Artemisia Gentileschi was the greatest female artist of the Baroque age and one of the most
brilliant followers of the great Caravaggio. As a young woman she 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. Gentileschi's art
communicated a powerful personal vision. Like Frida Kahlo Louise Bourgeois or Tracey Emin she
put her life into her art.
