Judith and Maidservant with Head of Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most remarkable painters of the Italian Baroque, and the first woman admitted to the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence. Trained in her father Orazio’s workshop, she mastered the dramatic chiaroscuro style of Caravaggio and brought it into her own emotionally charged compositions. Her paintings often feature strong, assertive women — like Judith — not as passive subjects but as powerful agents.