Escorial, the David and Bathsheba today in Columbus, Ohio, and the Bathsheba today in Leipzig.
Her 'David with the Head of Goliath', rediscovered in London in 2020, has been attributed by art historian Gianni Papi to Artemisia's London period, in an article published in The Burlington Magazine.
Artistic importance
The research paper "Gentileschi, padre e figlia" by Roberto Longhi, an Italian critic, described Artemisia as "the only woman in Italy who ever knew about painting, coloring, drawing, and other fundamentals". Longhi also wrote of Judith Slaying Holofernes: "There are about fifty-seven works by Artemisia Gentileschi and 94% feature women as protagonists or equal to men". These include her works of Jael and Sisera, Judith and her Maidservant, and Esther. These characters intentionally lacked the stereotypical "feminine" traits—sensitivity, timidness, and weakness—and were courageous, rebellious, and powerful personalities; such subjects are now grouped as the Power of Women. A nineteenth-century critic commented on Artemisia's Magdalene stating, "no one would have imagined that it was the work of a woman. The brush work was bold and certain, and there was no sign of timidness". In Ward Bissell's view, she was well aware of how women and female artists were viewed by men, explaining why her works in the beginning of her career were so bold and defiant.Longhi wrote:
Feminist studies increased the interest in Artemisia Gentileschi, underlining her rape and subsequent mistreatment, and the expressive strength of her paintings of biblical heroines, in which the women are interpreted as willing to manifest their rebellion against their condition. In a research paper from the catalogue of the exhibition "Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi", which took place in Rome in 2001, Judith W. Mann critiques feminist opinion of Artemisia, finding that old stereotypes of Artemisia as sexually immoral have been replaced by new stereotypes established in feminist readings of Artemisia's paintings:
Because Artemisia returned again and again to violent subject matter such as Judith and Holofernes, a repressed-vengeance theory has been postulated. Some art historians suggest, however, that she was shrewdly taking advantage of her fame from the rape trial to cater to a niche market in sexually charged, female-dominant art for male patrons.
The most recent critics, starting from the difficult reconstruction of the entire catalogue of the Gentileschi, tried to give a less reductive reading of the career of Artemisia, placing it more accurately in the context of the different artistic environments in which the painter actively participated. A reading such as this restores Artemisia as an artist who fought with determination—using the weapon of personality and of the artistic qualities—against the prejudices expressed against women painters; being able to introduce herself productively in the circle of the most respected painters of her time, embracing a series of pictorial genres that probably were more ample and varied than her paintings suggest.
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Feminist perspectives
Feminist interest in Artemisia Gentileschi dates from the 1970s when the feminist art historian Linda Nochlin published an article titled "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" in which that question was dissected and analyzed. The article explored the definition of "great artists" and posited that oppressive institutions, not lack of talent, have prevented women from achieving the same level of recognition that men received in art and other fields. Nochlin said that studies on Artemisia and other female artists were "worth the effort" in "adding to our knowledge of women's achievement and of art history generally." According to the foreword by Douglas Druick in Eve Straussman-Pflanzer's Violence & Virtue: Artemisia's Judith Slaying Holofernes, Nochlin's article prompted scholars to make more of an attempt to "integrate women artists into the history of art and culture."Artemisia and her oeuvre became a focus again, having had little attention in art history scholarship save Roberto Longhi's article "Gentileschi padre e figlia " in 1916 and R. Ward Bissell's article "Artemisia Gentileschi—A New Documented Chronology" in 1968. As Artemisia and her work began to garner new attention among feminists and art historians, more literature about her, fictional and biographical, was published. A fictional account of her life by Anna Banti, wife of critic Roberto Longhi, was published in 1947. This account was received well by literary critics but was criticized by feminists, notably Laura Benedetti, for being lenient in historical accuracy in order to draw parallels between author and artist. The first full, factual account of Artemisia's life, The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art, was published in 1989 by Mary Garrard, a feminist art historian. She then published a second, smaller book titled Artemisia Gentileschi around 1622: The Shaping and Reshaping of an Artistic Identity in 2001 which explored the artist's work and identity. Garrard noted that analysis of Artemisia's oeuvre lacks focus and stable categorization outside of "woman", though Garrard questions whether femaleness is a legitimate category by which to judge her art at all.
