At age 17, Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi accused her mentor of sexual harassment and became the talk of the Baroque artworld. Art historian Christopher R. Marshall explains how a 17th-century woman painter has become a symbol for the #MeToo movement. Artemisia Gentileschi’s 17th-century painting, Self Portrait As Saint Catherine Of Alexandria, became only the 21st work by a female artist to enter the London National Gallery’s collections in July this year.
In a collection totalling 2,300 works, this speaks volumes about Gentileschi’s exceptionality – both now and in her own day. The painting depicts St Catherine of Alexandria, an early Christian martyr whose theological skills were said to have been so great that she was able to beat 50 of the Roman emperor’s shrewdest philosophers in a debate on the merits of Christianity versus Paganism.
