Artemisia Gentileschi: an artist to honor for women’s history month
- Denise Laurin
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Artemisia’s Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting imaginatively matches the description of the personification of Painting found in the book Iconologica by Cesare Ripa (1593). This book became popular among artists and other creatives throughout the 17th century. He describes Painting as, “A woman, beautiful, with full black hair, disheveled, and twisted in various ways, with [an expression] that shows imaginative thought, with a chain of gold at her throat from which hangs a mask... she holds in her hand a brush, and in the other a palette, with evanescently colored drapery.” Ripa also describes the mouth as being covered with a cloth. But Artemisia will have none of that—she has a voice and she can speak!
The other details indicate that Artemisia definitely had Ripa's Personification of Painting in mind. She shows herself deep in concentration wearing a silk dress. (Can you imagine wearing THAT to paint?) She has placed her body on a strong diagonal, and with sleeves rolled up, she demonstrates how capable she is of handling the physicality of painting. We also detect a touch of perspiration on her forehead and at the tip of her nose. Painting is hard work, but she can do it!
The uncluttered background emphasizes the figure, which is brightly illuminated from the upper left. Artemisia’s disheveled hair supports the concept of painting as a demanding art form. Likely, she has been at it for hours. A gold chain around her neck allows the tiny mask to be clearly seen. We can draw a direct correlation between Artemisia’s pendant and the one described by Ripa in Iconologica.
Current scholarship explains the purpose of the painting as Artemisia’s clever use of her own image for artistic self-promotion. I can't imagine what it must have been like to live in a time when women were thought incapable of making art, and the obstacles Artemisia had to overcome to be successful in her career. But she did triumph— as an independent woman, a mother, and exceptional artist.
Her subjects of strong women confronting–even doing violence to–powerful men testifies to her own strength and resilience after enduring torture at the rape trial of her teacher, Agostino Tassi, accused of abusing her. She was the first woman to be admitted into the prestigious Accademia delle Arte dei Designo in Florence and she also worked as a painter in the court of Charles I of England before her death around 1554 in Naples, Italy.
Sources:
Royal Collection Trust. https://www.rct.uk/collection/stories/artemisia-gentileschi Accessed February 16, 2026.
Dr. Letha Ch'ien, "Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting or LaPittura," in Smarthistory, October 18, 2024, accessed March 2, 2026, https://smarthistory.org/artemisia-gentileschi-self-portrait-pittura
Her demo!