Artemisia is known for her portrayals of subjects from the Power of Women group, for example her versions of Judith Slaying Holofernes. She is also known for the rape trial in which she was involved, which scholar Griselda Pollock has argued had unfortunately become the repeated "axis of interpretation of the artist's work". Gentileschi's status in popular culture, though she is much admired by among art historians, is deemed by Pollock to be less due to her work and more to the sensationalism caused by the persistent focus on the rape trial during which she was tortured. Pollock offers a counter reading of the artist's dramatic narrative paintings, refusing to see the Judith and Holofernes images as responses to rape and the trial. Instead, Pollock points out that the subject of Judith and Holofernes is not a revenge theme, but a story of political courage and indeed collaboration by two women committing a daring political murder in a war situation. Pollock seeks to shift attention from sensationalism towards deeper analysis of Gentileschi's paintings, notably of death and loss, suggesting the significance of her childhood bereavement as a source of her singular images of the dying Cleopatra. Pollock also argues that Gentileschi's success in the seventeenth century depended on her producing paintings for patrons often portraying subjects they selected. She aims to place Gentileschi's career in its historical context of taste for dramatic narratives of heroines from the Bible or classical sources. In a more negative vein, American professor Camille Paglia has argued that modern feminist preoccupation with Artemisia is misguided and that her accomplishments have been overstated: "Artemisia Gentileschi was simply a polished, competent painter in a Baroque style created by men." Such views are disconcerting considering that "Artemisia is the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century", having worked in the main cities during the times where it was impossible for women to survive and thrive in a world ruled by men. According to , Artemisia worked "in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and London, for the highest echelons of European society, including the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Philip IV of Spain". Again, considering the difficulties of the traumatic rape experience, an achievement was that the infamous trial, Artemisia was subject to, found the accused male painter guilty.
Feminist literature tends to revolve around the event of Artemisia's rape, largely portraying her as a traumatized but noble survivor whose work became characterized by sex and violence as a result of her experience. Pollock interpreted the film by Agnès Merlet as a typical example of the inability of popular culture to look at the painter's remarkable career over many decades and in many major centres of art rather than this one episode. A literature review by Laura Benedetti, "Reconstructing Artemisia: Twentieth Century Images of a Woman Artist", concluded that Artemisia's work is often interpreted according to the contemporary issues and personal biases of the authors. Feminist scholars, for example, have elevated Artemisia to the status of feminist icon, which Benedetti attributed to Artemisia's paintings of formidable women and her success as an artist in a male-dominated field while also being a single mother. Elena Ciletti, author of Gran Macchina a Bellezza, wrote that "The stakes are very high in Artemisia's case, especially for feminists, because we have invested in her so much of our quest for justice for women, historically and currently, intellectually and politically."
Feminist scholars suggest that Gentileschi wanted to take a stand against the stereotype of female submissiveness. One example of this symbolism appears in Gentileschi's Corisca and the Satyr, created between 1630 and 1635. In the painting, a nymph runs away from a satyr. The satyr attempts to grab the nymph by her hair, but the hair is in fact a wig. Here, Gentileschi depicts the nymph to be quite clever and to be actively resisting the aggressive attack of the satyr.
