Artemisia Gentileschi

The daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi, Artemisia trained in her father's studio and was strongly influenced by Caravaggio. At eighteen she was raped by her father's collaborator, and at the trial that followed she was tortured to test her testimony.

She went on to become the first woman admitted to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence, and worked for the Medici and Charles I of England. Her women are strong and resolute, a singular voice in a male-dominated history of art.