Artemisia Gentileschi - a brilliant painter.

Outstanding baroque painter with an extraordinary fate - Artemisia Gentileschi. As a girl, she learned the art by helping her father, a renowned painter. Her beauty and femininity attracted the attention of many men. Her voluptuous femininity caused her father to confine her to the house and studio, where she assisted him and posed as a model for his paintings. At the age of seventeen, she met Agostino Tassi, a painter and her father's friend, who took advantage of her naivety and raped her, promising marriage. However, this promise was not fulfilled, which prompted Artemisia to reveal the truth to her father. Orazio decided to sue Tassi on behalf of his daughter, and he was sentenced and had to leave Rome. Artemisia went through tortures to confirm her testimonies (her fingers were crushed), but she managed to avoid disability. During the trial, the painter created one of her most famous artworks, depicting the scene of Judith beheading Holofernes. Artemisia's canvas shocked with its realism and cruelty. Here, Judith focuses intently as she cuts the throat of her hated leader. This painting was inspired by Caravaggio's work and expressed Artemisia's emotions and trauma associated with her experiences with Tassi. Judith has Artemisia's face in the painting, and Holofernes represents her tormentor, Tassi. Interestingly, some interpret this work as a representation of childbirth - the severing of Holofernes's (Tassi's) emerging head. She "murdered him" multiple times in her paintings, showing how great a trauma her relationship with the rapist was to her. Source: https://niezlasztuka.net/o-sztuce/sztuka-jako-terapia-barokowa-malarka-artemisia-gentileschi-i-jej-niezwykle-losy/