Contemporary female painters
For a woman at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Artemisia being a painter represented an uncommon and difficult choice, but not an exceptional one. Artemisia was aware of "her position as a female artist and the current representations of women's relationship to art." This is evident in her allegorical self portrait, Self Portrait as La Pittura, which shows Artemisia as a muse, "symbolic embodiment of the art" and as a professional artist. Before Artemisia, between the end of the 1500 and the beginning of 1600, other women painters had successful careers, including Sofonisba Anguissola. Later Fede Galizia painted still lifes and a Judith with the Head of Holofernes.Italian Baroque painter Elisabetta Sirani was another female artist from this same time period. Sirani's painting "Allergory Painting of Clio" shares a common color scheme with Artemisia's work. Elisabetta was popular for a brief period of time, but she was recognized.
Other women painters also began their careers while Artemisia was alive. Judged on their artistic merits, Longhi's statement that Artemisia was "the only woman in Italy who ever knew about painting" is clearly false.
There is no doubt that Artemisia continues to be among the most highly regarded of women artists, and she has attained her place among the great Baroque artists.
In popular culture
The first writer who produced a novel around the figure of Artemisia may have been George Eliot in Romola, where some aspects of Gentileschi's story, while set in Florence in Gentileschi's time, are recognizable, but much embroidered. A later and clearer use of Gentileschi's story appears in Anna Banti's Artemisia. Banti's book is written in an "open diary" format, in which she maintains a dialogue with Artemisia.Gentileschi is one of the women represented in The Dinner Party, an installation artwork by Judy Chicago that was first exhibited in 1979.
Gentileschi, and more specifically her painting Judith Beheading Holofernes, are referred to in Wendy Wasserstein's play The Heidi Chronicles, in which the main character, Heidi, lectures about it as part of her art history course on female painters. At the end of the play, Heidi adopts a daughter she names Judy, which is at least a partial reference to the painting.
Canadian playwright Sally Clark wrote several stage plays based on the events leading up to and following the rape of Artemisia. Life Without Instruction, commissioned by Nightwood Theatre in 1988, premiered at Theatre Plus Toronto on August 2, 1991.
Gentileschi's life and the Judith Slaying Holofernes painting played a pivotal role in the miniseries Painted Lady, starring Helen Mirren.
The film Artemisia, by Agnès Merlet, tells the story of Artemisia's entry into being a professional artist, her relationship with Tassi, and the trial. Merlet exonerates Tassi of rape, not only by depicting their sex as loving and consensual, but also by two ahistorical fabrications: Artemisia denies the rape under torture, while Tassi falsely confesses to rape to stop Artemisia's torment.
Susan Vreeland published The Passion of Artemisia, a biographical novel based on her life.
She appears in Eric Flint's Ring of Fire alternate history series, being mentioned in ' and figuring prominently in ', as well as appearing in a number of shorter stories in the 1632 universe.
The novel Maestra by L.S. Hilton includes Artemisia as a central reference for the main character, and several of her paintings are discussed.
The novel Salem's Cipher by Jess Lourey used the painting Judith Beheading Holofernes to send a clue.
Blood Water Paint, a play by Joy McCullough, was turned into the novel Blood Water Paint by the same author. Productions of the play were performed in Seattle in 2015 and 2019.
An episode of the British TV crime series Endeavour depicts a series of murders inspired by Gentileschi's biblical paintings of women taking vengeance on the men who harmed or abused them.
Breach Theatre's It's True, It's True, It's True is a play derived from the transcripts of the trial, translated from Latin and Italian into conversational English, and was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it won The Stage Edinburgh award and a Fringe First award. After touring the UK, it was then broadcast on BBC Four on 9 February 2020 and was available on BBC iPlayer until 11 March 2020.
The speculative nonfiction opera titled Artemisia, with music by Laura Schwendinger and libretto by Ginger Strand, was performed in New York by Trinity Wall Street at St. Paul's Chapel with Christopher Alden, director and Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor, March 7 and 9, 2019; and in San Francisco by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, June 1 and 2, 2019.
The Anthropologists, a theater company in New York City, created a solo show, Artemisia’s Intent, inspired by the life of Artemisia Gentileschi.
On July 8, 2020, Google celebrated her 427th birthday with a Google Doodle.