The Story of Art Without Men

by Katy Hessel

In 1611, when working in her father’s studio, Gentileschi was raped by Agostino Tassi, an artist friend of her father. Orazio took Tassi to court nearly a year later, primarily because the act had brought dishonour to his family. The traumatic seven-month trial that followed has left as its legacy a 300-page document, now over 400 years old. In it, we can hear the courageous, eloquent and affirming voice of Artemisia herself: ‘He then threw me on to the edge of the bed, pushing me with a hand on my breast, and he put a knee between my thighs to prevent me from closing them. Lifting my clothes, he placed a hand with a handkerchief on my mouth to keep me from screaming.’ Gentileschi was tortured throughout the trial with a ‘sibille’ (ropes tied around her fingers and tightened, an equivalent to a modern-day lie detector – the most abhorrent persecution for an artist); she was also forced to prove her innocence – uttering the famous words ‘è vero, è vero, è vero’ (‘it’s true, it’s true, it’s true’). Despite a guilty verdict, after being protected by the Pope, Tassi avoided punishment, an act that sadly still feels unsurprising today. After the trial ended in 1612, Gentileschi was married off and moved to Florence, where she achieved meteoric recognition (patrons wanted portraits by her and of her – including portraits of her hand). It was in this period that she produced what is probably her best work. Focusing on large-scale full-figure compositions imbued with psychological...